The Future Moving Image Makers - Videojournalism inside tips from Viewmagazine.tv

If you're familiar with this blog and  viewmag, then you'll know that since 2005 it's been sharing ideas on videojournalism.

In the last couple of months I have been writing a taxonomy about non-fiction making and wanted to share one theme with you, which gives you a flavour of the text.

From the many memos and contemporary documents I have been examining I came across a five page memo from one of my managers, who wrote this:

"Sometimes they will shoot on-the-day stories to back up a breaking news event. Sometimes ( and I used the example of  Leah Betts) all four might have to drop what they're doing and pitch in to get the stories for an on-the-day special".

Leah Betts was the tragic story of a young girl who took ecstacy and died in 1995. This paragraph that I have lifted from a 1995 Memo sent to us videojournalists is profound in many ways, in what it meant then almost 20 years ago and what it represents now. Nick Pollard, the originator of the memo, would become the head of news at sky a year later.


The videojournalists oeuvre 

Firstly, that the videojournalists worked on the day to turn around stories is common knowledge to most practitioners. What it doesn't reveal is that VJs would file in around three stories a day.

That aside, if you're able to do that now there's a sense of epiphany you develop approaching a story, in which rather than being complicit with what you know, you approach a story suspicious of what you don't know, and what you're being told.

But the idea of having four videojournalists work on a story is the gem and was used on the IRA bombing of London and other stories, but in a particularly co-ordinated way.

Now when the videojournalists were not working disparately on a bigger canvas story, they would be in close proximity within the theatre of the story and that meant understanding and coordinating what the acting profession calls "blocking".

This involves where you want an actor to stop, so you can place another camera to provide a different view point and a continuity of sequences.

One of three cameras I used. One is in shot. I'm shooting with the other...

Sounds simple enough, not getting in each other's shot path, but it was understanding what frame shot to pick up when you're colleague left the image, that was the interesting event.

The idea of different view points which surfaces between Edwin Porter and DW Griffiths in the early 1900s is one of film makings most eloquent and amazing developments and its held steady since, with more elaborate multi-shot angles devised, except in broadcasting which due to the costs meant one camera, one person.

In this frame from Chicago I have placed clandestine cameras around my run path.

So going back to the Memo, Nick Pollard has found a way for the videojournalists to act as ensemble directors picking up different view points for one production.

Yet what if you work for an outfit where you don't have enough videojournalists to simulate, here's the stylistic breakthrough

As a videojournalist you'd do well to understand multi-camera shooting, in which YOU operate a number of cameras. On the shoot I did for the Southbank and dance company I used four different cameras, placed strategically to minimise blocking. The picture above gives you an idea, as does these below working with Nato, and then my first Mac back in 2000 working with two cameras.

While the camera is the capturing device, what is significant is your understanding of spatial thinking. Where should I be, how does that orientate the viewer, what's the significance of the next shot?

Because, and this is the singular theme from all this: You're speaking through the art of spatial compositioning which placed on a screen is a film, within a building is architecture, and a fixed canvas is design.


What therefore do I conclude:

• That the idea of one camera, one person is defunct. It's a legacy of the 1900s. If you ask anyone why they only have one camera they will probably not be able to give you an adequate answer.
• 
  
• That you would do well to try and learn spatial camera narrative. A part of the text, which I won't go into here involves a philosophy of thinking, transported to filming, developed by Heidegger.
• 
  
• That some interesting concepts exist that have yet to translated into common currency, which I guess is what I am doing now.
• 
  
• And that I hope to at some point extend a masterclass on narrative.

New modes of storytelling

Viewmagazine.tv

Couple of weeks ago in a post I spoke about getting in touch with me concerning my quest and passion to explore the modularities of storytelling.

I had an interesting chat with Giordano who's doing some work in Haiti. He's been on the ground and has built up admirable knowledge about the area and issues.

The extent of that talk should remain confidential as it will, but there are broad principles that need addressing, and are in many quarters.

They include

• Parachute Journalism
• Partisan Journalism
• anniversary journalism 
• And Agenda-fuelled journalism

The latter of these sits in with a methodology of audiencing, the network and editorial values.

