Surviving Sandy - A Special Video Report

Surviving Sandy - A Special Video Report (view this story)

Mario Gonzalez
Newsday
Melville, NY

Details

Category: News
Media: Video
Turnaround time: More than a day but less than a week

Description of story

After the devastation of superstorm Sandy, we look back as Long Islanders reclaim their lives. Videojournalists: Newsday Staff (Nov. 10. 2012)

Feedback requested

editing style, narrative storytelling, sound, composition and music selection

Gear used in production

Variety of DSLR's and Sony's EX3's

Edited on Final Cut Pro 7.0

3 comments - Login to comment

Rep: 444

Eric Seals Dec. 28, 2012, 7:58 p.m. permalink

Mario,

Really nice job you guys did with this. At 9 minutes long the piece held my attention the whole time. I learned a hell of a lot on what Sandy did to Long Island.

You guys covered all the bases well in such a short time. How long did you guys spend on this?

One thing I was hoping to see was how one of the emergency personal that was out helping Sandy victims coping with losing his or her home, the damage done etc. I can imagine that was hard to find or that there were just so many stories and directions you guys could of taken. It's not a negative on this well done piece just something I was thinking about.

I loved how it opened with the police on the bullhorn talking about an evacuation with nice visuals and the voice of people talking about how Sandy's not going to be that bad then you show how bad it is.

Got good glimpses into the lives and homes of people affected, hearing their voice, seeing their sorrow made me feel for them.

The visuals you guys used put me right in there versus the distance feeling I got from other videos and TV news gave me during all the Sandy coverage.

At first I was sure if I like having the narrator in the piece but then as I listened to her she really helped pull things together, summed it up and she did a great job speaking her part.

I like the music throughout, it wasn't too loud and didn't compete with the visuals or the sound of the narrator or the people affected by Sandy.

Not much constructive criticism I can give but here are a few things that I noticed;

The blocky font as the various sections or chapters of Sandy/Long Island story. It would have been nice to have seen a more thin less chunky, even a nice fade in/fade out would have helped.

Awareness of the mic or lav. I know it's a fluid situation in shooting and reporting something like this but there were times when I saw the newsday.com flag and mic head or the black wire of the lav running up the outside of someones shirt. Just wasn't a clean look.

A few of the interviews seemed choppy with the video like whoever shot it had it on the wrong setting or shutter speed with the HDSLR. It had to look of something shot at 200 or 250 not the standard or recommended 60 or 125.

Those are very minor things that stood out but what really stood out was the really nice work you guys did in shooting and editing this piece.

Can you tell us how many people were out shooting this piece? Did you have some reporters go out with a camera and use some of their footage? How many editors pulled this together.

Again nice job!!

Eric

Rep: 0

Submitter

Mario Gonzalez Jan. 2, 2013, 11:44 a.m. permalink

Hello Eric,

Thank you for the advice....I really appreciate your thoughts on the project.

To answer your question - roughly 9 staffers and 1 freelancer helped shoot the piece.

I edited the video, but had constant feedback from my managers - Arnold Miller and Robert Cassidy.

Rep: 444

Eric Seals Jan. 2, 2013, 11:48 a.m. permalink

Awesome!

I'm sure you guys will be doing a 1 year later piece revisiting some of these areas and people affected. Looking forward to seeing that down the road.