Express yourself in the story. Well known videojournalists show how they tell their stories - Denmark

David Dunkley Gyimah's research into video making

As part of a six year research into video storytelling and videojournalism, which will be submitted soon, I was invited to Denmark, alongside a host of internationally well known storytellers e.g. Bombay Flying Club, to talk about what's emerging.




Presentation as part of an international line up for #Videoplay  (Video Playground) at one of the prestigious films schools The European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark

In two 2-hour slots I mapped out the varying different styles used to create different feelings in stories in videojournalism. I also proved to delegates who gathered in the auditorium below that cinema does not necessarily mean fictional films.

Darren Dutch, a US Emmy award winning solo videojournalists tweeted.

Darren Durlach ‏@DarrenDurlach10h

@viewmagazine: cinema is the spectacle, it's what draws you in #videoplayground

The seminars over a week are aimed at predominately mid career photojournalists, photographers and TV Camera men and women.

My presentation was entitled: Express Yourself - Doing as theory, the reflective practitioners. The goal was to show how new ways of working are becoming theory and that its the crafts person reflecting on what they do will yield fresh interpretations.

I have enormous respect for anyone doing video, particular those calling themselves citizen journalist, but here I argued that unless you can begin to read media, you're somewhat handicapped.


If you've seen editions of Dr Who this illustration above of how I think, might be familiar.

I also wanted to ground the theory by stating there was no such thing as a unitary future of journalism. Why? because our ideas are as diverse as they are disparate and post modernism doesn't facilitate one big idea any more.

That was evident at Newsxchange in Barcelona, when Kenji Kohno, Deputy Director, International News Division, NHK spoke about a story they were covering which to us seemed like a cold case.

According to Leonard Shlain, in the East, the concept of time and space is fundamentally different to the West. Their Sarin gas story that happened nearly 20 years ago was not the past, it was present.

Can you think like a videojournalist?
I ran a few cognitive experiments, but here's one that was a favourite. If you want to play here goes.

1. Look at the balls and see if you can detect a pattern

No? Ok look at this one

Any luck yet?  If you saw this. Well done.

But what about this? Did you get this? Prime numbers versus even.

Effectively I have demonstrated how we read media from patterns, but because we go for the obvious, journalism becomes predictable. There are various reasons why, such as News agencies sell footage to broadcasters and to increase their sales they go for generic and easy to understand stories that anyone across the world would understand.

We looked at several videos and I talked about how some broadcasters were changing from the traditional package to a DSLR trope, but the delegates detected some short comings. 

Look at this incredible video from Alleppo from Channel 4 News, which will likely win awards and see whether you can come up with a critique.

I reccommended books like this one that gets you into the headspace of understanding how to reflect on what you do.

And played through several videos deconstructing with the audience why they worked, or not

I demoed some of the kit I use on stories, such as the pocket rig, a small devise that mimics those huge shoulder rigs using the 5D, expect its much smaller.

There was a good degree of audience feedback on personal films I have made, and it was great to see critiques which acknowledged and challenged what might be acceptable or not. Great questions start the thinking process to reinforcing reflective thinking.

I summarised that it was neither my job nor my intention to claim to teach you my style. By showing tow different films and a range of commercials I wanted to prove that the best way to become a film maker or videojournalist was to pick a style and hone that, before moving onto another.

Thanks very much for the generous reception. Here's the image that underpin my practice.

And we end with these two pictures and my thanks to Martin Ramsgård and Søren Skarby two formidable practitioners who are driving various projects in Denmark to increase the value of professionals shooting video and making films.  

Next up was Daniel Moj, a prolific entrpreneurial videojournalist from Germany who put on a wonderful show, and tomorrow is Darren Durlach ‏@DarrenDurlach  award winning videojournalist from the US whom I really looking forward to seeing. 

And finally it was great to meet up with Henrik from the Bombay Flying Club, photography and Flash producers par excellence. 

You can learn more about the event and the people behind it on their Facebook site aptly called Video Playground. My thanks to all the delegates for being so generous, Leif, his assistant and Michael for taking the photographs of me including these two below.

