Video journalism convention continues some more

Breaking conventions in videojournalism is part of a three post article, this is the second piece. You can read the previous one here and the third posts here.


- Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light is the first full length concert film without a single audience cutaway. True or False?

Peter at ShootingbyNumbers, whom we regularly exchange ideas on video, responded to yesterday's post on conventions in video journalism and I thought it might be interesting to continue the exchange here.

Here's Peter:

I think perhaps the notion of drop-ins, cutaways and b-roll is becoming identified with an increasingly unfashionable aesthetic - which promotes "high production values" over simplicity/authenticity.

what value do they really add?

- Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light is the first full length concert film without a single audience cutaway. True or False?

I haven't seen the full Rolling Stone gigs just the odd trailer. Yep Peter I can hear you muttering "sacrilege you haven't seen it".

I don't entirely disagree [ politicians answer eh] with what you say, but I think it's a question of language. Perhaps even my use of the words, and I can see where there's some ambiguity.

The terms e.g. drop in, C/As don't necessarily have to be the preserve of the high enders, multi-camera shoots.

The trailer of the Stones provides some examples of drop ins and cut aways, but here's the rub, my notes might have read "reaction POV" for C/A- which is a clumsy word really.

... Cut away.. cut away to what an inexperienced film maker might ask.

You're talking about the concert itself, which I'm obviously not qualified to answer factually because I haven't seen it.

But I might imagine that a conscious decision was taken by Scorsese not to cut to the crowd... woops, get reaction povs, leaving hyperfocus attention on the Stones, and that would work.

Have we seen enough of fainting men and women swooning, wooping and barking.."Man I love you, You're the ****ing best man".

Or, that wee comment by Mick Jagger about cameras all over the place on the trailer negated any camera crew threading about on stage despite the great shots to be had there.

However at the pace Jagger moves you can see how a Steady Cam operator would eventually, quite literally get a mouthful.

Like any piece and I'm sure we both agree the shot and eventual edit has to be motivated. Often when I'm tagging, I'm looking for the verb in a shot. If its doesn't exist, then I'm not going anywhere.

Motivated cuts could be the theme for these two films, high end as they are: Snake Eyes and Bonfire of the Vanity, dir. Brian De Palma.

Snake Eyes dir. Brian De Palma

This is not the opening, but a selection of scenes


Bonfire of the Vanity, dir. Brian De Palma

This is not the opening, but a selection of scenes

The director is bold enough to run about five to ten minutes of the opening without a single cut.

If I'm in a theatre of good action I can see how I'd be motivated by the same style.

Ultimately there are so many styles and thoughts emerging within video journalism that there's a path for all, but as you said a while ago it should look to push at the edges otherwise it's in danger of being a surrogate of TV, when it really is something on its own.

That something for me is a mashup of photojournalism, reportage, motion graphics, cinematography, gonzo and above all experimentation.

p.s Trying to locate a James Nacthwey's video of him shooting stills in a conflict with the a video camera mounted on his still

• You can read the previous convention in VideoJournalism here and the third posts here.

Peter's latest response

certainly worth seeing for the cinematography. Scorsese used top camera ops - the guys that shot Babel, Bourne etc.

sacrilege? there is not one single low-down wide angle shot of Keith looming over the camera - aka "the mythic shot". Now that is sacrilege!

One other interesting thing about the performance is that the band all use in-ear monitors - which are used to feed a silent count-down to all the musicians - so the start of each song is like an explosion - extremely expensive but very stylish.

David

Hahahahaha. Now that's how you choreograph a show. Even talent needs hidden help

Art by offenders

Miniature models painstakingly depicting an orchestra made out of music manuscripts

Extraordinary, but for reasons many assume offenders and convicts are not creative.

That at least was the reception I got when I made a film on this in the 90s.

I can't show this film because the inmates serving life sentences at the time may by now be out of prison and I did not have them sign any release forms. News rarely does.

And the Net was barely crowning.


But at the South Bank is an exhibition to inmate art, featuring a range of extraordinary pieces.

I asked if I could take photographs and the security warden said it was OK.

I merrily set about taking pictures down stairs only to be told by a curator I couldn't.

Fair enough I thought.

