Media Gatherers

The north Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett is now famous throughout the country and indeed the world for the respect it pays to military personnel killed during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following the repatriation services conducted at RAF Lyneham the cortege have passed through the town from the beginning and slowly the tradition, as it has now become, of lining the main street and looking on in silent respect has grown.

This multimedia piece shows images from a number of repatriations through the town and hears from residents and veterans who either live in Wootton Bassett or who travel, some for many miles, each and every time one occurs.

Click the link below to view…

http://www.mediagatherers.com/projects/wootton-bassett/

In a perfect world, when interviewing a subject all surrounding ambient sound would magically disappear. This, as we all know is not the case.
Using the powerful, popular and free Audacity – this article explains one way of removing the sometimes distracting ambient noise from audio clips. (continue reading…)

Leading the way for UK multimedia producers, the DuckRabbit has once again spoken – and as in most cases I am in complete agreement with the creatures errr…quacks.

The latest blog post brought so many thoughts and questions to mind about what we do, where we are at and what the future may hold…

Is photojournalism stuck in the past?

An individual photograph can and does have the power to change things – I just don’t think one picture is as powerful as the multi-array of story-telling platforms in the world today and a ’set’ or gallery of pictures is no where near as powerful as the same set with audio.

Let’s all face it and that includes you NGO’s – the stories and causes that you so passionately support, deserve more than ‘big name’ white photojournalists flitting in and out of the country as the mood takes them…

…do your cause justice – we are living in the 21st century, a digital world where ‘joe public’ expects more than static images, however powerful.

Please drop by the DuckRabbit blog post Just another set of limbs chopped Africans.

British Army Apache helicopter crews train in the desert environment of Arizona in preparation for deployments to Afghanistan. The harsh environment is the closest available to conditions in Afghanistan and allows the ground crews and pilots to fully prepare themselves and the equipment.

Click to watch Apache by Ian Forsyth.

A short multimedia piece put together following the Remembrance Service recently at Wylye in Wiltshire…

http://ianforsyth.blogspot.com/2009/11/sit-here-and-rest-awhile_08.html

Bloody hell!

After a couple of days away from the computer, i’ve just listened to my latest project again – the audio is shocking. Full Stop.

I think this just goes to prove that just like getting ‘fresh’ eyes on a pictures – the same applies to audio.

Lesson learnt. Apologies for all that had to sit through the original, the levels were all over.

I’ve updated the piece. Watch again here.

A slightly tighter edit and levels (hopefully) much more pleasing!

I’ve just finished my latest multimedia presentation – there is going to be more up and coming articles about how I executed certain parts of the project. My findings, my errors and more.

But for now, i’m going to forget the technical aspects of media gathering, sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy.

I hope you do to.

Click here to watch Tipping Point by Matt Kirwan

When I get a spare couple of hours I enjoy just ‘floating’ around the web in no particular direction. Today, I stumbled across this wonderfully simple multimedia piece by an American photographer called Liz O. Baylen.

“Waiting for death” – Edwin Schneidman is not afraid of death. He has studied it all his life.

The photography is stunning yet simple. The audio is simple yet stunning.
Beautiful.

Watch ‘waiting for death’ by Liz o. Baylen

OK, OK, OK – so far on this blog I have been harping on about the fact that multimedia is the future. It is very important not to get carried away in the moment and forget the fact that our industry is changing, people are losing there jobs, the suits at the top of the newspapers don’t give a damn about the quality of the content and certainly don’t want to pay for it, to be blunt the future does look bleak.

As it stands as a photographer you will be lucky to get £50 per image used on a national newspapers website. If you are really lucky they will use 15 images and still only pay you no more than £150.

(continue reading…)

Don’t get me wrong – I am not really in a position to start becoming critical about multimedia work that is out there.

The fact that people are out there and shooting this stuff is a step in the right direction, but as we know – these things can always be done better.

I was floating around the video pages of the Guardian and came across this warming story of Marie, a child from Congo who was separated from her mother during violent unrest.

This video is obviously a Save The Children ‘promo’ piece – little Marie is obviously reading from a script complete with Save The Children plugs, a nifty banner neatly placed next to the video and even the caption graphics throughout the video match the style of the Save The Children logo (that torn out ‘look’ under Marie’s name).

I’m all up for raising the profile of charities, I just feel it could be done better – not only by pulling back a little on the PR stunts but by allowing the story to breath with the right content, it could be a much more powerful body of work while still allowing Save The Children to showcase the great work that they are doing.

It is a really pleasant and uplifting story after all.

Breaking the video down into it’s three basic parts – the beginning, the middle and the end:

The Beginning

Marie still living with her foster family in Goma, preparing to go home and see her mother.

The feelings that should be coming across in this segment are: Lonely? Sad? Scared? Anxious?

• This to me screams out for a set of stunning portraits of the little girl, still lost, in a strange house – a location like that the possibilities to create a set of 10+ moody portraits of Marie is endless.
• Imagine those portraits interlaced with general views and details of her location and Marie interacting with her temporary foster family while her interview is played over the top.
• In total, you could create 30 good images – quite possibly too many.

The Middle

The journey home.

The feelings that should be coming across in this segment are: Anxiety? Nervous? Scared? Excited?. Even the distances and logistics involved in getting Marie home could play apart.

• This is where video could really play a part. Long travelling road shots, close-ups of Marie (asleep?), logistics staff, checkpoints?
• Mixed with specific audio that brings across the point of a journey – car starting, doors opening/closing/wind from windows/radio – endless possibilities.

The End

Entering the town, the commotion and excitement and finally meeting her mother.

The feelings that should be coming across in this segment are: Tension? Excitement? Happiness? Nervousness?

• This section screams out for a mixture of video and still images – combined with live audio.
• I envisage wide video (running/cuddling) interlaced with tight shots of crying, smiling and general happiness.
• Why not finish off with an interview of Marie’s mum, some portraits together and all of the family?

I have long learnt that really analysing your images can help you take better pictures (what went wrong? How do I improve?) – it seems by breaking down multimedia content whether yours or not is a great way to learn the specifics and really get to grips with how to get a story across.

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to begin to create and compare what you would envisage and what has been produced.
I know that usually ‘on the ground’ scenarios never present themselves as you or an unhappy picture editor would like – but somehow with this video, where Save The Children were in complete control from start to end. I can’t help think it could have been done better.

A great story lost.