Addiction

Batavia

Documentary

Entry Description

This video gives an insight to one man's battle with addiction. Originally, this was a 17 minute documentary.

Judge 1

Positives: The black and white cinematography was an excellent choice. The story was well structured

Improvements: Creative shots and editing could have been used in the buildup to the point where his wife leaves him. The film ended abruptly, rather than slowly, it could have used some shots at the end such as the sunrise, etc.

Judge 2

Positives: Excellent job building anticipation by not putting your subject on camera immediately. After that powerful sound bite was the perfect place to transition to the reveal of who he is and then do the introduction. Great use of natural sound - for example, the birds chirping. Great camera work, as well - good mix of moving shots, rack focus, etc. Love that you showed your subject on camera playing the guitar for the open sequence and then carried the sound over to cover other b-roll shots. That's exactly what you should've done! Overall, the story was very memorable and powerful, which is most important above all else. Great job! True documentary feel.

Improvements: The first shot flickered. It was very noticeable over the trees. At 3:16 There was one shaky shot that could've easily been replaced. It was not a necessary shot and was not needed. Around 1:30, there were a couple sound bites that were static sounding - more than in other areas. It made it possible to hear the edits between bites. Not sure what happened here. Since it's not a voice over and a re-shoot/re-record wasn't possible, you could've tried to fill in the "quiet space" between bites with room tone, if it was recorded. This might have been a quicker and easier solution over audio sweetening, which is not easy or a guaranteed fix. 3:52 There was some faint background noise - sounded like talking or radio that wasn't there during other parts of the interview.

Judge 3

Positives:

Improvements:

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: