Slug & Lede

Feb. 7, 2008—Las Vegas Sun’s “Are EPA coal emission’s standards strict enough?” video produced by Matt Toplikar is well-produced and covers an interesting topic for that market because of its local impact.

The video focuses on Mesquite, Nevada and the surrounding community’s fight against the instillation of a coal plant. They were worried because they believed CO2 emissions would pollute their air and ultimately cause global warming.

I would like to discuss the positives and negatives of the package by taking you through the video piece by piece.

The first few scene setting clips are good because they establish location and are edited well. They sweeping motion ends before the clip cuts away to the next scene. However, some of the B-Roll of the men speaking into the microphone looks a little shaky; perhaps the videographer did not have a tripod and therefore, it appeared unprofessional.

I thought the use of the graphics to display locations of the towns and the plant where very good because audiences needed to know where exactly this emissions plant would be placed. Its locality could effect their health.

Next, Toplikar decided to use a still image with audio and I think that it works, but it is not as effective as a movie would have been because this topic creates emotions in people’s faces when they speak in anger about it. As an audience member, that would have been intriguing to see.

The first SOT had excellent framing, as well as the second one. I really thought the second SOT’s angle was interesting because the camera was pointed upwards towards the pink sky. The man being interviewed was talking about solar power…I sense some irony.

The use of the multiple bars and copy as graphics did not work for me because it was too much to take in during that amount of time…and I am not sure about whether or not it was completely necessary to include all of the statistics.

I thought the flashing images of the people at the meeting worked to establish just how many people attended this meeting and were upset; however, there were too many images of different people. The first 10 would have been enough.

The framing of the SOTs during the meeting were great, but each one lasted too long for this package. I did not pay attention to what they were saying after they spoke for more than 10 seconds.

I really enjoyed the coal plant graphics and the big list of the chemicals. It was presented in an interesting way; one that really impacted me as an audience member.

The last SOT was not framed well because the lower thirds were sprawled across the man’s face.

Overall, the piece was important journalistically to present to the public because it was such a concerning issue.