David Dunkley Gyimah is a senior lecturer, videojournalist, filmmaker, artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre and consultant for a number of companies. He has spoken at SXSW, World Association of Newspapers, Sheffield Documentary Festival and Newxchange.  He tweets and can be followed at @viewmagazine

The Videojournalists's Playground in Denmark

Pictures from my presentation as part of an international line up for #Videoplay  (Video Playground) at one of the prestigious films schools The European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark

This is their really nice cinema auditorium we're presenting from

I had two 2-hour slots mapping out how different styles can be used to create different feelings in videojournalism. I also proved to delegates that cinema has nothing to do with cinema. Darren Dutch, a US Emmy award winning solo videojournalists tweeted.

Darren Durlach ‏@DarrenDurlach10h

@viewmagazine: cinema is the spectacle, it's what draws you in #videoplayground

The seminars over a week are aimed at predominately mid career photojournalists, photographers and TV Camera men and women.

My presentation was titled Doing as theory, the reflective practitioners. The goal was to show how new ways of working are becoming theory and that its the crafts person reflecting on what they do, which has currency, and differs from citizen journalism.

I have enormous respect for anyone doing video, i particular those calling themselves citizen journalist, but here I argued that unless you can begin to read media and change styles accordingly, you're very different from those who have spent years wrestling withe their disciplines.

I probably over did the slides running at 53, but I wanted to ground the theory. I stated there was no such thing as a unitary future of journalism. Why? because our ideas are as diverse as they are disparate and post modernism doesn't facilitate one big idea any more.

Can you think like a videojournalist? I ran a few cognitive experiments, but here's one that was a favourite. If you want to play here goes.

1. Look at the balls and see if you can detect a pattern

No? Ok look at this one

Any luck yet?  If you saw this. Well done.

But what about this? Did you get this? Prime numbers versus even.

Effectively I have demonstrated how we read media from patterns, but because we go for the obvious, journalism gets a bit dull. These are called semantic fields and the really clever videojournalists break conventions.

We looked at several videos and I talked about how some broadcasters were changing from the traditional package, but the delegates detected some short comings. Look at this incredible video from Alleppo from Channel 4 News, which will likely win awards and see whether you can come up with a critique.

I reccommended books like this one that gets you into the headspace of understanding how to reflect on what you do

And played through several videos deconstructing with the audience why they worked, or not

And demoed some of the kit I use on stories, such as the pocket rig, a small devise that mimics those huge shoulder rigs using the 5D, expect its much smaller.

There was a good degree of audience feedback on personal films I have made, and it was great to see critiques which acknowledged and challenged what might be acceptable or not. Great questions start the thinking process to reinforcing reflective thinking.

I summarised that it was neither my job nor my intention to claim to teach you my style. By showing tow different films and a range of commercials I wanted to prove that the best way to become a film maker or videojournalist was to pick a style and hone that, before moving onto another.

Thanks very much for the generous reception. Here's the image that underpin my practice.

And we end with these two pictures and my thanks to Martin Ramsgård and Søren Skarby two formidable practitioners who are driving various projects in Denmark to increase the value of professionals shooting video and making films.  

Next up was Daniel Moj, a prolific entrpreneurial videojournalist from Germany who put on a wonderful show, and tomorrow is Darren Durlach ‏@DarrenDurlach  award winning videojournalist from the US whom I really looking forward to seeing. 

And finally it was great to meet up with Henrik from the Bombay Flying Ducks, photography and Flash producers par excellence. 

You can learn more about the event and the people behind it on their Facebook site aptly called Video Playground. My thanks to all the delegates for being so generous, Leif, his assistant and Michael for taking the photographs of me including these two below.

David Dunkley Gyimah is a senior lecturer, videojournalist, filmmaker, artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre and consultant for a number of compabies, He tweets and can be followed at @viewmagazine

Hyper Reality Gaming. What it teaches us by David Dunkley Gyimah

Hypereality Gaming.

