Professional Review #3 - Blood Drive Student Appreciation Video

Well, we're set to film live news stories at the ONW Blood Drive this Friday, and today we set out to find another similar videos that involved another blood drive. For my review, I decided to use this video, shown to us in class. 

The disasters start almost immediately for this video.

Please, don't add text. Just tell us everything we need to know.

First off, in a news story, you should never have text added in like this. Some text is okay, like the interviewee's name and a few other exceptions, but in a situation like this, we shouldn't see any text. 

Oh, geez. This was when I really knew I was in for a treat by watching this video.

Don't even get me started on the "rap master." 

The entire opening scene was literally a shaky shot of the American Red Cross truck, with the words up on the screen. Very boring.

Well, it's a good idea, but not quite pleasing to the eye.

The next shot was of a blood drive sign, presumably featured when you walk in to the are to donate because of what it says. The idea is great, but I'm not quite 100% in agreement with how they set it up. I think they should have stepped back a bit, getting both the top and bottom edges of the sign to be in the frame, really, just getting the entire sign in the shot is what I'm saying. In terms of the exposure, the shot is pretty dark, especially the lower left-hand corner of the frame. I would have liked a brighter shot instead. Finally, I would have framed the sign so it was off-center using the Rule of Thirds. It makes the shot look much more interesting and pleasing to the viewer.

Hello, [insert name here]! Oh wait, you really don't have a name.

The next shot jumped to a student volunteer. He did give us some nice background information on the drive and how it was going, but we never got to know his name. That's right, THEY NEVER SAID HIS NAME. In an interview, it's pretty important to learn the name of the subject AND share it with the viewer. In this case, I as a viewer find it very important that I know who I'm watching in the video. They also did this with another lady later on in the video, shown here.

One of the most important things I learned from this is to NEVER ADD A RAP TO A NEWS SEGMENT. Watch the video and you'll fully understand what I mean...

"Rap master?" Yeah right, I could have done a better job than you.

Overall, I was very dissapointed with this video. It was poorly filmed and edited, and included parts that were completely unnecessary and did not contribute to the reporting of the event. Whoever made this should probably hire a professional or heck, even an e-Comm student to complete this video.