Poetic Logic : Creativity beyond the rational

Scary story! You’ve been working for an outfit for some 15 years — even as a regular freelancer, you had some inkling of the next pay cheque.

I did stints at the BBC, WTN, Channel One and the rest and then one day at Channel 4 News the dreaded knife struck. A dozen of us were let go.

If it has happened to you yet it’ll come in some guise. For new grads coming onto the market, it’s equally scary as they send off cv after cv — been there too.

For mid-careerists, at some point you’re either elect to go alone having built up a cadre of contacts or take that leap into the unknown.

Army personnel speak about their life inside the forces, compared to outside, civvy street where a simple trip of going to the grocery is alien. Even Presidents talk about the loss of trappings and attention. I’ve been neither, but I can’t think the feeling is any different.

So what do you do?

I read endless self-help books — course you do. Anything that works and audited my own experiences and then fundamentally made the web and new associates my friend; networks became my partners, and my transferable skills an unlikely hidden gem.

Today, as a university lecturer, who still practices his craft, my passion has been to pass it on. Invariably this pathway can be traditional, but there exists a poetic logic — an unwritten manner at creativity beyond the rational in pursuing a goal, which can make your work stand out.

The term derives from the work of the great Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky. Poetic logic from a poetic conscious attempts to create a unique and aesthetic course to complement your identity. You are the artist — and the job can be anything.

I have learned over the years there is no one size-fits all, because cultures, societies, different races create different meanings. My job, I have come to learn is to inspire; to open up new learning practices; to pass on cognitive skills e.g.reading human behaviour consuming media; to acknowledge fears and concerns as necessary, and understand why and what’s happening.

My deepest desires is to channel what I have learned, to utilise my experience as a professional, an artist in residence at the South Bank Centre, a researcher imbuing my complex identity like most of us ( I’m a Black Briton, with a German grandmother) to forge a path that rewards emotionally (emotional intelligence) and financially.

If that sounds reasonable, I’d love to be involved in what you’re doing, to cross paths, to as, Jude Kelly the Artistic Director of the South Bank says: “to collide”.

What’s the point, after all of acquiring all of this if you don’t intend to engage.

Please contact me here David@viewmagazine.tv and here @viewmagazine

Dr. David Dunkley Gyimah
University of Westminster
www.daviddunkleygyimah.com
www.viewmagazine.tv

Advice for getting the job that does not exist. Bowl them over. Do something epic

Lemn Sissay poet and Mark Cousins, film maker behind The Story of Film

Get that job by doing something epic

I love this story,  This link shows you an amazing feat. Do something epic!

It might be common place now and its perhaps not the same person as I can't find the original link. But the story is he emailed a surfing competition to enter as an exhibitor and was turned down.

Then he sent them one of his pics.

The organisers wrote back immediately.. when can you come? They couldn't get him fast enough.

We are conditioned to tell people "er maybe". "No, there is no job", "let's have a chat and see", when you go for a internship, speculative visit, or answer an invitation from a contact.

Where possible I try and recommend ex students to employers and I know from my long experience. If YOU BOWL THEM OVER, they have no choice but to want to employ you.

So I coach people on what to say; not tell untruths, because if they had nothing to offer I wouldn't be able to recommend them in the first place.

I know from my own experience it works, and also to my cost as I came closer to a BBC reporters job, after meeting for lunch the BBC head of foreign news in 2002. He acknowledged I had a diverse and interesting CV, and I learnt you can't afford to be anything than persistent.

The question you must ask yourself then is what can you do to bowl them over.

As Eminen says, you only have one shot at this, so rehearsals, preparation, visualisation are crucial. You should know what's going to be asked. The usuals. Hello, how can I help you, what have you done, what would you like to do?

Epic Mania @SXSW coverage Austin 2009 by IM Videojournalism from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

DO SOMETHING EPIC ( loved this too during my sxsw presentation)

Firstly then you drive the interview. Patiently but with determination, stack up the approach. I had one friend who got a job at sky. She got the job, not me. But I was able to steer her so she drove the 30 minute slot. She had one film we worked on that she made for my magazine viewmagazine.tv. It was a premiere of a film with Beyonce et al - the sort of thing the client would love. 

So I said to her as soon as the pleasantries were over she needed to show the hirer the video and let it do the talking. because on that video, she fantastically demonstrated a plurality of skills.

1. Chasing the interviewee. Have you seen how on the red carpet reporters have to hail and scream, There's a way of doing this. A colleague of mine made it an art form to the extent rival cameramen and women would reserve a spot for her because they knew if she got them close by, they'd get the shot as well.

