Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: University of Chicago Laboratory High School Entry Title: Exchange students arrive from China; Lunar New Year performance amazes Entry Credit: Ari Novak, Calder Wong Judge Comment: This is visually gorgeous. Love the technical quality of the b-roll footage. Strong narration. The pace is fast and the overall length is just right, but the teacher soundbite is really long (more than a minute). The use of b-roll on top of the soundbite breaks up the monotony, but a second (or even a third) voice would have been nice. The ending also seems a bit abrupt. But those are minor points. This is excellent work!
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: University of Chicago Laboratory High School Entry Title: Video: U-High Chamber Collective holds female-forward pop fundraiser Entry Credit: Skye Freeman, Olin Nafziger Judge Comment: Outstanding videography under some challenging lighting conditions! The concert footage is really lovely. Nice framing of the teacher. Good script with lots of pertinent info, but the narration was spoken just a bit too rapidly. The technical quality of the student’s soundbite was noticeably inferior to the teacher’s audio. Any idea what caused that? A comment from one of the male musicians would have been interesting. Loved the reaction footage of the younger students in the audience. Overall, terrific video!
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Kaneland High School Entry Title: Krier Insider: Episode 3 (Something Rotten) Entry Credit: Anna Gatz Judge Comment: Nice play preview! Good length, great pace, energetic b-roll, lots of student voices as well as just the right amount of essential info. The audio quality is a bit inconsistent, especially toward the end (Sarah Syed soundbite), and the choice of yellow and white for the intro and outdo cards seems suboptimal. But overall this is well done!
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Kaneland High School Entry Title: Kickin’ it With the Krier | Connected Episode 1: Inflation Entry Credit: Jasper Paulson, Casper Suehs Judge Comment: Under two minutes is a good length, and the choice of topic is excellent. But a few things prevent this video from realizing its potential. First, it doesn’t become clear — at least to this viewer — that the focus of the video is on cafeteria prices rather than inflation in general until we’re about one-quarter of the way through (30 seconds in). This confusion could easily be avoided by making the cafeteria focus clear from the outset by revising the title of the video and reworking the intro. Second, the explanation by the teacher is good, but the lack of b-roll during his clip makes it a 70-second talking head segment, which is way too much. Third, the audio volume is inconsistent. The off-camera narration volume is good, but the on-camera audio volume is too low. Fourth, the real news — about the actual lunch price increase — is left for the end. That should have ben part of the intro. Lots of potential here, though!
