Future of NET-TV broadcasting- simple, elegant. Appointment TV is NOT dead

It's a future of the net and tv broadcasting that is so obvious, and bucks the idea that appointment TV is dead.

And linked to trend extrapolated developments e.g. faster broadband speeds, wified cities, is, what's the expression, "a no brainer!"

Live TV on the Net in HD quality. AND, and you don't have to be a broadcast outfit to participate.

Imagine the BBC's I-player, but an interface so elegantly designed that allows you to watch live programmes going out on the BBC, Bloomberg, or your own station at any time.


Simple Set Up
Here's how simple it is.

Via a connection from your server to the outfit Livestation; your ISP will do it in a matter of minutes, you're then broadcasting in real time. And, and there are no set up costs for going on the platform.

There is a revenue sharing scheme which you'll work out with Livestation.

If you're not a broadcaster, you can make up your own bouquet of programmes, and produce a loop of programmes - a bit like Sky or BBC World Service.

So far those who have signed onto Livestation include: the BBC, Russia Today, Bloomberg, France 24 and Al Jazeera

So imagine that, Steve Garfield TV Live, Geek TV from Las Vegas, Rocketboom Live - all popular Vlog/ video outlets or even Viewmagazine.tv (menu showing on right) live on your laptop whilst having an expresso.

From what I know a number of brand publishers are keen, and it also has a strong future I believe in hyperlocal TV.

If you're a publisher biting your nails about the onslaught from the BBC's hyperlocal Online launch, then this is an option.

The key here will be original content, and being in amongst branded outfits.



How it works
I was over at their office and so taken that I made this "how to" for Livestation.

"how tos" can usually be pretty staid, a sort of 70s Open University approach, so I have introduced trade mark video journalism "tagging".

The video pretty much explains everything.

I washed it through after effects and "crushed" the blacks to up the video tint.

You can see the final cut on " Livestation.

The Future of TV
There's an endless stream of debates concerning what the future will look like, but frankly this isn't rocket science as illustrated in this Outernet Promo made in 2004.

Inspirational 21st Century Generation Journalists

21st C Journo Noemi in red, background and her broadcast team

They come and go, a train stop on their journey through their burgeoning careers, and often quite often they possess that gene of "Pass it on".

As a journalism lecturer, you've seen them, indeed many, and quite often they inspire you back. And whilst many slot into jobs we're familiar with, they possess skills and the right attitude to boot that equip them for 21st Century Journalism.

Why do we read or track the progress of people whose milestones or ambitions appear different to our own? Not the celebrities per se, but those starting out.

We do it all the time, but not enough in journalism.

The inverted triangle for writing often insidiously percolates into how we treat others. It shouldn't as anyone who's ever come into contact with Skys former news boss, Nick Pollard will tell you. The cleaners are ushered into newsroom meetings to see if they have something to offer.

Why do we follow the career of others?

For me because I do like to be inspired; I do like to know how others scaled their own heights; I do like to know if there's anything I can take from them, irrespective of age, colour and creed, that makes me a better person.

In this post I have mentioned Dionne, now reporting from LA for Sky; Tamer now a correspondent in Gaza; David Heathfield with Nato as a VJ - all of whom have something to pass on and have indeed done so.

There are countless others.

But one thing's certain, ambitions, dreams can and will come true.

If you want it you'll create your own luck. If you want it and possess the pre-requisite skills then what a journey must lay ahead of you in this fascinating period in journalism.

So today I'd like to introduce you to Noemi Hernández who has become a fixture on her local television in Spain.

A student from last year, Noemi had prior experience, but wanted to raise her game.

Friends and lecturers that know her are thrilled to bits for her success and we're pretty sure her journey has only just begun.

She has much she can inspire others seeking to hear from the generation bridging traditional with the new, old skool with the new citadel as you can read from her comments to questions I had earmarked for my talk at the World Association of Newspapers


news anchor Noemi

Why do you want to become a journalist?

"I don't remember when I decided to be a journalist. I don't think I ever dreamt of being a nurse or a teacher, as any other girl. I have got pictures of me talking to a B radio that my father had in his car when I was 15 months and I was able to speak already.

If I had to blame on someone, my mom could be responsible. She was a passionate radio listener who used to say how much she admired some of the journalists she listened to; they were those mentors she didn't have. She always say: All I know, I learned it from
the radio."

Do you think it's changed much from what you might have read about or seen growing up and in the last few years

"I don't think so. The ultimate aim is to put the world closer to people's eyes as journalists in Fleet St did, George Orwell or Ryszard Kapuściński taught us.

Nowadays we've got technology and a big range of media where to tell stories, and it has brought a new journalism, faster, based on immediacy and the power of the image, because of that, probably, often, less accurate and less deep and more aggressive, because the media is trying to capture, hold onto, a bigger number of people, but still doing the same thing."

Do you think its priorities have changed what are the qualities you think you need to become a journalist?

