Slug & Lede

Sin City Shooters employs the powerful sound of the gun within the first moments of the video. This natural sound is used with a close shot of the pistol being fired. Initially the sound level of the gunshots is high, as the first interviewee begins to speak, the sound is brought down to a lower level and used as an effective transition. The first interviewee is a lively personality and her voice is clear and full. Camera provides perspectives from behind the gun and in front of the barrel. Edits are clean and seamless. Filmmakers use the available landscape for backdrop of interviews well. Though the subject of the video is repetitive and seems hard pressed to find a sound bite worth adding to the piece. The content of the interviews is weak.

Sin City Shooters, a video by the Las Vegas Sun’s Evelio Contreras, documents the bimonthly meetings of a Vegas-based pistol club.

The video opens with the pop of small gunfire, a noise that becomes the soundtrack of the piece as it moves to interview several club members.  The interviews are intriguing–one older woman in particular seems to be certifiably insane–and benefit from steady camera work.  The same cannot be said about some of the other shots; the camera was clearly not on a tripod, and its movement (which is more excessive than normal tilt or pan shots) often becomes distracting.

The shots are edited quite well, and the sequence flows from one shot to the next.  Interview subjects are identified by labels on the bottom of the screen, a touch that is more a courtesy than anything; I found myself not really paying attention to names, marveling instead at the sheer lunacy of the group.

Despite the fact that some of the camerawork seemed to have been conducted by an epilectic 4-year-old, Sin City Shooters is a successful video.  Short and to the point, its depiction of gun-crazy Nevadans shows a side of the city that we rarely see.

The Las Vegas Sun posted a video on their website on December 1, 2008. The video was done by Evelio Contreras and it was called Sin City Shooters.

This video was very professional. It was easy to watch and it flowed very nicely. The speech was not choppy and the video was good quality. The camera seemed to have been on a tripod during filming because there was no unnecessary shaking of the camera.

It was very easy to get a feel for the Sin City Shooters and the video was filmed in a way that made you feel like you had met the Shooters themselves. The camera did not stay in one place the whole time. There were over the shoulder shots, close-ups, medium shots, etc. The variety of shooting techniques made the video very interesting. 

About 30 seconds into the video, a husband and wife are shown. I believe it would have been best to do a zoom shot on them to get a closer look at their faces and how much they enjoy being there. 

The text at the bottom of the video that ocassionally popped up with names and titles could have been seen as distracting. I thought it was actually perfect and was a nice way of letting viewers know who was speaking and what they do. It was also nice because it did not stay in the video long, allowing the viewer’s eyes to move back to the subject speaking.

Overall, the video flowed very smoothly and was extremely well done. It was short, concise and still informative. I would highly recommend others to watch it.

Last year the Las Vegas Sun featured a video piece about the Desert Sportsman’s Rifle and Pistol Club in Summerlin, Nev. The video, which clocks in at just over a minute in length, was produced and filmed by Evelio Contreras.

The opening shot with the close up shot of the hand gun at the beginning is a cool and effective way to start the video. It gives the viewer a good idea of what the video is about right away. Also I like that the shooters miss the target occasionally. This gives the video more of a candid feel so that it doesn’t rehearsed. It’s also a cool technique that the camera pans along with the movement of the individuals. It reminded me of the scene in Goodfellas when the camera follows Herny and Karen through the restaurant. I also like that it includes interviews from three different people which is the perfect number of sources for this length of story. I think that the line “it’s a lot of good time spent with a lot of good friends,” was the best quote in the video.

My biggest critique of the video is the boring subject matter. If it wasn’t for this class I would absolutely never watch a video about a gun club. However the thing about journalism is that many times the reporter may have no interest in the material that they are covering but it is their job to make it as interesting as possible. Another thing that I didn’t like was that the gun shots were too loud. Being that I am not a gun person this displeased me right away. My final complaint is the video’s short length. It just seemed like it all happened so fast that it was kind of hard to figure out what exactly the video was about. Upon second viewing it seemed obviously that this video was simply a feature piece about a gun club in  Nevada.

