VideoJournalism's film making Sony & Panosonic pro choice - Viewmagazine.tv David Dunkley Gyimah's tale

The explosion in videojournalism and equipment is one of the most exciting features 0f the last five years.

Some of you may know my work in using small DV cams and even though this has allowed for a range of video projects, there is still something to be said about using pro cameras.

I appreciate this may be out of reach on your pocket, but I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about my background and how as a videojournalist using pro cameras has been significant in my understanding of cinematography in broadcasting and filmmaking.

The top shot is from 2002 when I was hired by World Heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis to shoot his fight: Lennox Lewis Vs. Tyson, one of the most anticipated fights of the decade.

Here I am at base camp in the Poconno Mountains, before setting off to Memphis at the Pryamid Arena to to cover the fight.

This was a really nice camera. It's been a while so I may be wrong but I believe it's the Sony HVR-S270U which which is around $5000. It's quite light but with a good centre of gravity and interchangeable lens which you could play around with e.g. Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar Zoom Lens, 12x f = 4.4-52.8mm, f = 32-384mm at 16:9 mode, f = 39.5-47.4mm (4:3 mode)

Now what's significant about the use of a camera like this is that journalists learning video journalism would rarely work with a pro camera, which had a larger range of ND filters and other accessories to improve the picture quality.

Many journalists were more likely to start their careers with DV cams.

This is one of my favourite cameras - the Digi beta 970P It's top of the range and cost then about £50,000. I uses this on several shoots but all always hired them.

Here I am shooting a feature for Channel 4 News in South Africa in 1999.

These are some of its features:

• amazing high quality pic with a compression ratio of around 2.1
• Good weighted centre of gravity
• It shot 625/25P progressive mode and 625/50i interlaced mode
• Good sound at 20 bit resolution

You'll notice it has a Matte box at the front of the lens which allowed me to use different filters.

I think that is a hugely important point, because I am altering the look of what I'm recording at source. If you've ever graded your films you'll know what I mean.

Using different filters allowed me to imprint a colour-code to the image I perceived.

In one of the shots that I'm hoping to find and post I've altered between deep red filters and harsh colours in trouble spots in the townships - all through filters.


Here, you can just about see the camera on my left.

This shot really illustrates the structure of the camera.

And finally another shot as a videojournalist using a Panasonic in Paris - the aftermath of the Death of Princess Di, 1997 reporting from France, Champs Elysee.

I remeber this shoot well. I got some pretty strange stairs doing a stand-up by myself in the middle of a busy shopping lane.

Now why is this in some way interesting? It's interesting because of the difference between DV cams, pro cams and the new brill kid on the block the Canon 5D II.

I think something really interesting is happening here in the videojournalists firmament, in who comes from a journalism background and those that come from a picture background.

It' not so clear cut because there will be always be overlaps but I think you'll find that
a lot of photographers looking to video are opting for the Canon, while pro journalists are gravitating towards the camcorders.

I don't use a Canon 5D Mk II just yet, as so far my body muscle memory still likes the phantom hold for the Camcorder. It's a matter of ergonomics: the way its held, its feel and the assets I get from the camera.

One of the my training partners at the Press Association who has one says it's more geared towards the doc because of difficulties in pulling focus.

That's an issue whose pros have been sold to outweigh the cons. You try filming on the fly with a 50mm lens at 1.2 - great shallow depths but difficult to control on the fly, unless you push your f-stop higher and shoot deep-focus, but even then.

Hollywood had an answer for these, the focus puller.

A couple of years back a Sony exec was adamant that the small cameras would never feature interchangeable lens. I'll post that vid as well when I locate it.

Well, my guess though is that there's a real fight erupting behind the scenes and it will only be a matter of time before the small DVcams make way for lens changes.

Otherwise video cameras may well lose the intiative in much the same way Hoover did to the Dyson.

And that will be exciting. At the moment I work with an adaptor on my JVC GY100 with a prime lens, which gives me OK enough quality, (though better than the vx1000) but no where near the same picture size as the pro cameras I used.

That said if you are a videojournalist, I'm pretty much camera agnostic. But if you can, I do recommend getting your hands on a pro camera and getting the feel and sense of what it does, which will let you appreciate more where you are with the small accessible gear.