I understand that one of our challenges is to be ready to manage all what is necessary to attract new generation's attention towards journalism. Those who think that the truth is in wikipedia or youtube.

We are living in a visual/virtual society. People want to see it and have no time to chew it so, using the tools we've got and they want, we have to tell them what's going on and do it well.

Pens or a 35mm camera don't create a journalist. Innate curiosity, feeling hungry for knowledge, for knowing something and, at the same time, possessing the need to understand why things happen.

Also that same need for informing people; being able to distinguish what needs to be told and what is junk news; free of fear and being willing to get your hands dirty if it's necessary, and being a people's person are some of the qualities, I think,
we need.

Then, there are skills we have to develop, for instance, being up to date using new soft wares and all the new tools emerging that make us more and more self-sufficient".

If there's one thing you know now that you wished you knew starting off what would it be?

One of the things I appreciate I have learnt as a journalist is how valuable people are. How important listening is, and I mean very carefully and keeping in mind that those we meet, talk to, interact with are the beginning and the end of each story.

We work for them and they are our news. Knowing that, every day at work I try to base all I do with around this with the utmost respect for the audience."

++
Next week a video interview with Tamer and David Heathfield.

Awesome artisitc dancers -wow

Example of multiplatform Reportage continued

Former army personnel Ian Hamilton looks on in contemplative mood standing next to Anzac war graves. His great uncle was the Commander-in-Chief of the UK/Anzac force. Today Ian is a successful lawyer living in Canada

Yesterday I posted on a story that was mashed up as an Example of multiplatform Reportage.

TV/video spot

BBC World Service Radio feature

blog

article

A css film web site

Flash emailable promos

video promos

photomontage story. What me might call Soundslide



Example of Multiple Platform Reporting - Video journalism et al from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo

To that today I might add today

Mobile xml reportage

Outernet interfaces and multimedia game theory stories . see The Family

Video hyperlinnked film

And a stronger series of linked SEO linked stories - Some interesting stuff coming out SEO and page leaking.


The report itself warranted this multiple approach. It was a one off. So you could debate the merit of stripping a story for other platforms. :The "Kill what you can eat" approach is game-specific.

As with most VJ pieces I make, they're unrehearsed, though I do give myself time to think through, visualise what the end product might just be and if there are any risk assessments.

We were going to be out at sea for around ten days, so I needed to take as much stock and gear, but still be mobile.

The call itself came out of the blue: a hoarse voice, Turkish, asking me if I was David and that he understood I was a diver.

I confirmed this and the caller hung up.

Minutes later, a PR woman called explaining the nature of the previous call and whether I was interested in covering a unique expedition. It would mean diving to quite deep depths. I had three days before setting off.

Ordinarily sports diving involves plunging to depths of 30 metres on normal compressed air. However we would be going to 50 metres plus, so something called a Tri-mix is required.

This is where the relative amounts of oxygen to nitrogen is altered to prevent serious injury or fatalities.

This was my risk assessment. I did not have any diving gear at the time, but was told they'd supply and I'd meet the ebullient and highly knowledgeable John Bantin. John Bantin is the Jeff Jarvis of In the dive world.

Bringing the pieces together
I put a call into BBC WS Outlook to sell the piece. I knew their house style as a listener, and had many years freelancing for another department of the BBC World Service while reporting from South Africa.

One thing I have learnt though, it doesn't matter what your experience is you have 8 -15 seconds on the phone to a producer before they'll either say "send something in" or thank you.

8-15 seconds is the length at which you'll say something on the phone in one breadth, one para, before pausing.

And if you know radio, it's about the pause.

The pause in an interview is where the producer is looking to edit you down.

The producer bought the piece, added his own instructions and wished me well.

For TV, I got what was a tentative nod from BBC 3 - an outlet of the BBC focusing on the 18-35s - though in truth I did not hold out much hope as BBC 3 like any commissioning outfit has a long lead time, and BBC 3 was notorious for giving the nod and then letting you down as I discovered, and I have emails between myself and commissioners to prove that.

Frankly I should have done more to sell the piece to Channel 4 News, where I'd previously shot and produced a piece on South Africa

Charting the end in mind
It's important to recognise whether you believe to have the skillset. Different media require different approaches though one often dovetails into another.

With radio it's all about painting pictures with sound. I needed a long XLR cable for my mike and condoms to wrap around. That way I could lower the mike into the water to get the sound effects of the divers coming up. You can hear this on the radio version.

Video journalism was about finding characters and drama to tell the story and fortunately I wasn't short of that, including a revolt on the boat as conditions and food were deemed below par.

A visit by a Turkish historian, who was keenly awaiting one of the divers was pure video/television. The historian harboured deep feelings about ANZAC forces who killed his family and now he was waiting to forgive and meet the descendant of the Commander-in-Chief who ordered the battle.

For the video I had a Hi-8 camera. My VX1000 was out of commission. I added a mobile monitor playback to my luggage.

