we produce beautifully crafted multimedia » multimedia

Guest post from Mr Pete ‘Prison Photography’ Brook

Ciara Leeming — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:20:53 +0000

Mike Davis’ Does Story Telling Lose in Multimedia is a poorly-argued position on multimedia. Usually very helpful with his industry insider’s voice, Davis has not met his usual standards. Shame.

Davis’ logic is flawed. Let me quote (in bold) and question his three-point disappointment.

1. Thou shalt approach subject matter that mostly happened in the past.

Please show me something in journalism of any medium that has happened in the future. Or, if we are to yearn for the present, does Davis want only live-feeds of events on our TVs and computers?

2. Thou shalt point a video/audio producing machine at a person looking at said machine and ask them questions, as the primary story telling medium. (You may separate said audio from said video with papal dispensation.)

So we shouldn’t interview subjects? Maybe guess what they’re thinking? Do away with quotes? Or should subjects have wireless lapel mics attached when they’re not paying attention?

In good multimedia, the questions are not the content; the answers are. To incorporate them involves, yes, separating and editing audio.

3. Thou shalt make video of something in the present tense that may or may not have anything to do with that past event and then overlay that video cleverly with the interview audio to suggest a connection between the two, without being too misleading.

If there is a gross deception that occurs whereby the mix of audio and video manipulates a story, then this is not the fault of the format, but the poor skills of the creator. If Davis spots it then viewers will too.

On the idea of misleading the audience, maybe Davis is holding too much on to old rigid rules of journalism? The multimedia producers I have spoken to are very clear that while they are reporting a situation, they are doing so with a personal verve. Multimedia has more facets and more production than say a text article or photo-essay. It is layered and if used properly can tell stories VERY effectively.

Multimedia incorporates hard facts but also the producers’ own interpretations of the contexts for those facts. I would call this space between non-fiction and interpretation, storytelling. Good storytelling involves the teller; we rely on his/her skills to walk us through the story.

I can appreciate that Davis may have had a couple of painful experiences judging multimedia competitions but for him to lament the medium is too much of a generalisation and ironically, misleading itself.

As David Campbell noted, Davis offers no examples of poor multimedia. So let me offer some examples of good multimedia:

Intended Consequences by Jonathan Torgovnik/MediaStorm.
Trapped, by Jenn Ackermann.
Afrikaner Blood, by Elles van Gelder & photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien

Alternatively you can trawl the archives of Interactive Narratives or MediaStorm. In the face of such an amount of excellent storytelling, Davis’ position is simply off-the-mark.

______________

Pete Brook is a freelance writer. He writes and edits Prison Photography, his own blog about the visual politics of prisons. Pete writes about photography for Wired.com and contributes at BagNewsNotes. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Follow @brookpete on Twitter.

Half Lives

Ciara Leeming — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:22:46 +0000

The Chernobyl workers now, by Maisie Crow

Click here to view the embedded video.

Laygate stories – tales from South Shields

Ciara Leeming — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:02:57 +0000

Here’s a project to watch. Photographer Peter Fryer has teamed up with David Campbell, academic and multimedia producer, to create Laygate Stories – a multimedia project focusing on the characters who live in one area of South Shields, north east England. The neighbourhood is a microcosm of 21st century British multiculturalism – populated by indigenous north-easterners, a long-established Yemeni community which includes second and third generation Britons, and more recent migrants from countries as diverse as Angola, Iran and Poland. Taking its inspiration from the phenomenal One in Eight Million series run by the New York Times in 2009, Laygate Stories aims to focus in on the small but touching personal stories which make up every community. It kicks off with four short photofilms which can be seen here - with more to follow. The project is part of an Arts Council-funded commission organised by Side Gallery in Newcastle. Fabulous.

Pitch perfect storytelling

duckrabbit — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:45:27 +0000

Lots of craft going on here, in more ways than one.

Kauri multimedia are based in Spain. There is a sweetness and light to their work. Wonderful.

Etienne Bellanger always wanted to be a luthier. At a young age he spent time in a luthier workshop, where he became instantly fascinated and hooked, and ended up submerging deeper into this world.

He studied to be a luthier at the prestigious National School of Lutherie of Mirecourt and settled in Zaragoza in 2009 with the aim of developing his professional career. Lutherie of bowed instruments is almost non-existent in Spain, and Etienne, who provides a breath of fresh air in a city with practically no tradition in this art, welcomes us into his workshop to share his thoughts on music and his craft.

Sublime photography but …

duckrabbit — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:48:29 +0000

I love the people at Daylight Magazine. There are few group emails that I don’t treat as spam but every month the Daylight email (letting me know what’s going on in the magazine) gets a well earned click from me.

BUT …

I think we have to try and get away from photographers reading scripts about their photography (please see update at the end of the post).

