I assigned this in class Thursday, March 27, 2014. Read and follow the instructions carefully before you begin working on this assignment. 

The stories “A Fighting Chance” and “Running on Fumes in North Dakota” are examples of the documentary-style video story you will produce for your video story. Watch them. Then critique THREE examples of video stories that have similar style.

The stories you select must have these characteristics:

  1. The reporter does not appear and is not heard. Titles are OK, however.
  2. The story must be relevant to your blog topic.
  3. The story must focus on an interesting character or group.
  4. The story must combine bites and natural sound. It may include music. It may not have narration.

Your critique must discuss the following:

  1. The hook: How did it use visuals and sound to hook your attention, and why was it effective or ineffective?
  2. The hero: How did the videographer make you care about him or her?
  3. The story arc: What was the conflict or quest? How did the videographer use images and sound to develop it?
  4. The ending: What did the videographer do to wrap things up memorably?
  5. Your takeaways: What did each videographer do that you plan to use in your own work?

Select videos to critique by these videographers:
They do the kind of stories you will do for your documentary-style video story; you may mix and match or pick others if they don’t fit your blog’s theme as long as they do “invisible reporter”-style video stories. All were instructors and coaches at the National Press Photographers Association’s Multimedia Immersion workshop at Syracuse University last spring:

Darren Durlach, senior multimedia producer, Boston Globe: https://vimeo.com/darrendurlach
McKenna Ewen, multimedia producer, Star Tribune: https://vimeo.com/85766699
Lauren Frohne, multimedia producer, Boston Globe: http://laurenfrohne.com/category/films/
David Frank, video journalist, New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/video/David-Frank/
Andrew Hida, freelance multimedia producer: https://vimeo.com/andrewhida
Brad Horn, video journalist, Washington Post: https://vimeo.com/bradhorn/videos
Wes Pope, multimedia professor, University of Oregon: https://vimeo.com/wespope
Bruce Strong, chair of multimedia photography and design, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University: NOTE: Strong did not make all the videos on this channel, so watch carefully to see which are by him and which are by others. He has great taste since he practically invented the approach we’re taking to video stories: https://vimeo.com/brucestrong/videos
Eric Seals, photo & video journalist, Detroit Free Press: http://www.ericseals.com/
Stretch Ledford, assistant professor journalism, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: https://vimeo.com/stretchphoto/videos
Tara Young, video journalist, Alaska Dispatch; was senior video producer at Etsy during the workshop: http://vimeo.com/search?q=alaska%20dispatch. NOTE: This link has work by Young and others at the Dispatch whose work also may be suitable for this assignment.

DEADLINE: Post on blog and email me link to the blog post at mjf0009@auburn.edu by 3 p.m. Friday, April 4.