However it did occur to me that as a policy, someone higher up in the organisation that's behind this should allow for photographs, [ attributing the artists] if that is they want to you to see it or encourage you to go.

p.s the pics were taken with the Cannon HD CMOS

Sandy Jadeja - The man who predicted the crash shot on the Canon HD CMOS

The man who predicted the market crash from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

If I could ask you to do one thing first and that is to google [ google don't like it their name as a verb] "Sandy Jadeja".

I have reposted this on the front page of viewmagazine.tv having effectively telecined it which removes some artefacting and provides mood, coupled with the its accompanying music.

This was shot on the Canon HD CMOS.

What do I think about this 500ukp baby?

If you're intending on shooting semi or pro, then it's not for you. There are a number of hoops you have to jump through to ingest the footage and then bring it into FCP.

However pays you money make your choice, this is an excellent camera for its price range and the non fussy shooter. It certainly also has the advantage of stealth in shooting sensitive scenes.

Would I have one on location?

No, because the A1 without the matt box and camera is almost the same size but far superior in quality.

But if you gave me one, I wouldn't say no.

Convention breaking in Video journalism... continues

Buddy and cameraman director/ video journalist Charles Amponsah lighting England Footballer Anita Asante with a gold reflector for this story.
Just one of the many conventions to consider in TV News and video journalism.

• Breaking conventions in videojournalism is part of a three post article, the second you can read here and here for the third piece.
  

Versatile journalist Chrys Wu posts about the rules of Video journalism on her blog Richochet.

"When it comes to video journalism, most news organizations have a rule: Do not use any sound or music that didn’t occur while you were filming the story. Audio holds powerful sway over our emotion and therefore, can distort our perception of facts and events. If you’re skeptical, check out the trailer for “Sleepless in Seattle” and this remix". More.

She asks whether motion graphics might be worth considering illustrating her point with a motion graphics video.

I posted back with the following which I've expanded here some more.

Traditionally, News, particularly if you worked at the BBC eschews music for reasons that it can embellish the story. Music conveys its own emotions and news is supposed to be objective and impartial.

A poignant example could be a distressed scene, an accident etc. The pictures and narrative should tell the story, without interference.

This also applies to the use of language. Cliches such as .. "his dream became a nightmare", and "Will her situation improve that remains to be seen?" are at best clumsy, at worst fight the story or provoke the proverbial urgghh drone.

And then there's the earnest look, which again takes away from the story itself placing the focus on the reporter.

Drop-in shots and Archive
Belatedly I hear how some advise against using drop-in shots. If it didn't happen whilst you were there, you're not allowed to use it, is the refrain.

A similar way of thinking was enforced by dogme - the movement wanting to pursue a verite position in their manifesto for film making.

Drop-in shots are a necessary part of the dialect of news. They give context where necessary and provide a line connecting the news maker's understanding of recent events. But it's how you use it?

And most certainly when you build up your stock of footage and in a time to come want to illustrate another financial meltdown, you'll be reaching for today's footage. Better still 1997 if you have it.

The aformentioned aren't rules per se, but matters of house style and what might be termed "ethical news making". Though one person's ethics is another persons, well!

Other Conventions, hidden ones
There are further hidden or often unknown subtleties which affect a story that I have come across in my reporting career:

• Camera angle - where you place the camera denotes power or not.

• Lighting - Now this is really intriguing, not just for the subject matter and interviewees, but the reporter.

I freelanced as a reporter for a London TV Network and the camera man, Australian, was particular at lighting me for my stand up/ piece to camera.

I was fascinated. Though I'd rarely had the time to be lit with a reflector because of pressures.

But here the camera man was insistent using a gold part of the reflector, adding the caveat, "You've got to know how to light black skin".

Wow I thought. Now I say Australian because there are many Australian news camera men in London and they've picked up reputation for truly being to use the exact word, "the business".

BTW that doesn't mean I'm saying others aren't.

• Composition - where you're placed on the screen gives meaning. In the 90s there was a bit of a hue and cry on the Big Breakfast Show at where they always placed the male presenter.

And it's news folklore that Margaret Thatcher while Prime Minister crafted a softer side to her face -image, so would only want the camera on that specific side on sit down interviews.