Beirut Videojournalism Press release more expained

Beirut Videojournalism - Media Press Release ( see previous release)

"There is a world that lies between art and what is beyond the artist's imagination, a place where laws are defied and nature grows in your living room. Surpassing design, luxury and anything that meets the eye it can be yours. Discover a world beyond".

Pic taken by David in Beirut


Immediate use

A combination of free framing and visual gut instinct - is what it boils down to - when constructing stories on the hoof.

Sometimes an innocuous image may carry significant value later in the film process. It may not seem like driving an F1 ( far from it) but the process of quick thinking and rethinking is required to fashion a narrative, when at face value it's nothing more than a closed event.

This is one method how David goes about creating videojournalism films. It's part a mimetic art, part muscle memory from one's past, he says, but the key is to capture the "sign-sentence"- which David has been developing as part of his PhD thesis at the Smart Lab.

A lot of brilliant film makers I know find it difficult to explain the process. Not the physicality of say the rule of thirds and crossing the line, but the kineasthetic and its phenomenology.

That's the part I'm interested in the same way for instance if you place four people with no apparent relationship together, as I did three weeks ago lecturing to a group of Chinese University students, everyone automatically starts making symmetrical groups out of them.

You have to ask yourself why this is?

Videojournalism and Artistic practice
David has been translating the surface art of his work into areas such as:

• IMVJ -Integrated Multimedia Videojournalism. Brings together bespoke online site building with videojournalism. See soon current crop of Masters students he's been supervising
  
• Vlog Butterfly - Visual Blog interviews
  
• The Cinemaphome - which he's currently developing with other areas of visualisation at the SMARTlab PhD School
• etc.
  

This year he commences an artist in residency at London's leading cultural and arts centre and Europe’s largest centre for the arts, the South Bank Centre.

Previous residents have included Orchestras such as:

• London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Philharmonia Orchestra

And artists such as: Bellowhead, Cape Farewell, Shlomo, Lemn Sissay and Rahayu Supanggah.

David runs viewmagazine.tv - which is an example of IMVJ - which is his labour of love. He has trained or lectured extensively in places such as Podgorica, Montenegro; Norway, Chicago and Miami and recently in Beirut- where he's completed a videojournalism film about videojournalism.

Image from Beyond Broadcast Media Futures 2000 - in which David is dues to put together a feature looking at the future of broadcast

Sonic Conversations and films

It was designed to repel teenagers gathering outside shop fronts.

The mosquito emitted a high frequency noise only audible to teenagers.

However shop owners had not anticipated the black lash and the civil rights implications some youth groups would raise.

But then some youngster got wise and transformed the noise into a ring tone.

And the ring tone is not only a device to thwart teachers but also keep one step ahead of parents and the police.

Just one of the things discussed in a session today on sound crafting at the Smart Lab which included a fascinating talk around sound war fare and sonic water cannons.

The latter sees how you can send a stream of narrow audible sound, even subliminal messages so unless you're standing in an exact particular spot, you'll hear nowt.

Tomorrow we'll be down at the Dana centre, part of the science museum, looking at citizen film makers.

They'll be speakers on avatar-characters, collaborative film making and mobile phone features.

The questions have been asked before, but we've moved on a bit, so could this new discourse in film ever challenge the status quo.

How much is this new quantum in film making innovation over substance and is it only the preserve of niche audiences?

Video making, Video Journalism, Film making, Film Art?

(VIDBLOG) I Just Left - Europe 2008 from justin on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this:

Here's what the author says of himself

I spent 11 days in Europe in September. I went without a plan, by myself. All I knew is that I was going to visit Berlin since I had a friend there, and that I needed to fly out of Heathrow on the following Tuesday. Everything between was more or less played by ear.

The first days were lonely, I was lucky enough to meet some cool people at the hostel I was staying at in Paris and traveled with them a bit. Berlin was great since I already knew someone and could easily get to know all their friends. It was just such a fun, spontaneous, adventure. Exactly what I wanted it to be.

The vidblog was edited sequentially, meaning I didn't rearrange any of the shots in time - for the most part it's an accurate, linear showcase of who I met and where I went. Enjoy.
To his site

Is it video journalism, Video art, video story telling. Does anyone really care, other than its really really nice!

I don't know whether the author, Justin, is a film maker, but he's got a great eye and is playing with twin narratives, compositions, sound scapes and 369 sequences, plus the movement and music.