2. She had done her research so the interview came across as a warm engaging chat.

3. She demonstrated she could go toe to toe with the professionals, because to her left was the BBC and to her right was Sky.

So firstly you need to leave an impression with them which is so profound they talk about you in the next meeting. Secondly ask yourself what you've done that is profound?  A film, a website, and your attitude!

Film impression

Your film should not be garden variety ie normal, but something truly exceptional and short enough to hold their attention with the possibility that its long enough to want them to see more.

Website impression

It should have functionality and content pertinent to the person you;re talking to. By the time you finish with them, they'll say can you make a site like this for us. This happened to a working colleague of mine who picked up an award from Channel 4, only to be stopped by another exec requesting if she could build one for them.

Attitude impression

What makes you exceptional?  Don't suck up to them. Your independence, but likability, and warmth must suggest you'll be a great asset. Do you know how to get interviews? You need to demonstrate this with a story... What's the most exceptional thing you've done? A friend of mine could blag a helicopter to fly his guest. I once did the same in South Africa covering Miss World I had a helicopter pick me up for free and they brought me back 

I'm about to post some interesting things on viewmagazine.tv, I'm picking from what won't be going into my PhD submission early next year. It's been five deep years and its been illuminating.

David Dunkley Gyimah was voted outstanding lecturer by the National Union of Students at the University of Westminster. He is an award winning videojournalist, Knight Batten winner in Innovation in Journalism and a trainer consultant specialising in:

• Creativity
• Media cognitivism and semiotics
• Videojournalism and online branding and web building

As a broadcast journalist he's worked for the BBC, ABC News, Channel 4, WTN  etc.


Artist in Residence, Southbank Centre
Academic & Videojournalist
www.viewmagazine.tv
Twitter: viewmagazine

Lessons from Tunisia in Video journalism and Creativity

David Dunkley Gyimah training videojournalists in Tunsia with the IPWR

"Creativity in television depends upon the building of teams of individuals whose talents are complementary and who, in combination are, able to make programmes which are more original, more effective and more valuable than any of them can achieve alone".

Grace Wyndham Goldie, Pioneering BBC exec. 

True or false?

The example given by Wyndham Goldie to support her point is of Tony Hancock, a brilliant comedian of the 1950s who begun to resent the writers and producers who shaped his material. His team would break up and Hancock would commit suicide.

But being at the beginning of television Wyndham Goldie, a revered figure in broadcasting, could see creative genius much closer than anyone else could.

But how many of us will get to work in television?

Through out the years,  a coterie of creatives e.g. Eddie Murphy, Robbie Williams, etc. have at times try to rid themselves of the team that made them who they were.

But if creativity cannot be achieved in a team how do we account for the many such as the artist e.g.  Cezanne; Musician e.g. Jay-Z; Olympic Medalists e.g. Mo Farah and the Videojournalist, YOU accounting for your brilliance in what you do?

In reality all these sets are still supported creatively, at the very least through emotional support.

Even the lone painter or photojournalist seeks the comfort of others. The octogenarian photographer Bill Cunningham in his absorbingly portrayed documentary Bill Cunningham New York  is the loner personified, but don't be fooled. Cunningham's experience comes from absorbing a life time of support - some concrete, some abstract.

If Videojournalism was about working solo, then it inadvertently propagated a lie, which was not of its choosing.  Being able to work alone, doesn't mean you must work alone. Conversely as one of my favourite philosopher's Heidegger put it, being able to think doesn't give you the power of thought.

One of several promos, some broadcast on CNN International made in the 90s by David

The experience of working as a videojournalism-driven station and also within a structured environments proves something. We, ill-equip the individual who needs to believe in their own independence and creativity. By yourself Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule is a yardstick, but there are many other factors.

The maths goes if you work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week then that's the equivalent of 250 working units, of which could constitute 250 stories. For two consecutive years as a videojournalist I, with other video journalists shot and produced more than 500 stories each ; after that working a news agency I must have cut the equivalent.

Innovation was a hallmark of videojournalism, but so was swift turnarounds.  This stand up covering an early morning police briefing on a raid involved no other camera operator, circa 1994

The quest then becomes what structures we need to increase the knowledge of the lone videojournalists. Renaissance creatives built the idea of the apprentice. When the teacher became too remote in contemporary society we searched for exemplars through literature. But we could never question them, so the preferred route was to look for flaws in their monologues by reading others.

The unchallenged dogma in a blog is as dangerous as Wyndham Goldie's understanding that the unchallenged documentary film of the 1930s, was no barometer at reaching truths, just because some one said believed so.

