Videojournalism to video Art -Training Days

Portraits - Profile from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

It may seem a stretch, but can videojournalism be consider artistic?

Oh yes, but we may need a beer or two for me to set up the argument.

This year my tenure as Artist-in-Residency at the London's main cultural centre, The South Bank, will hopefully lead to outcomes that answer this.

And it won't be exclusively online. Public and private spaces are part of the new canvas.

This preview piece here is of the South Bank's Artistic Director and Cultural Director of London Olympics 2012.

More on Viewmagazine.tv

The makings of a good leader

As a young girl Jude Kelly would stage plays and charge family and friends to attend. She wanted to be a director. She became one, a very successful one.

But she says it was not about her per se, but about the act of giving something to others.

Her beliefs have made her one of the most sought after directors and personnel in the arts, not to mention the works she's accomplished as the cultural director of the London 2012 Olympics.

In front of a collective that nurtures leadership qualities, she offered a candid and personnel testament of leadership and what's expected from good leaders.

This could quite easily have been a TED talk, inspiring in its content, deeply illuminating in its delivery.

"I purposefully today wore clothes so you could see my body shape, because line of sight is important in judging people", she said at the beginning.

Leadership, very much like the arts is about innovating, finding spaces and creatively filling them, she concluded.

You can watch the film I shot about her this event in a couple of weeks.

Welcome to Museum TV - but not as you know it

Some of the best museums in the world, renowned for their cultural and enterprising educational value could also be some of the best online TV stations around.

A couple of months back I had lunch with senior figures from some of London's top museums, which in turn came about from Jude Kelly, e new artistic director of the South Bank, drawing people to some of my previous installation-news work at one of her functions I attended.

They'd just had an Iraq exhibition of antiquities and were bouyed by the reception.

TV had covered it in the news with features, but when I asked whether they had their own films - they were a little surprised.

The Terracotta Army works in London present an interesting feature as well, also documented on the News and in this case a longish feature -a programme in itself.

But for every nugget that finds TV thousands of exhibits don't.

And here's where Museums are losing out in the content game.

There exists an overwheling feeling amongst the arts that TV is abandoning it.

TV Figures do show a decline as an observation rather than from emprical data which I don't have to hand.

But could the execs at the museum up their game?


Corporate VJs to the rescue

Here's how.

Raid the journalism colleges in your vicinity and attach a videojournalist, with also web skills ( SEO copy writing) to your unit.

They film those in between important events, even the high powered meeting discussing whether Banksy should be given pride of place in the main hall.

Weeks before the show, release the film and watch your attendance rise.

Firstly, less you fely you need a TV film crew; you don't and the cost of a VJ is well, affordable.

Secondly, you may well end up owning the rights.

And if there is one way of wooing TV back to an issue, it's when you have archive et al to give it context.

So if you're from the Smithsonian, Guggenheim - where I filmed some time back as part of CIRCOM ( Regional TV body) and am yet to post.

Or you're from the VA, you might want to consider this.

Last night I had an email from one of the UK's forward thinking companies wanting to give me a press release.

I emailed her back to say a videojo, video new release - call it what you will would be better served for the Youtube - visual age.

We'll see.

Count Down to China

To coincide with China's Olympic countdown and ahead of a visit to China, Viewmagazine.tv will be airing ( good word that, since it's a broadbandcast) a couple of vignette reports from China courtesy of my colleague who has just returned from lecturing there, Kienda.

Two years ago as London geared up for its Olympic bid, one of its ambassadors, the indefatigable Jude Kelly, a figure I so admire, invited me to the top of Canary Wharf - one of the highest buildings in London to brainstorm with an eye opening group of people.

Everyone from the creative industries of one sort or another was there. Jude also gave me her video blog she'd made from Athens during their Olympic run. It's never been aired before so I'm looking forward to cutting it and linking it to a Kienda's China stories and a feature on another colleague and friend in the runnings for scoring for the Olympics.

What I really like about Kienda and Jude's video is the personal nature of the reports. That's what VJ does so well and so what you get is an authored report which include some truly interesting stuff.