2010 Vollies Videos


Best Municipal Program:
Be sure to scroll down to view all 8 videos.

CMC Video Player

(If you have a slower internet connection, pause the video and allow download to progress before viewing.)

Judge's comments for this category:

Bypass Ribbon Cutting Ceremony:
Nice open just need a cleaner lens especially when shooting into the sun. Back light in Mayor's shot a bit hot, try using diffusion to soften and limit shadows. His shot also had a bit too much head room. Better balance on audio between natural sound and primary sound tracks. Lower ambient sound so it is just present. I would have made the actual cutting (at 9:30) of the ribbon countdown primary audio and then gone back to the speech from the podium track.

Walking Tour of Historical Center:
A roll is traditionally not used for a title sequence but wasn't too objectionable. Try to avoid light glare off photographs by taking a digital picture on a tripod and turn off overhead fluorescents and use supplementary lighting. Use a bit of motion effects, Ken Burns style on the photographs to bring them to life. Always a challenge dealing with ambient noise, which might require a retake if a loud truck or car goes by. Overall nice job.

A Farmers' Market:
Lowering the video level in the background of the title while make your text pop out by increasing the contract ratio between the text and the background. This can also be accomplished by creating an semi-opaque color background behind the text. Video in first shot looked hot. Keep the sun to their back and use sun as back light just make sure the background is not bright. Use a wind screen on mic to avoid wind noise. Also try positioning mic out of the wind by placing talents back to the wind helping to shield the mic. Shot at about 3:00 of Diane Brown should have been repositioned to avoid the bright white tarp. Also needed more head room. Nice touch adding graphic to lower thirds. Be careful of lens flare when shooting into the sun. Use your hand to extend the lens shade and block the lens flare without being in the shot. Background ambient or music seemed to be conflicting and distracting at times. If there is a lot of background ambient when shooting take control. See if you can have them turn off amplified music or sound in the area you are shooting. Don’t use any music that has lyrics although I don't think that was the case it was just hard to tell what was creating the conflict.

Lion's Club Halloween Party:
Nice establishing shot. Natural sound had low frequency rumble probably from wind. Try to EQ or roll off the low frequency so you can retain the ambient but get rid of the wind noise. Nice opening montage. Great pacing. An idea to spice up the parade would be to have shot some of the kids saying who they were in custom. "I'm Spiderman!" etc. and then intercut into the parade which gets monotonous quickly. Good job pulling up the magician’s segment. Just felt the need for some sort of a close. But a bow around like a couple of sound bites "we had fun" or "see you next year" something like that intercut in the final montage to signal the end.

Flag Day Ceremony:
Very nice open. Up beat and great use of animated graphics. I would have constrained the blue background to be right behind the text like a frame. Work with the organizers to find something on the agenda that is a "throw away" something you do not want to document and then use that time to shoot cutaways. I would pull up segments that really don't add to the product such as recognition of special guests. Can't see them, so it becomes unnecessary. The rule of editing is if you can remove it and it doesn't take away from the final product it gets edited out. This includes tightening up or pulling up walk ups between introductions except for the keynote speaker. A couple of jerky moves in pans or camera bumps try to keep those smooth by having proper pan and lock adjustments. Good job handling the Q&A. When audience chimes in be prepared by having prepped speakers asking them to repeat question. Have a sign that says repeat question to remind speaker when they forget. Then you can pull up the question and edit out the audience question if the audio is inadequate.

Business Breakfast: Sen. Ben Cardin:
Handheld a bit shaky and appeared crooked. Use a tripod to shoot stationary subjects especially speeches as that can be fatiguing after a long speech. Nice use of graphics and adding the flag to the lower third. You can edit and "pull up" the sequence of action like eliminating when they get stuck unhooking the flag. Be careful of manual iris conditions when panning across from shade to full sun. Nice close.

Train Museum:
Good job handling the walking tour always tough with constrained lighting but it keeps it interesting. Go back and get cutaway B-Roll of items like the photograph or builders plate. Made it a mystery not seeing it. Have to be careful when panning off to objects like the model railroad setup and knowing your limitations on focal length of your lens. You are stuck in a tight shooting space and if you get stuck on a subject that is out of focus back out of the shot as quickly/smoothly as possible, to use your physical distance to set the focus or zoom out to bring it in to focus. With wind noise you can EQ and roll of some of the low frequencies to reduce rumble. Good use of music throughout with good balance. Not sure what happened to the audio up on the research room. Sounds like his mic went out was that monitored by headphones? Audio distortion with the train whistle which I'm sure was loud but sounds like was not on auto. I would have lowered audio level just a bit. Train sequence at end slowed things down and was over extended until being described. Great place with a great story. Made me want to visit.

Water - A Fragile Resource:
Nice use of graphics. Stand ups were a bit flat maybe add an occasional zoom where appropriate. Use more motion effects Ken Burns style on the photos to bring them to life. Just don't overdue it. Good host. Be careful with ambient sound that it isn't loud enough to conflict with primary audio. This program shows a lot of effort.