Analysis of Multimedia Reporting: Hannah Bruchman

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/09/22/VI2009092202211.html

This video is about a French immigration camp, known as “The Jungle.” It was made by the Associated Press and contains video showing French police raiding the camp. The video is highly successful in its demonstration of the event. It portrays the strength of the French police and reveals French immigration minister Eric Besson’s blunt refusal to allow the immigrants to continue to camp out. The video shows crying men and women lining up to leave on buses, their temporary homes being demolished.
Some particularly effective scenes are:
At .07/1.02, the tight shot of a young man openly weeping as a police officer leads him away fully conveys the sadness attached to the raid.
The medium shot at .16/1.02 is of a line of immigrants, waiting to get on the bus. It isn’t until this shot that the viewer gets a real idea of the large amount of immigrants being affected by Besson’s new policy.
.19/1.02- .25/1.02, the viewer sees a medium shot of grown men bawling, adding to the emotional impact of the video.
.26/1.02, the camera gets a tight shot of Besson forcefully insisting that immigrants have no place at the camp. “The real world is not happy,” Besson said.
.33/1.02, the camera gets a wide shot of protesters clashing with police, showing the viewer the impact the raid is having on everyday citizens. It shows the brute force of the police effectively.
.43/1.02, the wide shot of the now demolished camp shows the viewers how effectively the police raided and destroyed the camp.
The wide shot at .54/1.02 of the remaining immigrant camps is effective because it shows more immigration camps, showing the viewer how wide-spread the problem has become.
The reporter did an excellent job of obtaining relevant video clips for the story and mixing wide, medium, and tight shots. The video effectively conveys the emotion of the story and gets the point of the story across to the viewers.