Slug & Lede

I enjoyed watching Dan Pelle’s video on twins brothers and barber shop owners Bill and Jeff Haines, who after 48 years are forced to close down their shop. I thought the story was told very well through the lens of a camera.

For starters, I liked the first opening clip of the close-up of the barber pole and then a shot of the window pane of the Lincoln Heights Barber Shop with a customer getting a haircut. I think it works well because from the beginning, you know where you are and it allows for an easily transition into the story that is about to be told.

Another thing I thought worked well was the sequence around the 1:07 mark of the video. The sequence shots show a customer entering into the shop. It starts with a close-up of the customer’s hand on the door getting ready to enter, then focusing on a sign that points to stairs that lead to the barber shop, and finally the customer walking down those stairs. I thought that was a neat way of showing progression from once place to another and a way to capture the audience’s attention by switching up the type of shots. If it had all been one similar shot, it would have been very boring but because the angles and close-ups were different, it seemed to work well.

I also enjoyed the interviews with the customers. I like how Pelle shot not only customers who had been regulars at the barber shop for many, many years, but also the younger and newer customers. I think it was a good way to balanced out showing the longevity and appeal of the shop without overdoing it.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the final shot of the video. I like seeing the customer pay and having the camera focus on the old-fashioned cash register, even though I think the shot was a little too long. I think the final action of having the customer and one of the twin brothers shake hands was a wonderful way to end the video. I feel like there’s a lot of meaning in that handshake and I think it’s a great way to capture a moment where words might have failed.

For a not-quite-three-minute video, I thought it was really well put together. There were a lot of interesting shots and I think the story was told well. There were a few shots that I found questionable because the camera seemed to linger on certain items (i.e: scissors, magazines, etc.) longer than needed and I didn’t feel like they added much to anything. But overall, this video had enough to capture my attention and succeeded in telling its story.