Visual Storytelling in the time of COVID-19

With high chances of continued or future lockdowns in Beijing and around the globe, IMMJMA visual multimedia student journalists will need to equip themselves with strong backup stories and projects. In addition, they will need to equip themselves with production methods that will work in a lockdown situation.

The main two options you have are:

• a) reporting, filming, and photographing remotely (T1)
• b) producing a personal story about you, your family, neighbors. (This option is only available in T2 & T3)

This article will compile:

• 1) Inspirations of visual journalism and storytelling made remotely. Many but not all are made during COVID lockdown. This typically involves online interviews but also directing subjects to self film or photograph.
• 2) Behind-the-scenes of work made remotely — which give insights about methodology and approaches used to achieve effective results.
• 3) Inspirations of ‘First Person’ visual journalism and storytelling is a relatively popular approach in documentary filmmaking, but it can also be used in other areas. (Not available in T1)
• 4) Other options, such as graphic journalism or data visualization. We will include a few tips on these but there are plenty of resources available online for these. (Not available in T1)
• 5) There are crucial COVID-19 safety considerations too. We do not cover these in-depth but will point to a few trusted resources at the end of the article. Your tutor will cover safety precautions in class. (No student is allowed to film prior to the COVID-19 safety seminar)

The article is quite long so use the numbered chapters to jump to the section relevant to you.

1) Inspirations of visual journalism and storytelling made remotely.

Hannah Beier, a photography major in the Drexel University Class of 2020, has been virtually photographing her classmates in quarantine. She directed this series of portraits over FaceTime. You can see her work in Time Magazine here.

Giedrė Peseckytė, an IMMJ graduate journalist based in Lithuania, put together a beautifully presented multimedia project on Readymag showcasing her interviews with eight journalists: Bangladesh, Mexico, Nigeria, China, Scotland, Sweden, Lithuania, and the US. In video, text, and photos, Peseckytė shows how they have coped with the pandemic from basic reporting to safety protocols and lockdown measures, as well as travel bans and home offices.

IN HARM’S WAY by the NYT is an interesting crowdsourced project. It tells the story of the health care workers around the world who are risking their lives — and those of their families — to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Since April, The Times has collected their reflections. See the instructions for contributors here: Share Your Story and Photos From the Coronavirus Front Lines Around the World

2) Behind-the-scenes of work made remotely

Instructing a Subject to Self-film

You may need to ask a subject to self film in times of quarantine and self-isolation. This page is for sharing a few tips for methods.

First off we’ll share a few articles about professional publications and then follow with some experiences of our own (tutors, alumni & students).

How The New York Times is producing quarantine videos without being live and in-person

Expecting Covid: The Documentary

A project documenting the lives of pregnant women and families during the pandemic through virtual interviews, video diaries, and footage that participants share. They have some good simple guidelines instructing participants on how to film schedule virtual interviews with you.

This image is a screen capture from an NYT article instructing contributors about how to take a selfie. See the article here: Share Your Story and Photos From the Coronavirus Front Lines Around the World

Sharron’s Case Study

I made a short film for the Guardian Coronavirus, racism and solidarity, before and after Italy’s lockdown but the day after the shoot Italy went under nationwide lockdown, the first European country to do so. This posed a problem with the editors over at the Guardian feeling that it was really strange to post a news video after such big news that didn’t address the lockdown in any way — this is always a problem when working on longer pieces in a fast-changing news situation. Typically, I’d have gone back for a pick-up, but under the strict new lockdown that wasn’t an option. The only thing we could do was ask the subject to self film with the help of a family member. I made up a set of simple instructions and sent them to the subject's son hoping for the best. It worked out reasonably well. Though it was just for a short soundbite so shooting a more diverse b-roll would need a lot more thought — let’s use this space to share!

Watch the full film here

These are the exact instructions I sent to the subject — I made a little PDF and sent it to the son of the subject who was filming with his mobile phone:

Instructions:

Sound — Please film in a quiet room, if possible on a chair or stool in the middle of the room. Don’t film too near the walls or the window or the sound will have an echo. Make sure you are not covering the microphone with fingers that could impact sound quality.

Light — Please make sure the light on Sonia's face is attractive. If possible, place Sonia in front of some window-light, (so the light from outside light falls on her face) the natural light from the window is always attractive. Make sure there are no shadows on Sonia's face.

Stabilization — Please aim to hold the phone as steady as possible.

Distance and angle — Film from a distance no more than 1 meter away. Please hold the phone horizontally not vertically. The composition below is approximately right. Sonia can look directly into the camera as you ask her the questions. Try to keep the video at the same height as Sonia’s head — do not look down or up at her.

Questions: (Sonia should just answer however she feels, each answer should be around 1 minute or so)

1 — Q: How do you feel now all of Italy is under lockdown?
A: Start the answer with “When I heard the news of the lockdown………….. (whatever Sonia answers)

2 — Q: Do you worry that incidents of racism will go up from now? A: ………….. (whatever Sonia answers)

3 — Q: Do you think the global situation of the CV will bring people together now? A: ………….. (whatever Sonia answers)

4 — Q: What is the mood in the Chinese community in Italy right now? A: ………….. (whatever Sonia answers)

5 — Q: When this is all over do you think there will be a different view of the Chinese community?
A: ………….. (whatever Sonia answers)

In hindsight, there are two things I should have considered and would improve next time.

1. I would prompt for the subject to start all of the answers to include the question, just as I would in the field — as I had a couple of sound bytes that were a little hard to use.
2. I would think way more about the logistics of file sending. The subject sent the single video file via Whatsapp which of course compresses. We wanted the highest quality file to work with. It took some time to teach the subject how to use Wetransfer — so if you are working with a large number of files and subjects — you will need to consider file management carefully. If people are documenting a lot then you’d need to ensure they have sufficient storage on their devices and that they are sending files on a regular basis to secure against data losses.

To Be Continued…