Using Digital Video (DV) as a medium for Process Documentation (PD) By Joshka Wessels

I hear I forget I see I remember I do and I understand Chinese Proverb

Principles are “participatory”  Participatory Video (PV)  Process Documentation (PD)  Most Significant Change (MSC) Learning Alliances (LA)  Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Video knows many faces Too often the medium of video is used for advocacy and raising awareness ONLY

The use of video in social change New approaches in communicating with civil society, people, farmers and scientists involving them in identifying issues that affected them most directly

A tool for PD  Access to digital video technology (DV) is wider than ever before  Capturing fully what happens on the ground  Document significant events  Record culture, practices and history

A tool for PD (2)  Enhance and empower voices  Give opportunity to create own vision  Disseminate research results  Facilitate horizontal and vertical communication and learning

Advantage/Disadvantages  Capture wide range  Clear story telling  Facilitates communication  Reach a wide audience  Brings relationships to surface  Entertaining for everyone  Variety of uses  Intimidating for stakeholders  Complex technology  Difficult access remote areas  Too much focus on technology  Can stir and upset power relations  Time consuming  Strenuous for budgets

Production process for PD  Plethora of various formats and purposes  Internal or external production  Interactive use/ICT based technologies  Learning Alliances  The main aspect of a video product is the principle of storytelling

Creating an audiovisual story  5 W's; Who, What, When, Where, and Why  Protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting, turning point, dialog, introduction, conclusion, narration, and points of view  Think 4D: Moving image, music & sound design, space, people, duration, location  Two styles of approach: storyboard and script

The Basics  Listen carefully to each other’s ideas  Respect each other’s opinion  Tolerance for difference  No looking good at another’s expense, applaud others’ successes  There is more than one answer for the task at hand  Attempt to listen naively as if you do not possess prior knowledge

The Process  Pre-production  Production  Post-production

The Team  Camera operator  Sound person  Director  Producer  Editor  Executive producer

Sound and image “Sound is more important than image”

Fundamental shots  Extreme Close Up  Close Up - POWERFUL  Medium shot – BREAD AND BUTTER  Long or wide shot – LOTS OF INFORMATION  Extreme Long shot

Coverage of an event  Different camera angles  Establishing shot  Cut-away or insert  Shot/reverse shot  Over-shoulder shot  Point-of-view shot

Conventions for composition  Rule of thirds  Head and nose room  Diagonals  Depth  Centre of interest  Number of people  Camera height  THE 180 DEGREES RULE..…

Tips for shooting  Select frame and record a shot long enough  Shoot to edit and think in a non-linear way  Better to move in than zoom in  Keep steady and don’t move while recording  Lighting…the terrible backlight problem.  Sound ….the terrible windy deserts  Kids…..People in the background…..  Noise, Radios ….

How much material ? VIDEO IS BIG: 4,5 minutes = 1 GIGABYTE  Documentary 30:1  Feature film 12:1  Video clips 6:1  News items 3:1

Shoot-to-edit  Think non-lineair and 4D  Work with structure and layers  1 timeline with shots down to 25 frames in a second  More than 99 audio channels  More than 99 video layers

Selecting shots  Is the content compelling?  Do I have the sequence structure ?  Do I have the coverage ?  Does it fit in the story ?

Editing  The cinematographic approach  The journalistic approach  Jumpcuts  Hard cut or effects  Breaking the rules and conventions

How to keep an editor happy  TIMECODE, TIMECODE, TIMECODE  Structure, structure, structure  Good preparation and logging

Distribution  Upscaling experiences  Broad and narrow cast  Videotape, CD-ROM DVD  Internet

The politics of video  Powerful tool; who owns it ?  Facilitate communication  Wakes people up  Can create conflict or controversy  Whose point of view ?