Ledyard High School | Student News | Fox 61 WTIC-TV Connecticut

Ledyard High School

Date posted: January 26, 2005
School: Ledyard High School
Town: Ledyard
Slug: "Security Cameras"
Status: Re-submit
Length: 50.35

DELIVERY: Good pace, but it sounded choppy due to the inconsistent audio levels.

INTERVIEWS: Great job getting the Dean. A very reliable source. An interview with a student or teacher with an opposing view would have made this story stronger.

ORIGINALITY: Good idea and timely topic.

WRITING: Good job, but it would have been great with more information. Why was the decision made to install the cameras? Were they installed as a reaction to an issue in your school or other schools? What are the stats on violence in schools with cameras versus those with out? Have violence decreased since installation? What are the laws regarding the privacy issue?

VIDEO: Good shots of surveillance equipment. It was creative to show the actual footage from a security camera at the school, but we look at the empty hallway for at least :10 seconds. You need more B-roll. Especially when your interviewees are speaking.

AUDIO: Always use a microphone! There is very noisy background noise in your interviews, especially with the teacher. It makes the interview hard to understand. Use a microphone for your stand up. It was a very windy day. Also, make sure that your audio levels match. Your interviews were much louder than your voiceover.

EDITING: Good job.

OVERALL: Nice try. Suggestion: Redo your stand up with a microphone. Your story came in at :50.35 seconds in length. It cannot be over :50 seconds or it will not fit into our broadcast schedule. We do not have the capability of editing even a half a second off your story. We need this to be exactly :50 seconds from beginning of the voice-over to the end of the stand-up. Please re-edit and resubmit.

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Date posted: January 26, 2005
School: Ledyard High School
Town: Ledyard
Slug: "School Dress Codes"
Status: Re-submit
Length: 49.35

DELIVERY: The delivery was rushed which made it hard to understand. Slow it down a bit.

INTERVIEWS: Write into your interviews separately. Unless the two people are in the same shot, they need to be introduced individually. Good idea of getting different opinions, but remember they really need to stay on topic to add to the story.

ORIGINALITY: Could be interesting if you find your focus.

WRITING: This could be a good story with more focus and research. To make this more relevant to people outside your high school, you could address if more revealing clothes are a rising trend with teenagers. Remember that a good story is something that is interesting to a broad audience. Try to expand the story to address the issue on a larger level than just your school. Are other schools, such as Fitch High School or NFA, having problems? Is this a national issue or regional? You can show footage from beyond the high school. Take to the malls, restaurants, and see if you can get footage to match the story. Your title is "School Dress Codes" but your story doesn't really address dress codes. You have a couple topics going on here. Please pick one as the "hook" and write to it by answering who, what, where, when, why, how. You only have :50 seconds to give the story, so you really need to stay on one topic and answer all the questions pertaining to it.

VIDEO: Footage is dark at the end during the stand up. You could use a light, to avoid the dark shadow on the reporter's face. Remember to match your footage to your voiceover. Did you see any controversial outfits? The students shown in the B-roll just had on jeans and casual outfits. It doesn't reinforce your story.

AUDIO: Good levels throughout.

EDITING: Good job, but rewriting will make it even better.

OVERALL: This could be very interesting. Please work on figuring out what the topic is, focus on it, write about it by answering all the questions, find reliable interview subjects and re-submit

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Date posted: January 26, 2005
School: Ledyard High School
Town: Ledyard
Slug: "Teenage Gambling"
Status: Re-submit
Length: 50

DELIVERY: The stand up was too rushed to understand and very dark.

INTERVIEWS: Good interviews. Showed both sides of the story. Work on writing into your interviews. You need to tell us who is speaking. You need to introduce each interviewee separately unless they are shown in the same clip. Also be more specific, not just faculty or student but give us their name as well. Is the faculty member a teacher, principle, guidance counselor?

ORIGINALITY: Good.

WRITING: Nice job, except you need to write into your interviews.

VIDEO: Lots of good shots. Nice shots of the students playing poker.

AUDIO: Good levels throughout.

EDITING: The story would be stronger you rewrite the story to space out your interviews and standup. It would be good to roll some B-roll and voiceover in between and set up what your interviewee has to say.

OVERALL: Good job on the writing and staying objective. It was great to have interviews from people with opposing viewpoints. Rework the story so that the interviews are spaced out and introduced, and redo the stand up so it is slower, clearer and easier to understand. Please re-submit so we can get this on the air.

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Date posted: January 26, 2005
School: Ledyard High School
Town: Ledyard
Slug: "Violence in Sports"
Status: Re-submit
Length: 54.81

DELIVERY: The delivery would be better if you spoke slower and clearer. Also, you need to summarize in your stand up.

INTERVIEWS: You need to separate the interviews, and write into them. You need to make sure to introduce your interviewee so the audience knows who is speaking.

ORIGINALITY: Good idea.

WRITING: There was not enough voiceover in the story. Your interviews were the majority of the story. As a news story we need to know the facts. Why is violence growing? Is it a problem in all ages and schools? Are there examples of this violence in your school or area? Remember that you need to answer who, what, where, when, why, and how. If there are differing opinions on the issue, tell us about them.

VIDEO: Camera movement was very jerky, especially in the beginning. The video has a glitch where it freezes for a moment.

AUDIO: Audio was inconsistent. The ambient sound was too high and the voiceover was too low. Work on getting audio levels consistent through out story.

EDITING: You need to use more B-roll. Your footage needs to go along with your voice over. If you are talking about violence in sports, it would be more appropriate to see shots of a contact sport like hockey or football, which tend to be more violent.

OVERALL: Nice try, but you need to rewrite your piece and answer the questions to tell the story. Don't let your interviews tell the whole story. They should add to the story and make your writing stronger, but should not be the entire story. Write into your interviews and use more footage. Also, make sure your story is :50 seconds from the time your voiceover starts until it ends. Then remember we need a :5 second pad of video and natural sound at the beginning and end of the story. Use a microphone for your stand-up, and keep your audio levels consistent.