EG Cross Country - ID# 87
Elk Grove High School
Natural Audio News Package
Entry Description
The Elk Grove girls cross country team has gotten off to a fast start thanks to some returning runners.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/30 4:09 pm - Strengths: You included a great variety of natural sounds, and the interview audio was clear and easy to understand. The different shots you captured and the wide variety of b roll added strong visual interest and helped tell the story effectively. Areas for Growth: For the opening interview, it would be helpful to have the interviewee mention that the story is about cross country. This will give viewers immediate context and set up the story more clearly. I would also recommend having the interviewee wear a microphone for a more professional and polished look. In a typical news package, we usually want interviewees to look at the interviewer rather than directly at the camera. Some of the natural audio was hard to hear, particularly during the shoe shot, because of background conversations. Outdoor shooting on a sunny day can be challenging, and while you did well overall, be mindful of the sun as some shots appeared overexposed.
- 4/30 3:08 pm - I think you had all the elements you needed for your story but some of the decisions you made in post-production held your story back a little bit. I will start with the order of your interviews. I would not have led with the pasta party stuff (it didn’t really tell me about the sport other than she likes to eat with her friends), then the coach came on and talked about how it really is a team sport, and then Reagan said it was an individual sport, then the assistant coach talked about the progress. It just didn’t have a real good flow, and Reagan and the coach actually said the opposite of one another. You want each interview to unfold a little bit more of the story. I guess I would have led with Reagan (introduces team and work), Coach (acknowledges the work and adds the teamwork aspect), Pasta party (supports team aspect), assistant coach talks about the progress. Sound levels were good, matched and easy to listen to. Your B-roll was generally good. I loved that you changed the perspective and didn’t shoot everything at eye level but at times your shots and movements had a shakiness to them that was distracting from the cool shots you were getting. Some of your B-roll shots were on too long for example the girl tying her shoe at 20 seconds. Your video pace at time was to slow. for example, the clips between the coach and Reagan were good, but there were almost to many. It gave your video a sense of stopping and starting because there was so much space between the speakers. Your B-roll was good, and the sounds brought in were good, but the clips themselves were longer than they needed to be and to many in a row, break up some of the interviews for example Reagan could have been broken up (it is fun is one part, b-roll with natural sound, then she could come back and do the second part where she talks about all the hard work). You had long b roll segments then long interview segments. Many students don’t have the footage and interviews to tell the story they set out to do. When you master some of this post-production decision-making you will have some future great stories.
- 4/29 6:50 am - Good start with the audio full from the b-roll. The student doesn’t need to say her name or that she’s a sophomore - the lower third will provide us with this information. Have her put the microphone on instead of holding it. Some of your b-roll shots were not steady - use a tripod, a gimbal, etc - something to hold that shot steady. From :19-:25, there was nothing that helped to tell the story or to move it forward. At :26, we hear the coach talking about how many exercises they should do. Put a wireless mic on the coach and then include a clip of her telling the athletes what they should be doing. That’s the point of this category - using the natural audio to help tell the story and move it forward. The sound of the tape being wrapped - that’s a great example of a natural audio pop. That sound can be used between 2 sound bites to help tell the story. We see a lot of b-roll clips, but don’t hear anyone saying anything in the shot to help tell the story. Again, put a wireless mic on someone - a coach, an athlete - then follow them around with the camera and choose a time where they are saying something to their teammates, to a coach - something that helps to tell the story. When we don’t see the b-roll clip, we should not be hearing the natural audio. That happened a couple of times in this story. Make sure you are balancing the audio levels for the natural audio when you’re not using it to tell the story. If there’s a sound bite, then the natural audio needs to be lower than the sound bite.
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Judge 2
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Judge 3
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Judge 4
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Judge 5
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