Details
Category: News
Media: Video
Turnaround time: Less than a day
Description of story
The Monday after the famous UC Davis protest where some of the demonstrators were pepper sprayed, a second student-oraganized rally was held. The big news was that the chancellor of the university attended the protest and spoke in her defense.
Feedback requested
I would like some general feedback. I know some of the shots weren't held still enough, but that's a hazard of holding a DSLR in a sea of people pushing up against you. Was the first soundbite too long? etc..
Gear used in production
Canon 7D
24-105 f4.0
Sennheiser MKE 400
The challenge with shooting something like this by yourself is that you want to be able to show both the action (the speakers) and the reaction (the crowd). You face the dilemma of what to shoot when.
I don't think the first sound bite (Deanna) was too long - I was interested in what she had to say. But I think the single quick cutaway to the crowd was not enough. Ideally, you'd keep recording her sound while pointing out to the crowd to give some more views of people's reactions.
The opposite was true for the following speakers. It was a little disorienting to see the crowd and hear someone speaking, but never see who it was.
When it came to the Chancellor, I was left wondering what the reaction of the crowd was to her.
I'm glad you got some comments from the people in attendance, but it felt like they were just tacked onto the end. It might have been better to mix them in between the speakers and cover them with more b-roll.
I'm glad you posted this for review, as we don't see a lot of 'less than a day' stories on the site. Things like this are tough to shoot because you don't get second chances. I think overall you did a decent job, but I would have liked to see more sequences of action/reaction.