News Pitch:

Amber and I have agreed to work together and take a look at Burr and Burton Academy's dance program and, in particular, Claudia Shell Raposa's story. From what Amber and I know, Claudia had her heart set on a career in ballet. She switched into the world of musical theatre after an injury that silenced her dreams of making it in the ballet world. After making the switch into musical theatre, she was able to make it to Broadway. This is where we believe she met Jim Raposa, who then started Burr and Burton Academy's dance program.   (Idea: Bill Muench)

Documentary Review:

First Position is a documentary that follows six different dancers from various places around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world. The documentary talks a lot about how much is given up to pursue a career in ballet. Typically, to be successful in pursuing a career in ballet, you need to start learning and training young. Most of the dancers in the documentary have been training since they were somewhere around the age of five. They gave up their childhoods and put everything on the line in hopes of someday making it in the dance world. In a competition of approximately 5,000 ballet dancers, these six dancers hope to be recognized for their talent and sacrifice.

For me, any movie about dance is a good movie. I recently saw the movie Leap in theaters, and I could hardly sit still. However, like Leap, most dance movies are light-hearted and cheesy and they tend focus on the more stage-worthy moments of  the process.The main thing that set First Position apart from most dance movies, was that it focused on the ugly parts of the dance world as well as the amazing parts.  I enjoyed the suspense and the realistic take on competition between dancers. It was sometimes a little hard to watch, because, as a viewer, you were cheering for all six dancers, but at the same time, you were trying to be realistic about the probability of even one of them being successful, let alone all six. Being a dancer, I follow a lot of different dance accounts on Instagram. I had never realized before watching this documentary, that so many of the videos I see on Instagram on a daily basis, were taken on the Youth America Grand Prix stage. It made me wonder if I’ve ever seen a video of one of these dancers on Instagram and I never even knew the story behind it all.

Filming dance, or any type of movement really, gives you a lot of opportunities to slow clips up or slow clips down. Following people's personal lives or following such an intense story, gives you a lot of opportunities to interview people and get a lot of close-up, emotional shots of people. I liked that there was a good balance between the amount of scenes filmed on stage and in the ballet world and the amount of scenes filmed in the homes of these dancers and in places special to them.

I would recommend this film to anyone looking for an inspirational story (or six), anyone who loves to dance, anyone who wants a little insight into the world of dance, or anyone who’s just looking for some entertainment on a rainy Sunday afternoon. There was nothing in this film that would’ve been inappropriate for any specific audience. For the average high school student, I’d say that I watch a pretty good amount of documentaries, so when I say that this is one of my favorite documentaries ever, that’s actually kind of saying something. Overall, I give it somewhere around a 9.7 / 10.

News Reflection:

Vocabulary: 

"Cut a package" - Is when you take and a full interview (most likely for a news story) and cut it down to the few parts that you need

A-Roll - Usually is just footage on the person being interviewed

Anchor - A person who sits behind a desk, looks into a camera and relies information that is given to them to the viewers at the time

B-Roll - Is used to cover up transitions in A-role (especially in interviews) and gives the viewer something else to watch besides the face of the person being interviewed

Cold Open - Is when you don't run title credits and just dive right into the film or news story

Copy - In a write given to the anchor to tell him what he or she needs to say and when to say it

Copyright - Is an exclusive legal right that protects your work and makes it your own unless you grant access to it 

Credits - Is the list of names at the end of film or news story that tells the viewers who worked on the film and what they did

Human Interest - Is content that is appealing to the human eye, that draws in the interest of the viewer

Lavalier Mic (Lav Mic) - Is a mic that's place on the collar of the shirt of the person being interviewed - much better sound quality

NAT Sound - Nature sound; the sound that is recorded from the environment around you when you shot your film  (often cut out and not used)

Package - Is a full news story after it is cut down, edited, color corrected, sound it fixed, etc...

POV or Point-of-View Shot - A shot where the prospective seems like it is coming from the subject or object - shot through the "eyes" of the subject

PSA - Public Service Announcement - gives the public information that, at the time, they need to know and will benefit from  

Sign Off, Sig, Sig Out - This is when the news anchor ends the show, sometimes with his or hers own personal touch

Stand-up - Is when the reporter or anchor is standing in front of the camera relaying information - the reporter can also be walking towards or away from the camera (like a walk and talk)

Tease - Gives you a brief idea about what is going to be on after the commercial break - it is intended to keep you watching that specific channel or show

Two-shot - A shot with two people in it

Videographer - The person behind the camera during a news show (also might work the lights and sound)

Voice-over - Voice-over or the "voice of god" is when you add in voice in post process without filming anything  (just sound)

XLR Cable - The cable that connects the mics to the camera

Notes:

- never 'report' news that you heard from another news source

- doctors pronounce someone dead - not reporters

- reporters can't give the names of those dead until their families have been notified

- you need to hear from two credible sources that the information that you are about to report is true - the two sources can not be other news organizations

- make sure your B-roll lines up with what is being said in the R-roll interview

- when having a conversation with some else (while being filmed) pick an eye to focus on, so that your eyes are not moving around

- when making a film, make sure (especially with girls) that there hair remains the same from scene to scene