Nat Pack Fridays

redcoat

Well-known member
The past two Fridays so many reporters were gone on vacation or holidays that the assignment desk came to me and asked for a nat sound pack each day. I would appreciate any thoughts people have; especially those pertaining to whether or not the editing and structure successfully created a true story that went beyond random nats and video.

"Fire Fighting Family"
[b-rollTV]1108[/b-rollTV]

"Highland Games"
[b-rollTV]1109[/b-rollTV]
 

AKinDC

Well-known member
OK...first of all, the shooting is very nice on both pieces. Good shot selection, interesting interview framing, lots of nats, etc.

With that said, I have no idea what the first piece is about. Is it about the training exercise, the multi-generational firefighting families, fireman camaraderie, or something else? Pick one, and focus. You should be able to sum up your story in a one sentence pitch that sells the story...what are you going for?

The second piece needed a focus as well...I would have gone with talking about the specific event you were covering, and letting the anchor into give a quick blurb on what the highland games are. If you wanted to do a more general piece on the games, you needed to show more events.

Again, you have all the pieces there for what you call "true" stories...but the key to a really good story is to find a good focus, and these aren't quite there yet.
 

Latin Lens

Well-known member
Too really well shot stories. It looks like you had ample oppurtunities for nats and shots. Really enjoyed the variation in interviews.

However....if the story about the fire fighting family is about father/son type connection...why not a interview with father/son? Or atleast dad doing something interactive with his son (help him re-air up his tank, etc.)?

Highland games opened really weak...liked the bagpipes but you should have added some game nats to help set the culture....its scottish (bagpipes) and an athletic competition so show both.

Would also have liked to see some interviews from the spectators for even more variation.

Really good job.
 

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
Story 1

Nathan-

The only "complaint" I have on story one is over exposure. I don't know if that was you, resolution, or my computer.

Otherwise, cool story!
 

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
Story 2

The only major qualm I have on story 2 is audio transition. I'm not sure how this was edited, bit mixing the audio would make this a LOT smoother!
 

redcoat

Well-known member
Sorry for taking so long reply to my own thread! July sweeps has been crazy busy!

With that said, I have no idea what the first piece is about. Is it about the training exercise, the multi-generational firefighting families, fireman camaraderie, or something else? Pick one, and focus. You should be able to sum up your story in a one sentence pitch that sells the story...what are you going for?
Firefighting creates a strong familial bond among firefighters and strengthens that bond between family members who are firefighters. That'd be my one sentence pitch. The firefighters training school had been going on all week and many angles had already been covered. Multiple reporters had already told who was at the training school, why, and what they were doing. I wanted to find a different angle, so I simply thought of the word "family" and set out to capture the variety of ways in which a sense of family is exhibited; both from the obvious connection of father to son, the less obvious connection of teacher to pupil, and then to the bond between every firefighter on the job.

The second piece needed a focus as well...I would have gone with talking about the specific event you were covering, and letting the anchor into give a quick blurb on what the highland games are. If you wanted to do a more general piece on the games, you needed to show more events.
The piece was general because it was supposed to answer the questions "what are the highland games" and "why are they taking place on a July 4th celebration." I just wanted to use the one event to give a taste of what the highland games were about. To explain, what are these guys doing, why are they doing it in kilts, and does this really relate to Independence Day? Many more events went on that day, but the town was so far away from my station that I absolutely could not stay any longer than I did.

Again, you have all the pieces there for what you call "true" stories...but the key to a really good story is to find a good focus, and these aren't quite there yet.
Do my explanations redeem the stories at all in any respects?
 

redcoat

Well-known member
Too really well shot stories. It looks like you had ample oppurtunities for nats and shots. Really enjoyed the variation in interviews.
Thanks for taking notice! I love varying focal length and camera position in the middle of interviews.

However....if the story about the fire fighting family is about father/son type connection...why not a interview with father/son? Or atleast dad doing something interactive with his son (help him re-air up his tank, etc.)?
Unfortunately, as far as I found, there were no fathers there working to train their sons. Rather the fathers dropped their sons off at the beginning of camp and did not return until the week long camp was over. The closest I was able to find of the father/son connection was within the teacher/pupil relationship. You are absolutely right though, showing an actual father and son together would have really driven that aspect home. Otherwise, I liked drawing attention to the more obscure fact that the instructors are also, in a sense, father figures.

Highland games opened really weak...liked the bagpipes but you should have added some game nats to help set the culture....its scottish (bagpipes) and an athletic competition so show both.
I started out with the bagpipes because I wanted that recognizable, full, sound of music to be abruptly interrupted with an out of nowhere, loud, GGRRRUNNNTTT. I really liked the contrast between the two. I wanted to draw attention to the raw, physical nature of the games, and I thought getting kicked in the face with a grunt was a good way of going about it. So that's why I kept the separation, rather than fitting them together or going back and forth from one to the other.

Would also have liked to see some interviews from the spectators for even more variation.
You're right. I only had one interview from a spectator, and it was after the event was over, so she wasn't in a genuine spectator role. That's one element I just straight up missed. I will certainly keep that in mind for future stories.
 

redcoat

Well-known member
Nathan-

The only "complaint" I have on story one is over exposure. I don't know if that was you, resolution, or my computer.

Otherwise, cool story!
Thanks! The over exposure look is mostly due to the fact that these were recorded off air by windows media center on my computer. It's set to record at the highest quality setting but it still loses quite a bit of contrast and resolution; which is further accentuated when uploading to the web. A few interviews also look over exposed because there was a bright sky in the background. When trying to expose for that firefighter's face, in the shadow of his hat, I definitely blew out the sky. I'm sure a waveform monitor would have been peaking like crazy.

The only major qualm I have on story 2 is audio transition. I'm not sure how this was edited, bit mixing the audio would make this a LOT smoother!
I try to overlap audio in almost all circumstances, ramping the levels up and down to make things gradually fade in and out. I typically spend almost as much time tweaking audio as I do editing video. I frequently use audio dissolves and keyframes to try to ensure transitions are smooth rather than abrupt. By referring to "mixing audio" is this what you mean? If so, I did do that quite a bit. Could it seem like I didn't because there was a lot of wind or background noise going on?

Lately I've even begun working with 6 audio tracks so that A1 and A2 are mics from my cam, A3 and A4 are reporter track, and A5 and A6 are environment noise; like a soft wind from outside or a fluorescent hum inside. If I have the time, I find that fading these background tracks in and out when necessary this makes things flow even more smoothly. ...That is if I can ever find 2 seconds on my raw where the reporter isn't interrupting the nat sound...
 
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