I could go on here:

• Noddies - c/a nods to the camera
  
• Walkies - establishing shots, which can often look contrived.
  
• Mis en scene - where you place or film. Background books says "learned", though I'm yet to understand what "the potted plant in the background look" signifies
• Representation- Did you hear the story about a news feature film crew requesting their interviewees go home and change out of their suits into hoods before filming?
  
  

Back to the main story.
Features, bordering on mini-docs can be a different prospect to TV News relying more on the arc of film making where music and other techniques such as montage, verisimillitude [sound crafting for effect] can matter.

Video journalism follows the same line of enquiry, however there are other rules it can break that TV wouldn’t.

Motion graphics, a branch in itself which Chrys's mention could be one of them. Though if you’ve been watching British Network news interpret the financial meltdown, most of its being reported in motion graphics or vertical film making.

Digital Basin's Mike Jones in Australia [ again, LOL] is brilliant in this area. I recommend you read his posts.

Visual composition [doh! typo, grammar on Chrys's site] and mis en scene are most certainly one of the areas video journalism could use to distinguish itself from the status quo of news making.

Peter Ralph at shootingbynumbers makes some interesting observations in this area.

Ultimately in the adoption of video journalism, editorial needs to understand the 'rules' and how to break them.

Because breaking them, even the use of say, music, can turn a package around.

And it's in understanding how this affects the end film that should motivate whether a style is used, broken or not, depending on whether a film is an objective, an advocacy piece or otherwise.

But here's an interesting point.

The antecedent to today's video journalism movement circa 1990s looked to Vjims as the personalisation of news.

Call it self authorship of even auterism. Video journalism offered a hitherto intimacy and closeness to news making not known in TV News.

You could capture the elements raw without the set up shots and you could follow story lines with a great deal of flexibility. The cameras and methodology allowed for that.

It wasn't exactly new. Photojournalism went through its own shift in visual language when they became portable mid 1900s and the photographer could inject their own personalities and styles into their work.

++

Breaking conventions in videojournalism is continues here

Pixels without Borders

PIXELS WITHOUT BORDERS from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Acclaimed and multiple award winning photojournalist, Yannis Kontos work is explored in installation form - a section of that, the video, is posted here.



A seven minute version of this was shown on giant screens (above) in Amsterdam at the World Press Photo Awards whilst Yannis collected his prize for first place contemporary issues for an assignment in Sierra Leone

Yannis Kontos at the awards.

For more visit his website YannisKontos.com and on viewmagazine.tv you can find other promos, by entering Yannis' name in the search

They've done it - the paperless newspaper - a breaking story, literally. Future of newspapers

The BBC's national news talk programme, Today reports a Cambridge based tech company has cracked the e-newspaper, an innovatory newspaper made out of plastic heralding the future of newspapers.

The company Plastic Logic [video here] mooted the idea a while back and has de facto been in competition with the Tablet reported on viewmagazine.tv here.

I first came across both devices from an invitation to to speak at Knock Knock the Innovation Lab two years ago, where I met Plastic Logics's Vice President Business Development Simon Jones.

On our flight back to the UK we spoke some more. One of the issues, Simon said, was finding an affordable cost- effective price for producing the device, with the Far East being considered.

Plastic Logic's CEO Richard Archuleta announces on this video that the first commercial factory is running in Dresden, Germany.

So what effect will the e-newspaper have on the industry?
Pros for e-newspapers
That's the talk that will now split the industry, but there's no denying its benefits:

• Light
• Durable
• Ability to download newpaper of choice - depending on what newspaper is part of their download service.
• Reusable
• Easy on the environment - if you see how many freebie newspapers on the subway/ tube are left behind the e-paper may have some currency.

However to corrupt a well known phrase: "I love the smell of newspapers in the morning. it smells like...victory".

The epaper will certainly grab headlines and lead to more end-of-days talk for newspapers.

It may well spawn a new industry of jobs, e.g. designing for a mobile screen in tabloid form and put pressure on existing ones.

To start off business's will simply take their existing product to the screens before behaviourists determine more suitable compositional layouts. Note, the trend of newspaper publishing to the web.

And what about its reception from consumers?

Perhaps at least for the mean time - it's a generation thing- the two will co-habit. Just as the Net and video is doing so with TV.

