Slug & Lede

In Sin City Shooters, the positives significantly outweigh the negatives.  The variety of angles and different camera shots really help to keep the viewer’s interest.  Specifically, the shot where the camera is in front of the shooter while he is shooting and the bullets are coming directly towards you.  That seems like it would be a hard shot to get, but it was very well executed.  However, the scene at the beginning when the camera panned to follow the running shooter was a little too fast.  It made it hard to follow the main focus of the shot, or anything on the screen for that matter.

Another positive quality of the video was the mix between actual footage and interviews of the people in the shooting league.  Since some of the interviewees were a little boring, I think putting their voices as the background at various parts was also a successful idea.

I would only change two things about this video.  First, I would take out the high-speed panning at the beginning and go for a different approach.  Instead of panning, I’d go for a wide shot positioned in front of the shooter.  This way, you could watch him run and do the shooting course without getting motion sickness.

Second, I would take out some of the interviews.  Sometimes I felt like they were kind of rambling and not really providing any necessary information for the piece.  I think taking a little of that out would really clean up the video and make it even more entertaining for its viewers.

Cats need homes is a video piece done by Pawel Dwulit of The Star.  The video is about Frank Currell, a man that owned over 80 cats. Currell had to part with  most of them because his wife passed away and he now has cancer and he is unable to take care of them.

A strong strength of this piece is the story itself.  Having over 80 cats is quite interesting.  However, the shaky camera was very distracting.  It was hard to pay attention.  Another strength was the changing of the camera angles to show how many and what kind of cats there were in his home.  It was nice to see those low angles to get perspective of a cat. It was nice to see a photo of his wife and a jump to his sons when they were mentioned in the story as well.

Even though I did enjoy the short length of the video, there are a lot of questions unanswered in this piece that really could have added some more depth.  I want to know where and what size of a place he lives in.  I would have loved to see a wide establishing shot.  That wider shot would have a lot more impact on the viewer.  More interaction of him with the cats would have been great, especially from a different location in his home.

I think this piece could have been done as a photo and audio slideshow.  The photographer could have gotten some really great off-moments and impacting interaction of Frank and his cats.  This way, the movement of the camera would not be so distracting for the viewer.

“Cats need homes” is a short video about a man named Frank Currell who owns upwards of 80 cats.  Over the minute or two of the video, Frank tells the story of how his wife passed away, and how he must give up a majority of the cats.  Since he’s a cancer patient himself, he won’t be able to care for the cats on his own, which is why he has to give a lot of them up.

One thing about this video that I liked was that it was short.  I knew from the second it started that I wasn’t going to be sitting there for 10 minutes watching a video about cats.  It told Frank’s story and had enough info, but it had all of that in a little package, and it helped me to stay interested in the video.

Frank’s voice overs worked very well on top of the images of all the cats.  You got to see a lot of different cats, and at the same time you were able to hear Frank’s voice talking about his situation.  You could tell by his tone that he has an emotional bond with these animals, and he was genuinely sad to let them go.

Some of the interviews with Frank were set up in a way that made them a little awkward.  Sometimes Frank would be centered in the frame, sometime he’d be off to the left and looking to the left, and sometimes he’d be on the other side of the screen.  I think that if the camera remained stationary for the interviews, it would make them a lot less awkward.

I feel like this video could’ve easily been done as an audio slideshow.  The only part of the presentation that I feel needed to be presented in video was near the end when Frank was holding the cat and it was meowing and growling at him, which only lasted about 10 seconds.  The rest of the video consisted mostly of two-or-three second shots, focused on a single cat or group of cats, and the camera didn’t move.  It would’ve been just as easy to take a picture and show that for three seconds.

“Cats need homes” is a quick video with all the necessary elements to make it engaging.  It’s got what you need to know about Frank’s situation, along with some shots that show off the environment these cats are living in.  Though I feel like the video would’ve worked just better as an audio slideshow, and that the interview angles were a little wacky, the video was short and interesting enough for me not to be too bent out of shape about spending a few minutes watching it.

I thought that the video “A Bronx School Revives Under New Leadership” , a piece by Adam B. Ellick and Elissa Gootman of the New York Times, was an exceptional piece. As a viewer, I was drawn in from the onset of the story, and the content that was presented throughout the piece held my attention. I felt engaged and invested in this story and I found myself thinking and reflecting on what I had learned when the video was over.

The story is about a Chilean-born Hasidic Jew and former US Army captain who in 2004 decided to take a job as the sixth principal in two years at Jordan L Mott Junior High School, which was at the time one of the most dangerous schools in New York City. In the four years since Shimon Waronker accepted the post, the school has been rapidly improving.

The video contains a great deal of footage from within the school, interviews with students, teachers, and Waronker himself. The piece starts by showing Jordan L Mott marching band students performing in their school’s auditorium and ends back in the auditorium as students play the Star Spangled banner, which I though was a neat device, similar to a circle kicker in a written piece. The rest of the video takes the audience on a tour through the school, showing students arriving in the morning, classroom activities, meetings in Waronker’s office, and Waronker speaking to students during an assembly. The footage and the interviews give a great deal of information, telling about how much the school has improved, the challenges that the school faced in 2004, the death threats that Waronker received when he started the job, and the numerous reforms he has brought about. The piece is fast-moving and interesting to watch, engages audience members, and efficiently presents the entire story in just over seven and a half minutes.