The filming techniques used are well done and overall I feel that the reporter did a good job. I would give this video a rating of three out of five.

The Las Vegas Sun video Sin City Shooters explores the the thrill and fun participators feel while spending a day at the shooting range.

Perhaps the best part of this video was the opening scene. It began with the loud pangs of a pistol firing with a close up on the target being hit, as well as the gun being fired. This immediately got my attention and I was curious what exactly this video was about.

In addition the author of this video, Evelio Contretas, manages the frames and shots very well. A majority of the video was composed of medium shots. This worked  well because it allowed the audience to witness the full shooting experience with both the shooter and target in view. These meduim shots were also formating within the rule of thirds, making the picture balanced and easy to view.

The video was very short and fast past. I felt these factors to be both a positive and negative to the video. The content presented was well timed and should not have been any longer. But for someone who has no knowledge of shooting range activites, this video seems a bit arbitrary. I would have liked the video to have some more background information and go more indepth into the topic.

Sin City Shooters, is a video on a shooting competition, which is held in Las Vegas at Desert Sportsmen. Evelio Contreras’s video is a short clip looking into the world of shooting competitions.

The video did a great job with mixing different shots and angles showing the shooting competition happening. I liked that instead of watching a person talk about shooting the voice over came on while they were in action.

The extreme close up of the gun mixed with the medium and close shots of the people in action kept the piece moving. During the piece there were many medium shots of the groups of people together teaching each other different movements. The camera was in the action, which showed how they shot and that the shooting competitions are a community of people getting together.

One thing that I noticed that I thought could have been improved was the use of the voice over with a shot of a gun at the beginning of the video. I would have preferred to see the woman shooting because it was her voice over at the beginning of the piece. I enjoyed watching the video and thought that it was a great piece, which was a good use of video. I do not think that a written story or an audio slideshow would do this justice. 

Evelio Contreras’ video Sin City Shooters explores a day at the shooting range, revealing a microcosm of culture that some may not be familiar with.

This was a short video, and rightly so. If it had gone on much longer, the viewer would be much more inclined to lose interest, as this video wasn’t particularly packed with interesting content. The film was well filmed, with each shot composed purposefully. When an interview was taking place, the interviewee was filmed in the right side of the frame speaking towards the left. This made good use of space and took rule of thirds into account. The shots of people shooting were quickly paced, and some were handheld to give a more exciting feel.

One thing to take into consideration about this film is that it is not very newsworthy. Contreras filmed something that many may not be familiar with, the but the video did not give any reason for the viewer to want to become familiar with it. While the quick pacing added to an exciting feel, at times it may have been too quick, leaving the viewer disoriented.

Contreras put together a moderately entertaining film, but would have done well to select a topic that was more newsworthy, or at least to demonstrate why it should be of interest.

          The sun shines as the Sin City Shooters video begins, highlighting the emptiness of the vast desert, heightened by the metal crunch of gunfire reverberating through the canyon as a motley crew of gun enthusiasts discharge bullet after bullet.
         

          Evelio Contreras weaves commentary with plenty of movement, pushing the constant crash of gunshots to the forefront. Even as the shooters praise the sport, the “satisfying whop” of lead on lead remains.
 

            As for the footage, the crew did an excellent job dealing with the bright desert sun cascading down.  Seemingly everyone donned a pair of sunglasses, shielding from the bright, hot light. In one frame, however, the camera captured the sun, angling up towards a group of people at an awkward angle. Although short, the frame encompassed the feeling of the day, accentuating the warmth and delivering the knowing feeling so well.

           This warmth did not appear in any other scene as the crew positioned interviewees excellently. The distance was just about right, as was the gap to the left, showing an expansive view of the landscape as well as fitting the person into the frame comfortably.