That way I could monitor what I had and was lacking by the day. Also in my pack, my canon E0S, bakelite powerbook - which looks ancient today and Sony Pro - for radio.

Avoiding Disasters
Disasters are part and parcel of big shoots. The actuary's approach is to minimise, but also have a system that allows you to function where something goes wrong.

The first thing to go wrong was my tripod did not come of the Turkish airline, and by the time I had enquired it was in the air off to somewhere unknown. I would eventually get it back after the expedition, having to tip baggage handlers along the way.

Then my video camera fell into the Aegean sea. It was a split second. I was accidentally nudged on the deployed boat - which is pretty small.

The camera seized up for a day, but amazingly worked again after it was put out to dry. Next time I thought I'll get an underwater casing.

Four days in i knew I had a strong story and my blog would reveal how on my last dive, I got sucked in my a strong underwater current which nearly proved disastrous. Subsequent days we couldn't dive at all; the water had got up to 2/3 knots. Not ideal for diving, and on one of our night dives, some conga eels took a liking to our night torches.

Next week I'll talk about building the Flash, multimedia elements

Future Reportage - BBC, Videojournalism..6 ways and more- circa 1999

Multiple Video Journalism Reporting - 6 ways plus BBC and beyond from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Future reporting 6 ways. Here's one amazing adventure of a story from my archives 1999, dissected five ways and what I would do differently today .

I'll deconstruct the making of the multiple reports and the gear I took e.g. DV monitor, Sony Pro radio, Hi 8 etc. later this week

It was an extraordinary voyage. Ten days out to sea on a live aboard searching for a wreck, HMS Majestic, with a descendent of the Commander-in-Chief of Gallipoli and a crew of professional and serious sport divers.

My own drama included a near serious accident miss 40-50 metres down being caught up in a ribbon current and hyperventilating.

I almost ran out of air.

We found what we believed was the wreck in a series of day and night dives - the first time the Turkish military authorities had allowed us into the DMZ (demilitarised zone). There were still active shells.

The result of that report was deconstructed 6 ways:

BBC Radio: The 9 minute radio report went on the BBC World Service, a popular programme called Outlook.

TV: The TV version made for BBC3 didn't make air, so I posted it online.

I blogged and wrote a detailed article about the incident on my first site mrdot.co.uk, then viewmagazine.tv

ARTICLE

MULTIMEDIA SITE WITH BBC RADIO REPORT WITH PHOTOMONTAGE FILM PLAYING AT TOP OF PAGE. STILLS TAKEN FROM HI-8 VIDEO

NB: you'll notice there are no controls on the short film. This film was republished on the web back in 2003/4 when Flash 6/7 did not have controls. Wierd huh!

I made a Flash promo that was used to sell the idea, which BBC 3's commissioning Editor Stuart Murphy was interested in. Though truth I'm not sure they quite understood it back then as I must have shown it to at least half a dozen BBC execs.

FLASH PROMO

NB: the thing with this promo is its 120k in size, so that meant I could email me it as a viral on a 56k modem which was in use back then. If you double click the info button, you'll see a bit of animation.

I didn't write the article for Diver Magazine, but I am mentioned by its journo and if I'd known the journo well enough could have.

We got a slew of pics, some onboard and underwater to accompanying the report.

UNDERWATER PHOTOS

The year is 1999. One report divied up 5/6 ways. It's not rocket science. Trouble was the industry did not entertain the idea of being multiskilled back then.

So how might that change today?

Integrated Multimedia Video Journalism

I'd have made a series feature with more after effects - an anti-aesthetic film.

I'd develop a far more sophisticated Film multimedia site to this one, showing the coordinates etc of where we dived. This one has the Flash "photo montage" report.

WEB PROMO SITE

I'd have got my network together to stream on something like Livestation to braodcast live

I'd have networked this article with web 2.0 apps into a community of divers and also those who may have be more intimate with Gallipoli.

I'd have created a series of visual big screen interfaces e.g. IM6 and mobile promos.

FLASH PROMO SITE

It would have been scalable xml/php data so I can network it into any number of stories, particularly education.

I'd create a more robust sound slide show than the aforeshown.

The idea of multi-reporting though as demonstrated at Nato's War Games works more effectively along the lines of Swarming where we can also create multiple entry points into the piece.

So what sort of skillset would be required for this. Here goes: FCP, AE, Radio, Pod, Flash, Director, Photoshop, Cool Edit, Dreamweaver, CSS, PHP, XML, Blog.... and a CONDOM, oh and a PADI diving certificate.

I used a condom on a long microphone lead to get sound effects of the divers decoing at 10 metres.

Commercials on the underground - videojournalism

Today the London Underground started its long awaited "commercials on the underground" - a process referred to as XTP - Cross Track Projection

I say long awaited because I worked on Viacom UK/ London Underground's launch in 2001 working as a creative director at Interactive Ad Agency, Re-active.net in London Soho, managed by ex-head of TV at Saatchis Jon Staton.

