WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT duckrabbit
‘Finally (as in last and certainly not least), a heart felt shout out to Benjamin Chesterton at DuckRabbit for extending “concerned” photography into the digital age with his brilliant audio slide shows, and more so– for actively advocating for the empowerment of individuals who are the usual subjects of this genre to become some of its primary documentarians. If I had a MacArthur Grant to give…’
“By being recognized in POYi, your works has set the gold-standard for excellence in photojournalism. Congratulations.”
Rick Shaw, Director
Pictures of the Year International
“duckrabbit’s unique blend of hard core journalistic and technical experience, a strong ethical stance and a healthy desire to actively engage critically on where the medium is going make them a great asset to any multimedia program”
As trainers, you and Ben were extremely generous with sharing your hard earned tricks of the trade and very supportive and encouraging in a way that created an unintimidating environment where we could really focus on learning and not fret about getting it perfect. I really appreciated how you broke down the arts of interviewing and recording audio and of shooting photos into such accessible terms. It felt like a luxury to have such accomplished and skilled people leading us through the process so that we could basically leap frog thanks to your experience. Your humble and open attitudes for such accomplished people is truly refreshing.
‘duckrabbit has done another jaw-dropping job with Condition : Critical, a highly commendable and important project for Medecins Sans Frontiers.’
‘The training was exceptional; now to put it into practice.’
“I thought this was again a masterclass. Duckrabbit, storytellers supreme, and generous with their craft”
This is a comment that was left on one of Benjamin’s monthly columns on RESOLVE:
I read a lot about development and watch things in the news and I thought I was in a way aneasthetised to many things I see. But I think you guys have tapped into a very powerful medium and I think what is special about these audio slideshows is that the medium itself helps to keep the integrity of the story.
Samyuktha Varma, CGIAR
“One of the hazards of publishing a well-known photojournalism blog – getting multimedia like yours, where the photos are both powerful and moving, and I end up in tears at my desk.”
“As well as teaching me how to do a lot of cool stuff, you guys managed to impart an essential extra that’s very hard to teach – the inspiration to get out there and put it all into practice” Neil Palmer, photographer, CGIAR
‘David White’s multimedia work with duckrabbit is very exciting.’
‘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.” Oliver Edwards, photographer
“Being mentored by Benjamin Chesterton was brilliant. Throughout the process, I admired his honesty and commitment because unlike other professional producers Benjamin cared about our project. This was reflected in the fact that he was always willing to give advice and guidance.duckrabbit have personally given me something to aspire to because I plan to be as good, if not better than Benjamin. The good thing is I know he will help me along the way.Thanks to Benjamin’s help, our slide shows won the BCU Media School award for excellence in radio at the graduates’ summer exhibition.”
Muna Ahmed
I went to a multimedia training day hosted by duckrabbit which I must say was fantastic. Panos multimedia producer Anna Stevens was one of the guest speakers and showed some interesting multimedia she has worked on in the past. We all viewed Robin Hammond’s Tuvulu multimedia piece which included some amazing medium format triptychs. There was an interesting kit talk and all important tips about how to make money using ‘mm’ with lots of good audience participation. Both duck and rabbit were fun and concise about the whole process.
Rebecca Harley – Winner First Prize, Multimedia, Press Photographers Year 2010
‘Sometimes I forget why I fell in love with photography. I can get carried away with “new photography”, “gallery photography” clever talking and concepts. But it was Don MCullin, Salgado and photojournalists of that ilk that first turned me on to photography. Some commentators argue that photojournalism needs to find new ways in which to connect to a increasingly cynical audience, well that’s where Duckrabbit come in. They are striking a wonderful balance between traditional photojournalism and digital presentations. This is done powerfully with INNOCENCE: Sri Lanka’s Former Child Soldiers. And as if that’s not enough, earlier today Duckrabbit announced that one of there regular contributing photographer’s Chiba Yasuyoshi has been awarded 1st prize in the World Press Photo Award for single image for this stunning photo’
‘This week Juliana, David and myself are in Washington DC as finalists in the Knight-Batten Awards for innovations in journalism. Out talk will touch on the power of citizen journalism, especially in a time of crisis.
To start things off though, we want to set the stage with Together an incredibly well done audio slideshow by duckrabbit.
‘INNOCENCE … is an inspirational piece for all journalists who are passionate about their work.’ Innovative Interactivity
‘Innocence is a beautiful showcase on child soldier’s in Sri Lanka. Please share this videos with others if you can.’ Jamie Adrift
‘Ben and David’s productions have been a great communication tool internally and externally. Their easy style of working, originality and quickness in seeing and understanding the commercial application of the work has made the process both quick and a pleasure to be involved with. I have been particularly impressed with their generosity and interpersonal skills in training our staff so that we are able to record our own material.’
Guy Watson, Owner Riverford Organics (UK’s largest Organic Veg Box supplier)
‘You were a very inspiring speaker opening their eyes to exciting and powerful new ways of telling stories about human rights, which was exactly what we had hoped you would bring to the panel. I think proof of this is that in the film-making workshops I ran afterwards, students were talking about what you had said and shown and I think it inspired them in the way they approached the films they made.’
Laura Francis, Amnesty International, writing after Benjamin spoke at their student conference 2009
‘Benjamin Chesterton is a powerful speaker. I first heard him talk at Warwick University, describing his work with communities in Africa and demonstrating his use of audio documentary combined with still images -the affect was overwhelmingly powerful.’
Matt Grimes, Degree Leader Music Industries, Birmingham University
“duckrabbit are master storytellers. They don’t just tell people about what you do, they make them care about what you do.“
Paul Murphy, Director C21 VOX
“I’ve been raving about how good your training was . To end up with something close to a finished and seriously professional-looking/sounding audio slideshow after just 2 days was awesome.
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
“I had high hopes of some good training from duckrabbit, having seen some of the work on their website, and I was not disappointed. Ben and David were thorough, approachable, collaborative and knowledgeable, and this shone through in their work with us. The training was exceptional; now to put it into practice.”
‘Really you’ve done some excellent work here — congratulations once again. I’ve received much positive feedback on the videos — many people report being moved by them. 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.’
“It may seem fanciful to suggest that one can learn multimedia story telling in just a couple of days, but Duckrabbit gave us everything we needed from skills in interviewing and audio editing to image selection techniques in that short time. And did in such a way that left us with a passion to develop further. A transformative experience.”
“Benjamin of Duckrabbit opened my eyes and ears to new realms of possibility for using sound and images more powerfully. Benjamin’s approach to training is serious; his determination to get us to a standard was clear; he understood our needs and kept us going at a good pace. There is no doubt that I will now be able to produce presentations that are leagues ahead of all my previous attempts – and what’s more everyone had fun the whole time.”
“I just sold my first multimedia feature to the BBC. I’m very happy about this for several reasons. Firstly, simply the fact that it’s the BBC – which is a confidence boost in itself. Secondly that I’ve being paid for multimedia – something that perceived wisdom says all media outlets expect for free at the moment. But finally it just shows what a good decision I made by getting even a couple of days worth of audio training with duckrabbit.”
‘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.
‘If you haven’t seen the duckrabbit blog on multimedia you should.’