Philip Meyer's google stakes are about to go drive up again.

FAQ Video journalism - the five most popular responses

David presenting at the World Association of Newspapers.

In Czechoslovakia over the weekend in a few weeks talking video journalism with an outfit looking to aid those who would like to leap frog the digital status quo, perhaps even make long format films.

I looked at the blurb and thought interesting. These five questions always come up so I'll share with others.

It's going to be one of those "did I really go there visits?"

Last one I ever did was a mad trip to New York for the ONA, which had me in NY on Saturday morning for a conference in the afternoon in which I pretty much stayed up all night to fly back to the UK for lectures Monday morning.

I have never felt so whazzed. Took me ages to recover.. still am. Those five to be posted shortly.


Net habits
2 a.m I should catch some shut eyes but I'm on one of those customary death marches looking at some css coding, wordpress and some.

Oh the good ol days of the dotcom boom circa 2001 when we stayed up with fizzy drinks trying to fix some alwful bug before the morning pitch.

Next week, the science musem in the evening involves some really innovative stuff which I have been asked to chair.

Involves collaborative film makers similar to Swarm of Angels where you buy into the film and control its process; plus Machinima and purpose-built software to make your own movies and finally award winning mobile film making.

Hopefully see you there.

Pixels without borders -photography and videojournalism

Here's the link www.viewmagazine.tv/pixelswithoutborders.html

I have removed the different states I've been working the format to for a presentation next week. If you're on a real fast connection you may stumble across something.

For this production, the rostrum effect is minimum. Yes, you could do the same in Soundslides, though I'm using AE and FCP, Director and Flash action scripting .

Please be advised a couple of the images are disturbing.

Sock Puppet takes Film Awards

Meanwhile this press release from Filminute, which has found a winner

LONDON/BUCHAREST, October 12, 2008 – Maniacally competitive sock puppets, an innocent take on the proverbial “quickie,” and a sci-fi rendering of the wonders of antacid take top honours at Filminute, the international one-minute film festival. The 2008 Filminute Awards were announced today at a live event at the Orange Concept Store in Bucharest and on a televised special on ShortsTV in Europe.

Filminute’s seven-member international jury awarded the Best Filminute to UK director Oli Hyatt’s animated romp STITCHUP SHOWDOWN – GYM JAM. Produced by Blue-Zoo and Nickelodeon, Hyatt’s animated film features sock puppet warriors in a death-defying gym work out.

more

Viewmagazine.tv helped in producing a pre-awards show, now being shown on Adobe's player with interest from a TV network

Determined by a worldwide audience from more than 90 countries, Filminute’s People’s Choice Award goes to Hungarian director Pici Papai’s QUICK, which looks at an adult relationship through the eyes of children.

VideoJournalism Awards event cancelled, competition date extended

This from the organisers. Putting together an event of this kind is an herculean task in organisation, so my heart goes out to the Award's Execs, which is relatively small team. I'm certain it wasn't an easy decision to come to.

We regret to inform you that due to a cost schedule our conference planned for November 28 - 29th, 2008 has been cancelled.

Instead to this conference we are organising a press conference including the award ceremony in the last week in January 2009. The exactly dates will be advised in advance.

For this reason the Jury member´s meeting in October 23rd, 2008 has been cancelled as well.

BUT the competition keeps still online and we need as usual your outstanding support.

Due to the big volume of attendants for this competition the deadline to provide the films has been extended till December 1st, 2008.

Till the end of November, I will contact you in order to forward you more details about the Log-in for the voting.

The end of the voting is January 18th, 2009!

When Obama Wins Versus When McCain Wins? - the programme

In 2001 I would undertake one of my last network television positions; it was time to try other things.

The last programme would leave me on a high in a high period as well.

It was the UK election and I was one of the political producers on Powerhouse, a Channel 4 Political Show, which had some of the best producers and reporters I had worked with Michael Brunson presenting and one Andrew Brown at its helm.

Micheal was one of those reporters every reporter ought to have studied. Among many things he turned pieces to camera around on the spot and with no notes.

Andrew Brown is the brother of Gordon Brown, Prime Minister.


