Chugging Along - ID# 165
Glenbrook North
Documentary
Entry Description
We get an in depth look at how Bruce Chudacoff and his wife, Nancy Chudacoff, created a model train set in their basement of their suburban home. We also look at how Bruce balanced creating this and spending time with his family. Music courtesy of De Wolfe Music.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/4 9:31 pm - KEEPERS: Really nice compositional ideas for the broll. Filming miniature stuff is really fun and a lot of your compositions were really interesting and fun. The graphic design was nice too with the lower thirds. Cool overall story about this family and its passion for model railroading. IMPROVEMENTS: As nice as your compositions were for your broll, a lot of times it wasn't focused on anything in particular. Often your shots would rack focus but sort of without purpose. It's better to be sharply focused on one thing in a shot and let the audience see it than it is to be constantly shifting focus. Many of your other shots were in soft focus so make sure you're consistent. You have the right shots, just work on making them better. Why not incorporate some shots of the husband and wife working on the trains? You need something different visually to break up the shots of just the working model train layouts. Carpentry, electrical, design...lets see some of that...even if it's just staged for you, the audience will never know the difference. Make sure your lower third titles are title safe. They're outside the acceptable margins. In terms of music, how can you change songs? The same song gets rather monotonous. You really need at least two and probably three different songs in a piece this long. Look for moments to change songs and take the emotions to different places. In terms of your interview shots, I would have sat them lower and tightened the shots a bit to be more of a medium close up. That way the background would be more immersive by having them in a lower position and we could see the expanse of the model more than the white walls of the basement. Overall, there is a lot to like here. Keep working!
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