Most of the time I was producing features for BBC Radio I was obsessed with nailing ‘a sense of place’.¬†¬† Its just a commitment to distilling the character¬† of a place into something meaningful, that will translate powerfully to an audience.
Mainly its about people and stories and listening and long hours editing, its about commitment.
It always amazes me how fast outside egos can destroy a sense of place in a programme.¬† Most of the time its some dumb reporter or presenter who thinks the shows all about them. The worst examples are usually when a reporter turns up at a catastrophe and starts to play the indignant hero. How many times did I bite my tongue from telling a presenter ‘Shut Up, Sit Down and Listen (to the guest)’.
I had a great way of avoiding this trap by just simply not using presenters, or scripts in many of my programmes and although I was the one asking all the questions you would never hear my voice.  Its a lovely way to work because you are always focused on the people that you are talking to and never yourself.
Rienhard Krause has done a great job capturing a five day prayer meeting held at a monastery in Tongren, Qinghai province, Tibet. You get a real sense of place. (click on the picture to see the slideshow)
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beautiful pics. would be nice to know a bit more about what exactly is going on..