Medics Behind the Mayhem - ID# 106
Glenbrook South
Documentary
Entry Description
The 2022 Highland Park Fourth of July Tragedy from the view of three medical practitioners.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/24 8:49 pm - The opening montage and the music sets the tone for the piece preparing the viewer for what they're about to see. It's immediately clear with the first interview that you are using a light kit and using it well. The editing shows care and detail to telling the story slowly and deliberately. I also appreciate the additional care of setting up each interview in its own location so that each shot looks and feels different from one another. This is an audacious piece both in terms of the subject matter and its sensitivity but also the craftsmanship that was so carefully put into it across the board with stunning production values from beginning to end. Well done!
- 4/1 10:08 am - Keepers: I thought this documentary treated this horrific story with the delicacy it demanded. Excellent work with your interview shots and set ups. Audio was mixed well. Great eye for broll and I thought the shots captured the reality that this mass shooting took place on a regular street in America - streets like so many others across the country. Improvements: Might seem like a minor thing, but learn about title safe boundaries when editing. Many of your titles fall outside of these boundaries and as a professional editor, you need to learn how to turn on those grids guides when working. Text that falls outside of title safe zones runs the risk of not being visible on certain screens. At the top of the video where you show the headline from the news, you may consider showing a quick local news clip instead, as it would be more visually impactful. The broll gets a bit stale after a while. Initially, showing the street where the shootings occurred is haunting, but it loses impact over time. I realize, you're sort of only able to use what you have access to, but look for images from newspaper articles, magazines, etc. that show human faces attached to the tragedy. This should be relatively easy to obtain with a bit of research. The memorials for individual victims are great, but is there a wide shot of all of them or a wide shot of the memorial? I felt like that was missing. Your use of music could have been more emotionally impactful. I think you used one song for the duration of this documentary. You needed at least 3 as the story is told. Change songs when your story changes beats. For example, one song at the introduction, one song during the descriptions offered by the medics and one song toward the end when the story transitions over to lessons learned. Overall, good work, but lean into learning more and further developing your storytelling skills.
Judge 1
Positives: Nice job offering a different perspective to this difficult story.
Improvements: Wondering if your opening sequence could be some of the pictures of the empty streets of Highland park that were just after this horrible event. I know there were several pictures from the parade route that still had empty chairs etc - might have been a more compelling way to open this piece. Also, I know sometimes we need to use the interview spaces we are given - just wondering if there could have been a more somber way to shoot these interviews? I definitely think with a story like this you could have shot your interview subjects with a much tighter framing.
Judge 2
Positives: 1. Really nice opening, set the tone really well. 2. Great work getting various perspectives to tell this story. It allows the edit to flow well. Good work leaving breathing room between the interviews. Amazing broll and cutaways, it really was powerful to show the incident footage. Brave.
Improvements: 1. Some "ugh"s and "Ahs" could be taken out during the interviews. 2. Occasionally broll is used that doesnt quite relate to the subject matter.
Judge 3
Positives: I think the story told in this was very effective and moving, wish I was able to hear more stories from the hospital staff very interesting. I also think they sounded clear and were very easy to understand with good music to pair to it.
Improvements: I really enjoyed the camera work but I think the lighting on some shots could have been improved by making them have the same lighting continuity which is hard to do and I think how it looks is good. I think for such a short doc you have too many people. It maybe would have been better/more effective to use less subjects and let them just tell stories from that day. And then someone who’s really good at wrapping it up comes in touches on how everyone came together in the aftermath.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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