Jun 07 2007
Michael Rosenblum
A cunning plan. What could be more alluring on a videojournalism blog than an interview with Michael Rosenblum? I knew little about Michael - his own blog is long on enthusiasm, short on details - but felt that many others might be interested to learn more about the new Robespierre threatening to lead big media to the guillotine.
An hour or two with Google confirmed that Rosenblum’s mantle as “father of videojournalism” was well deserved. He had essentially invented the notion of the one-man vj back in 1988 when many stations were still fielding 4 or 5 person crews complete with photographer, soundman, PA’s and on camera talent.
The model worked and Rosenblum was able to sell his pieces to major networks. Gradually his reputation rose to where he was hired by TV stations all around the world to revamp their news-gathering. The gradual process turned into a stampede with the advent of the internet. Rosenblums clients have included the BBC, the Voice of America, NY1, as well as dozens of other TV stations throughout the US, Europe and Scandanavia.
So…. I send out a dozen questions. A few hours later I receive his answers. That is when I saw my plan starting to go awry.
Many of his answers were the type of wordy responses politicians come out with when they want to avoid the question altogether. Here is a sample:
PETER - You compare the spirit and courage of some of your VJs to Winston Chuchill. But Churchill was a gifted writer. One of the few journalists to win the nobel prize for literature. To what extent is the right attitude combined with an engaging personality a substitute for talent and experience?
MICHAEL - Churchill was a real renaissance man - a polymath - painter, writer, speaker, statesman, thinker and a hell of a speaker. I think had he been alive now he would have also take up the camera as he took up the pen and the brush. I dont see Blair or Brown picking up a camera but strangely Cameron seems to have some affinity for video.
Where I felt Rosenblum’s answers required clarification I asked them again.
This is where things really went pear-shaped. His answers came back preceded by “Hoo boy lot of work here”.
Was he trying to tell me something? Would he have been more accomodating if I had shown up on his doorstep with a Z1? How about if I had shown up with a full crew from 60 minutes?
The fact is media and celebrity promote a kiss-up kick-down culture and none of us is immune. We all tend to calculate what other people can do for us before assessing what we are prepared to do for them.
Speaking of JFK:
PETER - It is often said that the key to successful videojournalism is being in the right place at the right time. Partly luck, partly experience and preparation but access plays a huge part in this equation. And status plays a huge part in gaining access.
Again Churchill came from one of the most prominent families in Europe, his early opportunities were greased by his connections. Is it likely that a 20-something with a Z1 is ever going to be granted the same access as Bob Woodward or a BBC crew with a recognized anchor?
MICHAEL - As John F. Kennedy once said so succintly, life is not fair.
This to me highlights the essential flaw in the VJ model. It may work fine for the backwoods features that make up a lot of local news coverage but how about the headlines?
Are VJs really likely to get the access they need without the status of big media to back them up. I do not share Rosenblum’s optimism on this issue:
PETER - The BBC has long faced criticism for its London-centric coverage. Would it be fair to say that the BBC see the VJ model as good enough for folksy features from the provinces, but still prefer full crews for the real news stories in the capital?
MICHAEL - The head of network news lacked the courage of the head of regional news. That is why this nested in nations and regions, but not in network, It takes enormous courage to effect this kind of change.
I share the network head’s hesitation. Is it a lack of courage? Or is it a refusal to shoot yourself in the foot? Are we really ready to dispense with the interviewer-celebrities, confident that we won’t miss them when they are gone?
PETER - OK life is not fair - so don’t we need “important” journalists to get access to the (self)”important” players who make much of the news?
MICHAEL - I think the notion of the journlist as movie star is a big mistake. It separates them from the kind of contact with real life that they need to understand and communicate real stories. I dont think Shakespeare would have written quite so well if he jetted in from cannes for the occasional presentation of his plays and then retreated to St Paul de Vence with his 23 year old girlfriends.
I am not sure which scenario the bard would have preferred. Anne Hathaway in Stratford or a string of nubile bimbos in the South of France.
I guess he could still have written in France, assuming he had the energy. But Shakespeare was a playwright not a journalist.
Jornalists traffic in facts not sonnets. And collecting facts often means gaining access to particular people in particular places.