I'll talk more about the process of creating some of the first ads underpinned by video journalism in later posts.

Meantime you can peruse some of our interactive work on a website made in 2000 largely by my colleague Rosalind Miller which I'm still pretty much fond of.

Click on XTP.

Digital Journalist versus Integrated Multimedia Video journalism which one's the future?

It's a fairly provocative statement: Digital Journalist versus Integrated Multimedia Video journalism, which one's the future?

But it sits at the centre of the new debate about journalism and video journalism and in an age of multiplicity, contracted tech changes, journalism's loose footing, and the odd fad, it's worth considering.

To start you could fold integrated multimedia video journalism ( IMVJ) into Digital Journalism - which is a broad church definition, which also suggest Digital Journalism's supremacy.

The future of media is digital as opposed to analogue, so to the digirati, just like Cypher in the matrix, it's all just code, ones and zeros.

Some outfits however interpret digital journalism as video journalism so on a pedagogic level herein lies a crux.


What is video Journalism and how you build a VJ outfit from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Extract from the World Association of Newspapers shot by Robb Montgomery at VisualEditors.com

And then there's the brand name in itself; the word "digital" envelopes a profession, a magazine, a movement and its cutting edge, as in photography.

So where is IMVJ placed in all this? Video journalism is implicit as is multimedia, but the strong ideal is fathoming how they link together in myriad ways.

MTV's Pimp My Car might help explain:

There's the car, a vague name check of its creative team include: the designers, the engine's engineers, the body work specialist, the electrician's hotwiring one function to another e.g woofer bass to indicator, and then the car tester. Does the damn thing work better?

What if you could roll those into one?

We've seen it done in video: the editor, camera operator and reporter have become a single entity.


What is Video Journalism? from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Wonderful succinct deifintion of Video Journalism from a Cairo University lecturer, whilst David was touring hte region

But the 21st cycle of news dissemination embodies more than the legacy of TV.

The web, photography, multimedia, data, mash-up, coding, industrial vs minamilist design, public interfaces, mobile, blue tooth: these are just a few of the things affecting an evolving vocation/profession.

There are many who would argue, "Hey video journalism is difficult in itself where does it stop? "

It doesn't.

If you manage to pull out any of the newspaper cuttings from Vj's 1994 entry into the UK, the press and commentators then were vituperative to say the least.

How Michael Rosenblum must be allowing himself the last laugh.

And I don't believe anyone would say Journalism is a dead profession because it's always moved with the times.

Addison and Steele and their equitone language - a renaissance in journalism writing in the 1700s is testament to that.


Journalism's changing timeline
If you look back on Journalism's timeline you can afford a hearty chuckle, because at every bend, every crossroad where change is talked up, there has metaphorically been blood on the floor.

What we're doing now, a debate about what it is and isn't accompanied by civic and the odd perturbative comment is merely to confirm we are

a) creatures of history

b) Nothing's new

c) We indulge these debates; it's part of the learning process.

But as I say all the while in these debates: we have choices.

Future student factual media maker

What I'd like is for one of my ex students to be in a queue of candidates for a job and when his/her turn comes, they exhibit how to integrate, mash- up a single story into multiple strands and have a working knowledge of how the creative systems work.

I have seen many students take the reigns, and Tamer Al Mishall, now working for Al Jazeera is a firm example.

When he arrived from Gaza he'd already had a working knowledge of TV as a BBC producer. But what he took away from our university's program was a rounded knowldge of integrating multimedia and video journalism, and a passion and hunger to continue to learn.

When he left us the term hadn't even finished but he competed for one of the top jobs in the BBC's new Arabic Service, Gaza Correspondent, and piped correspondents and reporters twice his age. Tamer is twenty five.

An IMVJ approach has as part of its DNA a strong emphasis on pushing video journalism - the language - and if you were with us at Camp VJ in Chicago realising there are no rules in this visual medium.

Every single one of them is a guideline meant to be broken by you at some time.

"Tagging and Blocking" perhaps offers the most aggressive form of video journalism, understanding the arc and the subject-verb within a frame.


IMVJ Project

An interview with the BBC's Head of Multimedia News, Peter Horrocks, offers an idea of an IMVJ approach.

Here's the question: you've secured an interview with Peter, what do you do?

Here's my IMVJ approach, which encompassed FCP, After Effects, Dreamweaver, CSS, Photoshop, illustrator, Flash and some action scripting.

Since making this I have since learnt how I can give you more control using a custom made player. ( I'll change that soon)

And there are many many more examples, which I have come across on that awe inspiring site MultimediaShooter - now sadly defunct. I can't say whether the pieces I marveled at were made by one person and if they weren't that isn't ultimately the point.

The IMVJ way suggests an understanding of the work flow enough to comprehend the basics of what the chain is doing.


