The Story Of The Underdogs - ID# 404
York
Documentary
Entry Description
A documentary covering the season of Special Olympics basketball 2024-2025 season.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/6 1:55 pm - KEEPERS: More stories like this please! As the parent of two disabled children, I love seeing students produce stories that follow special olympics and lesser seen parts of the high school experience within special education. You have great in-game broll and that served you well throughout this story. I love that you kept the natural audio in and that you had moments of coaching happening for the audience to see. IMPROVEMENTS: Consider involving the athletes more in your story, particularly in interviews. It is very possible that some of the athletes are non verbal, but having them present in the interviews with the coaches would provide additional perspectives and interactions that would benefit the story. Work on your interview set ups. We never see the female coach on camera during her interview and that should never be the case in a documentary. Watch the head space for the male coach and make sure your camera is locked down for those interviews - it drifts a bit. Push the story further. It's really too short to be considered a true documentary - it almost plays like a school promotional video. Some things to consider to lengthen the story: what challenges have the athletes overcome? How have they bonded through basket ball? How has the sport led to holistic growth in the athletes? These are all important themes to consider within this story. Overall, it was a great subject but it needed more in terms of overall content. Keep working learning and creating stories like this!
- 3/4 9:51 am - What Worked Well: ✅ Great Subject Choice – Highlighting Special Olympics athletes is a meaningful and inspiring topic. ✅ Coach Interview Adds Value – The coach’s interview contributes to the overall narrative and provides insight into the athletes’ experiences. Areas for Improvement: Fix Drop Frames – There are occasional dropped frames in the edit. Make sure all tracks are properly aligned and snapped together to avoid this issue. Refine the Opening & Graphics – The opening sequence and graphics feel rushed. Investing more time in professional-looking graphics and a compelling introduction will elevate the project. Improve Interview Composition & Lighting – The coach’s interview, while informative, lacks strong composition. Using a three-point lighting setup could significantly enhance the production quality. Expand B-Roll Variety – The b-roll consists only of basketball games, with a single photo at the end. Adding more diverse footage (e.g., practices, athlete interactions, behind-the-scenes moments) would enrich the storytelling. Use the Full Time Available – At only 1:30 in length, the documentary feels too short. Utilize the full time limit to add depth and detail to the story. This is a great start with an important story—focusing on technical polish and expanding the narrative will make it even stronger!
- 2/24 2:13 pm - STORY: The video is kind of short and doesn’t really finish a narrative. It also seems to only include 2 interviews. Aren’t there players on the team, or parents of the players, or other students in the school who support the team? More perspectives would help this narrative. PRODUCTION: Editing: watch your flash frames - you have a frame of black at around the :31 mark. This is a gap on your timeline. It is like having a glitch in your video. It’s sloppy editing and not something you should have in any project, let alone a video festival or competition. The audio from the interview sounds a bit hot and also muffled, as if you recorded the voice over with overmodulated levels and then tried to lower them in post. The interview shot with Coach Wealton has too much headroom and the camera kept drifting during his interview. The b-roll quality is inconsistent. You have some footage that looks like it was captured with a good camera, and other clips that look like they were shot on a phone.
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