View both videos and think about what makes them successful in covering their topics. Comment on this post (reply to this post) by the end of the hour today, Tuesday May 19th, 2009. In your comments, consider some of the following elements (you do not have to do a paragraph on each, nor do you have to include them all, they are just ideas.):
- Shots and camera angles
- video and audio editing
- sources interviewed
- extra footage (b-roll)
- subject matter
- focus as it pertains to the story. This last item is something new I want us to consider as we move toward our final project, a full-length feature piece on a specific person or event.
Please use headphones!
In my opinion, both of these videos were successful due to the large amount of people they talked to. In our projects, we've only talked to one or two people, but each of these videos included interviews with many more. Also, they had plenty of B roll footage that they seemed to have accumulated over a number of days (especially the second video). That footage was highly relevant to the subject and fit nicely with the interviews to add visual appeal. In the future, we should have more time to gather B roll footage, because it is obviously more important than any of us initially thought.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these videos were unique and conveyed a strong message to the audience. One of the shots that stood out to me was the one of an Afghan kid skater skating across a concrete skate park. The mountains were the background and the shot was magnificent. I also loved the different artistic elements that were incorporated in the Afro-Punk video. Painting, skating and dancing were a few of the events covered and this video shed light on an event that not many people are aware of. The footage and b-roll was very well done and really captured a different aspect of the story. The b-roll of the children laughing at the end of the Afghan skate video was touching and really conveyed how much impact such a small event or sport can have on these children. I found it very interesting how people of all ages were captured in the Afro-Punk video and that it was not just an even for a particular age group. Overall both of these movies were very captivating and interesting.
ReplyDeleteBoth videos definitely did an effective job of bringing the feel of the story to the watcher, in slightly different ways. I liked how the Afro-Punk one used lots of b-roll footage of all aspects of the event (people skating, biking, playing music, doing art, etc.) and let the interspersed interviews tell much of the story. The reporter really used the story's ability to tell itself, with minimal interjection. That approach was effective in creating a more natural feel, as if you were to just walk into the festival and take in all the sights and sounds and people. Maybe this approach wouldn't have worked as well for something more focused, but a festival really IS just a bunch of things going on, with a common theme.
ReplyDeleteThe second video, more traditional in the sense that it's told by someone holding a microphone, was just as effective, albeit maybe a teeny bit less fun. The "set up the camera and just film what's going on" approach probably wouldn't have worked here, possibly generating stares and distraction from the subjects. I suppose the reporter figured "as long as I'm going to be noticed by these people, I'm going to lose the natural ("candid"?) feel of it anyway, so I'll just go all out and interview them and make it a bit more formal." It made for a good video, though.
Both caught my attention and held it to the end, so I guess they did their job, right? For favorites, however, I'd have to go with the first reporter's style, letting the event tell it's own story.
I thought that both Skatistan and the piece on the Brooklyn Afro-Punk festival were both very well put together and informative pieces. I felt that Skatistan in particular had great camera angles, such as the footage around Kabul from the perspective of a motorcycle, as well as a good amount of b-roll, so that we weren’t always looking right at the person who was talking. Even though there was little information or any sources interviewed that held a view that was negative of the skating initiative, the sources were interesting and diverse enough to make the story solid. While I would have liked to have a little more focus on one specific subject for the piece on Afro-Punk, the mélange of sources was really very interesting and diverse, representing a lot of the different people present at the festival. In particular, I felt that both piece did a good job in interviewing organizers of the events and big names, like Afrika Bambaattaa, as well as the individual participants, which gave it a not only authoritative and informative feel, but also a very personal touch. Both pieces had nice natural sound and overall editing, and succeeded in presenting a very specific subject matter in an easily accessible and understandable manner that nearly any audience could appreciate. Even though the pieces were certainly accessible to a large audience, they had enough “insider baseball” that those in the know could still appreciate the intricacies of the piece, a lot of which is owed to tight editing and interesting sources.
ReplyDeleteI liked both of the videos very much and thought they both did what they needed to do in order to make these stories into good videos. As for as the shots and camera angles and shots I thought they both did a nice job because they got the subjects (the Afro-punk people in the 1st video and the Afghani children in the second) good and also did a nice job shooting what these people were doing. Just like Mr. Halloran said about Hazel and Bethany’s video, these videos at times cut the heads off of the people when they were shooting but it was to focus I one of the main points, the feet.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they both did a good job interviewing a number of different people to get the different perspectives of the story. For instance, the video about the Afghanistan skaters had footage of the kids who were involved and of the workers and of the originator and others. My point is that there were many important people involved that the creators of the video used in order to tell a good and full story.