Specialism 1 vs broad knowledge 0
In 1999 I had lunch with a BBC exec; I had been referred by another senior figure. He mused over my CV and said: "Yes we must get you in".

It never happened, because of one overriding statement that would follow me into interviews: "What exactly do you do?"

In 1987 I started at regional BBC, leaRning to make packages and driving a Mk III desk when presenting.

IIn 1990-92 I was doubling up radio with TV as an AP producing reports.

IIn 1994 -At Channel One I turned to videojournalism and the web, building sites.

IIn 1997 - whilst doing any number of the aformentioned, I started working with an Ad design agency as a creative director creating interactive ads made with video and Flash. Remember quicktime hotspots.

By all accounts to many execs my CV back then was a mess: being a specialist was much more preferable.

Today? Well there's another debate!

IMVJ attempts to roll in disciplines from TV, Video Journalism, Radio, pod making, web writing, print, magazines, motion graphics, web and interface design within the ethos of sound story telling underpinned by fairness, accuracy, objectivity and ethics.

And that's just one part carved out within this expanding realm of digital journalism

The future of journalism from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Extract from The Outernet, David peers into a future of video journalism in this film shown in Berlin

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report lead to over whelming response to

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report
Thank you to your overwhelming response to this post two days ago

WANTED - Open all hours Video Journalists

WANTED - Open all hours Video Journalism from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Not so much Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, but the real prospect of counter: counter journalism - open all hours

What happens when there are no secrects, when the art of news gathering boils down to simply going on the net?

What do intelligence buffs think? One respectable outfit advocates an open system for all: no more secrets.

He goes onto say 70% - 80% of clandestine info gathering is available on the net.

Here's open all hours in this Cine-VJ made trailer.

The trailer is also an illustration of cine-Video journalism's visual language, which I speak briefly about at the World Association of Newspapers.

I'll post bits from that presentation tomorrow.


National Press ClubAnd for a straight forward account of story telling, this video of the awards from the National Press Club.


The Knight Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism; from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

It's a basic cut and tell package as I was preoccupied with the event, picking up an award, so didn't have time to work the package to the sort of VJ reports I like doing.

Howwver, I couldn't resist the idea of sharing the day and this incredible place, The National Press Club in WAshington DC, with people I knew and obviously your good selves dropping by.

You can read more about these stories on viewmagazine.tv

p.s yes there's a typo LOL in the trailer- will have to repost.

Fighting the new media web 2.0 war - move on up

Napoleon must have known it, Custard, Marshall and other captains of armies and Industry e.g. broadcasters.

We can sustain some collateral damage, some!

So you see the game's up, if there ever was a game.

The CEO, Director General can now be fairly cockahoop, because everyone now gets it.

There's been some blood/tears/sweat on the floor, we lost 100 of our staff, but we've reconvened. That collateral was acceptable.

The greatest purveyors of new digital media are invariably now old media; in fact we've stopped using the term old.

Now that doesn't mean there aren't pockets of arid sand , where the CEOs doing a Canute: " Hey bob this video things, nah.. it's not going to take off".

But if everyone else now gets it , how do you break in to the field?

How do you become innovative? How do you exemplify the new new thing?

Does anyone care?

I saw a preview of the Financial Times' new business programme with academics from the prestigious international graduate business school in France INSEAD and we do care

We care about networks, career progression, and how to break the mould


Pie Slicing
There's still lots of pie left to slice, but it's still about being nimble and experimenting.

Have you every observed people at rush hour on their way to work.

Lesson 1
Those that are in a hurry move with a sea of people parting as they drive head on.

If you're fast and even if they see you coming, they'll move aside. BUT you don't have long.

Lesson 2
If you're coming from behind and in a hurry you have to scream, yell, plead with people to get out of your way as you try to get that designated train home.

Everyone works at a median pace, but once you've gone will plug the gap that you scythed through.

What does that mean for the innovators; I guess it's move fast, but don't expect an audience.

300 by Zack Snyder might provide some allegory to the new horizons of innovators: nimble, quick, resourceful and work as a team. An elite team of practitioners working together, networking and only then perhaps some chance exists of rallying up against the behemoths.

But then despite networking opportunities, there's still an inordinate amount of companies that work against - all attempting to get that piece of the pie.

There is no them and us anymore.

p.s Yes 300 as has been acknowledged is a distortion of the battle of Thermopylae, that wasn't my point

Watch this Video-journalism driven Nike advert

What's fascinating about this commercial is the references it spawns.

And as always I use the term Video Journalism as a generalisation: Vj is not so much about news, but its visual language.

It has a consistent point of view, a singular authorship - a child of its youtube time.

You never see the protagonist, but you understand the narrative by almost placing yourself in his position.

It is the equivalent of reading a first person narrative such as The Remains of the Day (1989) by Booker Prize winner Japanese-British author Kazuo Ishiguro or Hunter Thompson's Gonzoism.