The editor chooses when to cover an issue, based around his or her knowledge of the audience's appetite. These are tried and tested methods, often referred to as gate-keeping, which external outfits in today's citizen journalism try and crowbar in their stories, issues etc.

A lot of editors I speak to acknowledge we operate a 19th century model of journalism, even 18th century if you think back to the Addison and Steeles, and we're yet to find a new construct.

This week I had a lengthy talk with the BBCs journalism college and in weeks to come hopefully we'll be able to announce a couple of things that attempt to lance some of those perennial boils of journalism in an artistic and practical manner.

My Background
In reflecting on my own past, I would like to think I have something to offer here. Those reason are both inclusion and being an outsider.

Being black is a statement; I am black, but it comes with a degree of eye-tracking working in the media. In 1987, as a science graduate, you could say I needed my head examined.  I had no contacts, no inside patron, but was fortunate enough to convince others to give me a chance.

So even though I went from one outfit to another e.g BBC, Channel 4, ABC News, South Africa, Ghana, Channel One and so on, I tended to think of myself as an outsider, but with a knowledge how the media operates.

That isn't to say main stream media has the 'knowledge' sown up, but that to prod and find cracks, we must be aware of how they work, as a practitioner and also from an academic point of view- where possible.

I'm continuing in a round of interviews which continue to reinforce my area of expertise sometimes, and also shed light on new areas. Often I have been fascinated by interviewing senior figures, only for them to turn the tables on me and ask what I think.


Multi modal storytelling
There is no one prescriptive method for telling stories.

In many ways the multiple approach we adopt through citizen journalism harks back to an era   pre-equitone - that prose of storytelling from an author as refined by 17th century Addison and Steele and given prominence by Marshall McLuhan.

We find our own accommodations by mimicking others, or borrowing their means. But knowledge does count. It provides Terra ferma to deconstruct these things that appear new, but in many ways have their own antecedents.

To the wire newsmen, twitter is a refinement of the early telegraph and telling a story before the line cut, or in Twitter's case you passed your word count.

Social media yields comparisons with pamphleteering - again in the early days of newspapers, when the princely sum of a few schillings forced people to share their Daily Courants and to talk about its impact in the pub, before the newspaper cryer would appear.

New knowledge and collaborative work comes from sharing, so I'm happy to talk, so please do email.

David

The art of storytelling - video journalism

The art of cinematic videojournalism, David will be revealing his latest piece of work and the strongest link yet to videojournalism irresistible flair.

Video Journalism: We can do this one of two ways; the technical and you'll get something commendable or the creative and I can't tell you where that's going to end, but I can tell you it should not be predictable.

I'm currently going through video after video from judging this year's International Video Journalism Awards, and while I can't and won't say anything about the event, I'm reminded of the theory under pinning good, even great stories.

CONFLICT.

At SXSW where I'm scheduled to talk, I have something that makes that point and the new cinematic language of news telling. It will be something.

There is a story in anything, but to get there we/ you/ me must ask the right questions. If you're new to the game that can be daunting, if you're a bit long in the tooth, then you're forever probing for tensions, seeking the soft underbelly of the story.

It's the collision of attributes, the rub of consequences, the absurd vs normal.

I have to say that's one of the great things about working through the BBC, alongside editors who pushed you, who demanded more, because they believed they/you could deliver.

And that ethos then stays with you, like a bad/good rash, depending. But knowing the technical and even being creative is not enough. It's the kwa, and something else, the passion of it.


The Passion of VJ
Video journalism/ film is passion, a get down and dirty to deliver something out of your comfort, embracing the metronome, the heart of the subject with a peculiar synchronicity.

It works because it works. The technical is subsumed by a creative bent and that passion.

Some people are naturals, but most film makers go through the pain, years of the graft; there's no short cut, you have to make, and make and make some more and often come away feeling it was not good enough.

You're like a chef. Having learned the basics, you then start experimenting, and often that gunk ends up in the bin, but you try again until you know you're onto something. And then the inner flamboyance, the passion takes you because when you're confident you start to fly by the seat of your pants.

You're tempting failure each time you attempt something. Not because you're maniacal, but you want to push and push some more.