Also both stories got personal, which I like to see in a story. In the first one the reporter was being taught by one of the young Afro-punk kids how to skateboard. In the second story got a little more into the bitter part of a specific kids personal life and discussed the abuse she received from here brother just for participating.
Both videos were very well put together and grabbed my attention and made me interested in listening to something that I have never even heard of before this.
Both pieces were very successful in telling their story in an interesting way. While the second one was more “traditional” journalism, there are a few elements in both that worked well. Each piece had a variety of interviews: children, adults, patrons, organizers, etc. This variety helped create the story, and helped the viewer get a feel for what each different interviewee experienced. At the same time, the reporter didn’t go overboard with the interviews, and the pieces didn’t drag on and weren’t repetitive. Each interview was a new angle.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I think really helped both pieces was the human interest aspect. They both covered an event, and tried to tell the story of the event. For the first, it was the way the Afro Punk festival has grown in size and activity, and how skateboarding is becoming a popular part of that culture. For the second piece, the reporter looked at how the skate park started. The second piece also looked into the personal lives of some of the skaters and the employee, as well as looking at Afghan culture. The unique cultural experiences definitely helped the reporter tell an interesting story.
Both pieces also had interesting camera angles and footage. Some of the artwork in the first piece was magnificent, while the second reporter used the city backdrop to his advantage. Both reporters clearly had a lot of footage, which they used to their advantage to create interesting pieces. The visual aspect of the piece told the story as well as the audio.
I thought both videos did a very successful job of informing the viewer of their subject matter, largely in part of the wide range of people who they talked to and the vast amounts of relevant B-roll footage. The videos were interesting, the variety of footage in both the afro-punk and the skateistan videos was great, there was action and moving around and nothing was very static for very long. It was engaging and definitely did an interesting job of informing the viewer of the story. The camera angles were good for both, I especially liked l the footage of the little kids wiping out and then disappearing over the crest of the skating park in the Skateistan video. The audio had no problems even with he musical performances in the Afro-Punk video. They both accomplished their goals of making a good presentation very nicely.
ReplyDeleteBoth videos successfully portray a message of unity from skateboarding. In the Afro-Punk video, the children that skateboard are the target audience of the Afro-Punk movement and are brought together with people of all ages to celebrate their culture. The Australian man, Oliver Perkafich, created an organization, Skateistan, in which children from different classes in Afghanistan were able to learn how to skateboard. Both organizations gave back to the community and united people using, in one way or another, skateboards. The creators of the videos captured the importance of their goals through skateboards. In the Afro-Punk video, the journalists did not focused on the event more than the skateboards while the writers of the skateboarding organization focused their story on the skateboards. The Afro-Punk video had more sources or interviewees on the specific event that tied into the kids on the skateboards. I liked their list of sources because I thought it went well with the topic that they were focusing on. The sources in Skateistan were more personal to the impact of the new skating ring. I think the interviews make it a broader human interest story than the Afro-Punk story. The problems that the children in Afghanistan face would makes the story more accessible and would acquire a broader audience. I enjoyed the extra footage of the Afro-Punk story more than the Skateistan because it gave it more depth. The people on the bikes and the skateboards brought life to the event in the extra footage. I thought both stories stood out as important messages for all generations to adhere to.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of good video journalism that both of these videos succeeded at was the amazing b-roll. During me and Josh’s sandwich assignment, we found that you need more b-roll than you would think to have a adequate amount for a video like this. Both of these videos not only had an adequate amount, they had a ton of b-roll. I can’t imagine how long the cameramen were out there just filming people at the festival/Afghan skate parks.
ReplyDeleteNot only was the quantity of b-roll impressive, but the quality was awesome. I especially liked the b-roll for the Afro-punk festival. Although it’s probably not too hard to find something worthy of b-roll, the cameramen captured the wide variety of events at this festival, and it really gave me a sense of what Afro-punk fest is really like. There was footage of concerts, artists painting on wall-like murals, people going off of jumps on their bikes and people skating.
In addition to the b-roll, I thought the interview subjects were great in both of the films. Both videos had a variety of subjects and they weren’t always the masterminds of each subject - the founder of the skate park or of the afro-punk festival – they interviewed some of the smallest, seemingly insignificant members of each event. The Afghan skating video featured several parts of an interview with two little girls that tried skating for the first time and the afro-punk video interviewed a 10 year old kid just skating back and forth.
