A Skater's Manifesto: Eli McIntosh - ID# 209
York
Documentary
Entry Description
Modern skateboarding is a constantly progressing sport with a heavy saturation of talent at the amateur level. This film takes a look into the relentless drive to succeed of an amateur skateboarder from Chicago.
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/28 5:30 am - Beautiful color – great decision to shoot during golden hour at multiple locations for broll and interviews, good pacing and use of song
- 4/9 2:45 pm - Nicely done. Great shots and editing. The use of slow and fast motion in the same shot, several times, was effective and worked especially well with the material.
Judge 1
Positives: Good job! This was an interesting and well structured profile of one skater’s journey within a larger skateboarding movement. It was also enjoyable to watch. I loved so much of the cinematography—you’ve got well composed, interesting shots and play with shooting into the sun in really great ways. In addition, you’ve played nicely with some editing/timing tricks… your slow motion and fast motion complement the piece nicely. Also, really nice use of music.
Improvements: As far as the narrative is concerned, I would have loved if you explored a bit more depth to the topic, as there was a bit of redundancy throughout (you said the same thing about skating being at a different level from 10 years ago three different ways over the course of the first several minutes). I get it after the first time… try digging a bit deeper so the viewer doesn’t disengage. Also, I know that this was all about Eli, but I think that you could have solved a bit of the redundancy issue by interviewing some other people—like Eli’s coach/competitors/family. It would have really helped to get a more well rounded view of Eli’s story.
Judge 2
Positives: The cinematography and editing were very well done. There were beautiful shots and the slow motion worked nicely with the cinematography.
Improvements: The audio levels could be mixed a bit better. The story needs more improvement for a definitive beginning middle and end.
Judge 3
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Judge 4
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