Pre-Video Assignment, Hobbs

Bad Video:



This video is an example of a bad video. It is a blogging video that is supposed to be informative and feature a YouTuber talking about experiences, life, or advice. The YouTuber in this video gives good advice and information, but her animations - which are really cool - take up a lot of space on the screen and distract the viewer. The first time I watched the video, I could barely focus on what she was saying because I wanted to spend the whole time watching the animations instead.

Good Video:


This video is an example of a good video. BBC created a video that showed an octopus walking on dry land. The title and the description makes the video sound extremely boring, but the pacing and diverse shots keep the viewer's attention. The opening shot pans down from an above water scene to an underwater scene where octopus is. There are also close shots of the octopus, panning shots of the octopus walking, and a mix of tight and wide shots that keep the viewer engaged. Without the interesting mix of shots and pacing, the video would have been extremely boring.

Pre-Video Assignment, Tulp

Good Example: https://youtu.be/bzWLh-7UsQg

Although there is no talking or narrating in the video, I still think it's a good example.  It still gets the message across just fine.  The transitions from person-to-person in different scenes throughout are pretty smooth.  I like how they connected some shots to make it look like students were throwing cards to each other.  The video did a good job of connecting it back to the student throwing the cards at the beginning, making it look like students were catching the cards that he threw.  The students' actions with the cards looked pretty natural.  The video also had good backgrounds, as it showed some different parts of LSU's campus to give the viewer different perspectives which I found pleasing to the eye.

Bad Example: http://blog.seattlepi.com/huskies/2010/04/07/dubs-wins-ncaa-pet-mascot-tournament/

This video came from a columnist for the website that posted the video.  While the dog was extremely cute, the video wasn't the greatest quality.  It had one part that cut from the dog running, to the dog being up close to the camera right after.  That seemed like the only edit.  The rest was just original, raw video.  There was another time in the video when the man recording moved the camera quickly and it just wasn't a good transition at all.  The quick movement of the camera would make someone dizzy.  When he put the camera on the trainer and owner of the dog, the footage seemed like an amateur video that someone would shoot of their family members.  I know the video was probably supposed to be lighthearted and natural, but it could have been a little better shot.

Pre-Video Assignment, Condon

Good Video Example

This video makes use of many different environments — from bars to bowling — and naturally-occurring candid conversationsto tell a vibrant and newsworthy narrative about factory workers whose plant relocated to Mexico. The audio and video are high-quality, and the reporter makes a hot-button issue personal by telling the story of a dispute between two friends. This video is a great example of multimedia storytelling.

Bad Video Example

This video from a much more local outlet, the Carroll County Times of Maryland. The video is lower quality and the audio is filled with background noise, which seems a misguided attempt to include natural sound. Only one source is quoted, and none of the children actually doing the project are interviewed, even though they're pictured on camera. The source's quotes aren't even particularly colorful.

Pre-video Assignment, Lubbehusen

Jake Lubbehusen

November 1, 2017

JOUR203

Professor Jacobsen

Pre-Video Assignment

Good Example

This masterful video by Colin Archdeacon of the New York Times takes an in-depth look at the darker side of the maple syrup industry in Quebec. The video features extremely informative interviews and provides the viewer with an abundance of important information surrounding the topic. Close up camera shots of the syrup-making in action are so detailed that you can almost taste the fresh and sweet maple syrup. These mouth-watering shots of the bubbling syrup made my mouth water. One of my favorite shots is of a syrup farmer riding his four wheeler through the woods. The camera is strategically placed in front and behind the farmers’ head to make it seem as if the viewers are on the four wheeler riding through the woods themselves. Facts scattered in-between interviews add important context and allow the audience to gain a better sense of the controversy surrounding the maple syrup industry. The closing shot is a beautiful close-up of one of the maple syrup farmers walking through the wet grass. The picture and sound quality are so high in this shot that water droplets can be seen and the farmers’ boots crunching the grass can be heard vividly.

