The Last Strike - ID# 315

Oak Park River Forest

Documentary

Entry Description

Documentary short film directed and edited by Matt Booden from New Trier HS.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

• 4/24 9:25 am - Keepers: Excellent visual documentary about the world of bowling. Very impressive work in regard to threading the whole story together with archival footage interviews and broll. Broll is absolutely stunning. A bowling alley is such a great spot to capture story-driving footage and you really captured the unique beauty of the sport and the facility. Interview bytes were efficient and told the story well. Improvements: Perhaps this was a deliberate choice but I thought it was odd that you chose not to show the visual footage of your interviews. It felt like the piece was missing an important element. You did such a great job with the other visuals in this piece that I wanted to see interview set ups of everyone. Perhaps you weren't able to do this due to the pandemic and didn't want to show Zoom/Google Meet footage, but I think it was needed. Viewers want to connect to faces telling the story in a documentary. Not having that element left me wanting. It felt more like a visual podcast. Aside from this note, it was a really great piece.
• 4/15 1:34 pm - Very unique perspective on a hobby that was affected by the pandemic. Interviews were all compelling and interesting. Visuals that you shot were very well done and archival video was purposeful to the story.
• 3/10 3:11 pm - I really love the Knicks of footage that is used in this. It starts off like a more contemporary documentary but in the end had shades of the Rafferty Brothers Atomic Cafe. I love how you started the film out as well with the voiceover. It's such a beautiful piece that has a personality to it and tells a story that is so important for everybody in America right now. I think it's a great topic that is a microcosm of a bigger problem going on in America. I like how you were able to vary up your types of interviews as well.

Judge 1

Positives: Great opening sequence. Seemless audio + video. Good use of slow motion. A compelling insider look at the sport of bowling. As a non-bowler, I was exciting to watch. Good story well told.

Improvements: Title graphics could be a bit more compelling and designed could be stronger. I would suggest exploring how to use titling and avoiding placing text outside the safety zone. At times, the interview audio was a bit uneven. But, this is a small thing.

Judge 2

Positives: The use of archival footage was a very nice addition. The b roll was great.

Improvements: The transition to the 1960's was a bit jarring. The J cut with the audio helped, but the dip to black should have been slower. It would have been nice to see a headshot of the people that the audience hears.

Judge 3

Positives: Great use of footage and "Natural Sound" off the top. Really liked how you used no narration to tell this story. Excellent job finding pertinent sound bites (JB Prtizker, Dr Fauci) from new organizations to help tell important parts of this story.

Improvements: I'm not 100% clear about all of your choices in regard to the narrative? I do understand the message you are trying to get across, I'm just not sure it hit home in a personal enough way. Maybe a way to help personalize this story - off the top the "Narrator" says "It was part of what I was put on earth to do." Ok, but who is this? We actually never see them in an interview setting so as a viewer we have a harder time connecting. I know creating content is more challenging in a pandemic, but as a visual medium, we need to see the people who are talking.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: