Shooting a Piece to Camera in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, PE.

Not everything I film is to do with guns, bombs and bullets. With the World cup taking place in South Africa this year  it looks like I’m going to be doing many more light hearted films. I’ve just finished a fun piece with Reporter Jonah Fisher where we travelled around South Africa exploring the route that England fans will take during the tournament as they move from the opening game in Phakeng (near Rustenburg) down to Cape Town and then across to play Slovenia in Port Elizabeth. It was a great trip which included a twenty five hour train journey and a long drive along the Garden route in a multi coloured camper van. I tried to shoot it in a fun way, as distant from a hard news piece as possible. Check it out below and let me know what you think.

England World Cup fans tour from caparkinson on Vimeo.

And if you want to see some of my moves on the same pitch then check out the film below

Battle for Hearts and Minds Trailer from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

If you want to read more about his rig and the problems he encountered then check out the following article from the website dslrnewsshooter.com

http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2009/10/14/photojournalist-danfung-dennis-how-i-cover-the-afghanistan-war-with-the-5dmkii/

in action with the canon D5

Lost manuscripts of Timbuktu from caparkinson on Vimeo.

Salt caravans of Timbuktu from caparkinson on Vimeo.

Al Qaeda in Timbuctu from caparkinson on Vimeo.

Timbuktu climate change from caparkinson on Vimeo.

Halis, our Fixer in Timbuctu

Our Fixer, Halis, was waiting for us as we clambered down the steps of our Air Mali flight. He wore his Tuareg regalia with obvious pride – his bright blue robes flowing in the gentle breeze and his nine meter head scarf perfectly wound around his head and chin. He had gentle eyes, softened even further by the small round glasses he wore perched on top of his nose. We shook hands and he quickly sent some men to go and fetch our luggage. I immediately liked Halis, he was friendly, quick witted and incredibly well connected around the area. He was a local, born and raised in and around Timbuktu.

Timbuktu is one of those places in the world that you never expect to see. Even its name sounds mythical, most people associating it with the end of the world, the most distant place on earth. It is in fact a real, though somewhat impoverished backwater in the West African state of Mali. The City is actually disappointingly easy to reach, regular direct flights link it with Bamako, the capital of Mali. The flight we took was, bizarrely, crewed by South Africans.

Taking a break with our team in the Sahara

My first impression of the City was that it was a dusty, monotone, decrepit place that looked remarkably like Southern Afghanistan. I was quickly perturbed by the number of middle aged, European tourists wandering around shopping. It shattered my illusion that this trip was pushing the boundaries, that we were on assignment to a dangerous, remote place.

We’d been planning the trip for some time and there were a number of stories we were hoping to cover in the area including the spread of Al Qaeda linked militants who had moved south from Algeria and were now operating in the region. Our first story though was about climate change and the fight to reverse its effects. We drove for two hours west of Timbuktu to Lake Faguibine, a large area of water that had been rapidly drying up since the 1970’s, leading to hundreds of thousands of people having to leave the area. We met up with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and filmed the work that they had been doing to restore the former glories of the Lake. We stayed in the town of Goundam, a small place famous only as the site of a military defeat for French Colonial forces in 1894. There was no Hotel but Halis had brought tents, sleeping bags and enough food for everyone. He had even brought a number of staff from the hotel he ran in Timbuktu to cook for us and help with anything we needed. They say in the British Army that amateurs think tactics and professionals think logistics – Halis was definitely a pro.

Digging out the water channels near Goundam

We spent two nights sleeping on the roof of the UN compound and filming some amazing sequences of the local villagers digging out dried up river beds and fighting to hold back the spread of the sand dunes. It was heaven for a cameraman – everywhere I looked there were great shots. With our first piece finished we packed up our tents and headed back to Timbuktu. Over the next week we shot three more films – one on Al Qaeda in the Sahara, one on the dying camel caravans that bring salt from the mines in the desert and one on the manuscripts of Timbuktu. It was a long, hot, tiring trip but it was one that I wont forget. On the penultimate night we trekked into the desert and slept under the stars at the traditional Toureg camp that Halis managed when he wasn’t guiding journalists. As I lay there sipping a cold lager and eating fresh baked bread I looked up the star-filled sky and realized how lucky I am, in what other career could a lad from Leicester see and experience the things that I have? As I rolled over to warm myself by the open fire Halis appeared in front of me, “Another beer Chris?” . . . Truly the best fixer I’d ever worked with.

Timbuktu climate change from caparkinson on Vimeo.

I’ve put the most recent at the top and worked down. Enjoy!

Congo Mines, 2009. from caparkinson on Vimeo.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is an incredibly difficult, complicated and dangerous place to work. Large parts of the country are essentially lawless and armed bands (including the National Army) roam the roads and jungle tracks looking to shake people down for money or cigarettes.

I first worked there as part of a team with Orla Guerin and Producer Tara Neil in October 2008 as the Tutsi militia commanded by General Nkunda advanced to the gates of Goma, in the East of the country. The Congolese National Army (known as the FARDC) was in a rapid retreat and hundreds of thousands of civilians flooded into refugee camps to escape the carnage. It was a terrible introduction to one of the toughest parts of the world for a TV crew to operate in. The army threatened and robbed us on our first day and the refugees were hostile as they believed we were going to sell their pictures to the militias.

Sunday Church Service in South Kivu, DRC.

