Condition Critical (MSF)
Condition Critical is a groundbreaking digital campaign by Medecins Sans Frontieres to raise awareness about the conflict in Eastern Congo.
‘The last chapter of Condition: Critical featured stories directly from Congo – just their voices and photos to accompany them. It proved to be the strongest part of the whole campaign and the engagement that people felt having watched them was amazing (as you can see from the message map). Unsurprisingly, people within the organisation are suddenly keen to learn more from duckrabbit about how to produce this kind of multimedia, to better make our patients voices heard.’ Pete Masters, Web Editor, MSF
Duckrabbit has played a dual role in the campaign. Firstly we trained members of the MSF communications team to gather audio and photography and secondly we then used the materials to produce the four films featured in the final surge of the campaign.
The results have been remarkable:
The website had 350000 visits between November 2009 and March 2010.
60% per cent of people who start to watch a video on the website, watch it all the way through to the end.
The videos have also been featured and embedded on dozens of other websites including The Telegraph, Sky News and Boing Boing.
Over 10000 people have visited the website as a result of links to it from Facebook, blogs like The Travel Photographer and other influential websites.
Over 2000 people have left messages of support on the website.
The videos were screened for two days in a shopping centre in Belgium, reaching thousands more people
We’re particularly proud of this project because it demonstrates both that duckrabbit’s training is effective and that well produced audio slideshows can be more powerful than video. It’s especially important that the videos tell the stories of the people featured in their own voices.
‘I’ve appreciated your strong commitment to the project; your perseverance, hard work, and integrity; and above all your grasp of the reality of DRC and how to tell these stories in way that is compelling, dignified and at the same time raw and honest. Thank you.‘ Jake Wadland, Condition Critical Coordinator
Since we completed the project MSF have contracted us to train all of their UK communications team.
‘Before doing this training I felt I could have a decent stab at recording audio in the Congo. I now know that it would have taken some sort of miracle for me to get really useful audio. I now have the tools to come back with something a bit special. Thank you.’ Robin Meldrum, Publications Officer MSF
MSF UK now not only have the ability to produce multimedia for their own websites but also to offer the work for publication on some of the world’s biggest websites. Remarkably audio slideshows they have produced have been published on the BBC, The Guardian and The New York Times’ website.
‘Many people at MSF believe this is a breakthrough in getting the stories out there, for a bigger audience.’ Bruno Du Cock, MSF Picture Editor
We recommend that you take time to experience the videos and the messages left by viewers on the Condition Critical website here. Alternatively you can watch them embedded below:
duckrabbit Multimedia Journalism Training – Bristol, July 2009
“It was like being a proper journalist again …. turning up in a town you’ve never been to and not being allowed to leave until you’ve got a story.“
In July 2009 duckrabbit ran its first multimedia training course at the Trinity Arts Centre, in Bristol, England.
We threw our two students right in at the deep end, unleashing them on the British seaside town of Weston super Mare. We gave them one day to sniff out a story, collect the photographs and audio, and another day to rough edit the material.
“When we went to Weston super-Mare with duckrabbit we had no idea of what we’d come out with, but there’s little more satisfying in that situation than pulling something out of the bag.
After a wander around the town centre to weigh up subject potential, we agreed a plan of action and with the help of Benjamin and David each did our thing. After just a few hours we returned home with a huge sense of achievement and the raw material for this finished piece.” Ciara Leeming.
The finished result (below) is a powerful, evocative and warm meditation on loss. We also hope it shows what magic can happen through training, as well as the undoubted talents of our trainees.
Please be aware to fully appreciate this feature you need to watch through right to the end.
Zen and art of Sandcastles
What our students Ciara and Oliver have to say about the training:
‘Thanks again for a great weekend, I was thinking the other day that it is well worth the money as I learned so much more than I would have done on any other form of photographic/software/audio training. I have been having lots of ideas to use it commercially.
I will stay in contact and give you guys a ring from time to time if that OK, also if there is any work or help training, or recommendations, or photographs you want me to do, I will be happy to oblige if I can get the time off work as I really think duckrabbit and multimedia is going to take off and I would like to be one of the original photographers working on high quality multimedia in the UK.” Oliver Edwards, Photographer.
‘I’m really pleased to have been one of the first to learn from duckrabbit because I love what they’re about and would love to capture even a tiny bit of that spirit in my own work. Audio interviewing was probably the biggest challenge for me but I’m now actually looking forward to integrating this into my own storytelling and being able to make my subjects’ voices heard.‘ Ciara Leeming, Freelance Journalist
For more information about duckrabbit’s training just give us a shout.
STUPID FASCISTS
That is not you, dear reader. It is the subjects in this pic.
They were all at a BNP demonstration somewhere in Leicester, in the late 1980’s. I was working as a snapper for the Leicester Mercury, and had been sent to cover their meeting. That was quite a hairy job, in lots of ways. The back half of the hall was full of anti-Nazis (Yeah!), whilst the front was full of the BNP members.
I think the fascists managed to scrape together about 6 brain cells between them, apart that is from John Tyndall,their leader, who unfortunately was quite intelligent, and who managed to stir the morons up into a right frenzy.
Ten minutes after this, it all kicked off…chairs came flying over from the back, coppers started piling in..When the police were distracted, Tyndall slid up to me like the snake he was and elbowed me as hard as he could in the bollocks, making sure no one else saw, the sneaky git.
I don’t mind saying that it bloody hurt.
He didn’t like having his picture taken. I don’t blame him..he was an ugly sod, with an uglier soul. I had a Metz hammerhead flashgun on my Nikon F3 at the time, the photographic equivalent of a steel girder with electronics, (mmmmm…cameras….), and I SO wanted to smack that outfit back into his poisonous frame. I didn’t ‘cos I would have lost my job, and I liked it…Instead I decided to make them look like the morons they are by getting pics like this one in the ‘paper..
duckrabbit wins a POYI award
duckrabbit are very pleased to announce that our audio slideshow ‘Praying for the rain’ was placed third in the News Multimedia awards of the recent Pictures Of The Year International Awards.
We’re dead chuffed.
Congratulations to all the other winners.