Or better still mirrors Prodigy's banned MTV track Smack my B**ch Up. It's x-rated so I have not embedded the video here on account I have some idea of the age of some of Outernet's reader

And why I believe the Nike and Prodigy are so clever is they each contain strands of Video Journalism's DNA. A unitary point of view, the editing sequences are aggressive, and the plot ( variable narratives) unfold quite linearly ( though there's some work they could further do here in multi narratives for these multimedia times).

If you push this further it inhabits the MUD game world of Grand Theft Auto.

Could this be replicated across other genres?

With clever innovative directions, yes, and with video journalism becoming the Will Smith of media, I won't be surprised to see more viral driven first person narrative ads.

Footnote: Nike track is Eagles Of Death Metal - Don't Speak which contributes majorly to the ad. I'll look to see if I can produce something with a musical prodigy whose music I regularly use Nancy Ginindza


Nancy again- same song - but different visuals: next time I'll cut this to a POV

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report

Six years on from the 1988 Mandela concert, I was in Johannesburg among other things as an Associate Producer for ABC News working as one of the producers with Danny Glover

Note added: 26th June 2008 The response to this post Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1988 Wembley -BBC Report has been overwhelming. Thank you for the interest you've shown, which has prompted me to set up a section in viewmagazine.tv which will feature some of my related work in the region, such as an interview with US Composer musician Quincy Jones and the First Time Voters series.

Is this really 20 years ago?

I was two years into my career as a radio journalist freelancing for BBC Radio Leicester and just about to complete my undergraduate studies in Applied Chemistry.

What would I do with myself?

Radio offered that solace.

Nelson Mandela, the great mythical figure was coming to London; it was his birthday, but it had also been billed as a pressure concert, a campaign to bring Western leaders to their senses about apartheid.

It would be another 6 years until that transformation would occur, when blacks would also enjoy full citizenship and be able to vote, or visit cafes which until then were designated for whites only.


What a gig
A huge concert with every conceivable star had been laid down for Mandela, or Madiba as he is affectionately known and I had a press pass to cover it for our station.

To say it was daunting, overwhelming, mind blowing would be an under statement.

Jesse Jackson wouldn't answer a question during his press conference unless you id'ed yourself.

I thought at the time, what's the fuss about?

Mandela's salvos were interpreted by commentators as a dig against PM Margaret Thatcher.

Britain's Prime Minister had resolutely objected to sanctions against South Africa during its apartheid regime.

1988 - what a year?


Music Mania

If you were there, I don't have to say anything.

The music was brill.

Aswad, Tracy Chapman, Anita baker, pop, rock, new romantics, it was simply wow.

The report for BBC Radio Leicester is a bit tinny; I'll have to locate the master file one day, but this gives a memorable account of the day Mandela came to London, to celebrate his birthday, 20 years ago.

Four years on I would be in South Africa reporting from the townships, witnessing the last vestiges of an inhumane regime.

Nine years on, like so many who've had the pleasure I would meet Mr Mandela; fleetingly, but memorable once again for a ground breaking programme we made in bringing two sets of journalists - from South Africa and Ghana together - in a programme called the United States of Africa.

But this post is for that concert, which will no doubt be matched, even outdone, with Mandela's 90th birthday party.

Viva!

End++

Here for post on meeting Mandela

p.s

Talking about South Africa, I have finally got down to locating the files and reports on Africa's Apprentice, so watch out for that. An extraordinary programme in itself in which I got a group of people together to watch and then ring the producers up and question them in Johannesburg.

The coolest most audacious video ever

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Where the hell is matt? I laughed so hard I cried. beautiful, fabulous, this man is a mega star

The oracle - inteligent web

Question and conspiracy theory 101

Is this it or is there another web we're missing? One that you and I can't use, because it's off limits. Imagine what that would do in our hands.

Digital Artists - The Digiratis - Future Innovators

Piece from Blue Print Magazine on the future of digital media, the digiratis

In Soho one of London's creative central hubs we called them the Digiratis.

They were artists-in-residence, at home, in the classroom, often non professionals.

Their doodles tickled friends, amused by-standers and often trickled into bigger commercial domains.

Before there was video journalism, there were video artists.

Their media included Art Film, community centres, public spaces and museums.

Salvador Dali, Peter Greenaway and their ilk; but it didn't start with them.

Journalism may change attitudes, but art asks kinetic questions, prodding, probing, working outside the bounds of factualness often procuring different results.

And all to often they (journalism and art) collide and produce something wonderful - artistry with a bent for saying something real to the artist.

Great cinematography, documentary with reconstructions and drama does this

Video Art Journalism
We could trace art film to a disputed point in our contemporary visual time line and Wikipedia under Art Film does a good job, though it omits Georges Méliès (December 8, 1861 – January 21, 1938), a stage magician who mastered artistic film making - a true original digiratis (below).