I finally returned to the DRC at the start of August (2009), this time to Bukavu in the Province of South Kivu. The various factions were still fighting but the FARDC backed by the UN has finally gotten the upper hand and the rebels (mainly the Hutu FDLR this time) were on the retreat. Myself, Correspondent Karen Allen and Producer Tara Neil were working on a story about the militarization of mining and the tough conditions endured by those digging up the mineral Coltan that goes into many electrical products. To illustrate the story we had to get to some of the most remote areas in the world. Places rarely visited by foreigners. We were forced to charter a plane to take us to an airstrip in the middle of the jungle, near the small town of Lilungu. Due to the nature of the terrain and lack of roads were forced to travel on the back of motorbikes. Out of necessity I decided to film on a Sony Z1 and leave my DSR 500 at the Hotel in Bukavu. Despite testing the Z1 thoroughly before the assignment it decided to stop working the minute I began to film. Luckily I do though always carry a spare DV camera with me. It is a consumer camera I picked up on London’s Tottenham Court Road for about six hundred pounds. The Canon HV 30 is small and versatile. It shoots on tape and you can switch between DV and HDV. The reason I chose this as my personal camera is that it has a mini-jack microphone input and a headphone socket meaning at least I can get decent audio with it and even use it with one of my Radio mics. I quickly ripped the camera from its pouch, attached my small wide angle adaptor and began to film.

All kitted up for the Motorbike journey through South Kivu

I hadn’t expected to have to use this camera for the whole trip and so my spares for it were minimal. I explained the situation to the team and we agreed that we would only shoot what was absolutely necessary. As we headed off to find the mines I prayed that I had enough juice to see me through the trip. After a long and incredibly uncomfortable journey we finally reached the mines and filmed our sequences. As we finished our piece to camera the red light began to flash and my camera died. Although I could have done with more footage I was relieved that we had got the key pictures in the bag. There was still though more shots that the team were hoping to get. I had one last option available – my stills camera. The Canon G10 is a 14.7 megapixel stills camera that also has a movie mode. I’d never tested the video option but had read a report that said it gave a pretty decent image. With no other option I resigned myself to finishing the shoot on my G10 and keeping my fingers crossed that the image would be usable. I decided that should we need to record decent audio I would ask Karen to record it on her marantz hard drive recorder and we could post sync it.

Filming GV's with my Consumer Camcorder

After another day of shooting we finally returned to the airstrip and met our flight back to Bukavu. The first thing I did was to switch on my Mac and load all of my pictures into Final Cut Pro. It wasn’t the disaster I’d feared. . . The shots from my HV 30 were actually not too bad (at least nothing some Post production couldn’t fix) while my video taken on the stills camera was surprisingly usable. Although I was unhappy not to have been able to film with my big camera and make the piece much stronger it was simply a relief to have gotten anything at all. I like to think that it was a case of improvising, adapting and overcoming. I hope the Ten o’clock news feel the same way when they realize half of their film was shot on a three hundred and fifty pound stills camera.

BBC team taking a break from the Motorbikes

BBC's Nick Woolley in action in Baghdad. An example of a Cameraman who can work anywhere and with anyone

I’m often asked what the most important qualities are for a TV news Cameraman. People assume that I’m going to tell them about an ability to frame beautiful pictures or light an interview so that it looks like a Hollywood film set. Frankly I see these as secondary skills. Now obviously all Cameramen need to be able to film an image that is in focus, the right colour and with audible sound but I genuinely believe that a sense of humour and an easy going nature are much more important. Picture this: You’re in Afghanistan, you’ve worked for sixteen hours straight in the blistering heat, you’re hungry and you’ve just been told by London that your piece was dropped from the bulletin in favour of a fluffy report about kittens being raised by a dog. In that situation you need a friend, a nice guy, someone who’s not going to shout and scream. You’re all mad but somebody in the team needs to take a deep breath and bring everyone back together – “Hay don’t worry guys at least the 24 hour news channel will run it!” A good cameraman can be the glue that pulls everything together and keeps the wheels from falling off on a tough trip. A good cameraman can mix with anybody, no matter their nationality or social standing, make them feel at ease and get them to trust him. You’re never going to get amazing shots if the subject isn’t relaxed with your presence. The ability to communicate through smiles and gestures with anyone is priceless in our business and the Cameramen that can are worth their weight in gold.

BBC Cameraman Matt Davies in action

Back to Zim from caparkinson on Vimeo.

Specialist Zachary Boyd, fighting the Taliban in his pink boxers

I’ve spent about eight weeks over the last few years embedded with the British military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although I’ve had some interesting experiences and been able to capture some good images I haven’t been lucky enough to witness a moment like the one in the photo above.

It shows US Army Specialist Zachary Boyd and two of his colleagues returning fire from Firebase Restrepo in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province. Boyd had just been sleeping when the base came under fire.

The picture was taken by David Guttenfelder of the Associated Press and made it onto the front page of the New York Times spurring US Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates to make this statement:

‘Sometimes the public recognition isn’t always expected — or necessarily welcomed. Specialist Zachary Boyd recently was enjoying a well-deserved sleep when his post in eastern Afghanistan came under enemy attack. He immediately grabbed his rifle and rushed into a defensive position clad in his helmet, body armor, and pink boxer shorts that said “I Love New York.”

Unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on your perspective — an A.P. photographer was there for a candid shot, a photo which ran shortly thereafter on the front page of The New York Times. Boyd later told his parents that “I may not have a job anymore after the president has seen me out of uniform.”

Well, let me tell you, the next time I visit Afghanistan I want to meet Specialist Boyd and shake his hand. Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage. And I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban. Just imagine seeing that — a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his crosshairs — what an incredible innovation in psychological warfare. I can assure you that Specialist Boyd’s job is very safe indeed.‘