PE Leaders - ID# 346
Maine West
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description
PE Leaders are juniors and seniors who support the Maine West PE classes. The leadership skills gained through the program support students in their future careers.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/23 4:13 pm - I feel like I need some context to the story. You just jump right in and not having a program like this at our school I am not sure what it is, why people would do it, how it helps. You eventually get to some of that as your story unfolds, but you are forcing your audience to piece the story together and “understand” what is going on. Your B-roll and natural sounds don’t always fit with what was just said for example around 28 seconds Cassie says they lead games and warm ups, the footage that follows I thought could be more intentional of a student Leading or doing warm ups, instead you show footage of what looks like dividing people into two teams rather than some in a more forceful way leading or barking out commands for warm ups. The same is true for Olivia’s interview the broll and audio just don’t really drive the point home that Olivia makes. I appreciated the diverse interview locations, it made each interview unique and more memorable, so many times students interview different people against the same backdrop and they all start to blend together. Interviews were very easy to hear, great audio. I think your topic is fine, there just needs to be more synergy between the interviews and the b-roll, when that happens the story will dramatically improve and your viewers will be more engaged.
- 3/25 7:11 am - There was so much you packed into this 2-minute news package! First, let’s talk about where you can improve. There were times when the natural audio from the b-roll was at the same audio level as the sound byte - that made it more challenging to hear what was being said. While we want to hear the natural audio, bring it down while the person is speaking. Then bring it up full for the natural audio pops in between the sound bytes. That was probably the biggest detriment to your story. But there were a number of positives. You had a variety of perspectives on this leadership program - from a number of students to the instructor. Love how you found a person who was impacted their freshman year and is now a leader. Great variety of b-roll showing the leaders working with the students. Consider putting a wireless mic on a few of those leaders while they are teaching and use that as your natural audio pops - it would really make that nat audio stand out. Well done.
- 3/4 11:34 am - The teacher did a great job setting the context of this story. I love how you paused your interviews to let us hear your PE leaders actually leading. Audio also aligned with what the interviewees were saying. For example, when talking about being positive, we saw the leaders cheering. I like how the story focused on using skills outside of the school- the student who wants to work with an intelligence agency was a great example of this. Sometimes audio was a little overpowering to the interviews, but otherwise this was great!
Judge 1
Positives: Great opening shot to introduce the audience to the program. The soundbites help the story flow really well and get a sense of what the program is all about.
Improvements: Have the nat sound be lower than the sound bites. It can be hard to hear what people are saying when the background noise is to high. I would like to see some more tight shots of student leaders and the students in the class itself.
Judge 2
Positives: I liked the nats and shot you used to open the story. It made me curious about what this was all about. Nice lighting and framing on your interviews. I also liked that you had your subjects on different sides of the frame. That's not always easy to do - especially if you're shooting solo. Great job incorporating nats in the story. It definitely adds energy to the piece and makes the viewer feel like they're in the PE class.
Improvements: Looks for opportunities to build sequences using a mix of wide, medium and tight shots. I saw a lot of wide shots in this piece, and would've loved to see a bit more variety. Keep a close eye on your audio levels when you're editing. Some of your sots were drowned out by nats that were too loud. Listen with headphones as you're editing so you can adjust those levels and make sure to fade in and out of nats and soundbites.
Judge 3
Positives: *Nice job hearing from both the leaders and also those the leaders are working with in class. And it was effective to hear from the young man at the end talk about how the skills he learns in this program might help him in the future. *It was effective to conduct the interviews inside the gym and on the field. You took to viewer inside the PE classes!
Improvements: *Try to keep your audio levels as consistent as possible. It was sometimes hard to hear the natsot of the student leaders. *Consider starting your story with someone who is participating in the program or benefitting from it, as opposed to the teacher.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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