The digirati movement I capture an essence of in the article above: Ones and Zeros for that august publication Blue Print magazine offers a brief insight video innovators who have shaped an alternative video journalism movement - one you may not have be aware of. Here's a snippet:

"Television and film’s yearning for new talent and the holy grail of formats and new ideas produces a perennial round of in-house think tanks, yet outside the industry’s highly structured environment lies this veritable alchemic media community, experimenting with form and shape, talking a language that marries technology with creativity, strategy and delivery"

More

The skill using a camera and doing everything in the hands of journalists is seen as video journalism, but it has much, much wider connotations amongst the arts and artists.

And here, somewhere is it. The painter with video as both brush and medium breaking conventions and coded rules to produce a body of work which is uniquely theirs.

It is their creation, their creativity, their auterism and it often strikes a public chord, sometimes yielding degrees of controversy.

And when both art collides with journalism amongst the digiratis, we see the creation of form and montage, heightened in programmes such as After Effects, Combustion, motion and 3D studio Max, with results that can be as unpredictable as they can be wonderful.

So you see it might seem absurd to label video journalism as purely factual story telling, for the beauty of the video really does exist in the eye of the beholder.

The question is whether you consider yourself an artist, journalist of even both.

How the web ruined me - long live the web. A conspiracy !!

Media makers in Chicago networked up using stick cam. Pic by Ryan - link to be added

What were they thinking? But did they have a choice?

You're gifted this thing and told you can have it. It's free.

You ask what's the catch but can't find one.

The catch, you'll no longer have control.

Then you laugh. Not possible, Never!

If I were a conspiracy theorist, you could brew the simplest reason for Berners Lee creating the Net and giving it away for free.

"He was tired of hierarchies' control, he wanted to set people free." A Morpheus pre Matrix. Wishful thinking!

But it's brilliant. There is no such thing as a free dinner.

The very distributive model Berners Lee designed to make the Net work, to ensure one document could talk be pulled up on any screen, computer speak to computer, has now infected every walk of profession playing on the net.

You no longer have control, and the more people that use it, the less control you have.

It's taken nearly two decades for business to finally realise they're now paying for that free lunch.

The smoke screen is even more interesting.

Everyone offers a solution, but there is none. If anything it lies in human behavior. What people want they'll go after, so you'll either adapt a business model to this, or be one of the "people" to understand what you and everyone else wants.

Everyone's losing control. Some business are big enough to sustain serious blows to their health.

The beating is a wake up call; they regroup and figure out what everyone else knows. "IT'S NOT ABOUT US, ITS ABOUT THEM".

PLAY BY THEIR RULES".

The BBC, like most massive organisations presents an interesting case.

The last bastion of its control is a commissioning process, but its I-player and other stats/traffic tells it what people want.

A couple of years back I interviewed the BBC's Director General Mark Thompson at a time when the perception about the BBC was figuring out how and where to wire itself into the new media Matrix.

The DG knew what awaited. It had suffered huge fallls in numbers. The type of dip that would cripple many companies, but like the US troop surge, it cushioned the "what", redeployed and threw its weight around this new new thing.

It's not rocket science, but when you're a huge institution using public funds, you'll want to be abs sure how and where you're spending people's money.

Today's conference satged by the BBC at Alexandre Palace about the future of the web et al, shows the corporation's new confidence. " It know what people want and wants to lead by example again".

That's quite something because large corporations lead by their own example. They hire clever people to do clever things in-house, many times eschewing what's out there.

If it was good enough, we'd have it, they could argue.

You can't breath today without finding a conference offering you the latest thinking.

But the web's only a teenager. Where is the next big disruption? What will the next big change be? Will we be ready?

You'll get all sorts of feedback, but there is no constant.

Correction. There is one: that we'll lose more and more control and that being nimble, small, acting swiftly, assimilating and experimenting will be the order of the day.

Demo or die MIT coined. Change or die is more appropriate now.

Now lose control.

Video Interview: Howard Rheingold's vlog on what journalism students need to know

Howard writes: " In my latest vlog post, I interviewed Bruno Giussani, pioneering journalist and European director of the TED conference, and Pam Maples, Managing Editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, member of Pulitzer-winning team, about what journalism students need to know when they go out into the job market. I recommend Giussani’s “New Media Tells Different Stories.” [...]"

Responding to a post on Howards site+++


Enjoyed that Howard. Hi

And your opening premise about modules becoming redundant as fast as they get on the handbook is too true.

The role of organiser, facilitator, linker is one career journalists may feel uncomfortable with, as there's no prescribed formula for the sort of software and contentware they should/must organise.

As fast as you've learned the ways of tagging, something else crops up.

The very distrubutive model of the web has now enveloped those disciplines playing on it.

Talking of tagging some of the new video journalism film language borrowed from cinema uses tagging to heighten the sense of drama in a film - something that I have become a big fan.

In fact there seems to be parallels between the evolving journalist and lecturer.

In an interview with a UK University Vice Chancellor and Government advisor, Dr Geoffrey Copland spoke about the Lecturer of the future in a short film I made presenting at Digital Hollywood.