Who Wins Concept
The show played a format idea pretty well imagining what life would be like under a Conservative, Liberal or Labour Government.

It was a mind bender to make; I produced one of the last ones, but the outcome yielded interesting results and dynamics amongst the parties.

In a sense, a classic piece of provocative TV, provocative in one case for Labour's team to take umbrage with the show when we assumed they would raise National Interest rates.

They'd made no such commitment thus far. But using the accountants BDO Stoy Hayward we crunched some numbers.

Looking at the US elections, Powerhouse thoughts began to take shape.

A programme that assumed firstly Obama had won and taking his pledges and running with them, attempting to determine the cost financially and the feel good factor he would bring or not.

Then a similar one for McCain.

Truth you wouldn't need a huge budget to do this; Powerhouse had a relatively small one compared to other network programmes.

You'd need to pour over their manifestos and archive to find how they're selling them for added info, then with the help of some graphics and avid supporters of both candidates set about with a non partisan number cruncher.

Like I said the results can lead to some interesting follow up exchanges and the films shouldn't be bad to watch either.

That said chances are it's already been done to death.. hasn't it?

Video Journalism -How to be dismissive

You're probably setting up a Video Journalism outfit or you're in the mix at the moment enjoying the wealth of talented video journalists showing their ware.

And some fine products they are as well.

You're asking questions. Many. Some are obvious, others sound cuckoo.

Any attempt to resolve them appears an act of absurdity. Like many you've got this thing sown up. What's black is black, the others white. No room for greys.

So you'll gather plenty of info, then refine, then come to your own conclusions.

With video what it is at the moment, the battle lines are drawn up for ownership of this form and its knowledge economy.

This expert this, and that expert that. Frankly it's tiring, and who can you trust?

If the answer you seek is outside your scope and you can't find the appropriate tech head, the simplest thing is to be dismissive.

We all do it; the more obvious for me in the next few weeks will be The Turner prize. I still might not get it, but I'd love to speak to the artist to understand how an unkempt bed constitutes art.

Answer, because the artist says so. Et Voila!

It's a highly personal medium. Video journalism is highly personal.


Video Journalism
14 years ago a newspaper outfit, Associated Newspapers who publish The Mail and Standard among its portfolio, wanted its own TV station.

It was the silliest idea you ever heard. They also wanted to advertise during the Super Bowl, but that never happened.

Some of the UK's most respected newspaper men e.g. Sir David English , and you won't find a bad word about him anywhere, hatched a plan.

They hired video journalists, many from newspapers. In 1994 and if you can remember what you were doing back then and what the industry was like, you'll understand the context of this:

They hired newspaper journos to become VJs. What the ^%$£* is a VJ?

And the pieces they turned in were pilloried by the industry.

"IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR ONE INDIVIDUAL TO DO VIDEO AND SOUND WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE STORY".

That's what they said back then. Question is as you go about your video journalism today, does that statement bare any truth for you.

After a while the comments stopped, and the VJs moved on, many now to television, the BBC for instance, making award winning TV films.

Fancy that, newspaper journalists and photojournalists turned Vjs now making TV programmes and winning industry awards.

How sweet was that for those involved. But then really, TV's had a habit of taken print journos into TV. Read Andrew Marrs a short history of British Journalism.

And if you're reading this from outside the UK, Andrew Marr is Scotsman journalist turned BBC Political Editor, now an-all-about-town radio and TV host.

Ponder still , the idea of newspaper men and women winning TV awards; sounds very much like the Guardian Newspaper which recently won an RTS ( UK's Emmy) last year.

Incidentally though the award winner looks to function like a video journalist he won it as a film maker. More of that in a minute.


How the Net grew up
In 1994 when we first went on the Net on 28k modems, 240X120 pixels was the viewing size, then broadband in the shape of ADSL and T1 lines got busy.

We could go 320x240, even 480x360 if we were lucky, but the codec, Sorensons, still tested us.

Later at 2mb upwards the experience started to get even richer, the h264 codec kicked in and sites like Vimeo and Blip now encode at wider, less, compressed sizes.

And if we trend extrapolate that idea, in the wings soon we'll be a hosting player, or you might even be trying it yourself at the moment at 800 by 400 pixels.

