Wildcat Weekly - ID# 425

Neuqua Valley
News Program
Entry Description

First episode of the 25th season of "Wildcat Weekly". Neuqua Valley's weekly news show shown to the entire school on Friday mornings.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 4/30 9:18 pm - Great placement on the dance clip in the intro, nicely timed. Really clean show. Very cool including a zoom interview with someone so prolific (a fellow wildcat!). Really nice meaningful stories, everything was nicely told and felt important. Great work.
  • 4/29 8:04 am - Nice intro. Audio is good. Talent, interviews, and b-roll are clear and well balanced. It would be better if the lav cables were not see. Have them run under the shirt or run behind the person. Aton could use some facial expression. He reads well but is just too “zoned into” the camera.
  • 3/5 2:01 pm - Nice opening- gives a good look at your school. Anchor reads well. Do you have a lapel mic- a little awkward for an anchor to be holding a mic. First story leads to quote but no transition leading into it- make sure we know who is going to be speaking and why. Drama story well done. Update of events- slow down and take a breath! You read well, but it's so fast!!! Sports- nice set, but when you're playing those highlights, make them full screen so we can see them! You can still include graphics, but enlarge the videos! Beautiful story about Cal's Angels! Watch the gaps between VO and quotes- keep it tight to avoid those gaps. Overall a solid show that covers a lot going on at your school.
Judge 1

Positives: 1. I loved how you put the newscast together. Starting with the hard news story (which you treated as breaking news) before transitioning to a feature was the type of decision making you see in a professional newsroom. Way to go! 2. Also, everything about your newscast felt smooth and not forced. There were no points where I saw anything felt like a major hiccup or error. Additionally, every story really transitioned smoothly into the next.

Improvements: 1. Again, I loved the hard news story on the shutdown. Your inclusion of a US Congresswoman was amazing too. That said, always try to add the perspective of the community you serve in your stories as well. In this case, that would be someone from your school campus. I think it would've been cool to here a school official or student also weigh in on what they thought about the shutdown and how it could impact life at Neuqua Valley. 2. The anchors did a good job, but at times, I think it would have been nice to see them show just a little more of their personality in the presentation just to make the newscast a little more engaging.

Judge 2

Positives: Good production throughout the newscast. Especially impactful were the graphics in the "What's Up Wildcats" segment and the sports report. In both of those segments, the graphics helped reinforce the information delivered by the anchors and helped the audience digest that information. Story selection was wide-ranging from the breaking news on the government shutdown to more traditional high school topics such as the upcoming theatre productions and sports report.

Improvements: There is room for more student voices in all of the reports. For example it would be effective and engaging to hear from students performing in "Charlotte's Web." Another idea would be to talk to the players about the new wide receiver coach. The "Cal's Angels" segment featured powerful stories, including that of the teacher whose daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Think about starting the report with the personal stories and then backing into the statistics and other information. A powerful personal story will hook the audience into the report.

Judge 3

Positives: Wow - way to lead with your elected officials on a national story. Very impressive to have the forethought to interview leaders. Now take that interview and push deeper into it to talk about how the shutdown is affecting people in your community - are there federal offices/employees in your area? Really great production of sports with video in the box with graphics in the lower thirds. Build off of this - there's an opportunity to make those even more visually interesting - aka, slightly larger video box or a little variety in the lower thirds with inclusion of which sport we're talking about - the eye has to do tricks to look at the video and then look down at the lower-third to read while also trying to listen to the anchor. I've seen a handful of entries from Neuqua Valley this year - I'm very impressed with the approach and production of this team. Kaylee should consider a career in broadcast journalism. Really great job.

Improvements: If there is an area of improvement I would offer it is general polish. Charlotte's Web story was visually interesting but missed an opportunity to speak to someone from the cast, the other student and why they enjoy the show and what they might remember about the book growing up. Most stories were missing students in them. I very much appreciate the rundown of things going on in the school - I might encourage the team to relook at that graphic and break it up into individual pieces to help with the small text on the screen. Really challenging to read those. The standup with Kaylee in the middle of the school works great, but the empty dark backdrop / desk for sports doesn't match. A standup location (with or without the handheld mic) for anchoring should be something to use consistently throughout the show. So, use Aton as a standup location at one of the fields or locker rooms to stay consistent. Luke's location was great and matches the show.

Judge 4

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Judge 5

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