Gold

Wrongfully Convicted: The Jacques Rivera Story

Deerfield

Documentary

Entry Description

After 21 years for a crime he never committed, Jacques Rivera finally tastes freedom again. In Zack Jones' stirring documentary, we meet a man who was wrongfully convicted and then exonerated through the advocacy and grit of Northwestern University faculty and students.

Judge 1

Positives: 1) Nice presentation and tone! 2) Interview content worked well!

Improvements: 1) The resolution is very low and particularly hard to read in the beginning. 2) Be careful of using appropriate footage (National Geographic) - especially when the overlays from the original program are still visible.

Judge 2

Positives: Very touching documentary. Very rarely do people get to capture something like that on video. Jacques is a really inspiring storyteller. He has so much gratefulness, respect and conviction in his voice. (Sorry for the pun) :-) Great music selection. Your choices werent overpowering or distracting at all. It really added to the tone of the film. This is one of the first documentaries I have seen that has a definitive, complete story arc. Great work.

Improvements: There arent many places you need to improve. One advanced tip is when shooting interviews, you are better shooting more downward when interviewing women. Nothing extreme, but just as slight as your camera is shooting up at Jane, it should be shooting down on the same angle. It helps hide under the chin which can be a sensitive area for women. I wish what you did with the newspaper towards the end of the video was done at the beginning. Blowing up the newspaper text in a graphic and putting it over the newspaper b-roll. In the beginning of the project I didnt know if I was supposed to read that first paragraph and I was disappointed that I couldnt read it. It was also up way too fast for me to read.

Judge 3

Positives: A very intriguing and touching opening, it gets your viewers very curious to watch the remainder. Great job with the music, graphics, news segments, etc. The pictures near the end with the music were a nice bookend to the documentary.

Improvements: Jane's interview is an odd balance of color.