Actually you already do it when you expand a video full screen except that the video's native size is often much smaller so you lose detail on the blow up.

If anything Apple Trailers encoded in different size formats offers that true experience.

Newspapers will continue to eschew television, solely because of the TV's own policies and licensing, plus the cost factor, but if any newspaper were offered a TV broadcast opportunity for free, what's the bet they won't take it.

Anything that leverages your product is a gift.

TV never the altruistic sort is in it for the money, so if it rings your newspaper asking for your video, even agreeing to pay for it ( you know what I mean) then it's a tipped hat to your work.

To that end Travis Fox and his films like: Rebuilding a Fortress, Rebuilding a life - the story of sheet metal worker Michael Flocco who lost his only son at the Pentagon on September 11th, is what most media orgs e.g. newspapers, websites would like.

Travis site says the ff:

Portions of the video aired on MSNBC and NewsChannel 8, a local Washington, D.C., cable station. CNN, NBC, and Maryland Public Television have also expressed interest in airing parts of the show. Finally, ABC will end their daylong Sept. 11 coverage with a re-broadcast of the story on Nightline UpClose.

The new film makers
Mighty impressive!

Something else happens when you're watching Travis' film and a host of others I could mention. You're watching a film; there's nothing to say this is a piece of video journalism.

This is the grey area I mentioned earlier.

At this stage there's very little to distinguish the way Travis works to someone like Molly Dineen - a highly respected British documentary maker who works her own camera.

With deference to Dineen and Travis, her starting base of docs might be different to Travis, but they're touching each other in their work covering long formats.

Video journalists making long format documentaries might just be panned as another silly idea.

But it's an obvious transition for anyone interested in pushing their art.

Many one person camera-sound crews renowned for their work resist the word video journalist and you can see why.

One of the strongest voices is the incredible Scott Rensberger (US)- one of the most awarded journalists in the business.

Scott knows stories, just like Bo knows football. And when we spoke in Spain last year we shared a lot of things in common. A good story is a good story and the label, well?

Why would you want to limit yourself?

By the way Scott fans, I wouldn't countenance for a moment comparing what I do to Scott. I said we shared similar thoughts. [Phew! You know some people....]

So there you go.

There are other questions, whether you a Video Journalist should film "smash and grabs" or work only constructs.

BBC VJs are strongly advised from ambulance chasing and filming incidents such as accidents etc, so said one of its Vjs to me.

Should your Vjs be allowed to work the beat, or work to a daily news belt?

Should you need a VJ sub editor to act as a second set of eyes or do the VJs publish straight to sites.


In 1994 we went through very much the same cycle of questions; some were resolved better than others.

18 years on the passionate debate and swiftly dismissed points of view continue.

If anything for some of us history is repeating itself and that is sad as some of the clues to the future lie in the past and by that I'm not even talking 1994, but 1966 when the first Cine (video) journalists were employed at the BBC.

Pixels without Borders

Just completed the prelims for Pixels without Borders and will post url later today.

It features the work of the incredible Yannis Kontos, a world press photographer winner and recipient of 18 different awards.

More recently he exhibited at one of the main museums in Greece, following on from a Picasso exhibition.

In line with early work circa 1999, [ see Blue Print article] this is a theme in exploration and non prescriptive navigation [ game theory] in what I'm attempting in providing different states.

There are some obvious omissions as this is an installation piece with some new ideas for accessing and playing.

The best part of the afternoon was spent cracking the code in action scripting and phase 1 works pretty much okay, Whilst Final Cut and subtle use of After Effects were used on the pics.

An equally remarkable set of prints will undergo the same treatment, following coyotes and immigrants crossing the Mexican border.

Many people have died on this venture. Yannis picks up the story from both sides.

Later today I should at some point post Laura at Journalism.co.uk a piece on video journalism etc. and then its back underneath the bonnet to get mysql and php to work a raft of new word press installations.

Video journalism Kit bag Canon HDCM0S et al

Wait for it... What's in the kitbag?

Today I have gone Geek head.Side by side - some of my old kit- the trusty VX1000 - s0me work horse. It once fell inside the sea ( Dardanelles). We fished it out and in a couple of hours was working.

