Gold

Treehaven

Neuqua Valley

Documentary

Entry Description

This five minute version of the original 15 minute documentary is about the trip to Treehaven. Treehaven is a trip to Northern Wisconsin that the AP environmental students take. This is a once in a lifetime trip for many of the students that have never experienced the outdoors before.

Judge 1

Positives: Your interviews are awesome. There is such a variety is so many different locations. That alone can really help add dynamic to a film. Awesome B-roll coverage. A lot of these projects have a lot of interview and not a lot of footage to explain. Video is a visual medium. We want to see, not just hear, and I think you accomplished that.

Improvements: All of your interviews are a little too panned over. I would have liked to see most of your interviews centered up a little more. Its not good to make your subject dead center of frame, but they should be more "just left or right side of frame" and less "all the way on the edge of frame."

Judge 2

Positives: This was a beautiful documentary to watch. The nature shots were all very well executed and the colors were so vivid. It made me want to get up off the couch right this second and experience nature. It's so great that this class offers this field trip. Wonderful to know how much these students learned from this hands-on experience. I thought it was very smart to interview both students and faculty to get both points of view. The interviews were well-conducted and clear.

Improvements: I personally didn't think that the reflection segment was very strong. I think maybe chopping some of the interviews and trying to fit in 5 people giving quick reflections would have been better instead of cutting back and forth to the same 2 people. It would have been nice to know how more people thought about their experience. But you may truthfully not even need this section because I think the documentary would be just as great without it. The interviews in the beginning were not lit well. There needed to be some other form of light on them other than the overheads.

Judge 3

Positives: The audio sounds fantastic. Your interviews are very clear and your talent is so easy to understand! I loved hearing how all these kids are so proactive about the environment and arent afraid to express it. When I was in high school, whoever had the gas guzzler got to drive and recycling wasnt a thing.

Improvements: Your school looks like a prison. I dont know the circumstances you were under during the beginning interviews, but I would have liked to see them brighter and some kind of color. Even if they stood up, the lights may have brightened their faces. It would have been a cool idea to create a story around someone who was going for their first time and seeing the before and after of their experience.