In a distant memory in London's docklands we gather. A major toy company has laid on hospitality for reporters to test its revolutionary new laser guns heralding a new era in gaming.

If that wasn't remarkable enough, it hired ex royal marines to supervise the day.

Today, in a new generation of gaming, what was back then a surreal moment of Jean Baudrilard's   hyper reality, a blending of the real and fake, has matured into an industry that blends physical and imagination - a new type of hyper reality.

No Marines no lasers, but the expertise of being a professional paintball champion representing your country and thus figuring out how to stage an event. That's the claim for 26 year old Tommy Pemberton behind Go Paintball London.

As a videojournalis and casual geek, there is no doubting the impact of video in gaming, so eruditely put by Guardian journalist Keith Stuart and howvideo is changing games, but nothing beats the physicality and adrenalin rush in the field.

Today I sat this one out today, but I couldn't help but be transported into the world of cinema videojournalism. Cue these images I took and produced that evoke the dystopic world of Children of Men (2006).

Hyperreality II

In recent years from reporting within Nato's War Games and  and filming the Special Forces working in Africa and I couldn't help but think if I had my videojournalism kit with me, I would have had sneaked a run at making a film about the day.

My reasons aren't merely frivolity, but that gaming teaches us an attribute that can be found lacking in collaborative work: trust and team work.

And it gives me a chance to work aesthetics (I am writing about for a newspaper) for work I'll be doing in the field about a new type of cinema in journalism. BTW cinema does not mean movie. I have posted some new stuff on viewmagazine.tv.

I'm certain some of our International Masters students, who have to work in teams to problem-solve would echo some of this. I put together these images for a presentation I'm delivering in Denmark next week, before a gig which involves going to Turkey to train videojournalists reporting from within Syria.

Close  Hyperreality 

Tommy Pemberton 

David Dunkley Gyimah reporting from West Africa circa 1997 on the Special Forces. David, a senior lecturer at the world's 19th best media institution, The University of Westminster. He is an artist in residence and consults for a number of companies in digital. He is a recipient of the Knight Batten Awards and does digital on his site www.viewmagazine.tv

David Dunkley Gyimah reporting on Special Forces training in West Africa

David interview former CIA chief James Woolsey. Trailer on Viewmagazine.tv

Khan Academy can, but contemporary academia is still the key to new knowledge

Students find a eureka moment at the Masters programme at the University of Westminster

In case you missed this on Newsnight last night. At 37.34 item on the Kahn Academy - one of the emails from senior academic group  at my university.  

Khan, the uber educator, has done much to revive the debate in traditional versus new lines of education. It's much needed and it was interesting to hear him state that online will not replace the irrational fear held by some educators.

This is what I emailed back to our group.


Hi All
I didn't miss it.  Great piece in Wired Magazine some issues back.

Kahn's kudos is that he took the time to do it and its low cost, high penetration, means it works particularly well in educational systems where there are large volumes of students and no where near enough the lecturers to provide cover.

It works well too around fixed epistemologies  e.g. calculus, anatomy, A-z of  literature. As Khan said himself it's a supportive system.

In areas of education which are dialogical or indulge cognitive dissonance, this linearity of presentation is flawed. 

In the lecture room, assisting students to build rhetorical arguments is crucial, at least in theoretical and pragmatic journalism. It requires a live agent.

There are some institutions dong something interesting along this with live streaming and the ability for students to tweet, blog in questions. Not perfect when you have 1500 around the globe asking.

Perhaps, the next step is for intelligent algorithms to group live questions into clusters so you might have five supporting lectures answer questions.

End+


Technology is part of the solution

Presenting a lecture at Apple, my job was to challenge current knowledge based on grounded theory and not supposition.

Technology has always been an enabler, but the idea it is a determinant eschews any notion that someone had to think first, or that society or social cause was agnostic in this equation. 

If the guys behind twitter hadn't thought of THE  idea to connect friends, they wouldn't have built the software. The social cause becomes what Winston calls the supervening necessity.

