http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiJR3dDm7OA
Megan Suermann
The news piece I chose was an ABC news broadcast from July 16, 2007 on the Iraq surge. It was called “Normal Day” in Iraq and all of the shots were done by a British photographer named Sean Smith. The piece was well-edited and showed a dark side of war rarely seen on the evening news since the Iraq war started. The overall production was good. The camera work was a little shaky but that was because the crew was shooting action shots of the war up close and personal. I thought the camera angles and close-ups were shot beautifully
The firing of guns, people crying, screams of horror as someone was shot were heard clearly. The images of people bloodied on the streets of Baghdad were very effective in telling the story of a typical day in the life of American soldiers in the middle of a war zone captured by a British photographer no less. The footage was completely uncensored. The whole video was chaotic and was meant to be shot that way. I thought the footage of the one solider talking who was a specialist in the army was too dark though.
The cutaways to the war zone and to the streets of Baghdad were very authentic. Nothing seemed forced about the camera shots or the close-ups of the action. The camera drew back at pivotal moments to allow the viewers watching the video take in the surrounding action and violence in the area. I liked how the camera froze on certain actions shots.
I was surprised by the candidacy of the soldiers who were interviewed. It’s not too often that American soldiers are allowed to speak out and publicly condemn the war and call into question the actions of the president and Congress for going to war. I’m surprised that the media was allowed to show such raw footage of people getting shot and blown up. I wondered why an American photographer instead of a foreign one couldn’t have shot something like this and shown it on the news. i also wondered what took ABC so long to show this type of footage from an insider's perspective.
