Do you see what I see, I asked.

I’m out with a number of crews in Newcastle training them in videojournalism-as-cinema.

A funeral procession passes. People gather to line the streets. We ask what’s going on. Several people can’t tell us. They are here because, well, other people are here.

Finally, another journalist leans over. This is the cortège of a policeman who was transporting a man he had arrested and then suffered a fatal accident.

The arrested person pulled the handbrake of the police vehicle as it was travelling on the motor way, causing the car to turn over.

We’re respectful of the event. The gathering tells me this is an officer who was much liked and had many friends. My eyes dart around and my cohorts are slightly bemused. They decide to go off and find interviews.

Then my eyes are fixed. Standing four people deep in the crowd, partially obscured by other people an elderly man stands. His eyes are welled with tears, slightly reddened; a tear falls down his cheek. I have been watching him now for about a minute.

I gingerly approach him and ask, ‘Did you know him?’ The man pauses and answers that they were partners and worked alongside each other for many many years. His partner was due to retire.

In the competitive arena of news, I’m aware of the importance of this man. I gesture to him if he would kindly have a minute to spare. By now I can see from my periphery vision the ‘big boys and girls’ have arrived — a euphemism for TV reporters.

There’s no avoiding it. We talk to him for 15 minutes and by the time we thank him for his time. Well, you guessed several cameras and suits want their (sound on tape — SOT) interviews. One male TV reporters pulls out his comb.

Reflective practice
Reflective practice in videojournalism explained in my last medium post: ‘Rebooting newsmaking and videojournalism and how creativity is forcing change’ involves an artistic practice beyond technical rationality.

It can be undertaken by any professional and involves ‘seeing beyond seeing’ — looking for that which is not obvious. Critical thinking.

If you’re new to videojournalism-as-cinema or any field of work that involves critical analysis, it requires a heightening of senses. We all possess this after years of work, but it surfaces in part because of an antipathy to the status quo.

We can do better. We must do better, is the mantra.

I remember reporting on the BBC World Service — the bomb that was aimed at wrecking South Africa’s first all race election in Johannesburg. This too involved degrees of reflective practice.

The how to method

In Denmark, I ran the following Masterclass to see whether the journalists that gathered, could ‘see beyond seeing’. Here’s an updated version of the presentation.

Answer: I can’t see much myself. I need a better look, so I opt for a panoramic look at the field.

Now I can see better. What do you see? Clock’s ticking. 10, 9, 8, 7….0.

What’s the pattern you’re picking out. Television, semiotics, judgement is about conventions and patterns. What can you see?

This is the crowd of people gathered. This the thing that shapes your thinking. This…

Did you see this? Most of the balls with a stripe are at the top. Most of the balls with circles are clustered at the bottom. I have separated them with the cue stick.

By removing balls 4 and 2, did you see this…

Odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 are at the bottom.

If we restore the balls to their original positions, what else can you see? Again, you’re working against the clock.

Did you see this?

By slightly nudging the balls, it might become apparent now.

Balls 1 and 2; 3 and 4, 5 and 6… the pattern is of balls with an increase in 1 being adjacent to each other.

Again, in reality the scene hasn’t changed, this last image is how you’ve cognitively exaggerated the positioning of the balls to find the new pattern.

So what else can you see from the original? There are others

The way semioticians state we perceive the world is through patterns. Cognitions make a similar statement, but the way they access signs is different.

Television news plays on patterns. When you watch a newscast, it conforms to a way the journalists sees his/her world is shaped and so is yours. That world is black and white — sometimes literally e.g. Fergusson.

These patterns become cues and eventually codes. Sometimes the pattern is obvious, sometimes that pattern is a stereotype.

We build up this library from how we are situated in our cultures and the technological, economical impact of events around us. In videojournalism-as-cinema, as with several artists, accentuating the ‘unseen’ is part of the narrative — if not sometimes the whole.

Often that can be unsettling — abstract art is not enjoyed by all. In are complex world, the videojournalists I have encountered want to not just dig deeper into a subject, but go beyond the coded language of TV News.

When they do and the object becomes codified, they move on to bring us more fresh images, news and stories that are equally important in their own way.

We just need to see it.

So back to that painting ‘Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone’ made in the early 1680s by Luca Giordano.

Where’s the story?

follow him on twitter @viewmagazine
David’s website — www.viewmagazine.tv
David is a Knight Batten Winner in Innovation in Journalism and an international award-winning videojournalist. His journalism career spans 27 years working for outfits such as Channel 4 News, ABC News and BBC Newsnight. His PhD looks at the future of videojournalism. His work has been profiled by several organisations e.g. Apple. He’s a senior lecturer and is next presenting at the Business Intelligence Summit, London.