Gold

Neuqua Cheer

Neuqua Valley

Feature Story

Entry Description

Neuqua Cheer has made it to state for the last 5 years but this year they were not only undefeated but also predicted to do better than ever at the state championship. I did a story for our school's news program Wildcat Weekly on their goals for state and what made this year different.

Judge 1

Positives: good interviews good b-roll variety

Improvements: white balance is a little off focus is soft on some shots

Judge 2

Positives: The story had great pace, with music that matched the visuals, and solid quotes from its interview subjects. Nicely done! There were also several great cuts in the piece, particularly with the cheer routines, that also contributed to the energy. Again, great job!

Improvements: The color balance of the shots seemed all over the place. It's important to white balance your camera before shooting, and make minor corrections in the edit. Understanding your environment's lights will play a big part in avoiding these discrepancies. Most likely the gymnasium you were filming in had sodium vapor lights, which often make the image appear red and overly warm. You can adjust your camera's settings to compensate for this light temperature. You'll find this will also help when shooting on streets at night time, too! Always remember to keep your assets consistent: your interview subjects were in stereo, but the narrator was balanced to only the left speaker. This is a simple fix, but can often alter the viewer's perception of the project. It looks as though your photographs were a different aspect ratio than your video, and thus were stretched to fill the screen. You should avoid stretching images at all costs. It's details like these that will take your projects to the next level. Good luck!

Judge 3

Positives: Great variety of shots. Plenty of B-roll to keep pace up and the piece visually interesting. Good job on covering all parts of the story and adding some depth to an otherwise straightforward piece.`

Improvements: Narration audio seemed to peak at a few points. Much of the interior b-roll seemed to have the wrong white balance. Review camera technique and also solutions for fixing this in editing.