The Unappreciated Sport of Throwing - ID# 304
Neuqua Valley
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description
I created a natural audio package covering the sport of Shot Put and Discus. These athletes are extremely under-recognized as the time and effort they put into each season are unmeasurable.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 3/14 9:41 pm - From the start, I loved that your story started off with a video and not immediately with an interview, you introduced me to the topic, peeked my interest, and I loved the creativity of the ball racing to the camera - all within the first few seconds. Good Job. Thought your interviewees were well coached, they said what the needed to, and weren’t very redundant - each interview added a new piece to the puzzle that unfolded more of the overall picture/story. I appreciated hanging the Broll from interviewer on a little longer before the next interviewer begins. It gives your audience a chance to digest what they heard, as well as chunk various sections together. Examples of this could be seen at 15, 33, 47… many students just rush into the next interview. Good job on being patient and controlling your audience's focus. Your B-Roll really for the most part fit with what was being said, at times it got a little redundant because it seemed like I was looking at the same throws and weightroom footage from the same basic kind of cover shot, maybe just from a different angle. Which leads me to maybe the thing I would say to improve if this was one of my students work, I kept hearing about technique several times, but because I was constantly seeing cover shot of throw after throw I never knew what to focus on - is it where the eyes/head is positioned, how to hold your hands, the footwork, I would have loved close ups of those things to break up the redundancy of the broll but more importantly to help me understand what I should be focusing on. The closest and only time I felt like I saw that was the b roll you had at 54ish seconds (but in that moment you were actually talking about friendships, not technique). Like I said it was hard to keep hearing how important the technique was and never really getting a glimpse of what good technique looks like. I Like the grunts, Ball drops etc. that you included, don't be afraid to bump that up even more especially on a nat sound package. Along those same lines don’t miss opportunities to bring more of those in (maybe there was background noise that you were trying to avoid, but then I would suggest to dub/foley them in) there were a few times I felt like I was seeing footage that should have been accompanied by the sound that corresponded to what I was seeing (even if it is lightly under an interview) When people like brown shirt guy at 1:20 ruin your footage don’t use it, reshoot. I know it might seem funny, maybe everyone at your school will like it, but realize it is distracting from all the other elements that you did so well and takes away from your hard work. Finally you piece seemed to end abruptly and seemed rush when I compare it to the rest of your story. For example the interview with the coach ended and you immediately went to the audio of him coaching the student but it was so tight, that it just sounded like the interview/voice over was still going on, then the final comment “throwing is great” and boom it was over. If you are shaving a story down to fit in a contest take it out of the middle not the end - it won’t be as noticeable. If you weren’t shaving it down, you showed great patience, and control throughout the piece, what happened to the pace at the end? Overall good job, you know how to pull the elements together and control what the viewer takes in as they watch, be a little more intentional with diverse camera shots (close ups) and it is a 10. Great job
Judge 1
Positives: Great story subject. Nice example of bringing the audience a story that they would not be aware of otherwise. Nice audio. Great natural sound and sound bites. Great opening shot!
Improvements: Watch the jump cuts. There are a few. especially with the weights. Some of the lighting could use external sources... especially with the practice. It just needs to be consistent.
Judge 2
Positives: Interview audio sounds good. Microphones were close (But be sure to hide cords)
Improvements: Many jump cuts. People cannot be two places at once. Rather than montage editing, use shot sequences to tell the story. Think about the process and capture shots of each part. That should give you shots to avoid jump cuts. Instead of seeing shot of a throw, shot of a throw, shot of a throw, start with picking up the shotput, bringing it to the chin, feet getting in position, rocking in place, wind up and finally the throw. Each part of the process is a shot.
Judge 3
Positives: 1. Loved the first shot of the shotput being thrown into the camera! Very creative. 2. I liked the use of the sound from the coach during practice as a bit of natural audio.
Improvements: 1. I would have liked to see more tight shots. Zoom in on someone's face as they're spinning to throw the shotput, their face conentrating while they're bench pressing 2. Sam Turner's interview could have been framed better if he had been told to turn his whole body 3/4 of the way towards the camera. The coach's interview would have looked better if he was standing farther away from the wall.
Judge 4
Positives:
Improvements: