Making of a multimedia Journalist

Some proof reading - typos etc, links to refine and pre-loaders, and hopefully that might do it. Do feedback Pls.

The making of a multimedia Journalist - a snap shot guide here

1mb connection would do you fine. Click image for bigger pic

Letter from South Africa

"I don't want affirmative action to continue", says one of South Africa's talented youth, in this doc by Viewmagazine's David

It's always going to be incendiary reporting South Africa with race centre stage, particularly in the context of employment and affirmative action .

The BBC's report this morning had some choice moments, taking a town to serve as a microcosm of South Africa and seeking to find out what each side, black and white, felt about the impact of this policy.

One woman suggested with indignity and pejudicial slant "We have helped them" or thereabouts, and these emerging blacks are now buying swanky cars, while another suggested "affirmative action hasn't gone far enough", and one of the last clips that these blacks are being given jobs with little qualifications.

On the Successor Generation, a doc, radio, net piece, first made for BBC Radio such views were not uncommon, as were those who advocated that they would have to be a time limit on affirmitive action.

We don't want it going on like it does in the states, says an interview. See the doc here.

360 Degree Reporting
My bone, was not the report but the manner in which we so try to simplify complex debates, not a problem in itself, but that they should be given a forum to allow for greater expression.

Yes you could argue where does that stop then?

Shall all reports have a circular 360 degree dimension?

Perhaps, as much as possible to allow listeners a chance to engage and expand on the debate to get a wider understanding.

The BBC's report sets an agenda because it's the BBC, but there's nothing to stop the corporation from linking to say SABC radio who might debate this issue in greater detail, in the manner of "Any Answers".

Or providing its own forum to Q and A.

Yes, yes, yes blogs is one avenue, but with the amount of broadcast web technology and propensity for peopple to want to engage, at the very least, deploy skype as a conference set up for us to q the reporter.

The days of linking radio or podcasts in the same way we do text will one day, one day, be upon us, when it allows for a much better rigorous understanding of issues which sometimes eschew such deconstructions.

The BBC's mistake over 'The Trouble with Black Men" is an example of this. The programme may have been provocative, not giving anyone the forum to debate your findings does not reach the evolving and sandshifting threshold of future journalism

New Journalism, New thinking

Famous illusion - here for some more to test your point of view with friends

I very rarely post about the Masters module I run; it's just seems a bit off limits though of course I don't in the least mind students posting.

Some even blog live.

Today however we looked at the mindset of the journalist, or future journalists in first contact for online journalism

It allowed some interaction with paradigms and the "aha" syndrome.

One of the biggest threats facing us isn't the deludge of new applications and hardware tools on the market; all of which I'd play around with if I had the chance, or even the trend-to-dismiss web 2.0, but the mindset that predetermines how we percieve what we do.

- - - Dyson's thoughts here
- - -

If big old crinky institutions have their way, the emperors clothes would still be the status quo - producers swearing that their tried and tested model works.

All the signs though are that matters will continue to evolve, so whilst we may have to learn one bit of software or another, that's not really the point for me.

Those determined or bloody minded enough could sooner learn Final Cut by or Flash via books.

I know I first did.

No, one of the issues bedevilling us is about our propensity to accept change, to be sure about the uncertainty ahead that there is no certainty, that today's blog may be tomorrow's "Pass it on" and that we should not fear the unknown.

We're at sea
We've been sailing a ship as deck hands where the seas have been fairly calm, occasionally rocky but nothing we couldn't handle and now all hell's broken loose.

It's rough, really rough. We're outside our comfort zone and it's scaring the bejeez out of us.

Question is how adaptive or creative are you at finding solutions?

Rather reminds me of the APRANET story, of the men with high foreheads submitting their original idea to the military brass, for a pre-internet system.

"This Sirs will do the job in command and control capable of relaying a message in the theatre of a nuclear first strike war".

The brass saw them off; bring back something else, was the riposte.

"We'll give you more, so much more that you'll not know what to do with it", seems to have been the attitude.