Illiterate Hamas fighters who have never seen a TV know that Mike Wallace is from 60 minutes. They don’t know William Shakespeare from David Ben-Gurion. They would probably shoot him.
The whole promise and threat of the VJ paradigm centers around the issues of access. “When the press fails…” (Bennett et al) complains of “the press becoming so enamored of power and politics that it has failed to do its job“. Access is vital - but If the price of access is compromising core values then that price is too high.
Rosenblum is a figurehead for a growing movement that seeks to break big media’s subservience to entrenched corporate and political interests. The internet is providing massive momentum to the cause. But doubts are also forming in the very belly of the beast:
DAN RATHER: Fear is in every newsroom in the country. And fear of what? Well, it’s the fear– if– it’s a combination of; if you don’t go along to get along, you’re going to get the reputation of being a troublemaker.
There’s also the fear that, you know, particularly in networks, they’ve become huge, international conglomerates. They have big needs, legislative needs, repertory needs in Washington. Nobody has to send you a memo to tell you that that’s the case
You know. And that puts a seed in your mind; of well, if you stick your neck out, if you take the risk of going against the grain with your reporting, is anybody going to back you up? “Moyers transcript 05/25/07
I have doubts about Rosenblum’s VJ model. Not about it’s continued growth, that to me is a foregone conclusion. But the model will need refining if it is to leave the world of media gathering and distribution in a better state than it found it.
Rosenblum’s exuberance often projects a public persona of someone who has all the answers.
He does not.
But journalism is not about having all the answers. Journalism is above all about having courage in your convictions even when those convictions brand you as a troublemaker.
I guess that would make Mike Rosenblum a good journalist.
Dear Peter
I note that you write that I give the type of ‘wordy answers’ that politicians give when they try to avoid answering questions.
You sent me a lot of questions.
You printed a few, perhaps to prove your point. It has now been picked up by b-roll.net.
You sent me a lot of questions and I spent a fair amount of time trying to give thoughtful answers to them. This is not the impression that is now being conveyed, really. Which I think is both inaccurate and unfair.
Hence, I will reproduce below the entire context of our Q&A exchange and let the reader decide.
best
Rosenblum
ROSENBLUM EMAIL INTERVIEW 06/03/07
1. Today with the internet, high powered laptops, and cheap HD cameras the growth of videojournalism seems inevitable. But this can’t have been so obvious back in 1990. What made you embark on that route?
I had no intention of doing any of this when I started in 1988. I had been a producer at CBS News and i felt that most of what I did was largely fraudulent. I spent my time setting up stories for talent who pretty much walked through the pieces and read the copy we gave them. Sometimes they didnt even show up - we would shoot them in later. I felt like it was a fraud so I wanted to so some real journalism. I could not afford a professional camera so got what I could afford.
2. How has your model changed over the years?The model has changed substantially and probably the greatest drivers for change have not been the cameras, over which everyone gets so exorcised, but rather laptop edits and now video online.
3. How were you able to convince the BBC, one of the largest most experienced and respected media organizations in the world to hire an outside consultant (an American even!) to train their staff in this new model? What is so new about this new model?I think that my ideas were so radical in the beginning that only an outsider could have taken them to the bbc. There is institutionally too much lethargy and investment in the status quo to make so radical a leap. Greg Dyke, also an outsider go the concept immediately and became its biggest backer. Pat Loughrey, head of Nations and Regions was at the cutting edge of creating change. WIthout them, it would not have happened. The model is a complete rethinking of how television news is done - it is not just about cheap tv. it is about empowering everyone on staff with cameras and edits and making everyone video literate and responsible for producing product. After all at a newspaper or magazine, everyone can read and write and has access to a word processor, in television should not the whole staff, and i mean the whole staff, be video literate and have total access to equipment?
4. The BBC has long faced criticism for its London-centric coverage. Would it be fair to say that the BBC see the VJ model as good enough for folksy features from the provinces, but still prefer full crews with for the real news stories in the capital?The head of network news lacked the courage of Pat Loughrey. that is why this nested in nations and regions, but not in network, It takes enormous courage to effect this kind of change.
