Here’s a video from NYT about a young undocumented immigrant struggling to pay for his first semester of college. I think it does a good job of personalizing an issue. We get to experience the dread Frisly feels as he counts down the days — and dollars — to the first day of college.
Things I liked:
– family sequences (some great moments here)
– prom sequences (we are right there, in the limo, watching them put on make-up, love it.)
– the way his narration pauses so we can enjoy some non-narrated, quiet moments. These work when the shots are especially appealing, so we’re kind of held there for a minute
– the way days/dollars drives the story
– LEDE – right up front, even before we know his name. No mysteries here
Things I’m not so sure about:
– Music – not bad, but it kind of cut in and out in weird places. Sometimes it sounded like there were no cross dissolves
– I wanted more shots of him working – we only got a few. I understand this might have been hard to pull off, but because there was so much talk about work and money, I wanted to see more of it being done/being made
– Around the 2 minute mark, there’s this weird digression from prom to Frisly talking about how he had trouble getting online to sign documents for his application or something. I understand it was something that happened at an awkward moment, right at the start of prom night, but it threw me off when I first saw it. I think I could have done without this. (But I did love the shot of the girls walking down the street, holding their dresses off the ground as they passed big black garbage bags!)
Overall, an enjoyable piece. Thoughts?
