Saturday, August 22, 2009

Videojournalism for videojournalism educators, videojournalist aficionados- from British newspapers

8 Days

If you're a videojournalism educator, video journalist aficionado, then this might interest you.

I have uploaded 8 Days - UK's first videojournalists from regional British newspapers. - the story.

In many ways it's an on-the-day documentation of how after 8 days videojournalism work, 9 newspaper journalists took to videojournalism.

Five hours condensed into 15 minutes from a 40 minute tape shot over the whole period. The story was laid down 2 hours after returning to base. I'm using "collision" techniques to tell the story and "video impressionism"
I have always been interested in stories of ethnographic value e.g. The Successor Generation: South Africa's first generation of voters -made for the BBC and later ITN's Channel 4 News, Nato War Games - training journalists in simulated wars [ please note at the time of making this Flash did not have controls, so you had to use swf files. I'll repost with controls soon]- and more recently Beirut Videojournalists.

I'm pleased to say there's a story that I've been invited to look at which involves young offenders and dance. Many years back I spent a weekend filming in London's notorious Wormwood scrubs prison, reporting on catergory a prisoner - those inside for muder, so this project brings back a social responsibility

So here it is for the first time. Things to remember

  • This was the first time the newspaper journalists were doing this, in a programme I wrote and delivered for the Press Association.
  • In 8 days, they learmed more than enough of the basics to understand construct and voice driven reports. They would later go on to win several awards themselves and an international one this end.
  • Videojournalism since first practicing it in 1994 has moved on, and since 2005 has shifted into free fliming and framing.

VideoJournailsm Today
Today I'm interested in the psychology and kinesethic underpinning what I call Integrated multimedia videojournalilsm - which is the basis of my PhD and a book by a US publisher next year.

And also next year bringing some clever people together we'll be looking to hold an event which looks at what I call Concatenation. A good example would be the Maclaren Buggy wheels and the mechanism of the boeing 747, so if you're a videojournalist or educator please drop me a line. I have been meeting with a fair few tech, think tanks and broadcaster and it's been very positive.

I'll keep you posted on this.