I love film and video. After 22 years I still approach it like hyperactive toddler and each time I see something in say, Man o Fire or one of those cutting edge one dot zero films, I exhale a "wow" and return to my Mac wanting to see if I can replicate the narrative and then redefine it for my own use.

The art of storytelling can be found in many books, but you've got to let go. "just let go". Pick up the bike, ride it, fall off, then get back on, ride some more and then when you're confident close your eyes and ride. It's hairy yet ultimately exhilarating.

Tell me a story - The art of storytelling

The room, animated with the whirring din of conversation, wine freely flowing, all of a sudden died to a gentle hush.
The throng of guests all seated slowly began to rise, parting like the chorus line of a black and white 20s film.

There he was.. the man...and he was heading my way.

I wiped the palm of my hand on a napkin, bowed my head gently in expectation and extended my hand; a colleague sitting nearby did the intro.

Mr Mandela this is David…….

At that moment brimming with deity conscious I looked at the official photographer.

He looked back.

And then shrugged his shoulders, mouth upturned gesticulated at his camera; the film had finished.

And that was that.

My encounter with Mr Mandela is but a hard copy of an image available only in my mind.


Emotional
If you’ve laughed at or sympathised with me in some way, then it may well be because I have told a good story.

The grand denouement of meeting a figure many of us would want to encounter; the picture which we would have wanted to show mum, dad, family and friends but alas no film.

Grrr the chances of that happening; the chances of any of that happening.

The art of storytelling appears as an article in this months Havard Business Review (HBR) from an author Peter Gubber who’s credentials as a film maker and executive with Rain Man, Batman and the Colour Purple behind him shows he tells far better cracking stories than I do.


It would be a trite difficult to at first think there is a philosophy that underlines telling a good story, but this article and a fair few before it brings the issues bang up to date.

Gubber delineates four areas of storytelling crucial to the form as follows:

Truth to the audience

Truth to the Mission

Truth to the teller

Truth to the moment

With such momentos as a storyteller never tells the same story twice and the unwritten contract between author and audience.

Sadly HBR's article is locked behind a pay wall and it wouldn't quite be cricket to recount the article chapter and verse, not to mention the ethical implications.

They want to make money on it, so be it.

But it did have me reflect on my journey looking at the art of storytelling particularly with a video camera in hand.

At its basic level videojournalism is point and shoot, and in some cases that's enough for the story when it's unfolding as a dramatic event before your very eyes.

But there are many times when its the construct, a visual-auditory jigsaw puzzle which relies on more than what's in front of you.

I often use this example if you want to play along.

You're driving 50km/hr on a road and a ball bounces in front of your car.

What do you do?

Now, instinct, don't think, what are you about to do?

breaking instinct

If you work in the police force you'd have been coached to slam the breaks; there is a child running after that ball.

Instinct, learnt or otherwise is a powerful reaction to what we do; film making no exception.

Sometimes it comes from practice; there's a reason why actors graduate to directors or news makers become doc- film makers.

The art of making mistake after mistake and refinning that moulds a different perspective.

The art of videojournalism; perhaps the boldest transition to newsmaking, as one person carves out the whole news journey, involves more than a multitude of knowledge nuggets involving tech-push buttons and point and shoot.

I'm reading the HBR article again and agree with all their points, but if I were to sum up videojournalism in four points it would be

Passion

People

Perpectives

Preparation

And briefly before I let a yarn go sour, it goes something like this.

I'm nuts about video and it's look and feel; how it can be manipulated; how the sound adds to the video; how what's usually out of the lens adds to he story; how leave people to do so and they'll tell you what the story is; and rather contradictory how you've got to work the story to get the best out of people and it.

If it looks easy, it may be because it is, but I have got into the habit of discarding my first idea - too easy.

Where's the hook e.g. emotion, draw etc?

People, people, people; at parties I'd be in the kitchen listening to stories and different perspectives.

And then the prep work that goes on behind the scene and on the ground, by the-seat-of-your-pants and by engineered desire.

And that in a nuteshel is it, unless that is you want me to flesh out some, and if that's the case then this story is not as bad as I thought after all.

to be continued. . .