Experimentation

Albert says to me, “Don’t you think your desktop background is kind of cheesy? This nature picture and all…” And he’s right, of course, even though no less than thirteen dozen people have complimented the picture and asked, where is that? Did you take it? And I lie to this answer and say it’s New Mexico, so maybe they will go away or maybe they will ask about why I was there and I can tell them my stories.

So now it is the Challenger explosion on the background. And we are sitting at the front desk of the Third International Video Journalism Film Festival. This is the ticket desk. The festival posters are hanging on every wall and window, plastered on every ID tag, on the cash box, projected on the walls, and smiling from a button on my lapel.

Most of the time, the desk is occupied by a small army of students, volunteers from Weimar, media students at the Bauhaus University. Part of the time I am here, I am giving them on the fly lessons about shooting. We’ve had some workshops where I introduce them to the basic shooting system we have taught and perfected on a thousand disparate occasions.

Though we are inside, I suggest wearing a light jacket. Every few moments someone opens the door and lets in the cold air. Outside, a VJ is shooting an interview, and part of me wants to revolt at the way he is doing it, but I am wrong.

The Vj is shooting his subject in front of the cinema (kino). The subject is on a stool, and, as it is nighttime, there is a sungun on the ground pointed upward at the subject.

This makes me crazy inside. It’s a kind of rage I usually feel when I see tourists shooting statues or using a camera’s eyepiece instead of taking advantage of the brilliant invention known as a viewscreen. But watching him work, I know I am wrong. So very wrong.

Anyone who has taken our course knows that, though we love to be surprised, we always begin with a very strict regimen of shots, which we use in order to help people get on a solid plane as a shooter-editor. It trains you to think of shooting as the first step of editing, to collect usable images, because, though a sunset might be attractive to your camera-eye, it is not always a useful shot.

The longer you do videojournalism, the more you learn to move beyond the five shots. It becomes the kind of thing which you can always fall back on, but there are many situations where 5 shots won’t work (conversations, for example). You put yourself into the piece. Or you take yourself out. You find characters to tell the story, or the story tells itself. I could go and on abut this, but the fact is it’s up to everyone individually, and a quick glance over our work will show quite a bit of variety which strays beyond the basics.

This festival constantly features people talking about the meaning of videojournalism. Pretty much, the only thing everyone agrees on is that it’s digital, and relies on one person to shoot and edit. Beyond that, the content and style are left to the individual. The grand hope is that the technology will liberate people and new styles will develop. This, of course, will take time. Though you can already see it happening on several levels at the festival, a lot of the work is traditional in style and execution.

In an effort to embrace the freedoms of VJ, I believe we have, at Moose, developed our own dogma. Whenever we can, we refuse tripods, lights and staged interviews. We use narration and text with as much moderation as possible (I can’t begin to explain how easy some projects would have been with some narration, but it is a restraint we put on ourselves because, for me, it seems lazy and sloppy to rely on voice over to tell a story when it can usually be told best by the people involved).

So when I see someone on the street, some traditional camera crew, with a producer, or with their camera on a tripod, my immediate reaction is to scoff. Just the other week, we attended a retrospective of Richard Leacock’s work, and the old man, quick as he is, went right after those who use tripods…how they limit you, how they restrict your access to people. I’ll tell you it would have been almost impossible to shoot the White House film using tripods…though of course tripods have their time and place.

Tripods are just an example of the kinds of tactics we avoid in order to become more pure about our work. It’s a weird outgrowth of our upbringing as VJs, trained in the Rosenblum method, growing in the world of television, and maturing in the world of cinema.

But there he sits outside, this accomplished German VJ using a stool and a light. Either he isn’t a pure VJ, or he is just showing that, the thing works no matter what, and my rules are no better than anyone else’s. Of course there are a lot of people who just VJ to save money. But who cares about those people? Their work is clean and pretty and antiseptic. Maybe they have a better image than us, but we can get a damn good image too, and nobody will get closer to your soul than a VJ. That’s our essence.