The Net is born.

Who do you see?
The picture of the old woman - young lady is a favourite as it tests our capacity to see another person's point of view when it's not at first plainly evident there is one.

It further allows for the sudden sharp intake of breath and exclamation: "Aha", when the alternative image appears.

As a Chem-Maths student I used to love that feeling producing an organic compound which would show a high yield with minimum impurities when passed through a Gas Chromotograph.

The roots of journalism and storytelling will prevail, our ability to inform and entertain using variant models, which we haven't even fathomed must sit at the core of what we do.

That's progress - something big media has cosily shared within itself, parrying, where it can, any disruptive force.

It's no surprise that within computing science and technology, young brains have played a major contribution to the force of the web.

We should equally, sans the politics, not be surprised to see the present crop of tomorrow's journalist pushing this media completely of the scale - our percieved scale.

Change is good.

VideoJournalism - break some eggs

In 1979 I saw my first conflict. I was caught in the middle of small arms fire with some of my college cadet colleagues

This was Ghana.

In 1992, this time armed with a sony and hi 8 I was in the townships of South Africa evading conflict between Inkatha and ANC supporters.

Since then I have had further scuffles.

One things certain, as my VJ stripes got dirtier and dirtier, I've come to realise vjism is not a glampuss job.

If you want to practice Videojournalism on foreign, even domestic assignments, be prepared to get into the trenches.

At its heart we can cover stories of any nature, but Vjs immediacy and gonzoism ( that doesn't translate as unprofessionalism) offers a raw, up close and personal way of capturing stories.

No glamour, no airs and graces, but the photojournalist of old and new, jeans, trainers an attitude and armed with a cine capturing device.

"Get the shot, get the shot".

Today I said probably my last byes to a group I have known for a year.

They were students when we met up and now they are that no more.

I had a frank, but neccessary discussion with them, that I would not normally have.

You own this space. You make your own rules. What you know surpasses what many are unaware of, in radio, broadcast, magazine, newspapers, online, CSS, Mashups.

Some have found jobs, others are in the process, but I have no doubt all of them will find their calling.

It really is an exciting time to do journalism, to really break some eggs

Aid agencies acting as reporters - should we be concerned?

Aha did that get your attention ?

Then it worked.

This is what a full page spread from the Guardian asked yesterday.

You see it's a no brainer, but the danglingdated question provides a certain oomph for the article.

There's journalism at work for you, words that build an emotive picture.

I first started working with Aid agencies e.g. Medecins Sans Frontieres in 1997 and have come into contact with all manner of agencies attempting to report their findings, whether that's their annual report or what's on the ground.

In the 80s Greenpeace raised the game, becoming frontline campaigner and reporter.

Disrupt the path of the whale hunters, then report/film them for water hosing you.

The BBC learned to its cost on one occasion when film from an agency was said not to be compus, questioning the broadcaster's journalism integrity.

The BBC would then drop the idea of Video News Releases (VNR) entirely.

But oh how matters have changed in the game.

The new media reporters
My last forays into MSF exchanging ideas on news production and editing was about two years ago in Belgium at their International office.

A couple of their staffers were so talented I felt that they would have given any reporter a run for their money in videojournalism and radio reportage/podcasts.

And I don't mind that they're not being objective in their reports because we know first hand who they are and what they stand for.

That's the ecosystem of citizen journalism. If you're transparent in your delivery, what Peter Barron, newsnight editor calls "xtreme transparency then we can make up our own minds over trust levels.

And come on how many times have you found even "real" journalists fall foul of this?

One of the best conflict films I have seen in recent months about war and its effects e.g. rehabilitation, came from one of the agencies, with Claudio Von Planta shooting and directing.

I was asked to provide the voiceover for a couple of reformed militia.

Should we be concerned with aid agencies reporting?

That's a mute point.

Should we be looking to learn from example and report what aid agencies are adept at doing, such as returning to hazard zones when the mainstream media has left ?

