Jim Weinstein's Honor Flight - ID# 343
Maine West
Documentary
Entry Description
This is a documentary about Jim Weinstein and his time serving our country and his trip on Honor Flight Chicago.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/24 9:22 pm - The cold open while very short is highly effective and pulls in the viewer. immediately following the opening the production values are very high with a well-composed well-lit interview of the main character. When use of b-roll and archival footage to tell the story. The music works well, but at times it does feel I'm the present. This is an inspiring story. Thank you for telling it.
- 4/8 8:22 pm - Keepers: Really inspiring story about honor flights. It especially hits home for Vietnam veterans since so many of them were not given a warm homecoming the first time around. Good use of broll that helps to visually reinforce the storytelling from the interview. Lighting and sound mixing is even throughout. Improvements: An additional interview would have been great to get. Perhaps his wife since it was her that volunteered him for the flight. You wouldn't need much of that interview, but in documentaries, multiple voices are always better and a singular one. Watch the lead room on your secondary interview shot. Have him more to the right side of the frame so he has lead room in front of his eyes. For your primary shot, work on framing according to the rule of thirds better. The scaling animations on your photos are at times too fast. Listen to the pacing of the music and tone you are setting. They need to be slower and more gentle. Good work!
- 3/4 6:33 pm - +Good job finding the archival photos and videos +Interesting story, did not know about this program +Nice work using an A and B cam -Music does not seem to match the tone of the piece -Would have been nice to have heard from his wife so she can talk about Jim
Judge 1
Positives: Nice job lighting your main subject's interview. Nice job getting all of the additional footage and pictures!
Improvements: There appeared to be many more opportunities to draw the viewer into this story by use of natural sound from the footage you gathered.
Judge 2
Positives: 1. Good use of broll showing the subject at the airport/at community centers to really show his involvement and care. It helped my emotional connection to the story. 2. Really good use of archive photos to show the subjects past.
Improvements: 1. The song in background was slightly distracting to me. 2. Some "ughs" could be taken out from the VO when there's broll over top.
Judge 3
Positives: I think the story worked really well, can’t tell how much was cut from his interview but I think you pulled really strong and import things to hear. I think the lighting was really good, Jim’s interview looks very clean and professional.
Improvements: I think the music choice was a little misplaced, there is a story he tells of a friend of his dying and having to carry him on a stretcher and his voice is struggling to be heard with a bit of a “corporate” piano. Maybe the song would work better turned down but it’s so loud at a few points it’s almost hard to hear Jim a few times. There are a few other spots where it feels a little out of place but that was a big one for me. You need to add credits, media and music citations are nice but they should be in the credits and should be on the video.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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