Children Full of Life is a winning award video. This video has five parts taken through the school’s year where students in Japan learn lessons of life (compassion) from a teacher. One of the interesting features is that the video is taken from the children’s eye level. It is full of B-rolls that show the reaction of children to the situations they are living and emphasize the point that the speaker is telling. Including the teacher’s thoughts at the end of the episode emphasizes the point on each part of the video I think that music is very appropriate.

Panning and zooming, sometimes is too fast and made me feel dizzy. There are many parts where that happen. A couple of them are at the beginning of the first part of the video 1, panning from the teacher to the students, another is when the teacher is reading the notebook letters going from some papers to a single word (happiness…). I think that videos are very good; the topic is great. “Lessons of Life”

http://kobreguide.com/content/Children_Full_of_Life

Different from the  first videos, this one is video recorded in a controlled ambient. It is the lesson that  Dave LaBelle teaches through his work and passion. The interviews with the photographer and some students are in color; and the photography slideshows are in black and white.  The transition in photos is smooth all the way through. The story, outside the interviews, is told using text with a very soft music in the background. All the different elements were very well managed and controlled to put together this video. 

http://vimeo.com/7866068

Reviewed by Carmen Sanjuan