Why video stories work VII

Perhaps one of the most gripping pieces I have produced recently was talking to Rachel North.

Gripping has nothing to do with me the producer but the person being interviewed.

There are many technical reasons, as opposed to its creative elements, why video works and it can sometimes be taken for granted.

If you watched Brit TV features in the 80s and 90s there was a huge safety net for why video/TV should always work.

I recall so vividly how at BBC Reportage (1992-93) we would:

1. Bash the phones - searching for stories/ contacts- often sparked by the newspapers.

2. Search approp. contacts and literally write up mini books about what they said.

3. This would be shown to an editor who would drive us into the area she/he felt yielded good SOTs ( sound on tape)

4. Go out and shoot - looking for those same sots.

5. Come back and have secretaries transcribe.

Point 5 will perhaps bring on the biggest gasp.

From 8 pages of transcript you'd comb through picking out those vivid sots.

"So as I looked out of the window I felt a pain. It was sudden, and then I started to bleed. I blacked out and then I'm told I lost all time and when my mum came home and saw me, she took me off to the hospital and there they said I was lucky to be alive, because I had accidently drunk poison that should have killed me. I'm not sure how that happened, but I thought at the time it was just a stomach ache....


Now circa 92 what might have been edited would have been
(1)"I felt a pain. It was sudden, and then I started to bleed. I blacked out..


(3)"I accidently drunk poison that should have killed me"

With a voice over supplying the bits in between.
Jane was discovered by her mother x hours later. At the hospital doctors were amazed she was still alive -- insert (2)

The system worked because the programme had a sizable budget to play with, and accuracy rather than speed was the driving currency. ( though the two are never tradeable)

But what people said suddenly became interesting in another guise; nuances, choice of words, semantics.


Pushing Video's sot content
Yesterday, BBC local news led with an item about the tragic death of a policeman, but started off the piece saying the commander of blah blah police force has sent his condolences..

Uh! Yes this might be news, but not as the lead in this case when scant knowledge has been said of the event.

Similarly, journalese e.g hhospitalised, medicalised truck - heard that one yesterday - and "a car has collided with a tree" take on new meaning.

But I digress.

Turning over a news report or feature piece in the hustle and bustle of 24news accords no such time luxury, so you learn to drive a live conversation homing in on the good bits, waiting to further explore, and intervening when it goes flat to pick it up again.


Do all the hard work in the field
Cutting down time in the news arena before even getting back to the edit is one of the keys to help you unlock Gonzo VJism.

And added to that the conviction of knowing what your piece is about.

If you've got the SOT, why waste any more time. Leave. Say thank you.

I'd pursued a member of parliament all day, and when he agreed to an interview as part of a press corp, I only had two questions for him.

"Do you intend to resign... why not....."

He was a bit perplexed: "Is that all!", he quipped.

I ran all these together.

I didn't see the point of a fishing expedition asking 30 questions when I only had space for 40".

Average time of a sot depending on your territory 4-8 secs, 8-15 seconds, 15-25 secs, 25-40 seconds, though clearly if you're in the latter then you're verging on docs.


Christmas Game

It's not a bad pasttime game.

Close your eyes and see if you can pull out the sots of your partner or parent talking to you.

Nice for Christmas too if your mum can finish a five minute oratory with you staring down at the Christmas pud and still know what she was talking about.

"That would be Mr Bell, mother... you know Mr Bell, that's who you're talking about..the one with different sized feet"

Listen out for the dip in intonation (break). That's the edit point.

Then if you can find any of Margaret Thatcher's old tapes (youtube) try it again.

Thatcher it was rumoured knew how to control her inflexions so effectively she kept on rising in tone until she finished her point.

Real bummer to edit as it sounds incomplete and you're forced to take the whole 40 secs.

So the interview below is an example of a quick knock together video that er works: Rachel North, who survived the tube bomb blast, needed little intervention.

Let her tell the story - that's the best part of radio as well.

Animated voice, paints pictures with words, and speaks in 15-25 second chunks.