My role in working across regions has been to build a sort of library of learning and output styles.  And something appears to be emerging from my experience working across Beirut, Cairo and now with Tunisian videojournalists and its profound enough for me to believe it mirrors the creativity of television of the 1950s, which I'll talks more about in my next post. In the meantime I'm posting a short on viewmagazine.tv as an introduction to videojournalism - Tunisia.

Emerging talent from Tunisia in the new wave art of videojournalism

David Dunkley Gyimah is an international award winning videojournalist who has taught around the world and is completing a radical study of future film making for his doctorate. He lectures at the University of Westminster and publishes on Viewmagazine.tv

Cinema journalism and web sites - a carnival of ideas and the subconscious

How does style and form matter in creativity

It isn't enough to say what you have, where you've studied, worked, or even the awards you might have won.  It might help, but there's something else... 

Learning to break into different forms of media, even innovative types of creativity involves learning about the greats in image and film making. As Gilles Deleuze, one of the great philosophers states, good film makers are good  philosophers who put theories into practice and create theories from practices.

Take DW Griffiths Birth of a Nation. It was supremely racist, and draws justifiably no end of polemics. 

That it has been included in the US library of Congress' national library, nominated by Jon Singleton, is worth noting.

Because in film making terms, you can't ignore it. Griffiths was one of the first to cross cut, a technique which he lifted from literature. And, almost everything we know about classic film making in grand vistas and narrative is in that film, made in 1915.

Styles of Video 
I specialise in a very specific style of video news making and image making, for which I count web making and commercials, via deploying various empirical theories. Apologies, that's not meant to be arrogant, it's a reworking of De Caprio's line in Inception which makes a point.

The subconscious De Caprio's character mentions is the space of the intangible. Consciously, you might think of doing one thing, subconsciously, the theory-side could sway you elsewhere. It leads onto the question, how do you know what you know?

presenting the news in 1994

This an hour lecture I delivered last week to a group of Chinese students, and used similar thought processes in videojournalism and the rest.

For the web, I asked why does a web site look like a web site and not a tea cup? Various responses ranged from because they do, that's obvious, to because that book/ person said so.

Try asking the question and see where you land. Yet in 1994, as I presented the news that was a legitimate question then as it is now. The news item was about this new thing called web sites.




Carnival of cinema journalism ideas

The conceptual approach towards the formation of theory involved testing the students on a number of cognitive approaches applied to film and web sites.

For instance this is one of the 90 slides, where the Chinese graduates judge which one they prefer and why.

The most interesting response came from a student whose English wasn't as good as his colleagues, but his expression was captivating. Most preferred (b) and his response is he was in the space with the boy and could feel him running. Theorists characterise this as phenomeology.

But the question remains, why he liked (B).  You might now quote the rule of thirds, which at best can be described as a mathematical variable, we appear to be hard wired to. But then something remarkable happened - the early signs of a concept that needs further testing.

When I showed them this next slide.

Many preferred (A) - a painting from the Ming Dynasty. Few preferred (c) a Caravaggio piece, but surprisingly many leaned towards (B) Picasso's Guernica.

Now, yes this could be based on their aesthetic -which one draws their interest - which is in itself part of the test.

I then countered with a physical exercise to test this last find. The green shoots of chaotic design persisted, even though there were signs of a balance.

What does this tell us?

If as Schmidt, Google's CEO says China will dominate the web in the next five years, then there could be a fundamental shift in design an application.

Then I got them to assess themselves using this programme (1 of 2 to look at learning styles of individuals)  which would help verify their level of visual skills.

And this is what it said about Cynthia Yuan, a 20 year old majoring in New Media Art and Design.

After half an hour employing a wisdom of crowds approach and using the questions in the lecture the teams produced a series of websites looking at the futures.

The image below represents one conceptual page - which sees the web as cinema a 3D  map of web pages, in which you can speak live to real people and the site projects into physical space.

I saw something similar in China last year.

This is the front page with its navigational rollodeck

And this is an example of an inner page. Again the site encompasses a cinema feel.

And finally showed them a short videojournalism piece I made produced two different ways to test
how they distinguished between different forms. This is what Cynthia Yuan had to say.

I think the first one is a piece of news and the other is cinema.
The news should be short time like the first one. The news should tell a complete story in concise language. And say the most important things in the beginning of the video. The cinema should be based on the documentary , and then join the artistic expression like the second video's clock. It has been many times to express that time is running out. There is a change in time order. And the second video also has many close-up that is the most different from the news.

For me this is all fascinating, because it's not taking anything for granted, but proving how theory can reinforce practices. You'll notice that Cynthia is referencing the manner in which she sees the images in her manner of prescribing different forms.

