Slug & Lede

Jennifer Crew

Multimedia

019:088:002

Nick Bergus

November 21, 2008

Video Story Critique

http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/video/541321

This video was a movie preview done by The Star’s movie critic, Peter Howell.  Throughout the piece Howell previews the best movies being released for the holiday season.  The positives on the piece were that when Peter Howell was shown for his speaking parts he was not centered.  He was in the right third of the screen sitting on a chair and I feel that was a necessary element, otherwise if he would have been centered, it would have looked off.  It would have also made him seem too close to the viewer.

Another element in this piece I liked was while Howell spoke about the videos, they were being played along with the sound bites of the videos themselves.  I liked that the sound of the movies were played along with Howell’s voice; it gave the viewer an option of watching and listening to the movie or just watching the movie and listening to Howell’s voice.  The volume on the movie clips were loud enough so that the sound could be heard, but not loud enough that Howell’s voice could be discerned as the primary focus.

Negatives about the piece were that the background on Howell was extremely boring.  You could tell that it was thrown together quickly so he could say his piece.  I feel that the background could have been decorated with some popcorn, movie reels, or in some sort of festive way considering that Howell was commenting on upcoming movies to be released for the holiday season.  Along the lines of the background being boring, Howell’s attire was lacking as well.  His shirt and pants blended into the background too much.  If he would have worn brighter colors, or even colors that weren’t in the same color palate as the backdrop it would have been completely fine.

Finally, I didn’t care for Howell’s tone of voice.  He didn’t seem excited in the least.  No, previewing upcoming movie premiers is not the most exciting of things, but the viewers can pick up on the blandness of Howell’s voice throughout the clip.  If his pitch/tone would have risen at all, the piece would have been a lot better.  Instead all I wanted to do, as a viewer, was tune Howell’s voice out and listen to the clips of the movies.  Overall, the piece could use minor improvements, but as a whole and what it was used for, I think it served its purpose.   <a href=”http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/video/541321″><PeterHowellmoviepreviewTheStar</a>.