           This deliberation failed to find its way into the transitions, as the video delivered a barrage of images, ostensibly jumping from one to the next. Although it accentuated the action, the lack of transitions was manifest and created a rough experience. Video’s strength as a smooth, transitional medium does not come through as well as it should have.

          Additionally, the close ups of the hands and guns were few, but executed well. Seeing the shot of a man’s hands grasping the gun at the beginning adds a dimension to the video by providing some diversity. Some more shots like that would have been helpful as the rest of the video focuses entirely on people and scenes set in the desert. Understandably so as they were in the desert, but breaking up the monotony with more close ups of the firearms would have been helpful.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/dec/18/1320/

This piece followed University of Arizona and Brigham Young University football players as they visited children spending the holidays at Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas. Their visits were part of several events the week of the Las Vegas Bowl game, in which the two teams participated.

The video involved a few brief before and after interviews with players from both teams, as well as a variety of shots showing the players interacting with the patients and hospital staff. The shots of the players are mostly from a side perspective, stationary and usually shot from slightly below the level of the player. Two panning shots are used in this sequence. Moving shots of players walking down the hall with their school’s respective mascots begin each team’s half of the segment. The ‘after’ segment in which players describe their reaction to the experience takes up a few seconds more than the ‘before’ section.

This is a well conceptualized and well produced piece which suffers mostly from a lack of depth and running time. This piece is posted on a website, was meant for a website, so the short length doesnt make much sense. Most of the players speaking sections are only 10-15 seconds long, and I feel that all but one of them could benefit from allowing the players more time to explain their experiences. Visiting children with serious illnesses is clearly a difficult topic to disscuss, so allowing at least a few players more time to describe their experiences would add much to the video. I also believe that wider frame shots of the players in the patients’ rooms would make the feeling of team much more clear. Finally, there is only one comment in the entire piece from a staff member and no comments from patients. This is a player-centric piece but its simply not complete without some commentary from patients and staff.

Overall, it was a great concept, with good camera work and solid execution. it simply lacked depth and length.

            The multimedia package that I critiqued was the Las Vegas Sun multimedia page. When you first get to it, it isn’t very flashy. There isn’t any sort of animation and there really isn’t a huge amount of colors or anything that could really bring the reader in. It does have the typical menu bar, which is nice and includes a lot of different place to go. But one of the things that I found to be a little annoying, which I find on a lot of other websites is the ad space that breaks up that menu bar and the beginning of the content of the page. It kind of breaks the flow to the page as a whole.

            This package does a good job of including a lot of pictures, and text with the pictures to help explain what each one will be about, so there really isn’t any question. But there it just way too much going on. There is almost 40 different stories or places for a reader to click on in this page. I think makes the page really busy and possible a little overwhelming for people who aren’t completely computer savvy. Many of the stories that are included seem very interesting, but it doesn’t seem necessary that each story has its own mini-box. Maybe, they could have made links to these stories put together in a separate box with only the titles.

            One of the things I was most impressed with was the interactive multimedia that they included in the package. The map about “Prescription Narcotic Interactive” was easy to use. All you had to do was drag your mouse over the states to learn different facts about drugs within that state. There is a easily read legend as well. While this piece includes a lot of different aspects like being able to change the drug, or the year, these elements can be easily learned by simply clicking around. No directions are necessary. Another good thing about this piece of interactivity was there was text included underneath it. This was nice, because the reader could get some background as to why this map about narcotics is relevant.

            Overall, I would say that the navigation of this site is pretty good. Most everything seems to be labeled and sectioned off so that reader know what they are clicking on. As for the comprehensiveness of the package, I would say that it is lacking. I think this simply because the amount of stories and stuff they have tried to cram onto this page. It seems to me just a hodge podge of all kinds of things they just thought would interest readers. While that is good because readers have a lot to choose from, it still is a little erratic.