Provide a sympathetic tone and visual narrative, eschewing parachute journalism.

Trying to bring show some of the ills of these awful places we've become innured to.

Yes, yes, yes.

In fact this header: Aid agencies show mainstream media how to report, might equally have attracted your attention.

Here for an example of MSF's reportage

p.s Incidentally less we forget, there's a wide body of foreign correspondents who started off their careers working for aid agencies

Brightcove personal Videojournalism films

In one year as I recall I made nearly 500 videojournalism stories. Phew!

At the last conservative estimate at the studio I had some 800 beta tapes, 150 digibetas, 700 dvcam and countless VHS - that's a lot of stories, but I'll spare myself the embarrassement and try and be a bit more critical.

So here are some of the stories that are on viewmagazine.tv which I have now migrated to Brightcove, whose compression codec compared to Youtube is streets ahead.

Eventually the films should provide an interesting time line in videojournalism's many styles, which starts of looking like traditional TV before, something else...

The few uploaded thus far are more promo orientated, (something I enjoy doing from working in Soho) but here's the link, where a number of films I had to split into two for yourtube to get the compression right can now be viewed in their entirety. The Ferrari film for once doesn't come out looking like chewing gum.

At some point, I'll produce the Making of the film in Cairo between Robb Montgomery and me..

Deconstructing video journalism at Viewmagazine.tv

In the coming weeks we'll be deconstructing video journalism at viewmagazine.tv

I'll be talking in more detail about working with the Financial Times and how video journalism is working there, as well as the 150 or so newspaper journalists we've helped train. Business and Economics have often been the most testing reportage to produce on TV because of the lack of "strong" visuals, so what can video journalism offer?

We'll show the basics born from television to the more advance VJ - docs and some of the new visual language you could use. We'll show you more VJ pieces from 14 years ago - reports on the newspaper industry in the UK talking about where the industry's going. Then we'll look at more current trends.

Video journalism broadly offers "made-like-TV" shoots or a the more aggressive personalised paradigm. We'll look at both as well as the hybrid

Jon Staton used to be head of TV at Saatchi and Saatchis. He was my MD in his London Soho-based ad agency re-active.net and here we used video journalism to make ads for among others London Underground's new XTP project.

We'll also show video Journalism's core points were used to produce an ad in 12 hours for a Washington based client, aired on CNN International

We'll look at techniques for assessing the film/len's energy. You'll often find composers talking about this when scoring for a film.

Video Journalism is not a one size fits all. In many cases I believe the term can be limiting as it assumes it's fit only for news, so we'll talk about the Ferrari 599 GTB shoot, without all the Top Gear trappings.

Then we'll deconstruct a Fashion Show shoot, and One-on-One interviews with key industry figures, plus off-the-beaten-path travelogue programmes and Sport shoots.

And we'll look at Youth Current Affairs. Before Current.tv, in the 90s the BBC had a programme that defined a generation of film makers and media pundits. Its name was Reportage.

Then we'll talk about where video journalism may not be suitable, but the underlying theory will stand you in good stead as a director speaking everyone elses language: an L cut to the editor, Pull focus to the camera operator, blondes or redheads for lighting, ambient sound and working close to the mike with sound.

Then news, conflict and Nato's war games using blog swarming techniques to cover stories.

We'll combine video journalism with Integrated multimedia profiling people whose paths we've crossed, who shoot and build css sites on the fly, such as the BBC's new Gaza Correspondent, Tamer

And then we'll look beyond video journalism into the realms of (Video)motion graphics with a good pal and one of the most talented souls for his generation Rob Chiu.

And then we'll go have a beer on face book.

Video journalism ~ it's about technique and not just technology

Video journalism's special forces

There's no bravado, we had no prior recky, but the camera and experience would give us the edge.

Videojournalism is technique not technology.

The big crews arrive, stating their aim. We arrive wanting to be invisible, working within an ecosystem which comes closer to capturing the moment.