Whoops! 30 seconds gone, lets pick up the inflexion to arouse secondary interest.

Three different cut aways drove the visual narrative.

Time taken about 10 minutes for the interview in which I originally posted with perhaps one edit.

Here's part one - 1.40 odd seconds for part's two and three you can find them on viewmagazine.tv here

The ecosystem of new reportage

Photo/painting courtesy of the 1st-art-gallery.


This re-configured post, below, was inspired by Mike Jones' lecture 1 and 2 a continuation, which ellucidates on structural forms, creative commons etc. and is required listening for students and academics.

I have posted this in the past, but I hope you'll understand why I'm reposting

I'm adding to it

You probably didn't see it the first time, and will unlikely find time ever to trawl ( archives-funny word that on the Web) to see what I may have been talking about.

Conversations/ narratives are viral/ circular in this medium.

Would it take a bold person to suggest that Aristotles notion of the art of narrative: Beginning, Middle and an End may be challenged?

The arrogance of it. Oh boy!

Undoubtedly, you need to start somewhere ( i'm starting this piece), but also recognise it has its roots somewhere else - the last post here

It has a middle section, as does this post, but if I link you off somewhere we could get caught in a typhoon of middle sections becoming first; my middle section fuses into your beginning, which in itself is arbitary, as your beginnng may have be spawned somewhere else.

And then where does it end?

It doesn't. oh boy!

I'm playing with form here, but in essence this is where we are or heading replicating the very matrix structure of the web figuratevly as an illustration; a Mesh, rather than the centralised, decentralised form APRANET looked at and discarded.

But structure is what we also thrive on. Aristotle made narrative easier to comprehend and package.

Nice one Mr A or could I be so impertinent to call where I'm going with this as Digital Aristotle.

Multimedia Film
A film with no beginning and an end.

Am I being silly now?

But could I expand the window, entry points for a film?

The easiest form for me at the moment is the picture, Luca-Giordano's form, which captures the mood of the piece.

So for the report I'm producing for January, I'm pushing myself (*$£@&) to find the image that captures the multi-strandness ( is that a word) of the reportage.

If I exhaust all and get stuck I'll resort to a Giordano, I'll graphically construct the piece.

What the picture should hopefully do is provide a start, entry point into several different narratives of the story, that at some point touch/cross each other.

I interviewed seven different major themes, that's seven different films.

Nope, I won't finish those all by January.

But you get the idea hopefully, and it doesn't mean all seven themes need to reside in the frame.

Exhbit 1n+1
Take this pic below, taken by a good friend Sajo Idrizonvic.

There are at least two obvious entry points into the story: the police and lone man.



But what about the cameraman behind the lens and the bystander almost out of shot top right?

Of course some may decline to give their story, but if we can pull all those together, is this evolving entity not richer?

Another "of course", at least for the meantime, is that we enact these scenarios online.

Which poses an interesting conundrum for me when I show any work in the future at exhibitions.

I may well end up showing a multistate film, or singular point of view, which gives more clarity when you seek the online link.

There will be instances, hopefully where I may not be able to provide the other strand, but someone does, and we agree on a shared video hyperlink.

Of course video hyperlinking still needs sorting out, but it will, it will.

I'm looking at some encoding at the moment and will also be calling on the help of some friends.



+++

Original blog
I stood there mesmerized for ten minutes, just studying the piece.

It is without question one of the most captivating art pieces you'll see at the National Gallery in room 32.

It is Perseus fighting Phineus and his companions by Luca Giordano- October 18, 1634 - January 12 1705. This picture above is a remarkable reproduction courtesy of the 1st-art-gallery who reproduce handmade oil paintings.

Our history consists of defining images, endless unique ones that capture an essence. Director Ridley Scott says the lone image of a gladiator about to slay his enemy was the key to taking on the film, Gladiator. There are many more instances like this.

This is my "kwa", my latest at least. I have seen it before, but now in my directing/producing phase it has new meaning.

Continued here