Six - The Musical - ID# 58

Deerfield
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description

Two audacious high school seniors cast and direct "Six - The Musical" and bring it to the school stage, all in the name of gaining the full experience of directing and producing a musical almost entirely on their own.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 4/30 3:55 pm - Strengths: The opening interview does a great job of setting the context for the story, immediately letting the viewer know what it is about. I loved the opening shot and being able to hear the actresses sing—it really draws you in. The story also includes some excellent audio of both the cast performing and the student directors at work, which adds depth and energy to the piece. Areas of Growth: Some of the interviews have a bit too much headroom. Zooming in slightly would help keep the interviewees as the central focus and make the framing stronger. It’s also important to ensure that interviewees look at the interviewee not the camera. I like the focus on the student directors, but I’m curious about what a student brings to the table in that role. This is a fascinating concept I haven’t heard of before, but it would be helpful to explain how it differs from a regular show. Additionally, the last interview sounds noticeably different—was there an issue with the microphone? Making sure all audio levels are consistent will help the story feel polished.
  • 4/30 3:00 pm - Being unfamiliar with Six, I think one of your first interviews should have been about what the show is about and why it was chosen. You just jumped in and assumed your audience knew what it was all about. Along those same lines I am assuming this was a student-directed play, but that doesn’t really come out until near the end. For people at your school, I am sure much of this made sense, but when you do a news story, you have to assume your audience has no knowledge of the story and it is your job to give them some context. That being said the interviews were diverse and built off of each other, which was good. After a while, some of the shots started all looking the same (wide cover shots). Don’t be afraid to use close-ups of faces, feet moving, or the director directing. That visual diversity will draw your audience in. Your B-roll shots of the backstage etc did this and as a result broke up those wide cover dancing shots - you just needed more of that. As a Natural sound package, there wasn’t as much natural audio that you used to break up interviews and pull your audience in. I would have loved more authentic actors, feet on the floor, director giving feedback etc.
  • 4/29 6:51 am - First, the fact that 2 students directed and produced a high school show is fantastic - kudos to them! In listening to your story, it doesn’t sound like you have 2 channels of audio at the same time. I was hearing one sound bite come out of the right speakers and then another come out of the left. Look at your VU meters when editing and make sure you have stereo sound. With this category, the purpose of it is how you use the natural audio to help tell the story and move it forward. I didn’t see that with your natural audio. Yes, you included it in the story, but there’s so much more you can do with it. Put a wireless mic on one (or both) of the directors - let us hear them work with the cast. When Blake it talking about rehearsals, let’s hear him or Harry rehearsing with the cast. Bring that part of the b-roll up full so viewers can hear and see what the directors are doing with the cast. This story is about them and this show, so let’s hear them. At :50, when Cameron’s first sound bite is finished, bring the natural audio up full so we hear what they are singing. After about 4-5 seconds, bring it back down and then continue with the next sound bite from Cameron. That’s a natural audio pop - this story topic lends itself to having lots of natural audio pops in the story - from the directors to singing. When you leave the natural audio at the same level, you’re not accentuating it like you can when you bring that little clip full in between the sound bites.
Judge 1

Positives: 1. I think you did an excellent job at storytelling. For a piece like this one, you could have easily relied on the basic who, what, when, why, where format where the students just answer those questions about the upcoming production without conveying their opinions about it. But the soundbytes you used really showed why Six was special to them and why they were interested in participating in this production. That was a good thing to do as it made the story more interesting. 2. I like how you opened the piece with natural sound of them singing. It was the logical thing to do as the viewer would really want a taste of what the upcoming performance may be like. It was also good to include them singing throughout the story. Next time, however, just make sure to make those natural sound pops a little louder so they can grab a little more attention.

Improvements: 1. Unfortunately, some of the shots you used felt like filler compared to shots where you made the active decision, especially toward the story's end, to have what the viewer was seeing match what the interview subject was talking about. During the first half of the story, it felt like we would get a wide visual of young people performing in circle followed by a similar shot. 2. This kind of goes along with the first point, but I think you could have made your shots more interesting, especially during the first half, if you varied up your shot selection. Give us tight shots of faces and hands as the young people perform instead of just wide shots. That would have made your shooting feel a bit more intentional, kind of like the second half of your piece.

Judge 2

Positives: Love the opening and closing nats I like how you used the interviews to really tell the story but had plenty of broll to cover

Improvements: Would have been great to hear some nats during the interviews, example :29-:39 I needed way more nat pops or nat sound throughout. This is a musical!

Judge 3

Positives: This story a story that offers a lot of option for natural audio.

Improvements: When reviewing this your piece, I noticed your audio tracks weren't set up properly. Cameron's interview is only played out of one audio track and not mirrored for a dual setting. Consider weaving your SOTs together and making sure your quality of audio matches throughout. Allow for one of your interviewees to wear a mic throughout rehearsal to allow you to enhance your moments of natural audio. This could be something simple like singing during rehearsal, conversation between those you have lined up to interview in a piece to bridge their interaction, etc. When setting up an interview, remember to have your interviewee talk to you and not the camera. If they aren't comfortable at first with the camera being near, ask them some introductory questions to help warm them up to the idea. This story includes opportunity for plenty of VO. Get creative in a space like this. Most of your shots were more establishing, wider angled shots. For example, show me a close up one the fingers of who's playing the piano, footwork during dance rehearsal, etc.

Judge 4

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Judge 5

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