I need to be engaged with conversation, with passion, yes also with intelligence, but not so contrived that it has to be read.

Great photos. The delivery should match.

So how do you do it?

Just sit the photographer down and talk to them for twenty minutes about their work. Then edit it down to three minutes. Really, it’s that simple.

But it’s not always possible to get yourself in the same room as the photographer. In that case send them a digi recorder and do the interview over the phone. This is something I did a number of times when I was working on radio documentaries at the BBC, when I couldn’t get someone into a studio.

Here’s duckrabbit’s David White not reading, but talking about his project to photograph Brunel’s work using a replica camera from Brunel’s era. Sounds so much better then reading from a script and it’s an easy way for a photographer to squeeze a short photofilm out of an old body of work:

UPDATE: We recieved a comment that points out only the first section of this photofilm was read from a script. I have to be honest and say that I never got past that first section. Thanks for your comment Hugo. Just goes to show too how important that first minute is.

Hugo Figueiredo
June 6, 2011 at 19:17 · Reply · Edit

I didn’t find the audio pointless at all. The opening statement does sound bland but it then moves into an interview (1.30 in) with Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography which I found engaging, passionate, conversational, insightful and it shed new light on a fascinating project.

If it was just a photographer reading a script for 6 minutes (which your blogpost suggests it is) then sure, it would be pretty dull stuff, but I can’t see why you’d think the interview is pointless …

Ever thought about killing the person who leaves dirty cups in the sink?

duckrabbit — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:28:25 +0000

For me there is always a story under the story in the best photofilms. James Hooker gets this.

Earlier this year I was invited to spend a couple of days with the undergraduates on the photojournalism course at London College of Communication (alongside duckrabbit’s teaching on the Masters course there). I’m not sure if they knew quite how lucky they were to be taught by Roger Hutchings but they were an impressive bunch.

Whilst we are talking about Roger, have you seen his work? Roger is not one of those photographers turned teacher just to make up the bills. He really, really cares about giving the students a decent education. It showed. I found them one of the most intellectually switched on groups I have taught.

One of the talented on students on the course is James Hooker, and not just for having the ability to cycle home after drinking duckrabbit under the table.

I was chuffed to receive a copy of his first photofilm. Chuffed because it showed someone in the class was actually listening!

Thanks James. You made duckrabbit’s day.

(if you want to train with duckrabbit get in touch. All our workshops are currently SOLD OUT but I am thinking of putting on an extra workshop in July around the Birmingham Jazz Festival)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tonight I’m going to let you into one of photojournalism’s dirty little secrets

duckrabbit — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:28:40 +0000

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the most colourful place I’ve ever visited. The women even smile.

Madam Agata teaches a group of women in their last month of pregnancy to knit (c) Yasuyoshi Chiba/duckrabbit/MSF

Infact it’s the Muzungus (white people) who were the most drab, including this dodgy looking geezer:

duckrabbit reflecting on why he is the worst dressed person in The Congo

The women in the photograph are in their last month of pregnancy and have a history of difficult previous labour. At any one time MSF houses up to seventy pregnant women in their women’s village in Masisi. Without MSF’s care one third of them would either die or lose their children in childbirth.

MSF provides them with life saving medical care and wool and knitting needles to make clothes for their new born babies.

Please think about supporting MSF (Doctors Without Borders). I witnessed first hand what a difference their work makes.

Beautiful, eloquent, thought provoking. Damn thing made me cry.

duckrabbit — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:34:42 +0000

Those are just a few of the words that come to mind watching Margaret Cheatham Williams’ photofilm Goodnight Moon (first spotted on the excellent Innovative Interactivity).

There’s been a lot of debate around the use of cinematic techniques to film traumatic events. Dan Chung’s video of the aftermath of the Japanese Earthquake is a classic example (for which I think he was unfairly beaten up).

For me the problem is not the use of cinematography in journalism, it’s that too often that’s all there is in these films. The audio is crap. There is no story, and it doesn’t look like the person making the film is thinking much beyond dollys and shallow depth of field. A sense of authenticity goes out the window and we end up thinking about the person behind the camera more than the person in front of the lens.

Margaret Cheatham Williams’ film is beautiful, but it’s not the grace of her camera work that we are left thinking about (or her choice of music).

Goodnight Moon from Margaret Cheatham Williams on Vimeo.

“First it was her face, and she always had a beautiful face.”

A story of my grandmother, who lost her courageous 13-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease in February.

Special thanks to Chad A Stevens.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness month. I’m in, are you?

Music by Thomas Gamble

“I have four babies, beautiful, gorgeous, why should I ever think about suicide? I had these thoughts in my mind. I was messed up.”

duckrabbit — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:51:11 +0000

This is an astonishing photofilm about how one small fishing community has been affected by the BP Oil disaster. What the photofilm lacks in context about the disaster it makes up for in emotional punch and as good a set of documentary photography as you are likely to see.

