Brit Youth Crime

Feeble responses, knee jerk reactions, liberal laws, lack of social understanding; when you look back on successive governments no one has had a clue how to deal with crime.

Is there a way?

Many agencies and critics have provided focus, but with governments this is politics and what's right for people as opposed to political careers and ideologies won't necessarily see the light of day.

This is a report I made for the BBC's network current affairs programme in, wait for it, 1992 about youth crime.

When you watch it you might ask what's changed?

I guess a lot more rhetoric from all sides, but understanding? That's debatable .

The argument and I believe a strong one is that if you've never experienced or been privy to war and its consequences, it's easier to do war.

If you've never see the ruins of crime, been at the coal face to be covered in its grime or taken an active social interest, not because you have to, but because you want to, then tackling crime appears problematic.

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.

Crime reporting

London's girl gangs - police estimate at least three "families" in the capital; black soldiers asked to help mentor disaffected youth; the convicted killer of Philip Lawrence Chindamo's deportation row - busy week for mainstream media reportage .

BBC Radio 4's The Today programme produced an edgy radio package for its audience about gangs this morning; overall figures estimated at a conservative 170.

A couple of days ago, another story you can hear their reporter being threatened by a gang of youths as he solicits their views. Some weeks back BBC Newsnight hands over DVCams to youngster for them to tell their story.

There appears the perception that crime reportage is shifting more towards explaining what's going on, rather than always reacting to the latest fatality. There have been many this year.

In print, The Guardian maintains its status quo in reportage - a front page lead last monday. Whilst in broadcasting the BBC seems to be setting the agenda. If the networks don't pick up on it, it is the issue that dare not speak its name.

In a multifarious, multimedia age, you'd think there should be more high profile alternative media keeping this debate going.

Reporting crime has its own risks. I have run into a few myself.

One of the most memorable at Channel One TV coming back from a report and finding my car ransacked by three youths; one still in the vehicle. I was holding a bvw400 camera - cost at the time about 20,000 ukp. So in short if you are doing Videojournalism, be careful.

We often speak about the whizz bang from this craft and not about health and safety. I recall switching the camera on and filming he group as I struggled to get into my car. I showed the footage to the authorities afterwards, but that came to nothing.

Today, if I am going out on a story; I am tonight to help a former student, I go light and would advise as I do to the newspaper industry to use smaller HD cams and ditch the tripod that says "yep in this ruck sack, there's likely to be a camera.