Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Videos -- One Last Initial Look

I won't review every initial tweet and blog and video you all did (though you can expect more thorough class reviews in the future). Most were decent for a first try and exhibited the sort of things we've seen in previous reviews.

But I will pull out a couple of videos that I thought stood out.

In all fairness, the producer of this vid had previous video experience, so he had a head start from many of you.

Still, I want you to notice -- and even emulate -- the strong points shown. Look at the creativity and variety of b-roll. Look at the use of captions. Look at the use of fairly short and to-to-point sound bytes. Look at the way the producer went to a bite, then someone else's bite, then back to the original person's bite. It nicely breaks up the first person's bite so the viewer doesn't get stuck listening to one person talk on and on and on. Note the narration at the start of the piece, offering a strong lede to the story.

There's a lot to learn from this vid.

This next vid has a lede that's very fun and produced well but not exactly in the most journalistic style; still, for this first assignment it's fine. But what I really like is the back-and-forth use of sound bites. It doesn't feel like an interview; it feels like a conversation the viewer is having with two students. Very nice way to break up what was time-wise a verrrrry loooooong video.

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