Bad Example

This video was presumably made by students at the University of Missouri and focused on those paying out-of-state tuition to attend the university. The project was plain, poor quality and jumped around to different topics too often. It periodically featured a black screen with different questions and information, followed by responses from University of Missouri students. Not only were the camera angles uninspiring, but the quality of the video and sound were very low. In my opinion, the extremely repetitive soundtrack takes away from the content and because the content itself is weak, the project fails to accomplish what it has set out to do. Featuring the interviewees back to back makes it difficult to remember the details in what each person says. When the person comes back to answer a follow-up question, the viewer cannot remember that person’s stance on an issue. After the students are asked if they know where their tuition goes, a very brief shot of one interviewee looking puzzled is featured. The problem with this is that the shot is so brief that the viewer does not have time to comprehend the student’s response. This video is a perfect illustration of the type of project one should avoid and is an example of a very low quality video.

Pre-Video Assignment O'Kane

Bad Example:




9.81 from Jörg Gross on Vimeo.

I would say this is a bad example because it is very sporadic and has no theme, in fact I can't really tell what their talking about. I get it that its supposed to be artistic, but with no interviews and constant clipping of the video it makes each scene so short and makes me kind of dizzy. Not to mention that they kept repeating scenes over and over again.


Good Example:






I find this to be a good example because it has nature sound of the ocean in the background, it has interviews from the band members that talk about what they do. I like the way the camera flows through the house showing what each band member is doing. I also like how it showed scenes of them on the beach or on a truck with their interview in the background as sound. I think was a good example of something similar to what I want to do for my final project.

Pre-Video Assignment, Lee

Bad Video Example

I would categorize this video as a bad video example mainly because of the audio and picture quality. The title sequence was strange in that it was moving in and out at a weird angle. The audio is very hard to decipher due to the subject not being mic'd as well as the background noise. The creator chose only one position to shoot from, randomly zooming in and out of that position which made for a visually boring piece. The quality of the footage is also lacking in clarity. So much so, that it distracts from the content of the video, which was difficult for me to glean from this video.

Good Video Example

I would categorize this video as a very well made video. It is visually stunning and exciting. The choice of having none of the interviews on camera and using video of people all over the world and short snapshot video footage of each person interviewed was so interesting and made the video constantly moving and compelling. The title of the video: "One nation under the sun", also adds to the message of this video. Although the video was clearly about the eclipse the angle that NPR points to was that everyone, people from all walks; states, races, jobs, and religions, came together to witness and marvel at this natural phenomenon. The editing of all these stories really made this video stand out. They took what could've been a straight shooter video about the eclipse turned into a heart-strings-pulling, incredibly compelling human interest piece.

Pre-video Assignment, Shahzad

https://vimeo.com/187823706

Bug Man - Good Multimedia Project

This is an example of a good multimedia project.  “Bug Man” is a short documentary about Steven Kutcher, a man who collects and studies bugs, and also uses them to make art.  He dips the legs of his bugs into paint and lets them walk over a canvas to create lines and patterns.

This is a good piece because Iqbal Ahmed, who made the documentary, uses natural sound very well.  The video starts out with cricket sounds and makes the viewer feel like he/she is surrounded by bugs, like Kutcher is.  The documentary is very engaging because of its shock factor; Ahmed shows footage of Kutcher covered in cockroaches.  Kutcher talks about how he thinks he is different from other people.  His voice-overs correlate well with the video.  For example, Ahmed shows video of Kutcher isolated in his art room with bugs while a voice-over plays of Kutcher talking about how strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT2ASOnMMwAa

Thin - Bad Multimedia Project

This is an example of a bad multimedia project.  “Thin” is a short student documentary highlighting the prevalence of body image issues in high school girls.  Many girls are interviewed and asked if they want to change anything about how they look.  Many of the responses are difficult to hear because the audio is not very good.  Sometimes the quieter responses are overpowered by the background music the producer put in.

Some of the interviews conducted in a school had distracting natural sound in the background of students talking or people shuffling and walking.  Some of the video is in black and white, seemingly for dramatic effect, but it does not add anything to the documentary.