1st Place
Brian Johnson WBFF
Judges Comments
9 7 7 8 Pretty compelling story here. I liked the wireless sound and different angles on the sots. Great moment when the guy runs out of the house. Also a great moment when swat shoots thru the window. Shaky vid and it looks like you're off your tripod, but the content within the shot is compelling. Good job.
9 7 6 5 What a mix of build up and chaos... The crazy handheld moments im guessing couldnt have been shot any cleaner... very nice story arch and delivery. Not a fan at all of the closing standup, but i'll blame a producer for that. Nice work
9 6 6 7 I don't know how you were able to convince the cops to let you stand where you were but bravo. Being able to show those moments of the suspect mixed with the sound and shots of neighbors helped tell this story. I thought some of the nats off the top were a little loud for the reporters track and some of the cuts were really tight almost bleeding too much into each other. Nice natural looking interviews as opposed to the usual head and sholders shot. The one downer for me was the last shot with the reporters stand up. I would have been more ok with it if you had used a tri pod to cut out some of the shake.
2nd Place
Kevin Drennen WJLA
Judges Comments
6 6 6 6 Decent story and nice tight shots. However this really feels like a general news story. You focused on people making the most of the situation. Perhaps enter in another category or go for a harder angle of people really struggling to function in such a huge blizzard...ie people stuck in their cars? Maybe find a business affected by the storm?
4 6 6 6 Could of used a little bit of a news edge--- very featury for "spot" news im guessing that much snow was causing issues somewhere... I appreciate a good feature, but maybe just not in the spot news category. Some cool angles on the wide shot interviews, some good shots. Nice work
5 6 6 5 Your use of NATs really helped the transition between the three people you featured in your story. The wide shots for your interviews helped convey just how much it was snowing when combined with the tight shots of your piece. This did feel like more of a feature story than spot news and I think you could have edited it a little tighter. Also during the first sequence with the girls I was not a fan of the quick zooms, I wanted more natural reaction and action from them not camera created action.
3rd Place
Dustin Kelley WTVR
Judges Comments
5 3 3 4
4 4 4 3 I dont really know what happened here based off the story... alot of track that was news talk, an interview off the shoulder... then we go to the police chiefs office for a sound bite... scene video was solid, a few unnecessary shakes in some of the b-roll... but thats exactly what this felt like, grabbed sound from a resident, got cop sound, shot the scene... No story here, didnt feel anything, didnt really even get the feel of what exactly happened. If details are limited, put the mic on that dude and let me experience this ordeal through his eyes. A 2 minute off the shoulder interview wont cut it.
4 4 3 3 I missed the point of this story. I get that it was spot news but I feel like too much of the story was explained by the reporter. I get that there was a lot of cops there and hence a lot of cop lights but I missed seeing other reactions from the community. People looking though windows, people standing out on the side of the street looking.
Judges: KSL