Varsity Dance - ID# 416
Neuqua Valley
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description
This story was created the week after Neuqua Valley High School’s Varsity Dance Team competed in their State competition after qualifying during Sectionals. The team was excited to share what their season was like and their current routine for Variety Show. I decided to mic up a couple of the dancers to amplify what they were doing during practice. The team had a great end to their competitive season and I am glad to play a part in sharing their story!
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/23 11:33 am - I think your story progresses very well sound bite interviews that are not too long and yet advance the story with each turn, good job. Your B-roll I feel like could/should be more diverse. Most of your story have b-rolls that all look the same of the wide cover shots showing 3 or 4 girls dancing, I would suggest mixing in some close-ups of feet, or concentrating faces to break it up and draw your audience's attention in a little more. This will give your story more visual dimension than what it currently has. I know you are using the natural sound package audio of the music and the leaders counting etc. but it doesn’t really stand out for two reasons, one the person counting is the one in the interview, so the sound doesn’t really differentiate itself from the interview. Secondly, since the natural audio is a person talking I should see the person shouting, etc. For example If I saw a close-up of the coach counting etc I think it would have more impact. What also makes it hard is the broll audio sounds just like the interview so again it doesn’t jump out at the viewer. I love when people are mic’d up but make sure your audience can figure out where the source is coming from.
- 4/1 1:15 pm - Be sure we can see who is mic'd up - show us a tight shot of that dancer to help identify who is speaking. How about mic'ing up one of the coaches as well? This will allow you to get audio from them while they are instructing the girls as a whole or speaking to them individually. That would be great to use in between the sound bytes. Good variety of b-roll in the story from a variety of different angles. Interviews were well lit and framed well.
- 3/5 11:33 am - I loved hearing about the varsity dance team at your school and their prep for the variety show and the state competition. The opening wide shot set the context for what this story was about and your interviews clearly talked about the season, its flow, your captains, and the bond seen in your team in an organized way. Interviews were also well lit and framed and looked very professional. I loved that I could hear both the music you were dancing to and the mic''d up dancers. It would have been helpful if you could have cut to a close up of the girl or girls who were wearing those mics- I would have loved to have known who was talking. At first when I heard this audio, I was a little confused! This quick close up would make this clear for your viewers. I would have also liked to have heard audio from your coach. Perhaps next year you could also mic her up during a practice!
Judge 1
Positives: Nice opening sound bite with a wide shot of the dancers. The story flows very well from different interviews.
Improvements: There is a sound pop from the microphone that is very noticeable. Also there are sound pops between interviews, use a transition to soothe and eliminate that.
Judge 2
Positives: Nice nats to open the story! You did a good job fading those out before we heard from the dance captain. Love, love that you put a mic on the dance captain during the practice. That gave you some great nats to include in the story. Nice job including a variety of voices in the story.
Improvements: I would've loved to see some tight shots in this story. Get some shots of the dancers' faces, their feet, hands, ect. That will make your sequencing so much stronger. Your audio dissolves needed to be longer. It can sound a little jarring when music cuts in or out too abruptly. Watch your white balance and pay close attention to lighting conditions. Your white balance was off in the interview with Gabby.
Judge 3
Positives: I like that you had a variety of rehearsal footage. It doesn't feel like we linger on any of the dance clips for too long. I like that you included one interview that wasn't from rehearsal. I wish I could have seen footage from the performance that she was in when she was interviewed.
Improvements: I want to see more tight shots. All of the dance shots were wide or medium, and the first shot was way too wide. The interviews don't tell a cohesive story. They feel like a random compilation of sound bites — and I don't think mic-ing up the dancers worked. Because the shots were all medium or wide, I had no idea who was speaking, so it just feels like it was a ghostly voice rather than sound from rehearsal. TIghter shots zoomed into the face of the person speaking at the time would have helped with this. It was especially confusing because I think you mic'ed up a girl that you interviewed, so I couldn't tell when the sound was broken and when it was an interview. It was a great idea, but the execution could use more polish.
Judge 4
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Judge 5
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