Rock Your Socks Off - ID# 225
Maine South
Documentary
Entry Description
The house band from School of Rock in Park Ridge are chosen to perform at the international music festival, Rock in Rio. Watch them as they embark on their first European tour and get ready to have your socks rocked off!
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/9 8:59 pm - Keepers: Great documentary with a very distinctive style that kept pushing the pace to keep things interesting. This whole piece had a very mid 90s MTV Spring Break vibe to it. I should know, I lived through all of that! But you all did a tremendous job documenting the journey to get there, the background of your band and its ascendancy and the actual performance. It was a great mix of broll and interviews but what really made this piece stand out was the use of what I call "reality" footage - showing the subjects speaking on camera in a real, non-interview environment. That type of footage is so essential to the success of a documentary because it makes the viewer feel as if they were there. Really well done, overall. Improvements: The audio as a whole needed work. It sounds like you had to use on-board camera audio for the interviews. On the whole it actually didn't sound that bad most of the time, but there were several mixing issues where the nat sounds from the broll overpowered the interview audio. This was especially evident right at the top of the piece. Try to work on that mix and watch your vu meter. Overall, this is a great documentary. Keep up the good work!
- 3/6 6:32 am - Great fast edits that create energy. Good job with the graphics–following band members as they perform. Great b-roll capturing the action. Some cool special effects. Good job interweaving the interviews.
Judge 1
Positives: Editing and Pacing - both well done. Editing - the editor is alway the unsung hero of any great story. In this case - the editor used several creative ways to increase the fun with editing techniques. I can't say color bars and tone of the "rewind" technique will always work - but in this case they fit the story. Great choice of pacing. High energy, fun pacing is perfect for a young rock band embarking on once in a lifetime opportunity to play in Rio!
Improvements: Watch some of the sound for the interviews. They sounded a little hollow. Last thing you want to do (especially in a piece about music) is to not have all of your audio on point. Ending - a little too abrupt for me. I would have scored the story even higher if you had ended with a better "Sting" both musically and with sound from your subject(s).
Judge 2
Positives: The interview subjects are incredibly likable and their personalities shine throughout the video! There is so much positive energy that stays consistent throughout the video. I enjoyed that the whole video builds up to the final performance.
Improvements: I enjoyed the fast-paced editing style but I felt at times it moved too fast and outstayed its welcome. I also thought that the sound in the interviews could be improved upon as well. Great job!
Judge 3
Positives: I really enjoyed that you aligned to the structure of a lot of rockumentary/endless summer docs...they are some of my favorite. You captured an authentic, raw experience that seemed so unique, but very relatable. You gave us a chance to have that experience through your characters, which is where the viewer connection happens. The overall edit was really thoughtful. I love the changes in pace, the rewind moments, the change in visual tone for emphasis. It worked really well!
Improvements: I felt like the only thing missing was a little more about Rock in Rio and why this was such a big deal to play there. A little more around the scale of the event might have created more "tension" that would have added to the drama of it. At that point, it becomes more about storytelling than just event coverage. Okay...please understand that if you would have done what I'm about to suggest, you might have wrecked some of the authenticity of this documentary. We make those kinds of creative calls every time we turn on the camera, so don't second guess yourself. That being said, the interviews felt a little visually flat. I think with a little creative lighting, you might have been able to focus more on the performers and less on their environment. As happens, if this was or needed to be treated as "found footage", maybe think through some ways via color correction to put more emphasis on your characters.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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