1st Place
Blair WaltmanDecibel at Austin PBS
Judges Comments
An excellent story with a meaningful purpose of a community organization that is solving its own challenges. And at the same time, raising awareness of a community need (i.e., bike lanes) could hopefully turn into actual (policy) change. Beautiful shot piece with access to a real doer in your community. Well done. This is a great glimpse into actions a community is taking, and is nicely shot. I loved seeing Isis with her family as a connector to what she is doing in her work.
2nd Place
Troy R. BennettBangor Daily News
Judges Comments
What a great character. No wonder Tater has a following on TikTok. What comes to mind: I wondered if you considered leading the story about him being a TikTok creator. What's interesting about TikTok to me in this context is that the selfie-framing within the device creates only a tiny window into Tater's world. So by starting with TikTok, the next reveal shows him in a broader context when the camera isn't just an arm's length away. And the heroic action on the slide at the playground is a perfect act 3. I'd work with someone to bounce a few more ideas about the background music selection and edits. To me, scoring is very difficult until you get The One. But the challenge in getting there is real. What a fun guy! Had fun watching this one. I loved his interview shot, would have liked to see him pulled a little bit farther away from the wall to separate him a bit. I think you could also open with Tater instead of Troy.
3rd Place
Troy R. BennettBangor Daily News
Judges Comments
A fascinating story told by some great charitably and hard-working people. I can't imagine the challenges in shooting the activity underwater. There are some nice wide-angle frames in the piece. Nice drone intro. The writing into tape introducing Andrew is nicely done. There are a few missed opportunities in other parts of the script where writing into tape can be improved. I would cut out some of the explanatory scripts if we can see the action (i.e., dropping the weighted line). And make sure to capture more and longer background audio to use as a sound bed so the audio edit can be cleaner. Impressive underwater filming, and a really interesting story. I found the opening music a bit jarring, and some of the gaps in the audio (wind sound that could have stayed underneat throughout, for example), a bit distracting. I would have loved to see more detailed shots as well (perhaps at least above water, as I'm sure you were quite limited underwater!).
Judges: Anna Clare Spelman/Filmmaker, Andrew DeVigal/University of Oregon