Chicago: A Treasure in the Tundra - ID# 207

Maine South

Division: AA

Cinematography

Entry Description

A visual exploration into Chicago in the wintertime.

Recent Teacher Comments

• 4/19 9:46 am - Nice job getting around the city to show the different tourist areas, but also a few off the beaten path. The tripod shots worked very well, but the hand held not as much. Use of light helped keep the focus, but the middle waned. Color correction to balance the different white balance situations would have helped with the visual flow.
• 3/31 4:38 pm - Camera: -Most of your shots are wide shots, could have benefitted from a more diverse range of angles and compositions. -Multiple shots are off-kilter. If you have a tripod with a "balance bubble" be sure to check it when you shoot. -Be sure to check your white balance while shooting--you are shooting in different areas, sometimes its very sunny outside and other times it's cloudy, as a cinematographer you need to adjust this. Lighting: -Most of your shots used natural lighting or used the lighting that was already present in the space. Have some fun with lighting! Editing: -Pace is appropriate and I appreciate that you have a clear theme to your piece

Judge 1

Positives: Good use of speed ramping in the edits. Well done. Creative handheld work.

Improvements: Use more tight shots to tell the story. To many wide shots. A camera with a larger sensor would help create a shallower depth of field which would look more filmatic.

Judge 2

Positives: -The shot from the base of the ferris wheel was a great composition. -The motion on the bahai temple worked really well. That shot felt like it had some nice production value.

Improvements: -The skill of location photography is finding unique compositions and also waiting for the perfect time get your shot. Obviously all of these landmarks are accessible for anyone to shoot - so what makes it worth capturing for yourself? There were moments in here where it felt like you really considered the frame and the object, and the relation between the two. But then there were some moments that felt less considered and more haphazard. -I also think you could have had more of a point of view to your shots. I understand it's just a montage of the city, but there should always be a point of view. You called it "Treasure in the Tundra", so I would've liked to see more shots that made me feel like I was looking at a "treasure". Maybe an angle that accentuates the height of the Willis tower with a wide angle lens to show us how big and mighty the buildings are. Or maybe a long lens shot looking down a crowd of people crossing the street on Michigan Ave to show us how busy and bustling the city is. The audience reads meaning into every frame you present them, so consider what you're saying with every shot.

Judge 3

Positives: The flow of the video, meaning the time spent on each clip, worked well with the music. One effect that caught my eye was when someone was kicking snow into the water and you repeated the snow flying out, I thought that looked good. Transition with the hard beats was nice as well.

Improvements: In a few areas I would have tried to smooth out the shot by using a steadycam to shoot with and if that was not available then try a filter in post to smooth the shot a bit. I said earlier that I like the transitions with the big beats and I do but I would try to keep all of the transitions or cuts in tempo with those beats. That doesn't mean each clip last the same amount of time but every clip is relative to those big beat cuts. I hope that makes sense.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: