*NSULN - ID# 359

Neuqua Valley

Comedic Narrative

Entry Description

The rise and fall of the greatest boy band of all time: *NSULN.

Copyright Info

All *NSULN band music and background music is original and created by student producers Nolan Manke and Kevin Shaffer. Additional background tracks provided from www.youtube.com and www.fesliyanstudios.com via creative commons license: “Sadness” -

Recent Teacher Comments

• 4/19 10:55 am - Successful - The overall aesthetic of the film works fairly well. There is an amazing amount of shots and graphic content that obviously took a lot of work and planning. Good photos and graphics and nice consistency in branding NSULN. Needs Work - Some of the video effects looks a little sloppy, specifically the "VHS look" used in the interviews. It doesn't look right and detracts from the quality. Also, this film really only has one joke, that these guys all have diabetes and their music is bad, which isn't quite enough to carry this.
• 3/6 11:27 am - First off, I appreciate the work on the original music and the ‘behind the scene” feel of the film, but the overall story lacked plot. Most of the camera work was not very professional. The overall production needed to be polished up as well.

Judge 1

Positives: Very well thought out, very much like the docu-rock-umentary that you see on TV...good storyline that was crazy but not too crazy

Improvements: When you talked about the band as youth, it would have been cool to show pictures of the guys as kids...at 10 years old when they met

Judge 2

Positives: The cutaway interviews were a solid (and funny) way to display the characters in this piece. The actors did a good job committing to their goofy roles and helped me connect with them. I dig the overall story. The writing is witty; very cheeky. Good use of dark humor without getting carried away. The editing is solid as well- well-timed cuts and good use of slow-motion, cutaways, etc.

Improvements: The audio could be stronger. At times, it sounds inconsistent; not sure if it's intentional. (Example: The music videos sound great, but the interviews sound like the in-camera mic was used). Characters don't sound mic'd up, which reduces production value. Some more interesting locations would also greatly increase production value. They're clearly in a living room/at school for most of the piece (though the shots on-stage are acceptable). Another example: the interviews on the couch take me out of the story. Some small changes in location would've helped sell the story better.

Judge 3

Positives: This one stood out to me for a few reasons. Lots of great gags and humor that maintained my interest throughout. There was some really great editing at work here. You really nailed the Behind the Music feel and played well with those tropes. It looked like you had a lot of fun doing it too! The voiceover was very effectively used and sounded legitimate. The characters all undergo some pretty significant development in that they all end up in prison. That was a funny way to wrap it all up. This was a lot of fun. Well done!

Improvements: Having so many characters, it's a challenge to juggle them all developmentally. In order to accomplish that I think you'd need to single out one or two characters and develop them over the others. Despite that, the characters did still feel distinct. You were very bold with your humor in a couple cases, particularly the diabetes and terminal cancer references. Some may have concerns about that, but I personally appreciate it. Sometimes taking those risks regarding taste and sensitivities is totally worth it. As always, it depends on your audience. In this case, I thought it was very funny. I'm a lowbrow humor kind of guy and it worked in your favor! Still, maybe worth noting.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: