Active Shooter Drill Sights and Sounds - ID# 415

Barrington

Natural Audio News Package

Entry Description

This news segment goes behind the scenes of an active shooter drill that took place at an elementary school. We get a first hand look at tactics being used by police officers to ensure the safety of all students and staff inside the school.

Recent Teacher Comments

• 3/15 3:00 pm - White balance and exposure needed adjustments. Good story. Didn't really have a point. Audio levels good and consistent. Composition great, b roll great. Graphics good but not up long enough to read.
• 3/7 10:43 am - Engaging, relevant and timely subject matter. The story was nicely laid out and easy to follow most of the time. Great b-roll. There were minor issues with your interview mic.
• 3/1 3:27 pm - Great opening shot, and first person video. I am also impressed by the steadiness of the camera. Watch your mic location when doing an interview, do not just have an arm hanging there. Also, I did not know the person was being shot at when they talked about "being part of it", then at the end they talk about being shot. Try to lay the story out in an order that allows it to flow.

Judge 1

Positives: This was a great choice of topic for a nats/pkg. You did a good job of incorporating nats with sots. I like how you let the nats tell the story and used the sots to explain video. You did a good job at mixing shots and not overdoing the body camera video. The length was good. I was interested for the full piece.

Improvements: Be mindful of your audience when choosing your video. In movies and video games, viewers know it is fiction and most things are given a rating. Viewers can choose to watch or not based on that rating. With news, we generally give a warning if any video is considered graphic. While this was only a simulation, it was meant to mimic a real life situation. At 34 seconds in, the woman taking photos was clearly startled by the gunshots. I also understand you probably wanted to show the conclusion of the drill, but in essence you showed what would have been a real life person being shot multiple times by police. Ending the piece a few seconds earlier would have still given a nats ending and conclusion of the drill. Try to leave up name banners a little longer. Two seconds is not enough time to read. You can always put up the name on second reference if the first sot is too short. Interviews look like they were shot off the shoulder as opposed to with a tripod. That takes a lot of practice to keep the camera steady and make sure head room is correct.

Judge 2

Positives: The natural sound got your attention. The video was shot well.

Improvements: Perhaps there was an in studio intro, but I would like to have had more context to explain that this was a drill. It's great to have the natural sound at the beginning making us think this is a real incident, but that should not overwhelm the news message that this was a drill in a school. Why? How many are there? etc. Dramatic visuals are important but so is good, clear information. There needs to be a balance. It would have been nice to hear from some of the students or teachers in the school. I think I'm missing hearing a female voice too.

Judge 3

Positives: This piece was clearly put together by someone who knows how to match interviews with supporting video while allowing time for ambient sound to help create a mood. A particularly successful moment was when an officer described the guns being used and that was supported by the guns. The interview referencing paint ball gave the piece a human quality.

Improvements: The majority of the compelling video in this piece seems to have come form a body camera, but that wasn't clearly explained in the report. Also, that's what kept me from scoring it higher, because the video was not the work of the reporter. The interviews could have been more creatively framed.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: