1st Place
Chris Cheline KUSA Denver, "The Maverick"
Judges Comments
AD-WTVF The Maverick 10 10 9 10 Rad story!! Loved your crisp audio, your interview framing, the variety you gave us between sticks and off the shoudler. I would have liked a few more extreme wides, especially of the exterior. Great job.
AB-WTVF The Maverick 9 10 9 10 AWESOME!!!! Perfectly crafted with great moments, stellar nats. "Banish'ed!" when talking about the teacher being kicked out of the program! So good! Not only did the photographer execute the visual elements of the story with significant attention to detail, but the communication between the reporter and photog took this one to the next level. BRAVO!
JP-WTVF The Maverick 10 10 9 10 What a great story! Nats mirroring what's happening in the story. And great, crisp nats, too! It felt like we were in the production with the students as they rehearsed.
2nd Place
Andy WallaceKING Seattle, "The Thought Would Have Sucked"
Judges Comments
AD-WTVF The Thought Would Have Sucked 9 9 8 9 Really enjoyed watching this, you and your reporter did a great job. I liked the pacing throughout and you showed much dedication moving around so much in that tiny shop. I wish you showed more pictures of the teacher, especially when your reporter actually says his name. Doing so would have brought it home for me, plus it would take you away from the shop. Nice story.
AB-WTVF The Thought Would Have Sucked 9 9 9 10 Awesome stuff! I REALLY dug how this was put together. The parallel parking of the nats throughout was great, but what I enjoyed even more was the idea that the shots breathed in and out of the sound, instead of being sequenced with cuts. I thought this made the narrative super-coherant, and let moments flow from one to another seamlessly. I thought the lighting of the title shots were tough, just with the insane amount of natural light coming in. I can tell you moved around and adjusted your angle throughout the interviews, so you did the best you could with where you were working. LOVED the shot and nat of the foot hitting the floor of the car, the reaction from the dads in the shop helping. Really great job!
CC-WTVF The Thought Would Have Sucked 8 8 8 8 Nice little story. I though you did a good job letting it breath when appropriate.
3rd Place
Eric SanderKING Seattle, "Meaning of Family"
Judges Comments
AD-WTVF Meaning of Family 9 8 8 9 I really enjoyed watching this story. I liked the different framing for each interview, and your parallel parks were great in the beginning. Parelleling brought home the emotion for me because it allowed moments to breathe. The only one that didn't add anything was with the man pouring salsa into a cup, a tight shot of the salsa either being scooped or poured would've been better. I noticed your opening shot was repeated twice, same framing same nat break just different person. It would have worked if you framed it up differently, i.e tight shot of server going outside yelling out the available table. I was kind of bummed about the ending felt abrupt to me, also try to avoid tilts for closing shots. Great job!
AB-WTVF Meaning of Family 8 9 7 9 Very nice work! Lots of really nice moments with all of the employees, and their sound was well placed. Good job mixing sound and collecting it in a noisy environment. Really good all around.
CC-WTVF Meaning of Family 8 9 8 8 That was a great little story. You had some nice NATS and nicely framed interviews. I know you were going for a faster pace here but I would've liked it to slow down just a bit during a few of those more emotional bites. My only complaint was that your audio was a bit hot during one of the hugs. Otherwise great story.
Honorable Mention
Ray BooneKSL Salt Lake, "Packing Day"
Judges Comments
AD-WTVF Packing Day 10 7 9 9 Great job putting this together. I liked the intensity you captured with your pacing. I did feel at times the tracks were broken up too much. I noticed your main characters mic cord hanging from the side which was a distraction. I liked how you moved the mic around and got off the sticks and right up to the action. For me, that works the best when there's a good amount of variety with wide shots and stick shots. Also, where were they? We never saw an exterior so wasn't sure where this was taken place.
AB-WTVF Packing Day 7 8 8 8 I enjoyed this peice. Good nats of the action happening around the church: good work on getting crisp nats in a noisy ambient environment. Good job mic'ing up the kid for a nat or two. Your primary audio seemed to be cut from time to time, especially in the begining when she's talking about the balloons. I liked how you let the subject explain the meaning, but make sure to smooth out your audio edits between the cuts to make the inflection of her voice seem more natural, or don't cut out "uhhhs" or "umms" just for the sake of time. Nice work!
JP-WTVF Packing Day 10 8 8 8 Great content here! The execution and story telling was good too. I know it's a lot of information, but I thought it could've been shorter. It felt like you were running out of nat pops to break up the track and SOTs near the end. A more concise piece might've been more moving. The mic cable hanging off your main character was a distracting, also. Great story and storytelling.
Judges: WTVF (Nashville)