Creating good stories at the shoot off
We’ve seen a lot of great stories over the years, but here are a few examples that show off some of the key elements required when telling a good story. While you watch these, pay attention to the narrative as well as fundamentals like audio, continuity, lighting and shot composition. Watch for audio weaving, sound bite selection, and moments that feel satisfying as the teams worked to build compelling story archs.
DAwn Quixote
Year: 2016
Theme: “Spirit”
What it’s a good example of: time spent on pre-production. As a scripted, narrative piece, there’s no uncontrolled action, everything was planned and planned well.
The Humor Heart
Year: 2018
Theme: “Humor”
What it’s a good example of: simplicity. Not a lot of production but there was a lot of thought given to the soundbites as well as lighting (time of day/location) as well as use of 2 cameras to provide some visual variety with no b-roll.
Fired Up
Year: 2018
Theme: “Humor”
What it’s a good example of: how teams can interpret the same theme differently. Also brilliant cinematography, lighting (mise-en-scene), pacing & timing. Continuity is on point.
The Ultimate Rainy Day
Year: 2016
Theme: “Spirit”
What it’s a good example of: a well done feature piece. An unscripted story with both controlled and uncontrolled action and a compelling narrative. Some competition between the music and narrative, but overall a very well done story.
SoleMate
Year: 2019
Theme: “Unity”
What it’s a good example of: with a quirky take on the theme, this team was able to pull a Wall-e on us by creating emotion without dialog. We included this to showcase a different way to create narrative.
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