Multi-Multimedia

The other week while on assignment at Reuters with @sizemore, I was talking to @ilicco about how the more kit i try to juggle the more diluted the content can become.

I was sat at the front of an almost exciting talk from the FSA with laptop, iPhone, N95, Kodak Zi6 and a pocket camera. Back in my bag was a pro Nikon SLR, an audio recorder and yet another laptop.

This is the burden of the blogger. We tend to move faster than the tech can keep up and the convergence of our various gadgets still only gives us one device that does lots of things in a mediocre fashion.. and then only for as long as it’s over stretched battery holds out.

I joked about buying Shiva Media. I thought a multi-armed kit wielding blogger would make a great logo. Apart from the fact this may be insulting the top Hindu God of Gods.. the name has already been taken anyway.

Then I saw @ilicco link to a blog post from Adam Westbrook

Here’s a guy who looks like he has found a happy medium. Adam is a radio journalist dabbling in video. Using a compact camera, a HD video camera and an audio recorder he may have to juggle a little but by not choosing to live update through twitter, ping gps, and live stream he still has time to script his interviews and get the job done.

Maybe Multi Media does not have to be Multi-multi-media..

In an ideal world, if I were going back into a warzone, or tackling something I only had one shot at, I’d want to work in a team. Much as I prefer traveling alone, I do find a more superior batch of content comes from using a team, who like super heroes, all have their own individual strengths.

Along with Stills, HD video and audio, I also like to (where possible) live stream, micro blog (Twitter, Audioboo) and gps tag as i go. I find so much more value in logging the live progress as ‘news’ which preempts the final edit. This not only raises awareness of the project as it is happening but opens up all sorts of real time resources & conversations, as connections are made as you document.

At the moment to do a multimedia job well you’d need a snapper and a videographer, perhaps an audio guy too but you may be able to manage this between two at a stretch. Both people must also be able to live blog, capture, edit, archive and back up their own content and on top of this, write and do stuff to camera.

When I mean ‘do it well’, I mean suck up and absorb as much of the surrounding content/story/information in high quality for the later edit and lo-fi for live blogging.

As I have never been embedded, a team also offers a certain amount of safety and security. Depending on where you are, sometimes it can just draw attention. Although mainly traveling alone for ease, I’ve often worked with a friend. Someone I would trust with my life.

In Iraq I didn’t really know what I was going to do. There was little planning. I just went to see for myself and apart from moving fast and laying low, I was just taking photos and logging my GPS position, either pinging it back via sat phone or texting when there was GSM. The photos I took went to accompany a couple of news stories my friend was writing and finally to make my first real video podcast.

Not long after my good friend was kidnapped and later released.

On assignment in Jordan for the UNHCR I had more experience but limited time. I decided against video and just worked with stills and audio. Much of what I was going to do was arranged in advance by a friend who knew the area well and acted as a fixer. With a simple hand held Zoom H2 on the floor i could record the stories of the refugees and use my Nikon D300 to take pictures in the pauses, editing out the shutter sound later. During the live video blogging of the project I was contacted by Bill Cammack who ended up editing the final stills and interviews into a film.
I guess when there is less at stake.. Back in the UK, either covering a geek conference or on a job for a corporate client, you can experiment and test new methods of data capture and transmission. This is when we can get silly with our tech. Finding out what works and what is a waste of time and resources. What medium has the greatest reach for the least amount of effort.

If I had a tech lab at my disposal, something similar to what Ironman or Batman had in their gargantuan basements.. I would not hesitate to create the ultimate journalists tool. Some single device that once and for all did everything a blogger/journalist needed.

It only exists in my head right now but would have the video capture qualities of RED.. A 15-200mm f1.4 lens with an integral Binaural auto zooming microphone. High definition stills could be extracted from the film and edited in camera. All the GPS and audio to text tagged footage could be separated into audio, video and stills onto solid state cards or streamed via wifi, wimax, or compressed for GSM, or satellite enabling it to be sent all over the world but also to a sister pod situated within the same city retrieving the footage and archiving live.

Oh.. and it tweets.

Failing that.. I’d be happy for the iPhone to have a decent battery, shoot 5 mega pixel photos even in low light and shoot reasonable video from two decent front and back cameras.

This I feel would be far easier to achieve and may even be with us next year. In the meantime I, along with many bloggers and tech lovers will be carting around small to medium backpacks clanking with lensed gadgets. Always on the look out for an unused plug socket so we can recharge and ultimately.. reconnect.

You can add me as a friend on twitter here.. Twitter.com/Documentally

Wilderness 2.0

Monday morning for me this week will start at 4am as i rise, wash and head over to my friends for 5am, the official start of our trip into the wilderness.

We will drive nearly 500 miles north into Scotland to Mallaig. From there we hope to be in time for the ferry over to Inverie on the Knoydart Peninsular, mainland Britain’s last wilderness.

From there who knows… We plan to hike across, find a nice spot in a wood on the northern coastline of the peninsular where we can build camp, enjoy the wilderness and perhaps even do a little fishing.

We plan to exercise our bushcraft skills and although not packing a tent, we will be taking hammocks to sleep in unless it is as cold as it was last week where we may find it better to dig snow holes.

For my friend Dave it is an extension of the kind of weekends we find ourselves on in the summer. He will be practicing his axe skills, carving stuff, fishing, hunting and general camp craft. For me i also want to enjoy the wilds of Scotland but in addition, I am keen to see if i can blog, record and capture the great outdoors by using solar power and the no doubt limited cell phone coverage.

If you don’t here from me on Twitter or through my normal channels for a week, it’s because there is no mobile signal at all. Although not traveling too light, there was no room for a satellite modem as i wanted to make sure we had enough food and whiskey.

If you don’t hear from us for longer than ten days.. Expect to hear a story about how two stupid bushcrafters misjudged the weather and perished in the wilds of Scotland.

That said.. there will be a video diary shot along the way so the news should have more than enough decent footage.

For those interested in the kit I will be taking, i have tagged a flickr photo below.

(Please click on the photo)

Amongst other bits and bobs, Dave will be packing the first aid kit, axe, skillet, fishing kit, and flares. I’m not sure if anyone will actually pay any attention to flares around Bonfire night..

Before you say.. “The fools.. they will surely perish out there.” I must tell you that i’ve packed a Handpresso coffee machine.. I refuse to perish without caffeine in my blood.

Please don’t email or call unless it’s important. If i can get a mobile signal i will most likely be blogging via Twitter. You can find me on http://www.twitter.com/documentally

“I’m just going outside; I may be away some time.” ~ Captain L.E.G Oats