Silver

Feed My Starving Children - Documentary - W2

Wheaton North

Documentary

Entry Description

This is a documentary about Feed My Starving Children, an organization that ships food to starving and needy people all over the world. It focuses on how the food is made and why one would want to volunteer there.

Judge 1

Positives: 1) Very informative on FMSC - nice balance of interviews and statistics. 2) VO narration and music selection set effective tone for the piece.

Improvements: 1) More supplemental footage and images would help make the piece more visually compelling. 2) Improvement of interview audio and shot composition would increase each subject's message impact.

Judge 2

Positives: Awesome B-roll footage in the factory. Good composition and its great to be able to see the inner workings of the organization. There are so many interviews! Thats excellent. No one can tell a better story than the people who were there. Great work.

Improvements: I want to give you some interview pointers you will never forget. Set up the camera at eye level with the lens immediately over your shoulder. That way the subjects whole face is seen, they aren't staring into the lens, and its a little more engaging for the viewer. The more meaningful the interview topic, the closer you can get with the camera. The closer you are with the camera, the more emotion is transfered to the viewer. Try framing the subjects from above the elbows. The most empty space in the frame should be in front of where the subject is looking. with all the dead space behind your subject, its a waste of frame space. For subjects looking towards the left, they should be at the far right of frame and you can put a colorful flower or other accent in the background on the left part of frame. Those three tips, and your interviews will look uh-mazing.

Judge 3

Positives: The opening with the facts and white numbers on the black screen were very effective. A very good opening that grabs your viewers right off the bat. Your combination of narration, b-roll, interviews and music work really well for a seamless flow that tells the story you're trying to get across.

Improvements: The individual interview segments could use a little more time with setup. Keep in mind composition and lighting. Also, consider having the subjects look barely off camera. For example have the interviewer, perhaps yourself, sit inches away from the camera lens so that the interviewee's eye-line is just off camera. Your use of graffics was great! Although, perhaps maybe minimize the size just a bit. They seem to take up a little too much of the screen (i.e. in the interview segments).