Nailing the stand ups/ piece to camera as a videojournalist

Nailng the Stand Up/ Piece to camera as a videojournalist from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

The clip you're seeing involves me emerging from a police press conference amongst a queue of policemen and involved no camera operator. How did I do it?

I'd been on the morning shift - a raid to arrest a throng of criminals was being organised by the police.

The codename: Operation Bumblee.

During the briefing I took the necessary shots I needed, caught the duty Sergeant speaking to his men, then realised I needed a bridge.

A bridge would enable me to relay the mood at the time.

So I gauged how long I had, took the camera - a beta 100 - and placed it outside the briefing room and pressed record.

I then went back into the room knowing I only had one shot at this emerging with the police.

In fact I guffed the first because I could see a policeman standing in front of the camera, so I went back in and sandwiched myself between some other policemen and did the take.

Watch the guy in the frame, a newspaper reporter, who has written on his face a look of surprise, before quickly realising what I was doing.

The report was part of a lengthier one on Crime and the opening shot comes from inside Wormwood Scrubs - a high level prison where I'd been inside interview inmate who were serving life sentences.

The film itself is from my archive 1995. I'll try and find the original video report