In the last five years I have conducted several of these empirical studies and the strand on video is currently being written up, and will be delivered as an executive videojournalism programme in Tunisia at the end of the month.

Next week I am in Dublin, if you're around UCD, let's do a meet up with talks and coffees.

The flaneurist Mediaist - Videojournalism and photojournalism

The flaneurist mediaist - PhotoVideojournalism in China. David roams the streets looking for material to film.

From Wikipedia
The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer"—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of "a person who walks the city in order to experience it.

Inspired by two separate but connected incidents today I set about an experiment of sorts.  The first catalyst was my PhD supervisor noting my latest submission.

Sometimes I wonder whether it's possible to abandon critical theory in unveiling the molecularity of a subject, and instead opt for a historical account,  as many have that reveals and connects events previously unnoticed.

The second was Adam Westbrook's dissection of The Sartorialist. Adam does a wonderful job in deconstructing, which led to a couple of things catching my attention.

Firstly the movement of the camera and subject which created a poetic distanciation. Secondly, the close ups - the affective shot; and lastly when Scott Schuman says he just does "it". "It" being the creative process, what does he mean?

It is a given, if that process could be revealed as a formulae, it would be prized.  It is the "it" that I am at pains to do justice to, as a process to decipher.

The Creative It
In essence the "it" is beyond common sense and reasoning, Your subjectivity extends beyond the norms of 1st degree sensations. It is not external but becomes internalised; you feel it. You become lost in the process as the viewer watching "it".

This is pure cinematic, as opposed to cinema. And sometimes the sensation is so grand, so cosmic, you're in awe.  This is not my extempore, but those convened from Metz, Kant, Deleuze.

For the likes of Schuman and anyone else who has spent long enough pondering or working their craft. "It" is their DNA. It cannot be transferred. It's you voice, the conscious becoming the unconscious.

Right, so back to the inspiration. In and up to the edge of the 20th century, the photojournalist, photographer ruled when it came to the profoundness of the image, as opposed to the cineist who excelled in the moving image.

The invention of the word Videojournalism, and its deconstruction, which we've  set about doing as a body working with David Hayward BBC journalism College, and Paul Egglestone from UCLAN, leaves open several experiments.

The first, could the moving image decompose the still image? Could one day on your IPad or device yet to be invented, the moving image become a dominant thing, usurping the still image?

Now at this moment in time, there are scores of photojournalists who might shout never. Nothing beats the still image. Its immanence; the fact it is still capturing that singular moment defies any other logic for a contender.

Paintings vs Photography
But history tells us otherwise. We only need to look at painting and the revelation of perspective and Brunelleschi's, work in the 15th century. So for at least five centuries from that point, nothing could challenge the dominance of the still image as executed by painters.

Curiously our swiftness to be dismissive is redolent of that age old saying from Plato that in effect our knowledge is only as good as that we are conscious about.

At one point everyone, intelligent men and women believed the world was flat. Elsewhere social theorist Clay Shirky reveals how change takes place over years and not months and weeks, which we fight each other about.

So change is practicable, and the framework that often defines that nestles in trend extrapolation, new philosophies and the unknown. Yes and there are the obvious quack ideas.

So back to the idea. Today, I set about as the PhotoVideojournalist out to capture events. A sort of realism, where people at work would just by being reveal a bit of themselves.

That in itself may have little consequence, other than how people react to different systems: video and Photos. A photographer takes a single image, so the subject is attentive for that moment; in video, there lies a different behaviour, and the series of images are rendered obstinate without sequences or filmic meaning. Oh dear!

Lucy - stall holder

Miles - Street Performer

Guy- Tax advisor

Next I plan to see, utilising Vertov's notion of the loop, which we used in some award winning work in the 1990s, to see if I can affect a classification near to the affect of the image. By coding it in Flash using Action Scripting 3 I can sustain the loop, so the image revolves slowly enough - a liquid image- before the user changes the scene.

The next step which I'm talking to Jude Kelly at the Southbank should complete the process. :) I hope to return to talk about that.

What becomes of interactivity and video journalism?

Creativity at the Smart Lab this Friday - inventing the future

I'm sat behind my terminal writing up 5,000 words to add to my thesis, then I went searching for references and came across this text right at the bottom of this post. It made me chuckle.

Its context is my starry-eyed talk I gave at the National Press Club in DC. Here one of the judges, Mark Hinojosa describes what happened as he was about to turn in for the night.

Now, I have to say this text I have included here has little to do with self -sycophancy, but more the experience of Mark's son and the notion of judgement, which is highly subjective.

Because, because you will or have probably built something and the odd person, sometimes, even quite a few people will pooh pooh it.

We all make great critics, but ultimately if you think you've got a hang on what you're doing and the audience, persevere.