The traditionalists want to rearrange their ecosystem: You stand here, let's rehearse the questions, can I get you to say it this way, oh and if you don't mind walk from this point to that.

Ours is best served undisturbed. Go in, get the story, and come out. Often the "in" can be embedded. Stay with the subject enough to feel their pain, emotion, their story.

The construct is personal, the camera becomes a subject in itself. It's technique not technology.

The art of one person making films is not new. It was born the very day early cinematographers unveiled their box cameras and cranked away at moving trains, scaring to death cinema audiences.

But then it grew, cinematographers developed their craft and invited in directors to handle scenes an actors, and sound personnel to operate "car-size" sound equipment.

We've come full circle and both the gear and techique look to a new language of telling intimate and rich stories.

Video journalism today hovers between grafitti in a world of classical paintings and fake impressionism; personal tags and expressionism, and dogma film making eschewing all thats cumbersome.

There are many styles, but above all the key is that one person skilled in drawing out people, understanding how to construct on the fly, possessing a visual literacy, can tell a range of different stories - from a 1.20 piece to a series of hour long docs, will with little fuss.

The most archaic tool of news decision management is the agenda. It's not scientific, reliant instead on good judgement developed from years of experience, but even the wisest would not deny that what's good for the goose may not be good in the source.

What you want may not be what I want, but it doesn't make it less important.

Videojournalism - the versatile journalist. It's about technique not technology

How to create a really cool anti guns ad . . but er.

UK film company Therapy Films have just made a really cool ad against guns, which they shot in the US. No words, shot to a melancholic much used classical repertoire as a bullet pummels through various objects.

Trouble is for the audience it's meant to appeal to it will be as effective as a plastic knife on steak.

This isn't a criticism against Therapy, they've done their job. It's a good piece of film and technically challenging. It was approved by the client. Job well done. Er, £@^%

This reminds me of events in South Africa. A very close friend of mine who is a senior exec at Mcann Erikson Herd Buoys - one of SA's most successful ad companies - said at the official ending of Apartheid, that they ( ad people) might have to go back to basics to get their message across.

They now recognised they'd have to appeal broadly to a new constituent, which needed to be told "like it is".

Tarantinoesque
Having a bullet fly in super slow mo looks Tarantino-cool. That's a lot of cool. Remember the Radiohead video ( I think shot by Artem) or Wimbledon's playback camera at 1/1000th of a second speed or something like that), or the film "Day of the Jackal".

I'd probably want to play around with the camera myself. The IM6 Video Journalism approach rethinks ad/promo production in the same way video journalism does with news. One of the early thoughts is the audience live on the mobiles, they Myspace, they rarely watch TV, they're wowed by DIY video, music ones. So you want your ad to go viral.

Also, one of the reasons why the ad may not be as effective as it should is in all likelihood those you're appealing to have already been shooting off and and are fully aware what the bullet does. We've had series like CSI, ER etc to even give the bullet travel a hyper realistic fashionable look.

Ah, but our ad shows what really happens, you might argue. You could equally argue the actuarist approach. If I can get to one young person with this, we've done something.

Know your audience
If you really want a hard hitting campaign go talk to those with guns.

Where would you find them? Ok if you're really stuck, her Majesty's estate. And whilst there ask what shocks/draws empathy. Find out what negotiators call their "break point" - the point where something makes a difference.

The last shot of this ad, for me, makes the strongest point for empathy. A lone boy standing in the path of the bullet. I'd have pushed that line of thought with 10 young lads falling to the tune of 10 green bottles, re-worded or something, with each of the boys falling violently to the floor till there's none and then pics/video of funerals, because that's the legacy, people hurting really badly.

Also, the pre-teen fronting it is really cute and charming and speaks really eloquently. . . BUT. . . you know where I'm going with this don't you !@$.

OFCOM of course have strong laws governing ads and what can and cannot be shown, but one feels this one will be another oportunity missed. Actually you judge. Might even win Therapy some awards.

Age old question: who's the ad made for? Is Q there, whose film about this subject is doing the rounds.