Get lost for hours

I could get lost for hours checking out the entries for the very first NPPA Multimedia Contest.

I'm checking out the Individual Videos here.

This Detroit Free Press video about a Detroit man visiting Lebanon is very well done. It seems the photographer used a tripod for many shots (hooray!). I'm impressed that the shots from the car were so steady--I know how hard that is. The shots change at good intervals, I'd say every five seconds or so. There's not many close ups, but the destruction footage is so compelling that it doesn't matter. Even though it runs four minutes, I watched the whole thing.

This one from the Fredericksburg News Post about volunteers saving goldfish from a dried-up pond is pretty good too, but could use improvement. The audio is well edited and the story flows well. The shots have a lot of action, and they change frequently enough to keep my attention. You can tell the videographer DID NOT use a tripod...Maybe it was impossible on that ground, but it would have improved the pictures a lot. Also, the starting shot is very weak. I would have started with this shot that's buried in the middle: very tight, shows goldfish trapped in a little cranny fighting to breath.

I think the two San Francisco Chronicle videos could have done without voiceovers. I didn't watch more than 30 seconds of either one.

The video package about street dancing from the Houston Chronicle is my favorite so far. The B-Boys video is the best one. I do wish they would cover the interviews with broll instead of just showing the people talking for 10 seconds.

Why do people call things videos when they're really just glorified audio slideshows? Example: The York Dispatch video about ballet. It does have some video, and then bunches of pictures mixed in. They could have easily shot enough real video to cover this.

Like I said, you could get lost for hours. I'm going to have to save the rest for another day.