Each of the videos depicts their stories in a way that tells the viewer exactly what the story is in a manor that is simple and easy to understand. The beginning shots for both videos sets the story up perfectly. In the afro punk video, there was a lot of b-roll showing skaters and people gathering to have a fun day. This showed the viewer what afro punk activities went on during that day. The editing process for both of these videos must have taken a very long time. Each segment is cohesive and runs smoothly from one transition to the next. A lot of editing must have been involved because I could never tell when there was a break in between footage. The subject matter for both videos was portrayed very well because each video told a story, but they also had a few mini stories mixed in with the large idea. During the afro punk video, there were close ups on many different types of skaters, music, and dancing. However, one of the main focuses was the little boy and his skateboard. I liked how the reporter got herself involved and became a part of the story. She interjected herself and was on camera for a fair amount of time. She did this to illustrate how this little kid knows how to skateboard so well and is willing to teach the reporter. This also added a funny vibe to the video.
ReplyDeleteBoth of the videos were very good at keeping the focus on one subject. In the video Skateistan, even though the story is mainly about him, they used b-roll to really show the children he affects. That story is really about the children, and without that b-roll, that part of the story might have been lost a little. I also thought that the number of interviews added to the story in both videos. I really enjoyed hearing from many different people in the Afro-punk video, even though there was not a lot of time spent on any one subject. The number of interviews in the Skateistan video was very important in my opinion, because it gave us more of a feel of how many people, adults and kids, this man and his organization has affected. I also really enjoyed the number of different and unique camera angles there were in both videos. I think a lot of both of these stories was told through the camera work, and both videos did a great job.
ReplyDeleteThe two videos were very successful in informing and entertaining the viewer on a similar issue. The New York Times video clips are certainly very complex, due to the amount of B roll footage and the many sources they were able to record. I am very impressed by the amount of diverse footage, which really helps the viewer to: see more, hear more, think of the issue in a more complex way, and simply care more. It really makes me wonder how long these short but complex videos took to create, sense everything was done very professionally. I think a good lesson to take away from these videos are, to try different angles and more dangerous and complex shots, but try not to get too carried away.
ReplyDeleteBoth of the videos were a lot of fun to watch. I thought they both had really good footage, and definately got their point across. The New York Times video was alitle more complex with the B-roll footage. I thought it was okay, it seemed like they were really trying, which is always good but can maybe turn out bad. Trying different angles with your camera is always good, but getting overzealous usually turns out bad
ReplyDeleteI thought both videos were really awesome in terms of what they covered, the reporter for the Skateistan story did an especially good job of finding a good story and covering the most interesting parts of it. For that video, I thought the interviews and the people presented in the story stood out as really carrying the story. The interview with the two little girls that directed the flow of the story was definitely interesting and thought-provoking. I thought that the reported did a good job with the discussion of the car bomb and the girl who had been beaten by her brother because many of her interviews were probably reluctant to talk about that. I did think that the part with the man driving there was a little strange and off-putting. On the otherhand, I felt like the b-roll footage of The Afro-Punk Festival was what ultimately told the story of that event and that the interview only supplemented those scenes. However, the kid that the reporter interviewed and got a little lesson from added a lot of character to the video. Cute.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these videos had me attached throughout. First off, with the Afro-punk festival, I thought it was very well sorted out, having interviews with a range of people, (sex, age, ethnicity). There was a large cute factor i think in this. the first shot of the young boy talking about his skating life and being shy, with the man wiping out in the background, made me literally laugh out loud. There was a large cute factor when talking to the younger kids, especially with the woman trying to skate for the first time.
ReplyDeleteThe second video about the Afghan skating school also had this, but at a deeper level. The children were knowingly innocent, and the fact that they are all so poor and are able to skateboard is a pretty cool thing. At times, you felt bad for them as well, with the older brother beating his sister because she was skating with kids from a 'different class'. But the images with the teacher wiping out makse me smile because it makes these young children smile and make them feel they are worth something and good at SOMETHING.
Both these videos were awesome.
Overall i thought both videos met our criteria pretty well. They were both interesting and unexplored topics pertaining to i guess counterculture not often examined. They both used b-roll very effectively, my favorite being the guy in Skatistan skateboarding across like a mosque or something wearing traditional Afghani clothes. Both videos interviewed an array of people, each with their own interesting perspectives. Overall they were enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI believe that watching the two videos together was not a good combo, even though they were connected through topic somewhat. The festival video looked plain silly after the Afghan movie. I feel that while the festival is a cool notion, the Afghan movie was a lot more inspirational. The lady in the festival movie seemed to have herself as too much of a character when her presence didn't relate to the event well and didn't make the story better as our "New Kings" do. For footage, the festival did better, Skateistan didn't really have that great of shots. Both videos seemed promotional. Also both seemed to have appealing interview subjects.(cute little kids always work) B-roll could have been better for the Afghan story, pictures of angry people might have been more interesting.
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