5. So The DVdojo was essentially an expensive experiment that was eventually abandoned. But it did introduce you to Al Gore. What was/is your involvement with currentTV. any other lessons from the dojo?Al Gore and Joel Hyatt came to me with a cable channel but no idea what to do with it. It could have become anything from The HIstory Channel to Cartoon NEtwork. It was a blank canvass. I sold Al the idea of the revolution and the democratization of video. He took it from there.
6. I was originally introduced to the videojournalist concept through a student of yours, Dirck Halstead. Dirck has made a niche for himself retraining PJs as VJs. This makes perfect sense to me. PJs already have many of the skills needed by VJs. Do they make the best students/VJs. Photo journalists have great eyes, but sometimes they make great storytellers, sometimes they just have great eyes. To be a great VJ you have to be a great storyteller. This does not necessarily mean writing. W Eugene Smith, who created the photo essay for Life Magazine was a great storyteller.
7. With the TV stations you have worked with have you (re)trained a lot of TV cameramen. How have they made the transition? Do many of them prefer to retain their full-size cameras?As with photogs, some can do this, some cannot. There is a sense of security for them in the big camera, for a lot of reasons. It makes them feel important, it is heavy physical work. There will be a long period of attrition before we are done with this.
8. What does your training consist of? How much do the courses vary depending on the prior knowledge/experience of the students? What is the breakdown between training inWe always tell new students, regardless of their prior experience, that they have to forget everything they know or think they know and start ffrom scratch, because the new technology militates for a new kind of grammar and a new approach. Most of the rules of conventional production are simply derivative of a technology that is now defunct.
camera technique20%
story telling40%
visual composition5%
editing25%
other areas?10%
9. Winston Churchill is a hero of yours, is that correct? You compare the spirit and courage of some of your VJs to Chuchill. But Churchill was a gifted writer. One of the few journalists to win the nobel prize for literature. To what extent is the right attitude combined with an engaging personality a substitute for talent and experience?Churchill was a real renaissance man - a polymath - painter, writer, speaker, statesman, thinker and a hell of a speaker. I think had he been alive now he would have also take up the camera as he took up the pen and the brush. I dont see Blair or Brown picking up a camera but strangely Cameron seems to have some affinity for video.
10. It is often said that the key to world-class videojournalism is being in the right place at the right time. Partly luck, partly experience but access plays a huge part. And status plays a huge part in gaining access. Again Churchill came from one of the most prominent families in Europe, his early opportunities were greased by his connections. Is it likely that a 20-something with a Z1 is ever going to be granted the same access as Bob Woodward or a BBC crew with a recognized anchor?As John F. Kennedy once said so succintly, life is not fair.
Aren’t we always going to need a certain number of traditional journalists/photographers and TV camera crews with “teeth and hair” talent to cover the big stories?Good god I hope not! This is one of the greatest tragedies to befall journalism - or politics for that matter - the idea that you have to look good on camera to be effective. Were that the case, one may be sure that Frankly Roosevelt in his wheelchair would have been a nonstarted from the get go. We are all headed for some kind of superficial culture where everyone looks great and thinks nothing. perhaps it will be a happier place, but I doubt it.
11. News is moving to the internet. The internet is currently 50% video but that percentage is clearly going to approach 100% within the next couple of years. Andrew Marr in “My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism”, “quotes from John Birt, a former head of BBC, about the emotional impact of video news driving out analysis, and Marr cites genuine dilemmas in news rooms where the news with the dramatic footage crowds out stories which, even in the views of the reporters and editors, have more importance”.
Do you share any of these concerns?We are at the beginning of video literacy. The very beginning. We have a long way to go to begin to gain a degree of sophistication in using visual imagery to convey subtle ideas or concepts. We are blunt today, perhaps as blunt as medieval artists grappling with depth and perspective. It would be good if, as video is indeed coming, people like Andrew Marr took a video camera and experimented with how to communicate co0mmentary and ideas - not just film themselves talking but rather grapple with the medium itself.
If so have those fears been assuaged or intensified by media coverage of the Iraq war?the entire coverage of the Iraq war has been appalling from start to finish, save Mr. Gilligan, in retrospect it would seem.
