Culinary at Maine West - ID# 302
Maine West
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description
This is a news package about the culinary program at Maine West and how it helps students connect to food and their culture.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/23 11:33 am - Moves really well at the beginning, but loses momentum in the last half, You edited the girl down too much she sounds unnatural because she is talking so fast, and because she doesn’t pause between ideas of things she is saying, your audience doesn’t get a chance to pause either and so the piece becomes very heavy on information and overwhelming for the viewer it would have been better to cut one of the interviews out, and give your audience a chance to digest more of what they are hearing. Great sounds at the beginning, just be careful to blend them so they don’t cut in and out. Like I said it was a lot of the girl at the end, I love that you balanced your story with a teacher and a student, but she started taking over the story as she talked about why she took the class, her grandma, her culture, and working with others. Pick one of those areas so the original story objective doesn’t get lost. I loved your topic, you did a great job bringing in so many sights and sounds! I have suggested this topic to my own students, but what you made was far better - I enjoyed showing them your work to show them that it could be done well. Great job. Trim the interview down at the end, provide some closure (follow up interview from the teacher about how he loves the program) and you would have an amazing story.
- 4/1 1:10 pm - Good start to your story with the natural audio. When the sound byte starts, be sure to bring the level of the natural audio on the b-roll down just a little bit - you don’t want that audio competing with what is being said. The shot of Samantha when she first appears was very quick - I would extend that by 1 or 2 seconds. Or, cover her up completely with b-roll since the 2nd time we see her it’s longer. That’s called a “J-cut” - where we hear her before we see her. When including the pictures (which was great), blur out the background photo a little bit more - you don’t want that to be too distracting to the photo on top. By blurring it out a little more, your attention goes to the in focus picture. When we do this, I have my students add a 50% blur. I can tell that Samantha’s sound bytes were edited - be careful not to overdo that, as you lose the natural flow of how a person talks. If you need them to redo that sound byte, ask them to do just that. Often times if you ask a question again, the second time they answer it will be a lot smoother than the first, as they now know what they want to say. Overall, nice job with this package.
- 3/5 11:33 am - I love how your story connected work in the culinary class to someone's home life and culture. This shows us how these skills are so applicable outside of the classroom as talked about in the first part of the package. Interviews were well lit and well framed and looked very professional. It was great to hear the burner starting, sink running, and onions frying- this definitely put me in the context of a kitchen! I would have loved to hear the teacher teaching or some of the students also talking about the importance of food as stated in your interviews. Overall, this was a great story with many unique sounds to support what was happening!
Judge 1
Positives: Great opening shot with sound of the kitchen. Great variety of wide medium and tight shots to tell the story.
Improvements: The interview sound is lower than the nat sound and it should be the opposite. Keep people on camera for at least three seconds, otherwise it feels too short and not natural.
Judge 2
Positives: You had some really nice nats to open the piece. I really liked your interview framing with the culinary teacher. It had some great depth to it shooting down the hallway. I like that you included sound from the culinary teacher along with a student. The student's personal story really carried the piece.
Improvements: The nats were great, but they needed to be faded in and out. That would make them sound a little less jarring. The way the story is structured makes it feel a bit like two different pieces - one about the culinary class and the other about a student's personal story. I think you could've started the piece with the student and used her to introduce the class. I would've loved to see shots of her cooking, too. Put a mic on her as she's cooking and ask her some of those same questions you asked during the interview. Great job!
Judge 3
Positives: I like your sequencing, especially the sequence at the beginning of the package, right before the first sound bite. Great interview skills. I liked that the guests repeated the question at the beginning of their answers. The girl's story about her family is really compelling.
Improvements: The natural sound needs some work. The sounds you chose were great. I loved the pops and sizzles. But the transition between clips was harsh, especially going into the interviews. Some clips were too loud and made it hard to focus on what the person was saying. Some careful fading will make the sounds transition between each other much more smoothly. The interviews are more centered than I like. Each guest should move a few inches to the right.
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Judge 5
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