The use of video offers a supporting mechanism to the production of knowledge. In my lectures, once I have set up an understanding of what CSS or Java is, I encourage students to go to You Tube etc, because the incisive value, where I am key to the development, is hermeneutics.

Where the educator grounded in theory and pragmatics excels is in challenging structuralism, rewarding each studentas heteronomous individuals.

Why Khan's methodology has also caught the zeitgeist is the perceived, rightly or wrongly of academia becoming super markets for education, and I believe there is some validity in this. 

The solution lay in traditional mass establishment's of the 70s, getting that reboot, that yes will involve video and the new tools, but bridging them with grounded theories and embracing new thoughts.

At every branch of knowledge production is a counter argument, the purpose of being an educator is to teach that in interpretation, rather than, identifications, there are no absolutes.

Learn the rules, break them, develop your own by standing on the shoulders of your fore bearers and then re-create theory. Linear education can't do that!

p.s BTW I count myself as a major super geek. Graduated in Applied Chemistry, Got first computer ZX81 later 80s, Worked my first mac in South Africa 1992. Built my first website in 1997, first emall 1996 using compuserve. Used the first model Hi-camera 1000 in 94.  I luuuurvveeee technology, but it's not the only answer.  David designs at Viewmagazine.tv

Lessons in the entrepreneurial spirit of journalism into a future of journalism

There's nothing like being on the fringes of journalism, having tasted what it's like and wanting more to focus the mind. In journalism they say the most difficult leap is your second job. 
I have had lots of foci.

1. To become entrepreneurial, you must take risks.
My first television role was BBC Newsnight in 1991, before working for the hip flagship programme Reportage. And it was with that in mind, while I freelanced at one publication or another that the "totality of journalism" became more than a concept. You have to remember in the 90s bi-media, working in radio or television was an innovatory practice by the BBC which was heavily resisted within the corporation.

In the BBC, radio and TV, I would attempt to master as many roles as I could, whilst outside work I created promos that were aired on CNN International, wrote articles for magazines's like the highly acclaimed BluePrint and Creation and doubled working with Channel 4 News one moment to working for Jon Staton Agency in Soho. Jon had been the head of Television at Saatchis and Saatchi winning countless awards.

This commercial I made was aired on CNN International. The client, with no brief and upfront funds, gave me 24 hours and paid handsomely

Communication is key, but working the various shows provided and understanding of the nuances and skills of communicating in different forms and styles.

As you read this now, if you've not worked in radio with the requisite experience or let's say you're a fine editor, you've every right to presuppose that unless someone walks in your shoes, that theory thing or even work placement will not make you the editor for the big calls.

Experiential learning is the reason why the experienced journalists are still in demand; their future prospects though is predicated on how they rationalise journalism's new event horizon.

2. Entrepreneurism is about creating. You must create, so knowing any number of software is not only ideal but necessary. 

In 2001 I was able to coalesce various different roles that either found me jobs or scared off potential suitors like the BBC. BBC executives would ask me what exactly I did? How things have changed. Now in my role of a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster knowing about After Effects, FCP, and the rest was positively welcomed.

Here's what I set out to do in radio/ TV/ online/ print in news and advertising.

• Learn to present ( art of inflexion and clarity)
• Produce - the producer does not take no as an asnwer
• Reporter- how to interpret and deliver news, features, documentaries etc.
• For Television series directing - you supply the vision working in a team
• Online- negotiating through the space of web 1.0, the Dotcom space, Web 2.0  and then Social Media.
• Design - encoding is one thing, the art of design and balance is another
• Writing - the power of copywriting whether commercials, news, print articles is undestanding the medium and the audience.

  

  Presenting at Apple Store in London on the totality of media

3. Give. Be generous, but don't expect the rewards. If feedback happens it's the icing on the cake for you, but more importantly is the thrill of seeing others mature.  
I lecture and still do in online, helping International Masters students create innovative experiences to develop as businesses outside. My lectures do not treat students as students, they are professionals entrepreneurs of varying degrees when they enter the lecture theatre.

