New Bell Schedule- Broadcast Critque

Pre-production:


My partner and I came up with the idea by trying to explore a topic never discussed before. We realized that there was a new bell schedule this year and wanted to capture people's thoughts about it on camera. We first asked Mrs. Shanks for an interview because she is the head of the school and was involved in the change of the schedule. The rest of the students and the teacher we found to interview were available on the spot, so we did a quick interview. Our questions were direct, yet some of them were open ended questions in which they were asking for the interviewees' opinions.

Production Quality and Composition and Audio:


All interviews were given on campus. For the student interviews, we chose trees and the Mustang statue for the backgrounds. For the teacher interviews, we chose the teachers' offices/ classrooms. Our b-roll clips are of students in their classrooms working. We used pans, pov shots, wide angle shots, and worms eye view shots for the b-roll. One of the most creative shots is of Mrs. Gonzales, a history teacher, is teaching her class and the camera is in a low position. It is a pov shot (perspective of a student in his/her seat) and we see her in between the bodies of two students. The shot is well-balanced, with her students and desks in the foreground, Mrs. G. in the midground and the board and windows in the background. The teacher is on one of the intersections when following the rule of thirds. In her classroom, we filmed a wide shot of her class shouting in excitement, close-ups of students writing in planners, and waist shots of Mrs. G. teaching. Our camera moves were for the most part smooth when we panned across the video lab. The lighting for the student interviews outside was semi-low key because there was no sunlight to act as our natural light source. However, the teacher and principal interviews came out nice because the indoor lights created a high key lighting. Our focus was not blurry at all because we used manual focus on the camera. Our audio came out clear and without static in our voice-over and interviews.



Script:
Our VO began with an introduction to the new bell schedule. We grabbed the audience's attention by pointing out how the new bell schedule is something new at school and that it may be confusing for most people. After the opening VO, the interviewees describe their concerns and hopes about the new schedule. The closing VO is the most important because we show the audience the schedule in chart form and then list the periods dropped per day. We let the audience read the scrolling text for themselves instead of having a voice interfere. We wanted people to remember the schedule by heart at the end of the segment.

Editing:



It was difficult to really film the "schedule", so my partner and I filmed students working in their classrooms. We didn't use special transitions besides fade in and out audio and fade to black for the video. I created the titles in Livetype and either the title was in motion or the background was. We didn't add special effects or filters to our shots because we wanted to depict reality. There are no jumpcuts in our footage. Our interview and b-roll cuts smoothly.



Overall
What I like about our piece is that it is an original concept and we had a lot of interesting b-roll. I also like how it is direct and informative. If we had more time, I would have found a wider range of interviewees besides Seniors. Also, The most important lesson I can take after working on this segment is to take time on finding interviewees that can answer questions well and plan the type of b-roll desired more efficiently.
What do you like best about your piece? What would you add or do differently if you had more time? What would you say is the most important lesson you can take with you after working on this project?