12. I get most of my news from the BBC rss feed, NPR, the guardian online, the New Yorker and books. Almost no video and not even many pictures. What am I missing? Do you still yearn to be a writer?Through the miracle of the Internet I am able to read The Guardian every morning (along with the Daily Mail). I listen to The BBC and NPR during the day. I have high hopes that soon we will see video/print amalgams as sophisticated as any of these (except daily mail) online. i dont necessarily think that as video transits to online it will become just another vehicle for television, but rather I think we shall see the rise of a new kind of online journalistic grammar that blends video and text (and stills) in a kind of tapestry… where words work best use words and then, in the text, when video works best, drop in video, as part of the linear story telling process.,
Hoo boy.,… lots of work here…
On 4 Jun 2007, at 09:58, Peter Ralph wrote:
Michael
1. So what exactly did you start doing in 1988? Were you just providing footage - or were you producing complete stories. Doing your own stand-ups. or adding voice-over?
I SHOT AND DELIVERED COMPLETE CUT PIECES. I DID ONE STAND UP IN ONE OF THEM BUT THEY WERE ALL WRITTEN AND VOICED BY ME. THEY RAN ABOUT 7 MINS EACH.
2. Yes I understand the model has changed but can you give any details of how?
WE NOW ‘SHOOT FOR THE CUT’. THAT IS, WE SHOOT WITH THE TIMELINE IN MIND. THE RATIOS HAVE DROPPED DRAMATICALLY. WE ONCE SHOT 20:1, NOW WE AIM FOR 2:1. JUST AS A WRITER DOES NOT GO OUT, WRITE REAMS AND THEN NARROW IT DOWN, WE AIM TO BRING WRITING THINKING AND DISCIPLINE TO VIDEO.
5. So the idea of current TV was just a business venture into TV on the internet?
WHEN AL AND JOEL CAME TO ME IT WAS PURELY A BUSINESS. I INTRODUCED THEM TO THE NOTION OF DEMOCRATIZED VIDEO. I DID NOT AGREE WIWTH WHERE THEY WENT WITH IT. I WANTED TO HIRE 200 YOUNG VJS AND CREATE A KIND OF VIDEO PEACE CORPS, AND PAY THEM SO THEY WOULD BE FREE TO DO GREAT JOURNALISM. THIS WAS NOT IN THE CARDS WITH THEM.
6. Most of your early students were photographers or reporters right? when did you start training people from scratch?
EVERYONE HAS SOME KIND OF BACKGROUND WHO GETS INTO THIS… PHOTOGS, WRITERS, FILMMAKERS, EDITORS. OF LATE I HAVE STARTED THE TRAVEL CHANNEL ACADEMY WITH DISCOVERY CHANNEL WHERE WE WILL TRAIN ANYONE, BUT THIS HAS A LOT OF RESONANCE WITH JOURNALISTS OF ALL STRIPES.
7. Is there a problem shooting VJ with a large camera? Personally for long shoots I find a properly balanced shoulder cam a lot less exhausting to use than a handycam .
THE ONLY PROBLEMS WITH BIG CAMERAS ARE COST AND FLEXIBILITY. ONE CAN BE A PHOTOGRAPHER WITH A HASSELBLAD - IT COSTS A LOT OF MONEY, GETS GREAT IMAGES BUT IT IS A DRAG TO CARRY AROUND. I WOULD NEVER SAY DONT USE A HASSESLBLAD, BUT I WOULD SAY IF YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO IRAQ AND JUMP ON TRUCKS AND STUFF YOU MIGHT PREFER A LEICA.
8. So the training is the same whatever the background of the students?
PRETTY MUCH, YES. LIKE ARMY BOOTCAMP WE TEAR YOU DOWN AND THEN BUILD YOU UP AGAIN.
9. To what extent is the right attitude combined with an engaging personality and courage, a substitute for talent and experience?
AS THOMAS EDISON SAID, SUCCESS IS FIVE PERCENT INSPIRATION, NINETY FIVE PERCENT PERSPIRATION. OR, IN THE WORDS OF WOODY ALLEN, MOST OF SUCCESS IS JUST A MATTER OF SHOWING UP.
