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Category: Feature
Media: Audio Slideshow
Turnaround time: More than a month

Description of story

Cris Pulido, 29 and Irwin Tenorio, 20--both former Sureño gang members from Santa Rosa, California--are at the start of a long and painful process of removing their gang tattoos. This is the story of their gang tattoos and the effect it had on their lives.

Feedback requested

Just looking for overall feedback. Thanks.

Gear used in production

Nikon D700
Samsung Zoom Recorder
Fender Stratocaster
Fender Pro Reverb Amp
Garage Band
Final Cut Express

9 comments - Login to comment

Rep: 444
Eric Seals Jan. 24, 2012, 6:58 p.m. permalink

Hi Erik,


Nice story. I loved how it opened, the shooting style (very nice composition and light) the music and how you cut it to the beat. 

I was interested from the start and shooting it in black and white was perfect. 

Was wondering if they had any pictures of themselves from back when they were in the gangs, something that that gives us perspective, shows the change in them be it environment or look (except for the tattoos of course)

Love the music and impressed that you did it all yourself!  
One thing with the music however is that is was overbearing at times and started to compete with their voices. The sound levels could have been brought down more throughout the piece and only used at key times during key moments in your storytelling.  Use the music for emphasis during key crucial times to help tell the story and for impact. 
In two occasions the music cut off abruptly.  Not sure how FCE works but if it's just like or close to FCP7 a nice slow cross fade would take care of that.  

Did like the two styles of music you used and your use of nat sound was really good from the tattoo removal to the boxing near the end. Would loved to have seen much more in the piece from the church scene to the last nice moment when Irwin is walking away from the camera with his daughter.  

Create some nice transitions with your pictures and nat sound when moving between the two guys, drop the music, Give our ears a little break and space between them and let us watch and enjoy your wonderful shooting.

A few typos I noticed in your text.

Overall nice job man!!  Love how multi dimensional you are!!  Must be nice to just sit down and compose something.  I'm always having to dig into Soundtrack Pro to find some music or I go on royalty free sites.

Eric

Rep: 1
Submitter
erik castro Jan. 24, 2012, 8:01 p.m. permalink

Super helpful review Eric. Thanks a million!

I'm glad you liked the music. I hate to see that old Fender amp not used as much as I once used it.

Thanks again.
-Erik

Rep: 444
Eric Seals Jan. 24, 2012, 8:19 p.m. permalink

Cool man!! Glad to have helped out :-) 

Love your eye! 
Just start working on more nice ambient audio in your work and know when and where to use it as those transistions I was talking about earlier. 
Keep pushing, seeing, sequencing  and  knowing where the finer points of your stories are and attack those hard like you do your Fender!!  LOL

Must be nice to pick up a guitar and just play something nice. I'm jealous 
:-)

Eric


Rep: 19
David Brooks Feb. 5, 2012, 9:59 a.m. permalink

Is there a way to delete these "bot" posts that seem to randomly pop-up?

Rep: 444
Eric Seals Feb. 5, 2012, 10:59 a.m. permalink

Yeah I was going to send an email to Brian and Colin about this today. Seems lately it's gotten out of control

Rep: 141
Colin Mulvany Feb. 5, 2012, 8:46 p.m. permalink

I emailed Brian guys. These spammers are nasty. 

Rep: 23
Brian Immel Feb. 5, 2012, 9:43 p.m. permalink

Yeah it's been crazy lately. I'm looking into stronger filtering mechanisms.

Rep: 19
David Brooks Feb. 6, 2012, 11:49 a.m. permalink

Hey Erik! Great work, nice audio on the interviews...the story is very compelling. You found two great people that were candid and able to clearly convey their experiences. It was well done! I hope someday to be able to not only shoot and edit but to also be able to add music to my credits; very impressive the music fit the mood perfectly.

PS- sorry for hi-jacking the the thread about the "bot" posts but it was getting ridiculous. ;)

Rep: 0
margenepilant March 24, 2012, 7:31 p.m. permalink



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