Amour de Hair - ID# 420

Mundelein
Division: AA
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description

Discover what Amour de Hair in Libertyville has to offer through the sights and sounds of the shop .

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 3/9 11:29 am - Lots of natural audio creatively interlaced throughout. Some shots were stronger than others. A few of the interviews are down shots and some are out of focus. Work toward consistency of audio levels. Some of the interviews are lost in the background noise. The sounds are what should drive the story though so continue to focus on the natural audio of an event/setting and develop the skill to blend these well with each other AND any interviews you choose to uses.
  • 3/9 10:43 am - Good natural audio at the beginning of the story. Be consistent with your audio levels - they were all over the place throughout the story. Remember - the natural audio is what drives this story - not the SOT. Mic up one of the hairstylists and use their audio for your story while they are working with a client. When the phone rang at the end, I was waiting to hear someone say “Thank you for calling ____…” - that would have been a great use of natural audio. Less sit-down interviews, more natural audio from what goes on in the shop every day.
  • 3/5 6:30 pm - Positives: Opening with natural sounds of the show really brings this to life. The mixing of sounds with interview was creative. B-roll was creative and kept the interest of the viewer. Improvements: Audio of opening interview was low. Missing an ending to the story.
  • 2/27 9:00 am - Blow dry sounds are great. Natural audio throughout is very strong. Great use of b-roll. Some of the talking in the background is very distracting but possibly unavoidable in a hair salon. You really do a great job of capturing the hectic pace and ambiance of a hair salon. Very solid piece.
Judge 1

Positives: The narrative was really good. I liked that you started with the owner to set the tone and get a good sense of the salon. You did a really good job matching video with what was being discussed. I liked that the nat pops were short and quick and didn't linger.

Improvements: While I understand this is a nats pkg, the audio on this was distorted in much of the piece. It sounded like a lot of the nats were too high which made the interviews difficult to hear. The interviews sounded like they came from the camera audio as opposed to microphone audio. I would not use the interview sound on air. The only part of the story I was confused about was if this was meant to be an advertisement. If yes, then it makes sense. If no, then I would not have included the salon's information at the end. Either way, I would get rid of the slate in the beginning and open with nats. You quickly showed the name of the salon in the video and that set the scene. You did a really good job matching audio with what the interviews were saying, but it's also okay to let some of the interviews play a little longer and not jump from shot to shot so much.

Judge 2

Positives: The natural sound leading into the piece and throughout the piece is excellent. The camera work is good. I like the graphic leading into the piece. The piece gets off to a good start. Clear bites and good editing in the first half of the piece. Broll matches sound nicely.

Improvements: I'm not sure what the story is here. If this is supposed to be a commercial for the hair salon, this is fine. But if its a news report or a feature, it doesn't work. It feels primarily like an ad for Amour de Hair. If this was supposed to be a feature, I would like to have heard more from the owner besides listing all the things they do in the salon. Was it her lifelong dream to open a salon? Is there a business angle? Are there any trends she could tell us about? There is not enough of a story being told here to make me care about Amour de Hair beyond the fact that it's a nice hair salon. In the first half of the piece the broll is edited to match what people are saying but later on the editing lags. When we hear the last woman, Dara, speak about working there, we see broll of a different stylist working on someone's hair. We should see broll of Dara. Otherwise, I'm not sure why we have that soundbite in the piece. We already got the message that everybody loves the salon. Since a good deal of attention was paid to the natural sound, I think it would have been helpful if the camera had picked up some interaction between the customers and the stylists. That could have been a nice sound pop. Instead of interviewing Dara, sitting down, it would have been more interesting to talk to her while she was working. When the young woman is talking about the hair treatment she gets, we should see broll of her getting her hair done instead of someone else. I'm not familiar with the treatment she's getting, so it would have been helpful to hear her briefly explain it. Overall, the piece gets off to a good start but doesn't deliver. It felt like it was leading up to something that didn't happen.

Judge 3

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Judge 4

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