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Showing posts from May, 2009

Why is emotion important to a story?

If you'd prefer to hear this article read then use the player below. Powered by Podbean.com ...and if you'd like to hear a robot read it then click on the Odiogo "Listen Now" link I have heard people say that they want more emotion in a piece. Whether it's a drama or a doc or a piece on some aspect of a sport it seems that emotion is considered to somehow elevate it. By some mysterious magic it turns a pedestrian report into a story. Why is this? Why do we want to see emotion? And does this mean some prurient and voyeuristic bit of tearfall or is it something else? Is it as simple as stories are incomplete without the tears and the joy? Seeing disparate emotion can be as dry as reading a textbook if there is no good reason for it. How does it move the story forward? There has to be a better reason than we like to see other people emoting. One part of the brain that we share with other mammals is the limbic system, the mammalian brain and t

A film editor's approach to story in documentary film

One often noted editor's dilemma starts with that sinking feeling when first seeing just how much has been shot and how little of it has been logged. Where the hell is the story in that lot? And to be honest there is no single story. As every editor knows, there are just lots and lots of options. Which means lots and lots of possible directions you could go in. And this is probably why first assemblies are so hard. Like most people who practise this art or sullen craft I recognise the importance of something called story; but it has always been what I could recognise but not easily define satisfactorily to myself and I have found little consensus with others. Obviously the concept must be a broad one to encompass the entirety of what we humans call stories. Those things that somewhere we associate with fireside full tummies and the start of comfortable night. Aboriginal cultures such as Native Americans traditionally have a variety of story genres which include story maps, ro

Volvo Ocean Race - Boston In Port Races

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Another late night, liquid dinner and early morning. Yes, my eyes think it's next year. Today is set aside for the in-port race which starts at about 16:15 UK time. A modified Olympic sausage designed to entertain the great and the good at each stopover. It's also streamed live to the web and captured in superb High Definition for the world's media. Yesterday I went on one of the yachts, Telefonica. I was following the engineers who ensure the continued operation of the TV systems. Each yacht is effectively a five camera Outside Broadcast unit which can be remote controlled by a shore based media team when required. Usually operated by the media crew member (a sort of embedded reporter on steroids) they capture footage during the the legs of the race and beam back HD material by Inmarsat's Fleet Broadband - well, OK, it's HDV but still pretty good. So seven mobile studios each feed any one of five cameras into two receivers which are switch between the yachts and p

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