26 - ID# 341

York

Division: A

Music Video

Entry Description

A girl struggles with cyberbullying.

Recent Teacher Comments

• 3/12 10:06 pm - This is extremely impressive. I was brought into the story quickly and never lost attention. The shots are well crafted and the emotion of the story seems very real. I love the progression of the story and the fact that we keep discovering new things. I will say the singer nails the lyric which is a huge problem typically when you are singing along. This was impressive in every way.
• 3/11 10:17 pm - Very powerful shots guiding the narration of this music video- I like use of the actress singing certain lyrics--especially the cutaways to the bathtub scenes. The narrative is very emotional (and so saddening), and your cinematography created and matched that mood perfectly. Well done!

Judge 1

Positives: 1. You had a nice variety of shots and the camera movements and camera framing felt motivated. It was nice to see moves from dolly shots to handheld depending on the emotion. You also did a nice job using natural, available light to your best advantage. You created nice contrast and emotion by using natural, single light sources. 2. I think you did a good job revealing the story and the trouble that she is facing. The story was punctuated at several moments where she was bullied and picked on. This helps build the believability that she is going through something difficult. Your lead actor did a nice job of acting which helps the audience connect to their state of being.

Improvements: 1. I would challenge you to see how you can tell the same story without using a cell phone. The text messages were the main story-device that you used to show that she was not liked. It would have been neat to see how else you could visually show her isolation and rejection from her peers. 2. You naturally have a good eye with lighting and framing. Just watch out when you go handheld with smaller camera that are very light. I noticed micro-jitters in certain shots. Micro-jitters are very small yet rapid movements which create motion blur that is not necessarily pleasing to the eye nor natural looking. This is caused by the camera being so light - yet it can be remedied by adding weight to the camera. This is a nit pick, but overcoming small technical issues like this will really help your work look more professional and won't give any excuses to take your audience out of the story.

Judge 2

Positives: Good camera work. Your exposures are balanced, focus was sharp, framing was purposeful. Good use of location and extras. Adding people to shots goes a long way toward adding production value.

Improvements: The lip-sync was off on a few performance bits. If it's possible to do playback on set, this helps to prevent sync issues in post. Also, the performance moments seemed random and unmotivated. You establish performance to camera off the top and then it goes away until midway through the video. Making it more evident at the beginning that there are parallel narratives going on (the performance to camera elements, the story-advancing narrative elements) will go a long way toward helping this.

Judge 3

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Judge 4

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