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Chapter 4  Video Activist "All that you need to become a true video activist is the necessary equipment, practice to develop your required skills, and, perhaps most importantly, inspiration." Thomas Harding (1)The miniaturisation and affordability of video technology has brought to the streets and fields the video activist or 'videographer'. Images and sound-bites have the power to seize people's attention and bring home the reality of what is happening around them. Video activists wield the video camera to defend and promote civil rights. You can harness the power of the video camera to bear witness for animal rights. Freelance or work for animal voluntary organisations on their campaigns. Video the odd demonstration or work on a long-term project setting objectives and targeting specific audiences. Set yourself up as a lone video activist or gather a team together. When sufficiently experienced you could train others to be video activists too.   Personal Qualities You Will Need As a video activist you should or will have to:
Two basic video activisms for animal rights videographers are recording campaign videos and recording witness videos. The Campaign Video You are going to tell a story through video. So where do you find stories? You can easily access some places, like circuses, rodeos and zoos. Factory farms are a bit more difficult and you will have to use your ingenuity to video them, and laboratories and research institutions may be guarded and alert (but see Chapter 4: Undercover Investigator, under the section Surveillance Systems). Video activists are not in the league of making three-hour documentary films. Depending on your purpose, a five to ten minute video can be long enough, certainly for the Web or to screen at a debate. Your intention is not to bore your viewers but to carry across what you want to say and your video should be just long enough for that. It is said that one picture is worth a thousand words; certainly, one timely five minute video is worth a three hour film. Examples of campaign videos are: Camera work will be only one of your talents when making a campaign video. Planning the video is the most important skill and may take up to eighty percent of video production time and most of your energy. Professional film makers plan their films with storyboards, drawing sequences of pictures that will make up the complete movie. Storyboarding makes a video a lot easier to direct and edit. You could do it that way. Alternatively, you could sit down, close your eyes and concentrate hard on visualising what your video will be about, shot for shot, searching for potential problems and thinking through how you will overcome them. Then, having sorted that out, open your eyes, make a list of the shots and finally go out and shoot them. The Witness Video Record events at animal rights demonstrations and in particular catch problems involving the police and opposition against the demonstrators. By videoing at demonstrations:
 If the police think you are taking part in the demonstration, rather than being an uninvolved reporter, they might decide to arrest you on some trumped up charge, such as trespassing on private property or riotous behaviour. To counter this it may be prudent to shoot footage of both sides' altercations so that you can claim to be unbiased. You may also want something that identifies you as an impartial journalist or as a member of some part of the news media. Ideally you would flaunt an official press card. Failing that you could devise a business card ('Joe Snapitall - Freelance Photojournalist - Times Square.'), or have in your pocket a letter from a video company stating you are on assignment for them. What you do not want to do is inadvertently record illegal activity that could get animal rights people into trouble. This might happen should your footage be shown publicly and wrongly interpreted or the police confiscate your camera and use your footage for their purposes. Do not think that the police will not seize your video camera, even if their taking it is illegal, as they can always make up an excuse afterwards. While shooting your witness video speak a calm, objective, running commentary into the video camera's microphone. Start with the time, date and place and at appropriate moments re-state the time and position where you are shooting. Note the identity numbers of individual police antagonists, the identities of anyone they arrest, and the name and contact data of witnesses. Follow up possible opportunities for more shots; find out where arrested or injured people were taken and check other video activists working close by to swap footage. When the fur is really flying at a demonstration it is useful to have one or more helpers. They can assist you by looking out for good potential shots, protect you by watching your rear, and sneak your video footage out of the area if the police intend to grab it. Further, you might be more effective at demonstrations as part of a team of video activists, each member taking their own footage to make a more complete record of what is happening. Some team members could shoot close up, others from a distance, or take footage from opposite sides of an incident. Interviewing demonstrators can be enjoyable and interesting. Ask open ended questions, like "what did you see?" or "what did you do?" Whenever they stop speaking just prompt them by repeating "then what happened?" Ask again if what they say is not clear; they must speak credibly. Elbow your way into someone else's witness interview; your job is to get evidence, not to be polite. Get phone numbers or addresses from good witnesses, but expect that they may not want to get involved. Depending on circumstances you may want to shoot openly or from cover. People are sometimes shy, so you could act as though your camera is turned off and carry it inconspicuously while still shooting, or only use its microphone. A shoulder bag is handy for a lot of covert shooting. Cut a hole for the camera lens at one end of the bag and tape the camera in position making sure you can see the camera's viewfinder with the bag open. Cut another hole for your microphone or clip the mic to your clothes. You may want to buy a pinhole video camera if your heart is set on covert work. These cameras sit on a dime yet zoom, tilt and pan like their bigger relatives. However, while the camera itself is not too expensive, you may have to buy a tiny recorder to store the images the camera takes and that could cost several times the camera's price tag. You will also need to buy other bits like cables, batteries and battery power adapters. Basic Video Field Kit Apart from access to a computer and editing software, you do not need much else for making videos than the basic field kit. The basic field kit of the modern video activist consists of:
You will also want to consider what the video camera will record its images and sound on. A video camera can record on tape (getting outdated), DVD or hard drive. DVD's are small disks you slot into the camcorder and you can record over them repeatedly. The newer technology is a hard drive built inside the camera (like a computer's hard drive). A hard drive accepts several hours of recording and is easily transferable to your computer via a memory stick or other device. 12 Tips For Shooting Videos
You do not cut celluloid footage into strips anymore. Nowadays you do your video editing entirely on a computer. Nor is there any need for complicated editing software. Basic video-editing programs are installed on most new computers. Even elementary editing programs enable you to add titles, narration, music and special effects to a video. Choose the best footage and put the bits in order to make your video flow the way you want it. Get the editing right and you will have a lot of satisfaction from your completed video. Bear in mind that a witness video may best be left unedited if it is going to be used in court, otherwise it may appear biased and suspect. Distributing Your Video You are not a video activist by shutting your video away in the attic. You must show your work to influence people and therefore you must distribute it.
(1) Harding, Thomas. The Video Activist Handbook. Pluto Press: London. 2001, xvi. 2nd edition. Further Reading Gregory, S; Caldwell, G; Avni, R; Harding, T & Gabriel, P. Video for Change: a guide for advocacy and activism. Pluto Press: London. 2005. ›› To Entries & Home |
