This workshop is limited to a maximum of six people and is run in both London and Birmingham.
For current workshops please visit: Upcoming courses.
- Objective
- Skills taught
- Student responses
- Course outline
- Equipment needed
- Fees
- Location and where to stay
- Advance learning
Objective
To provide participants with the practical knowledge needed to produce photofilms (multimedia features) to a high standard.
Skills taught
- How to grab the attention of an audience with your story
- Recording audio
- New approaches to shooting for photofilms
- Interview skills
- Introduction to audio editing
- Overview of multitrack editing
Student responses
- “Thank you Benjamin and Duckrabbit for an incredibly full on, hard working, inspirational and challenging weekend. To work together watching, critiquing and producing in one short weekend an (almost) finished piece was a brilliant experience. The most important thing, I think, is to know what’s out there, what works, what doesn’t and why. The power of the photofilm can be huge, I only hope I am now on my way to making some work which is as powerful and thought provoking as some we watched this weekend.” Sophie Gerrard
- “I loved Benjamin’s openess and honesty. His passion was so inspiring. I have done a number of multimedia workshops and duckrabbit was by far the best. Brigette Bouvier
- “I just sold my first multimedia feature to the BBC. It just shows what a good decision I made by training with duckrabbit. 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.
- ‘Thank you so much for your amazing workshop. I got out if it exactly what I came for: learn how to create and mix great audio, how to add appropriate visual in order to tell strong stories! Now it’s up to us to use all the knowledge you shared with us.” Eylane Van Coillie
- “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
- “Benjamin is raw and you will learn a lot in this workshop. He is a very generous teacher. Get ready to have your thinking challenged.” Nathalie Fonteux
- “The workshop went above and beyond what I was expecting. I feel a lot more focused and motivated. It was ace to see a more honest and genuine side of the industry and to be able to talk about things openly and challenge the established views. I feel very confident to get going on my first photofilm.” Gemma Thorpe
Course outline
Our methodology is entirely participatory so over the duration of a course participants will produce their own two-minute multimedia feature as part of a small team.
The course will focus on the complete chain of production, from identifying a suitable story to planning the steps needed to gather the audio and pictures, as well as the final completion of the project.
You will cover practical and technical aspects of recording and editing in the context of telling powerful stories.
Day One
Morning (10 a.m start):
- Introductions/Icebreaker
- Explanation of training
- Deconstruction and review of multimedia features
Afternoon:
- Explanation of group task
- Photographic approaches for shooting stills for multimedia pieces
- Audio training
Day Two
Morning:
- On location recording supported by duckrabbit
Afternoon:
- Introduction to audio editing & building the narrative. The afternoon should culminate in each group reaching a rough edit of the audio they recorded.
Day Three
Morning:
- Introduction to picture-editing for photofilms
- Selection, by each group, of shots to use for the multimedia feature
- Introduction to Soundslides (production software)
Afternoon (workshop ends approx 17:00):
- Groups produce their multimedia features supported by duckrabbit
- At the end of the day each group will present their features
Equipment needed
1) DSLR camera
2) Digital audio recorder
3) Overear headphones
4) Laptop and mouse with Soundslides and Adobe Audition software.
Fees
£495 (students £445): Birmingham workshop
£595 (students £540): London workshop
VAT. If you’re VAT-registered or from a company or organisation that’s VAT-registered then VAT is payable on our courses. If you’re freelance and not VAT-registered then we’ll pay it for you.
£150 is to be paid in advance to reserve a place on the course. The remainder is to be paid no later than 14 days before the workshop begins. This course is non-residential which means that you will need to find your own accommodation.
Advance learning
It is very difficult to teach all the skills needed to produce photofilms in just three days. A considerable amount of time is given over to discussing editorial approaches to creating photofilms.
A successful training is where our trainees go away inspired and thinking totally differently about the way they approach their work. This means a limited amount of time is spent teaching software, which can be easily learned in advance. So to get the most out of this workshop its important that participants have at the very least taught themselves basic audio editing, learning how to edit down a piece of audio, before attending the workshop.
Location and where to stay – Birmingham workshop
The training takes place at 73 Addison Rd, Kings Heath, B147EN (Benjamin’s house).
The house is close to the 50 bus route which is very regular. Birmingham has plenty of hotels in the city centre. There is a Travel Lodge in Maypole, which is closer to the house then the centre of town. But we highly recommend that you stay at Merton House which former trainees have really liked and is in a top location.
Training begins at 10.00 on day one and will end around 17.00 hrs on day three.
Location and where to stay – London workshop
The training takes place right by Tower Bridge, close to either London Bridge or Tower Hill Underground stations. There are reasonable hotels nearby, either the Novotel London Tower Bridge Hotel or the Premier Inn London Tower Bridge. The Savoy is just a short hop by chauffeur-driven limousine if that’s more your style.
Training begins at 10.00 on day one and ends around 1700 on day three.