This story was very well-suited to a video piece for several minutes. It is fast, engaging, and informative- the audience is allowed to see the school, the students, and the teachers, and emotions and opinions are clearly portrayed. A traditional text piece, I believe, would not have been as emotionally engaging nor would it have been nearly as interesting. An audio piece might have done well, but many of the clips- such as the marching band clip or the footage of teachers bringing students wearing their new uniforms into the school- would not have worked in an audio piece. Overall, I think this piece was excellently executed and I am glad that video was chosen as the medium by which to present it.

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.

The video A Bronx School Revives is about a Hasidic Jew who since becoming principal of Jordan L Mott junior high school has turned it around completely.  Once a school filled with violence it is now a school filled with hope.  I think the video portrays this in an effective way, but a few parts could be changed.

Scenes of children being scolded for slumping in an assembly, grabbed by the hood to get in the back of line, and saying the pledge of allegiance in unison show the authoritative side of the principal and his military background.  He seems insensitive and unlikeable when he tells a science teacher with more than two decades of experience that he isn’t teaching right.  One scene shows him writing “Live life to its fullest,” on the dry erase board, showing he has a nurturing side. 

Some of the close-up shots in the video seem unnecessary and I feel like the video could have been made shorter.  If some clips like the many close-ups of shoes were eliminated, the video might have been smoother and less boring.  A good example of a short video with effective close-ups is Last Call for Haircuts, where there aren’t any shots that don’t have some sort of connection to the story.

Overall I think the video was good and portrayed the message it was intended to.  I think with less random shots it could have been smoother. 

Spokesman-Review’s “Last call for haircuts” worked well in video form since it showed people’s faces. It showed the people who would be most affected by the closing of the barbershop: the owners/barbers—twins Jeff and Bill Haines—and the customers. The video was able to physically show the broad range of men who frequented the shop, from the Haines’ oldest customers to their newest and youngest. By showing diversity, the video attempts to show the breadth of people who are affected by something as small as the closing of a barbershop. The video serves as a jumping point of a much larger story as well: the closing of many small family-owned businesses. The big business model of chains is making it harder and harder for the individual person to run their own business. Though this is a well-known problem, video footage showing the very personal affects of the problem—how even something as small as a barbershop closing could pose a problem to society—is an excellent way to publicize the plight of flagging small businesses. The shots which showed the poor the condition of the barbershop accented these problems as well.  

However, the video fails in other ways. Though the most important point was pushed across, the video has a lot of boring and silent segues. The viewer does not need to see one of the barbershop twins saying “Yeah” for fifteen seconds while he trims eyebrows because it adds nothing to the piece. It also lacked transitions that could have been provided by a voiceover. Without the voiceover, the viewer is left to infer their own meaning behind the video. While I thought it was about a much larger problem, other viewers could take it at face value—that it is just about Lincoln Heights Barbershop closing and that is it. There could have also been more nameplate cards. There was one for Jeff and Bill Haines, but not for their customers. It would be nice to know the names of the customers featured in the video and also the number of years they have been going to Jeff and Bill for haircuts. It is important to establish tiny details which will bring the whole piece together and become more pleasing to the viewer’s eye too.

This story might have been better in a written medium, such as a feature story in a magazine. A video, if not done properly, can come off as lazy and uninventive. Even better, no matter what media this story takes place in, it should be a part of a series all about small businesses closing, putting an economic downturn spin on the series to give it timeliness. As the video stands now, it seems rather isolated and is in need of improvement. 

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.

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.

The New York Times took what could have been a very interesting feature article and made it into a very captivating video. “A Bronx School Revived” follows an unlikely junior high principal through his struggles and successes.

J.H.S 22 Jordan L. Mott Jr. High School in the Bronx was known for being one of the 60 most dangerous schools in the country. These days things have changed. Through the video, a viewer can see a close up of the marching band, how big the school really is, what it has had to deal with in the past, and gives a perfect image of the school dress code. Visuals I think resonate more being taken from a video rather than pictures in an article. The camera person zooms in on the feet of students so you can see their individuality being displayed by their shoes, obviously the only part of their wardrobe not controlled. From the noises constantly in the background you get a sense of what is always going on, a junior high is never quiet, there is always going to be someone talking either in the distance or right in front of you. I think some of the camera angles were done very well, especially those of the principal; where the camera was did a ground up shot. You saw him, towering above the camera, towering above the students, and above the situation that is handed to him. It gives a sense of authority.

There were a few things I would have to argue with that I did not think were done particularly well. When signs on the school walls were shown, they were never centered and always looked like they were slightly off on the walls. I don’t know if this was shown to bring in the atmosphere of the school, but it took away from what was actually being shown because I found it to be very distracting. During every interview, the camera cuts off the top of their heads. I found this to be very annoying as well… I felt like the camera person could have zoomed out a little to capture the person’s entire head, not have a piece of it missing. They all seemed to focus more on the individuals mouth, which I am not sure is necessary.

All and all I think that it was done well and brought new life to an already inspiring story.