Jenevieve and I came up with the idea to do a revised dress code segment by noticing all of the strong feelings toward the subject since Mrs. Shanks announced it at the end of last semester. The only research we had to do was familiarize ourselves with the dress code, but this wasn't much of a task because we'd heard it so many times already. We wanted a range of people for interviews, so we chose a sophomore (Alec), a senior (Camilla), a teacher (Ms. Ferro), and, of course, Mrs. Shanks (mainly to justify the decision and try to help students understand). We made sure our questions were focused and relevant, but still allowed for the interviewees to give an opinion. It was difficult to come up with good ideas with b-roll because we obviously had to show students and what they were wearing, but we didn't want to point rule-breakers either. Basically we envisioned a couple shots of students at lunchtime and the photoshopped stills of what not to wear.
For Ms. Ferro, we used her classroom, but we set her up at a diagonal so the shot wasn't quite so boring.
For Mrs. Shanks, the window made it a little hard to set up the shot at a nice diagonal, so we put her up against her bulletin board, which actually had the yellow dress code paper off to the side.
For Alec and Camilla, we set up outside (Camilla by the office and Alec by the cafeteria), but it was during 1˚, so there weren't any distracting noises. None of our shots were creative (we just used stills to add to the interviews). I think we set up Mrs. Shanks well, but Ms. Ferro, despite being on the wrong side based on where she was looking, had a nice background that was the least bland out of the interviews. The one or two lunchtime shots we had were handheld, but still fairly smooth. We only used the rule of thirds for the interviews. The lighting was decent (Alec's shot involved the sunrise, so he squinted a little).
Our focus was always good. Our audio came out great, for once, but during Alec's interview we came across some strange noises during editing that may have been the result of Alec fidgeting with the mic while talking (we cut those out).
Jenevieve's voiceover basically introduced the topic and gave a list of what the revised dress code is. Jenevieve exclaimed "Hey Cap!" I think that was enough to grab the audience's attention. Our segment was informative in that it gave students insight into different perspectives, thus giving insight, as well. I think the voiceovers blended our interview SOTs together well in our "grande" finale closing voiceover, which pointed out the positive intent of the code, and in our introduction by pointing out that these are all opinions, not facts. This final though is meant to show that the school isn't out to get us, it just wants to focus more on a bright future of professional adults.
All of our b-roll/PIPs corresponded to what the interviewee was saying (e.g. showing businesspeople when Ms. Ferro says that the dress code makes people look "well-put-together").
We used fade in-fade out transitions and cross dissolves, but nothing that pops out. We also lowered the background music during the interviews and faded out at the end. We had many graphics, the most significant being the ones during the introductory voiceover, which shows the red and blue clothes, no sagging, etc. with big red circles with lines through them on top. All of this was set atop a still of the yellow dress code paper we found in the science hall.
We used a Motion template for our title, but it was boring at first, so I added a picture of the school to make it a little more interesting.
We added no filters, special effects, animations, or montages--the segment was meant to be straight to the point and not so humorous as other topics would have allowed. We had a little jump cut of Camilla toward the end, but it is barely noticeable. Other than that, there are no other glitches.
My favorite part about our piece is Mrs. Shanks interview because she really brings up some good points and she addresses that she understands how the students feel and why she has to just put up with it. If I had more time, I would have shot and added more b-roll (without attracting attention as we shoot what people are wearing). The most important lesson I learned is that segments that don't bring up offensive or controversial topics are capable of more humor, unlike ours, which was purely informative.
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