So if you are reading this and are in my class, maybe you can throw me for a loop by bringing up this argument. But if you have ever worked as a VJ, you know what I mean. Experimentation is key, and any rule, even if the rule is a rejection of rules, is a waste and gets in the way. We are after truth and we chase it by building an alliance to our stories. That’s all.

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Volume 1

The First VJ Grab Bag featured a wide array of story ideas and narrative voices. Story ideas were drawn from daily life. People pursued whatever topics or characters interested them. The goal was simply to get people together to show that we can accomplish brilliant, independent work when we push ourselves. The screening was a massive success and the event connected people who had never met.

In the end, we screened work from our contributing Grab Bag VJs, and put in a few extra treats just to get people thinking about how else they can apply themselves.

For a wrap-up of the 1st VJ Grab Bag, click here.

To watch videos from the 1st Grab Bag, click here.

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Video Journalism

Video Journalism is a production model in which one person takes on all the jobs required to create tv/film/video. When one single person is the shooter, the editor and the writer, that one person achieves total control over their final product. That person becomes the author, and they are free to tell the story however they want. Video Journalism can take many forms, including reportage, mockumentary, animation, etc. The key is that the work is based on non-fiction and tells stories in a genuine, unique voice.

For more info, check out some essays, or go to Sabine Streich’s VJQueen website.

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What kinds of stories are we looking for?

The best stories are about an unusual character, an odd profession. Find something or someone challenging who would make a good story. Look around for the freak you see on your commute, or the weird market or store you have always wanted to learn about. Anything that piques your curiosity would be a good assignment. We want the videos to be funny, goddamn it, so bring your top game.

Grab Bag’s will be topic driven, so check to see the latest challenge and then start looking for a story that fits.

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How Does it Work?

In the end, we screen the work together so you can have an opportunity to get feedback and to see other work. You may see your story assignment imagined through someone else’s voice. You can meet people of all skill levels and can use their influence to grow your own work.

If you want to participate, here’s how it works: First, you find a story. Second, you put that story into the Grab Bag. We mix them up and assign the stories back out to people who want to play the game. When you get your story assignment, it is on you to do the research, contact your subjects, devise a story and / or production style, shoot and edit the piece.

Read more here.

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Where are we Headed?

Ultimately, our goal is to create a regular, digital publication in which we focus on a specific topic. Imagine an online web-magazine where you can see focused stories on a variety of subjects. We want to choose themes rich in characters and full of opportunities for contradiction and controversy. We want to cover a story from all angles, even if it yields inconsistency. We believe that, once you see a story from every viewpoint you can gain context. It is only through context that we can truly tackle a problem or critical social issue. This is our goal for Journalism.

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What is the VJ Grab Bag?

The VJ Grab Bag is an experiment and a challenge. The idea is to make something. To apply the verb part of the word ‘creative.’

The goal is to create an ongoing forum for Video Journalism. We want to establish a real community (not just a virtual, online one), and to use this community to learn, to expand, to experiment and discover how far we can go if we apply ourselves.

In the end, we screen the work together so you can have an opportunity to get feedback and to see other work. You may see your story assignment imagined through someone else’s voice. You can meet people of all skill levels and can use their influence to grow your own work. It is our hope that, in sharing stories, and in pushing each other, we can create something new and exciting.

Read more here.

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Who Are We?

We are you. We are a group of people with very diverse skills. The first Grab Bag had contributions from Video Journalists, Animators, Photographers, Musicians, and friends. Take a look around and you will find plenty of opportunities to show your work to a hungry audience.

The Grab Bag was started by Matt Rivera of Moose Productions. But it’s origin lies in the International VJ Awards, held in Germany. Every year at the awards, strangers meet and share their work to an audience of hungry friends and fellow VJs. We felt that it was time to bring this experience to the States. And if the community wasn’t there to greet us, we’d have to create one. Thus was born the VJ Grab Bag.

We want you to join us. If you need it, we will teach you how to shoot and edit. Welcome, one and all.

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