My Nizo Super 8mm provides some lush footage when needed, and then bottom right is my Uher -a replacement of a previous version which saw action in South Africa and its conflicts.

It uses a reel which you edit with a razor and a edit head placed on the device.



Side by Side - so you can get a good feel of their sizes. The A1 which I recommend for newspapers journos is highly concealable, but look at the Cannon HD CMOS, cost 500 UKP compared to the Sony A1 1600 UKP

The question is does the cannon measure up?


In the palm of my hands you can barely see it.


The other device in the ruck sack which replaces the uher is the Handy Recorder


Last Friday I shot Sandy Jadeja talking about the markets and also managed to secure some work placement for students interested in working finance stories.

I'll post the story shortly, and also give me feedback on the Canon.

One thing to start off with. Because of the codec the camera uses, I could only ingest it into Imovie 8 on my Mac.

And then of course the ideal package, the Digi beta 700 [cost 25,000 UKP ] - shooting for television news

No Frames - photography meets videography

Photo copyright Yannis Kontos

"The photograph, its singularity in capturing a moment in time has held fast from its inception via the camera obscura but in a digital age, is there more that could be delivered?


No Frames is both a digital exploration of the textuallity and aesthetics of photography and an attempt to discover different narratives states available to the user".

David Dunkley Gyimah,

Creative Space
Its nearing Phd week, in which we all gather at The Smart Lab for intense sessions of methodology and presentations.

The beauty of these gatherings is having colleagues with disciplines markedly different to your own add to and critique your work.

It often takes a new set of eyes or someone not close to your work to help create fresh ideas within the cracks and identify new threads.

Smart lab's mixture of disciplines is ideal for this with figures such as technologists: Bruce Damer, NASA work - artificial life; Allison Waugh, behaviourists in Architectural Spaces ; Rachel Armstrong, a medical doctor turned Science Artist and many many more extra ordinary people.
Photography and Videography

Video and photography - a more obvious coming together on Viewmagazine.tv. providing a backdrop.

If you've read he Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea - a gripping true story of the wretched and fatal trek by men crossing over from Mexico to the US, then you'll want to see the photographs of Yannis Kontos.

Yannis' photos follows Coyotes and then picks up from the US border where these immigrants risking a grisly death make their way across desert wastelands in search of a better living in the US.


Pre Olympics
Prior to the UK's Olympic bid, I was invited to a creative meeting at Canary Wharf, the 25th floor of a building where in a round setting some of the UK's household names in the creative industry brain stormed ideas.

I had a proposal around photography. Sorry, call it video-photography, which I would later show to one of the key figures within Arts - Olympic movement.

It sounds obtuse here without going into a whole lot of detail, but it would later become one of the planks of interest in innovation in story telling and The Outernet at Smart Lab [different definition from that on Wiki].

And because life is circular, this week I have a meeting with the same key figure from the Arts.

Some of my colleagues have already critiqued the lengthier proposal; the brief version I have inserted above and I'm grateful for that.

Within the Arts there are huge opportunities, as well as challenges for visual story tellers, which are often delivered as personal interpretations.

But are the two strands video journalism and digital video art so different. The obvious answer is the simpler one.

But if we explore areas such as cross media platform working, gaming and follow the work of the Prix Ars Electronica started in 79, as video was taken off, there's a different debate to be had.

It's worth remembering that the movement video journalism has a rich seam and lineage dating back to the 60s and in particularly the 70s with excellent work from Czech visualists [ &^! lost the link.. mist find it].


Television and the Arts
Not withstanding the Turners and Bookers, television increasingly finds it difficult to report or convey the Arts to a wider audience.

Yes we all have moments scratching our heads, but there are countless moments when a story captures the zeitgeist.

Earlier this year I reported from the South Bank how Edinburgh Festival organisers felt television had abandon the arts and a possible remedy using video journalism.

And recently I noticed the South Bank featuring an exhibition Art by Offenders: 5,000 entrants. lifers, high security patients, immigration detainees submit their works to the annual Koestler Awards.

That brought back memories working a story of inmates at Wormwood Scrubs, a high security prison, making works of art.


art prisoners from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.

Their art became the canvas for them to talk about themselves. I spent a weekend on the wing.