He was absolutely brilliant! In fact I laughed they'd been a role reversal: i was the one to sometimes talk up the future, only for friends to chime: "c'mon not that again David".

But here was the VC talking about students not requiring universities in the way they do now; how they'd choose their own modules; and how lecturers would be the filters of vast arrays of info.

Cheers

David

Time to play

Time to play. Come on

All in VJ day's work- the tech vs theory debate

Busy ! But I guess the following's all in a day's work.

Marking papers: It's been interesting to see the journey by students. We so often take what we do for granted, but their end-of-year reports reveal a consensus about this evolving new media way of doing things.

Being a Masters or trainee VJ student has its moments. Today, not only do you have to wrap your head around this new new thing, but you've got to be steeped in the ways of old and tried and tested.

Then there's an array of hardware and software packages you have to master and its not just what button does what but the theory that underpins these new habits.

So pity the editor in the middle quadrant of their life, whom with years of experience is utterly floored by this convoy of nonsensical events, which is why you'll want to get yourself over to as many conferences as possible.

And it's to the young that they look for answers. Oh yes, journalism may not be dead quite yet, but no one would deny it's something quite different to what they remember and it's those "young people that get this hyper media".

At Goteborg in Sweden, I saw some work from the media students covering the conference. Their films looked OK, but in two minutes of talking to them I fell into Lecture mode:

"People, you're producing something that's very safe, that the editors downstairs might find watchable, but this film is more than about them, it's about you. Give someone a reason to come back and watch these films because of yor signature".

I have a motto, that says do something that scares you everyday. To them I said go experiment and if you **** it up truth no one's going to chastise you.

Michael Lally a head honcho at RTE tells a story with a similar thread.

Michael gave over the evening slot to a community to broadcast their news on a designated evening. It was a bold and truly innovative experiment, which I advocate every broadcast manager repeat.

Only Mistake he says: the community aped their ( professionals) standards and methodology.


The woes of a lecturer
As a Lecturer there's a double whammy. You might have read Ullyses and indeed understood it, but can you assist a student seeking an action script code. And then, admit it, there's the super students who are so networked in you find yourself asking ever so often, "what's that?".

Flasha and too a less extent , has only just become part of the lexicon of an editor's attempt to come across all interactive.

Couple of years back I was informally boarded for an academic job.

My boss-to-be, a former manager at the BBC, asked me this question: What's Flash got to do with interactivity?

That was it. If the head of interactivity doesn't even know what Flash is, there's a er, well.....

Video journalism to go - tales from the UK

Prince turns 50 and this old snap and Marge below courtesy of Duncan is just peachy

And Marge, that's not how to do dance to YMCA

I'm quite happy answering queries which thankfully I get a few in my email bin, though ever so often one veers into the grey area of quasi-consultancy.

Thankfully!

Oh you know somebody's reading what is often published into a black hole LOL

Had an email from Nato wanting to look at what I call accelerated video journalism[ front page of viewmagazine.tv], but couldn't return to the sender - kept bouncing back.

Had a nice chat too with an NGO which wanted to understand the difference between VJism and TV Jism. "How long you gots?", could have been my answer, but we got there.

You know that saying: the more you know, the more you understand, the more you understand the more complex things become, then you realise the premise you started off from actually leaves you slightly baffled.

Yep.

Meanwhile over at News Videographer behemoth site in the US covering all things Videojournalism, the talented Angela Grant let me deface her site with this here scribblings: Tales from the UK.


Online E
The Online Phd session was a blast, for many reasons. The content aside and the raw energy of the speakers, it made me think about my own infalibility.

"Scotty I need more warp power", I hear myself thinking, so back to my drawing board to delve a little deeper. Latest book I have ordered should sort me out, Convergence....... by Henry Jenkins (MIT), whom the respect-commanding Howard Rheingold of Smart Mobs ( another brill book) describes as the contemporary McLuhan.

Haven't swapped emails in a while Howard so if this pings you, do expect a follow up.

Someone I was pleased to catch up with is Andrew Nachison from WeMedia, which just continues to grow and grow and is onto some new areas of innovation. Meanwhile from a chance encounter with David Brewer at Media ideas, now at Livestation, an opportunity to make a short "How to promo for Livestation.com".

David showed me a mock up page with a link back to viewmagazine. Oh very flattering.

David Heathfield one of our former students emails to say all is well, aboluely fab in his job as a Nato video journalist.

If you're from the BBC or ITN, where David's contact is over, I'd grab him, no ifs.

Mind you, I don't think Nato will let him go.

Avatars

Avatars are back on the menu, with a little something that may pop up next week. More on that later.

So the world of Vjism rumbles on, with a kick in the teeth of reality from looking at all the exam markings I am undertaking at present.

Help!
p.s pictures courtesy of Duncan - at the Press Association, and yes they are copyrighted.