That's not to say we shouldn't take advice. I do all the time. The wisdom of crowds is a great lecturer; one that's deployed at the smart lab all the time.

But rule 1 of creativity is you may not be able to please everyone all the time, so sometimes it pays to trust your instinct.

Like others, I have had the rare opportunity to work with some fabulous people in my broadcasting career, in some of the most respected broadcast companies e.g radio, TV, advertising, design.

Yet often posts over solo vjism or multiskilling often yield an interesting stream of emails.

Firstly, it's as if one is mutually exclusive to the other and secondly, that as a multiskilled journalist you can't master the "inception to air" work flow, which once involved five/six people.

You can, I'm still learning, but it will become a contracted cycle in this meta-existence age.

One day a pod might just shoot off to mars with one astronaut doing the whole navigation and cruising.

If you believe in technological determinism then this is the space which is expanding and reshaping what we do.

So this week I'll be heading off to the Future lab play shop, where everyone and anyone mixes and mashes it up and supposedly creates more mayhem. Nice mayhem, if you know what I mean.

Here's Mark :

Mark Hinojosa:
I have to admit that the first time I saw this when we were judging – they send out the entry list to the judges and we look at them at home – it was about the 20th thing I had seen and I was about to bag it for the night. And I got to David’s site and went, “Damn, this is interesting.” So I went and got my 14-year-old son, sat him down and said, “What do you think?” And I watched him navigate this, totally caught up in it. I mean he was just flying through it, reading some of it, clicking on it, making me think this has got something to show me.

I really encourage you to go visit this site, viewmagazine.tv, because one of the things that you’ll find in it is that David does a lot of the things we don’t do in traditional media. It’s a very point of view piece. There’s a lot of opinion. It’s very first person. It’s very much following the reporter’s experience through the situation. So you’re caught up in the storyteller aspect, not as the objective outsider looking down or the fly on the wall looking in on it, but as a participant moving through the experience. I find that very engaging, and I think it’s something that you all will find engaging, too.

More here

How much is enough?

The site's up, films and multimedia loaded. Shiny new thing, glaring at you. Satisfaction. Job well done.

Some will criticise, because that's what they do; others will muse and offer critique-based solutions.

"That doesn't work because you've broken the line".

And then there's your own internal alter ego.

For some people, it's just never enough.

When did Pollock know that was the last brush stroke?

How could the four year old know she'd finished her master piece: a sun flower?

When is enough, enough?

Bouncers
Firstly the critic who offers nothing does not help you. If you can, continue the journey.

The one who offers you a reason why it doesn't work, is the friend to hang onto.

They constitute the "bouncers". You bounce ideas off them and they come good.

And at some point you begin to question yourself as if your list of bouncers surrounded you.

You become your own best critiic.


Natures bouncers congregate
PhD seminars, The Smart Lab, is exactly like that.

Non ellitist, which cuts against the grain of thinking, each person has a defined goal and in the midst of others is trying to find new windows, clear direction.

And all the while, surrounded by people who ask questions, simple ones: why does that do this?

Flâneur flâneuse kila mapping, New forms of music Online, online spaces, perfomers using their dance to create digital paintings, Virtual Nomads visualisation.

I did not understand all, but I got let into a new world, out of my confort zone, which in turn sparked new ideas and I was always all too ready to say: I don't understand".

The package on Ron Edwards and his virtual worlds and how videojournalism would work inside is but one example of the adage: if you want to know about water don't ask a fish.

The solutions for what we often might try to achive live beyond the boundaries of what I already know, that at least is something I have come to appreaciate.

Hillman Curtis' Flash expertise, Rob Chiu's amazing Motion Graphics... peoples whose experience play into the hands of videojournalism, which simply can't be a manifestation of an old language refined for a new era.

Getting your bouncers to work
We often get so wrapped up with own ideas we miss the tree from the woods.

Here is where your bouncer works. They don't mollycuddle you, wrap you with cotton bud comments, or turn their nose.

They're trying to get you into a space where you might realise your own flaws, and in cases explain better your own understanding at convincing them.

At Smart Lab we had these 10 minute presentations, punctuated by immediate and overnight feedback from the 20 or so other cohorts.

It was as exhilirating as it was nerve wracking.

The experience is one to adopt. In some cases it already exists now, online, through comments and emails from those we establish a bond and relationship with.

Three more rules to add to the evolving manifest of web and videojournalism.

Protect your bouncers

Protect your golden hour - each time of the day you have a peak creative zone. Identify it and make sure you do nothing else during that period but creative things.

Protect yourself - If it hasn't happened it's waiting to be done. It's never enough