Many have gone off to become successful creating industry's for themselves, such as the gifted
Stefanie Sohnchein who writes below:

But here's something from the category "success stories thanks to David Dunkley":
I get to create 13 national blogs for a big German company. Also I am leading a team of 6 Journalists who fill the blog with content. And: I get to teach 200 ppl (omg!) to blog until the end of the year - 60 more blogs are supposed to start next year. Crazy, right? Amazing where you kicking me to blog got me :)

It's not just the CSS, Flash, information architecture, or project management, but importantly letting the person develop, find themselves,  and the hurdles they must overcome in the job-world.

The same applies for docs and videojourmalism. To be an entrepreneur you have to understand the meanings (symptomatic and explict) of what you do and its impact on different audiences, comprised of different social groups and cultures. Presentation is the first thing. In a fraction of a second you've made your mind up so your narrative expectations must be met and some.

A sizable understanding of what we do is about cognitive human behaviour. To be an entrepreneur, you most definitely need something to say, and know the variables of interaction when you say it.

4. To be an entrepreneur, love and redefine what the word "work means". Engage with...
At the same time as I started my PhD to critically examine narratives and expressions and working with various groups around the world e.g. China, Cairo and Chicago, that entrepreneurial spirit has found its way into new paths working with a number of high profile UK companies in knowledge transfer partnerships.

The task is simple, but not simplistic. How do we fix this, how do we create that?  Present the conditions, express the knowledge and then source the best talent and help them.  A city company specialising in big data is the next company, whilst one of the UK's leading comedy houses is another. A medical company specialising in Bariatrics has just been successfully completed.

But whilst entrepreneurial spirit requires experiential learning, it grows on the moss of new innovative ideas and entrepreneurs who express whilst you can integrate and add value. The object is to facilitate innovation, foster creativity, train your thoughts to be malleable but know how and which direction the consequences of your actions will take you.

You need to develop your argument to the pursuit of the goal and never stop questioning.  Read ! I'm just about to start Rushkoff's Present Shock

In my role I am a perpetual entrepreneur, not exclusively for my own stake, but in creating the conditions for others I have come to respect. I nudge them into what I call an artistic space, where they must break from the perceived cosiness that journalism fostered.

More words for the journalism entrepreneurs.

Avinash Kalla,  a former Masters student of mine, organises one of the most succesful journalism conferences in India and works for the governments transport minister advising in Social Media

• Load yourself with work, whether unpaid or paid. Entrepreneurial is taking advantage of a situation that presents itself. But judge how much you can give to your tasks.
• Play the number's game but respect the person you're working with. The five percent rule that has just resulted in one of the knowledge transfer employers finding a new job, comes from flooding the market with 100 emails that will have 5 good returns.
• The Entrepreneur in you must seek new challenges and on the Net they are infinite. Today I have written five new intros to people I would like to do something with. 
• Understand the power of reception when you're writing to someone you don't know. You need to understand the dynamic of how and why they'll listen to you.  For instance the chances of your potential link up reading an email with five paras, is slim and a dull headline
• When you fail as you Will, treat that as one step closer to your goal. The task is to learn from your mistakes and begin to play to your strengths.

Finally, Entrepreneurism is affected by depth perception. That is the busier you are, the more you're likely to be in demand by others. For that reason alone, get busy.

An idea about an idea, a video journalism about video journalism.

My hotel in Montenegro. No words, but this picture may have an affect on you

Our ideas are disparate, our thoughts randomly flicker from concepts to perceptions, sometimes crystallising as understandings. To the cineast, French philosopher Jean-Louis Schefer would see this is as cinema being a giant in the back of our heads.

This morning, reading an article on my mentor Mark Cousins, I watched what he describes as one of his favourite films, "The House is Black" by acclaimed Iranian director Forough Farrokhzad. 

David cracking a joke with Mark Cousins at Sbank.

It is a disturbing, yet humanistic film which to the sensibilities of the Abercrombie & Fitch generation will be avoided. Leprosy after all is not an easy subject to stomach.

