The Z principle

The BBC's resources allow for it, but even then their division of labour means the doc feature is undertaken by a team of specialists.

The news then takes over cutting a 2 min piece that both serves as a genuine news item and also a de facto promo for the longer feature.

Watching the BBC's evening news I counted two items shot with the long lens approach i.e. a cinema-doc aesthetic.

Wounded on the BBC tonight is a first in many ways; the first time a BBC crew has been allowed by the Ministry of Defence to report on the progress of wounded soldiers severely injured on the front line. The content is raw, also reflected in the film style - a gentle piano plays in the background.

News' traditional aesthetic couldn't have matched the impact. So let's return to how I started.

The BBC has the resources to do this, but as a videojournalism outfit you don't. But in an environment bursting with video how do you make a difference?

At the South Bank in a couple of weeks I'll be presenting in one of the theatres how I put the z-principle and the tao of videojournalism into action anytime I take on a story.

Also, I'll be highlighting the swift turnover involved in the art of video packaging and how the collision of news, cine videojournalism and art work together.

That often, subconsciously now involves the rubik news cube- which i use to ensure the item meets some of the characteristics of new production. (see fig above)

One of the by-products of video packaging we rarely talk about is archive and its use in contemporary made features. In a short I'm currently cutting from South Africa I'm using archive as a core primary purpose to drive the film.

Arc of the creative videojournalism's network

The ubiquity of video is as necessary as Darwinism, which is why broadcasters and newspapers needn't really panic.

Those that have a pedigree and are talented will always find kindred souls attentive to their station.

Video's flurry though is being played in an environment of short term gains and commercialism.

A small blip in any institution's balance sheet will have huge knock-ons as many of us are witnessing from the present sick economy.

But just as speech is on tap, the ability to write spread like a virus, our notion of meritocracy and the commonwealth ideas firmed, there are still defining principles that govern us and those that are good at what they do like an organic nucleophilic reaction continue to fizz.

We're attracted to the aesthetic, the sublime and the incredulous and we hanker information - the antithesis to sitting in a room mind-dead. Immanuel Kant famously coined our definition from the former, aesthetics.

Aesthetics
Why do we look and admire something we have no intimate relationship before hand?

It's stood the test of time and is so profound it will serve as the alpha of how we perceive that which continues to arouse our senses.

We're also creatures of trust. It's immanent, exist as an index which cannot be bought. It's there. Sometimes it arises by association, often it's worked through overtime. Brand loyalty is the ethereal currency.

This year many students will graduate unsure of their next destination. The rational word from conversation shops is don't panic. Cold comfort, but this scenario is not without precedent.

This year higher education applications are up. In times of recession, further studies or even buying good time have good purpose.

My own experience back in 91 annoyingly at the time led me to do something I never contemplated doing, leaving the UK. It's not an easy and available option. And then seeking further studies years on at the LSE.

Playing the long game in today's break-neck speed society, which isn't easy, may provide the time to develop your own aesthetic and where possible nourish the mind.

The recession has become the bogey man, but the ubiquity and low-hanging fruit paradigm of today's digital garden would have compound matters anyway and will continue to do so in this fluid dynamic state.

McLuhan in Understanding Media gives this a perspective:

After three thousand years of specialist explosion, and of increasing specialism and alienation in the technological extensions of our bodies, our world has become compressional by dramatic reversal"

If everyone can do what you can do, where is the value? They said that about speech and writing as well, they'll soon say that with videography (which means writing with video) and videojournalism.

Seeking the aesthetic in its phenomenologically sense, may not be a bad start.