Special Report: 4-Sport Athlete Overcomes Autism To Win A State Championship

[white_balanced]

Hello all. Back for critiques! We only have linear tape to tape editors at my station but since this is a sports story the sports director let me use his laptop to edit it on so it's my first non-linear package. I think it turned out pretty good but would love to hear y'alls take on it. It's a really good story as well. Thanks in advance!

Eula 4-Sport Athlete Overcomes Autism To Win A State Championship

 

[photoguy603]

I watched your piece. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. Let me just talk about a few points I saw.

1. I could tell it was your first with non-linear editing. You did what I and many others have done....WAY too many dissolves. One or two or in bewteen photos or something like that is ok, but try not to get too dissolve happy.

2. Also I noticed the music underneath the piece at points. I thought it was unneeded and a little ditracting.

3. The interviews weren't bad. I would switch up which way they are look for some variety. Are you a VJ? I know it can be hard if you doing the interviews yourself. Cover more of your sound if possible....I really wanted to see the kid playing. The close-up of the mom and then the jump to the medium shot was a little jarring.

4. The basketball court shot just felt empty to me again I wanted to see this kid playing not empty court shots.

5. I like the dirt bike video....would've liek some closer shots though....I havent seen too many kids with autism ride dirt bikes....thats pretty cool!

I hope this doesn't seem like I'm tearing you apart...it takes a lot of balls to post on here....and I commend you for that. Just keep working hard and asking for advice. There are a lot of amazing photogs here that can help you. I know they've helped me MANY times. Keep plugging away and keep posting!

 

[white_balanced]

Thanks for your comments. The point of posting on here is to get tore apart right? While hearing lots of praise from co-workers is definitely good for the ego (oxymoron??) it won't really help you get much better.

I can see your point on the dissolves. I think like you say I've just been limited to straight cuts this whole time I got a little trigger happy on the dissolves.*

I'm not a VJ either. By changing it up do you mean moving my tripod around to different locations? Im always nervous I'll miss an important sot by doing that.*

I would have loved to had more time editing to cover more of the interviews but it being my first time using Final Cut and my first time using a Mac I was a little slow having to Google a lot of the stuff I was trying to do. Cut it pretty close to deadline as it was.*

I do appreciate you taking your time to check it out and give me some pointers and will definitely keep everything you said in mind for next time.

 

[photoguy603]

Hey no problem. What I mean about the interviews.....You don't have move during the interview. But If I have two interviews I'll shoot one subject with the reporter on my left and the other with my reporter on the right. So it switches up the look space so you don't have to dissolve between SOTs.

Also for a first time using Final Cut I could I understand the lack of time. I'm an Avid guy and I've never used FCP....and I remember the learning curve.

Keep trying man your only going to get better!

 

[Latin Lens]

Not a bad effort here...its a challenge to edit non-linear for the first time especially with a tight deadline and no experience with the program...so kudos there for pulling it off. What does suck is knowing that had you been familiar with it you could have done so much with this but I won't and can't fault you for that. In due time, right? Not only do you still need to vary your framing on intvs...you need to change sides...be aware of what intvs you shoot and from which side...so if there are back-to-back intvs...its a natural left-right or right-left transition. And its not your fault but I didn't like so many sots back-to-back...cover some of those to help break it up...while shooting you need to think of the edit bay...think about the future editing that will take place and you'll find your approach will be better to shooting intvs and b-roll. Its a strange approach overall to the story...because the kid whom the story was about had only one bite...more bites from the kid and less of everyone else would have been our approach...but anyways. You did okay with it...you can tell you're improving and taking advice and direction well. Keep it up.