But Farrokhzad, shooting this film in 1963 for a leprosy organisation doesn't flinch. The camera  moves into the subject matter in ways news would prefix : "some of these scenes are disturbing".

But I can see the majesty in the film. Like a distant runner the film speeds up and slows down to near stillness in places. In some takes the shot holds mesmerisingly to the point of provoking further thought. 

This stasis is equivocated by the lack of music. The subjects supply a sound track of sorts from their own musings, coupled with ambient aural effects.

Also prevalent in the film for a "documentary short", which is how the film is described, is the classic trope of Hollywood - the shot-reverse-shot.

The shot-reverse-shot is where a scene often deemed the master shot is inter cut with a series of relational shots, but always returns to the master scene. It thus anchors the viewer into a point-of-view.

If you're a documentary maker with one camera this can be an extremely difficult shot to undertake, as in documentary mode a scene begins to decompose as you're turning to film what you might call a cut away. I have experimented at length with this technique to understand where I can start pulling away.

Film and ideas
Film or video is an idea translated into an image. The founders of television attached, and purposefully, a particular literal value to its form. But it's not just an idea, unless you're in citizen journalist mode. It is at its algebraic an idea about an idea.

John Birt, the former Director General of the BBC introduced a textual quality of thinking through the idea, by the maxim: Birt's mission to explain. A report needed context,  but Birtism today misses an altogether different big point.   

You can see this distinguishing line of an idea, and its symptomatic form, manifest itself at its best as a lecturer. The student goes through an epiphany when they begin to understand how to translate ideas from thought, to the first base of film making, its literal position. 

A student wanted to film a gymnast falling of her bike, which was integral to a point in her documentary.  But film and video transcends this "uger, uger" transmission. 

I call it "uger, uger" as film brilliantly relayed by Plato's Cave, not only describes aspects of its primitiveness, as prisoners might under the circumstance grunt  at what they believe they know, but in the final scene, the prisoner attempting to describe cinema is himself perceived to be "ugering".

When li Xiang, from many years back, apologised for not capturing the shot of a stricken Chinese gymnast falling 7 feet to the ground, she had not realised that the co joining of two shots, the girl on her bike, followed by a prolonged one of the injured girl on the floor, was cinema - that cinema in the back of your head.

Videojournalism, all of twenty years old, but with antecedents, proudly flexes its chest in capturing the literal. This is where citizen journalists wrestles with the professional for accolades, but there is a videojournalism of videojournalism, a language that conveys a deeper understanding of issues.

Like language, it is iterative, nurtured, refined, and explicated through ideas about ideas. It senses when to be referential and when to be symptomatic. It may seem curious that over the centuries that our own languages, living entities, has evolved both in volume as new words become available and we find new ways to express ourselves.

Yet at the same time we are wedded to a fixed ideology of expression in this thing, which is unravelling, called journalism.

A mega-institution supporting a great many people, intellects, scholars largely resists any notion that dated concepts need to be looked at anew. And another venerable institution called academia is largely ill-at-ease at proposing fundamental new offerings to change the status quo in industry.

I know possibly of a number of techniques modern film makers would use to modify Farrokhzad's film, but it is an exemplar and classic for the reasons that it makes us think through our thoughts.

For any videojournalist they would do well to observe Farrokhzad's and train their  ideas to ideas, to enhance video journalism within video journalism.

David Dunkley Gyimah is an international award winning videojournalist and producer, and one of the UK's first official videojournalists. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Westminster, completing his PhD into cognitivism and different journalism narratives, and a digital/ social network consultant for a range of companies. David has previously worked for a range of  Networks, including BBC Newsnight, Channel4 News and ABc News. He can be reached at David(at)viewmagazine(dot).tv

In forthcoming posts I'll be speaking about my PhD research as it draws to completion. The interviews I conducted which include many senior or former senior BBC figures such as Mary Hockaday, Peter Horrocks, Peter Barron, Richard Sambrook and senior figures within the industry.  The results strongly suggest a change in news story form.