New Bell Schedule Segment Critique

 

My partner Isabella and I came up with the idea of doing a segment on our high school's new bell schedule. We came up with this idea by looking at the differences in our school over the past couple of years. One of the first things that popped in our mind was the new bell schedule. The research that we had to do was to find out exactly why the bell schedule was changed. In order to find our answer, we had to go to the principal to ask her a few questions. We found our interviewers by finding people that we would get the most information out of. So we went to the principal for the reasoning behind the bell schedule, a teacher for her input and 2 students for their input as well. We wanted to get the views about the bell schedule from  different people. Our questions were most definitely focused and direct. Because our segment was about the new bell schedule the only b-roll I could really intend on getting was of a clock and class rooms with students working. The b-roll came out really well with the different angles we had. 

Our location was our high school. For the interviews it depended. For instance, when we interviewed the principal, we had her in her house sitting at her desk with books, diploma's, and papers in the background. Then for the teacher we had her in her classroom with displays of what class it was in the background. Lastly the students we interviewed outside around the campus. One interview we had a mustang in the back resembling the school mascot and the other one we used part of the campus as the background. I think our most creative shot of our b-roll was an ECU of a student writing in her planner. We also had another creative shot, which was a CU of two students and in between then you could see the teacher teaching in front of them. We didn't have a lot of camera movements besides framing and panning, but for the most part our camera movements were smooth. There definitely wasn't any excessive zooming or panning in our shots. We would zoom into an object or person before we would record the shot so that we wouldn't run into shaky zoom shots. For all of our shots, we used natural lighting. We didn't have to use a lighting kit at all because during the days we shot, the natural lighting was just right. It wasn't too bright and it wasn't too dark. In my past film projects I have run into problems with the audio, but for the first time our audio was synched together correctly and the audio level was perfect. We didn't really have to adjust the interview audio. 

In the beginning of our segment we used voice-over to describe what our segment was going to explore. We said that we were going to look into why we got a new bell schedule and what the students/faculty would get out of it. I believe our segment was informative because not all the students knew the reasons behind the new bell schedule and thats what we wanted to inform them on. We wanted them to have some background information on it before they went around saying how much they disliked it and so on.  In the end of our segment we informed the students and faculty what the new bell schedule was. So we made a scrolling text saying each day of the week and what classes were dropped (since our schedule was dropping classes almost every day). And we also informed them on what days they were getting out early and at what times. After the whole segment was about the motives for the new bell schedule we wanted the students to actually see what the schedule was like and what the principal meant by a compromise between last year and this years bell schedule. 

Our b-roll reflects the voice over of some of the interviews because it's continuity. For example, as one of the students talk about this new bell schedule having more consistent time to see your teachers, b-roll of a class is shown. Also when on of the students talked about how the schedule makes the load of binders and books heavier, footage is shown of a backpack and a bunch of books and binders next to it. The transitions we used for the video were mostly fade out-fade in. We used this when switching between interviews. On the other hand for the audio transitions were cross fades; i believe we only used that in the beginning and end of our segment. We didn't use any animations or filters in our segment. And we also didn't have any jump-cuts or glitches in our edit. The only thing we had to fix and edit out was unnecessary footage and interviews that was repetitive and over- drawn. 

What I like best from our segment is probably the b-roll and the framing of the interviews. I feel like their all a deep focus and have details to them. If we had more time, I would probably re-do the interviews and the questions. I would want to go more in-depth with the topic and try to get under-the-surface questions. After working on this project, the most important lesson I can take with me is to go more in-depth with ideas and go under-the-surface because thats when segments or films attract the audience. I will also remember to make sure to try and use cinematography as one of my main elements in a film. And lastly I will take with me to remember to think more on the positive side of things and not focus mainly on the negatives.