Mike Humphries-In the 1st place entry, "Just a Matter of Time," the editor used slow motion and good shot selection to skillfully build tension in a story about a woman's ordeal with a stalker.  The use of subtitles to illustrate the kinds of disturbing messages the stalker left on the victim's voice mail was particularly effective in adding to the scariness of his obsession.
 
"Girl Scout Cookies," a story that deals with a returning Marine veteran's visit with a Brownie troop, is another well-edited piece.  The editor did a great job cutting the questions and answer interaction between the Marine and his young supporters.
 
The loud, strange call of the moose-mating ritual is depicted in "Just the Neatest Thing." The editor smoothly used the bizarre natural sounds of the lovesick male moose herd to effectively pace the story.  The shot selection was top notch.
 
"Krav Maga," a story about children learning to use an effective self-defense technique, also displayed excellent craftsmanship. The editor used good natural sound and shot selection throughout to skillfully pace the story. Another solid effort.
 
While most of the stories in this category were fairly decent and many were quite good, the four winning entries really stood out from the crowd.  Many of the other entries were pretty average and didn't have that extra spark that makes an award-winning story shine.

Stephanie Ottjepka-I loved the "It's Just a Matter of Time" story. This was an incredibly edited story, even down to the font selection. There was a great use of slow motion. All the dissolves blended well so that it wasn't an ugly picture when the two images were superimposed. The phone-call ring was startling, which in this story was a good effect. The use of her mouthing the words "matter of time" over him saying it just reinforced the pain this woman is going through. Nice use of wides and blurry shots. The ending music worked great, faded up perfectly, and the shot selection that accompanied it was
fabulous. This ending is a well-edited tease.

"Girl Scout Cookies" was smartly edited. The emotions of the girls faces listening as cutaways were very effective. Breaking up the pledge with a bite worked. I liked the nats of the girls "mmmm" while the marine eats the cookie. These subtleties really set it apart.

"Just the Neatest Thing" had a nice sequence with mysterious audio to set up interest at the top. The pacing of the nats had a flowing rhythm that really carried the story.

"Krav Maga" had great nat breaks scattered throughout the whole story that added to it. I like the shot and the effect of showing us the name "Krav Maga" from a sign. As a viewer, I wanted to see how to spell that strange name that the reporter just tracked, and this did it in a classy way. I also liked the use of wipes in this piece.