I take my hat off to Director/Photographer Melanie Burford.

“Its not a job, it’s who you are. We are losing it. I don’t think we’ll ever get it back.”

Please watch this, share on Facebook and Tweet. You may not see a better photofilm this year and guess what, no shallow depth of field in sight.

Hidden History: The Irish At War, Damian Drohan

duckrabbit — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:28:34 +0000

Goddamn this is a project and a half barrel of whisky.

Immense.

Damian Drohan is one of the most committed students duckrabbit has had the pleasure to train. It gives me great honor to introduce you to his monumental project about the unknown, unrecognized Irish veterans of World War 2 (be sure to check out the full project here).

I wish I could take some credit for this work, but I can’t. Its driven by Damian’s passion to capture memory before it flares to smoke.

‘WW2Vets project is a visual/audio and photo-film project which seeks to tell the story of war memory in Ireland. These memories have been buried for many years. Although 70,000 Irish men and women fought in WW2, their service has never been recognized officially, except through token gestures, and occasional mentions. The stories here represent the direct experiences of veterans from, or living in Ireland and the experiences of those indirectly affected, such as Brian Smith, whose family war memory spans several generations, and the story of Paddy Bassett, a child during the war, his memories, preserved through the many military items he has accrued, the first being a piece of a spitfire he collected as a child.

Photography alone would be too limiting for a project such as this, there would be a danger of preserving the veterans as relics of history, monuments if you like. Instead the audio and photo-film approach helps to bring their stories to life.

A big thanks is due to duckrabbit for various types of support during the project, advice, guidance and encouragement, and various plugs and mentions have helped keep the project alive. Cheers Ben & David.’

Damian Drohan

Paddy Bassett was born in England and remembers World War II as a young child. He was evacuated on several occasions, but survived. He worked in England in the Forestry Service for a time after the war, and moved to Ireland in 1952. Paddy has retained a lifelong fascination with collecting all things military. He has a large collection of uniforms, bayonets and other items, some of which he’s had since he was a child. One of the first items he collected was a piece of a downed Spitfire Aircraft.

Brian Smith was born in Swansea in South Wales into a family with a long military history. His father served in the Great War and survived being gassed, twice. His uncle was in a Cavalry division and survived being buried alive by shellfire. Both of Brian’s brothers flew with the RAF during wartime. One brother flew in a Lancaster bomber and survived unscathed, except for hearing damage sustained due to high altitude flying. His other brother was a wireless operator-airgunner on a Beaufort torpedo bomber, he also survived unscathed. Brian describes being surrounded by the war, Swansea was a hive of wartime activity. The large harbour meant it was used in training exercises in the lead up to D-Day. Brian was too young to join the RAF during hostilities but he served as a pilot for three years in the early 1950′s. He later joined the Merchant Navy and then the Coastguard. Until recently he provided safety courses for sailors. He has now retired and lives in County Cork.

Sound Portraits:

Margaret McGrath

Margaret (Peggy) McGrath moved to England to take up nursing training at the age of 20. She trained in the Royal Waterloo Hospital and then moved to East Grinstead to Archibald McIndoeís pioneering plastic surgery ìGuinea Pigî hospital. She recalls meeting her husband-to-be on her very first dayís service. He had lost his toes through frostbite and was traumatized after returning from a Japanese P.O.W. camp. She continued to nurse her husband after the war ended as he was unable to take up work. He eventually found work in a new initiative program which was designed to get injured ex-servicemen working. She lived in England for most of her life and moved back to Ireland in the last few years.

Paddy Mooney:

Patrick (Paddy) Mooney is 89. He joined the RAF at the age of 22 in 1943. He wanted to join sooner but his mother didn’t approve. He was posted to Egypt and maintained aircraft engines, with the intention of becoming a flight engineer. However the squadron he was posted to didnít train flight crew, so he worked as ground crew for the remainder of the war. He also served in Palestine. After the war ended he returned to Ireland and ran his own bar businesses for the much of his working life.

James Redmond:

James Redmond’s father served in the Great War. James joined the RAF in 1942, and ended up serving as a rear gunner in a Bomber squadron. There was a long waiting list for Pilots and Navigators so impatience led him to accepting a position as a rear gunner. After the war he trained as a doctor and lived for many years in Zimbabwe before Robert Mugabe’s land confiscations forced him to flee.

Jack Allshire: D-Day Veteran

Jack Allshire served in the Second Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles. He lied about his age to gain entry to the army at 15. He landed on Sword Beach on D Day, and was part deafened in action a few days later whilst firing an anti-tank gun. He continued through France to Germany and left the army in September 1947. He spent the post-war years as both a painter-decorator and a truck driver. In common with many of the veterans featured here, his father fought in the Great War.