I wish I could show you the whole 10 minute video, but by now some of the inmates serving life - which can often be 15 years - may be released.

They did not sign any release forms at the time and even if they did it would not have crossed anyone's mind this would go on the net.

But this was a more obvious marriage of video journalism and Art, but the challenge, the challenge, is to push the boundaries of this creative video form so that it says things only it could only do, tells a story that is not prescriptive, turns a white piece of paper into a montage of feelings, and looks for that which is not obvious.

No frames then may not sound so absurd after all.

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.

Fibonacci's man of the times - financial video journalism

Like to reintroduce you to one of the most extraordinary people I have recently met, Sandy Jadeja, market strategist who predicted the crash, the Dow hitting 14,050 and oil run with a high degree of accuracy.

Now I know what you're thinking because I might be equally cynical, but as I said to Sandy, when I listen to what he has to say, it's extraordinary.

It's a sentiment echoed by many seeing email up email sent to him.

Sandy, 20 years of market experience, uses Fibonacci's numbers to arrive at his predictions.


He kindly replayed some of his most recent seminars and powerpoints to camera, so in time I hope to bring these to you so you can make your own mind up.

But I'm won over.

Pictures courtesy of Sandy Jedija
Copyright Keith Saunders

The Super Multimedia Journalists - The Telegraph

(left to right) Heidi, Harriet, Jonathan Mike( their principle trainer), Nick and Rachel
Had the good pleasure of meeting the Telegraph's trainee super journos yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Super journos because since last year The Telegraph hand picks a handful of grads and post grads to embark on its year plus long trainee scheme, which frankly should be the envy of many organisations.

This year five emerged from the 800 or so number, and like their colleagues last year are a truly nice bunch.

Full of vim, able to master the intricacies of video journalism very swiftly, and brain power you'd gladly welcome on any pub quiz team.

No coincidence they recently won the local quiz contest against local favoured teams in Howden, PA's North of England headquarters.

Last year
I'm told last year's lot have all found jobs and doing very well, with posts that include deputy foreign affairs editor and features writers.

The Telegraph's programme places a strong emphasis on multimedia journalism, giving the trainees rounded skills in being able to meet the modern challenges of print and web reportage.

And after spending time with PA, they'll be on various secondments throughout the UK with regional newspapers.

It's good grounding and if anyone remembers the BBC's much envious 12 trainee appointment schemes, you'll recall the regions played a strong role in providing trainees with multi tasking skills and stomping the husting for stories.

So yes I'm grateful for opportunity of meeting them and will feed some of the video I shot of them into my Phd Studies on Innovation in Journalism.

Motion graphics story telling

The financial crisis running story yields an interesting assessment of TV and online reportage.

I posted a week or so ago how I thought newspaper video journalism was found wanting.

Broadcast TV News must be chewing its finger nails as well.

The emerging convention looks set on the use of motion graphics with typography at its core.

In some cases I think they work; others, the compositions look below par.

Motion graphics is a strong feature of graphic design, but perhaps rarely understood as 'journalism", more information design.

It comes from the graphic department, so there!

Online video makers and video journalists have FCP et al and After Effects to help them tell a complex story using graphics.

And why would they?

The reasons simplified are to help tell a a complex story, reinforced by figures and power words.

However you get the feeling, looking at the broadcasts, that it's also down to a lack of pics.

It's an area that video journalism should excel at being able to drive stories pictorially. Yet the evidence is yet to be convincing.

Perhaps its tradition; traditionally finance stories have been difficult to make as they're not visual enough. But you might also add that if Vjism has little time to experiment, play around with form, it'll fail to push visual grammar into new exciting areas.

And if you're asking film makers [at least the ones I know] do this as a matter of course, particularly in stock and say location.

I know they're two different beasts, but there's a lot video journalism or cine-journalism borrows from its visual sibling.

And reporting the story of the century [ early days] should be a cinch.

Apparently they're either prepping or shooting Wall Street II in the city. Any more news on that!

Hillary Clinton speaks to Mark Riley

Good friend Mark Riley got an interview with Hillary Clinton on the credit crunch and what happens if the US' $700 billion rescue package fails.

There's some interference on the line and I'm emailing Mark about the rest of the interview.

But there are some things to mull over in this.