10. OK so life is not fair - so don’t we need “important” journalists to get access to the (self)”important” players who make much of the news?
I THINK THE NOTION OF THE JOURNALIST AS MOVIE STAR IS A BIG MISTAKE. IT SEPARATES THEM FROM THE KIND OF CONTACT WITH REAL LIFE THAT THEY NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND COMMUNICATE REAL STORIES. I DONT THINK SHAKESPEARE WOULD HAVE WRITTEN QUITE SO WELL IF HE JETTED IN FROM CANNES FOR THE OCCASIONAL PRESENTATION OF HIS PLAYS AND THEN RETREATED TO ST PAUL DE VENCE WITH HIS 23 YEAR OLD GIRLFRIENDS.
11. For me the bottom line is that many important stories lack a strong visual element. As news moves online - aren’t these stories going to be pushed further back?
AGAIN THIS COMES TO THE NATURE OF HOW WE PRESENT ONLINE. I DONT NECESSARILY THINK THAT ONLINE IS A SUBSITTUTE FOR TV, THAT IS SIMPLY A PLATFORM FOR SHOWING VIDEOS. THE ELEGANCE OF ONLINE IS THAT WE CAN NOW CREATE A BLEND OF VIDEO AND TEXT, A TAPESTRY THAT WEAVES THE TWO TOGETHER. SO YOU WRITE WHAT WORKS AND USE VIDEO FOR WHAT WORKS.
IRAQ - The message of Bill Moyers “Buying the war” has been summarized by Timothy Karr as “We must reform the media to transform our democracy.” Is the move to VJ/citizen journalism part of the solution or part of the problem?
MUCH WAS NEVER SAID ABOUT IRAQ BECAUSE MAJOR MEDIA COMPANIES WERE FRIGHTENED BY THE BUSH ADMIN AND THERE WAS SUCH A COLLECTIVE HERD MENTALITY THAT THEY WERE ALSO AFRAID THEY WOULD LOSE RATINGS. THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF MEDIA CAN ONLY OPEN NEW DISSENTING VOICES, WHICH IS VERY VERY POSITIVE INDEED. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF A CASE IN WHICH THE TECHNOLOGY OF PRINT ALLOWED THE DISSEMINATION OF A REPRESSED AND DISSIDENT POINT OF VIEW. WITHOUT GUTENBERG THERE WOULD BE NO LUTHER.
PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler discussed the Moyers program, saying, “The failure of much of the American press to uncover — and provide some prominence to — the private doubts and even the public case against the war was, in my view, its most egregious failure in my 50 years in journalism
12. Even once a new grammar is in place isn’t it inevitable that aquiring information from video rather than text makes the facts themselves more inaccessible, as they become more expensive(i.e time consuming) to acquire.
IN PRINT WE DEVELOPED OVER A PERIOD OF FIVE HUDRED YEARS, WAYS OF MANAGING INFORMATION, BEAR IN MIND THAT IN GUTENBERGS TIME MOST PUNCTUATION DID NOT EVEN EXIST, LET ALONE PUBLISHERS, AGENTS, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, BOOKSTORES OR AMAZON. WE ARE ON DAY 2 OF THE WEB 2.0. THIS WILL TAKE TIME. NOT FIVE HUNDRED YEARS, BUT MY GUESS IS THAT IN 50 YEARS THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE WILL BE ALMOST UNRECOGNIZABLE TO US TODAY.
After reading this complete post, including Michael’s detailed response, I have to say that I fall under the category of being a proponent of Michael’s philosophy for the Solo VJ model.
One has to determine how far one wants to take this profession. If one finds that they enjoy working at the local or regional level as a Solo VJ, then what is wrong with that? The so called prestige over National news reporting is a load anyways. An ego driven mentality as I see it.
Network news is a joke. When money is the #1 driving force behind reporting, the venue reporting that news loses all credibility.
Michael’s philosophy may not be 100% perfect according to his many detractors, but I have found through corresponding with him, along with others who share a similar POV, that he is more approachable and is willing to lend his experience than many of the GOB ENG’s out there who fear that we will discover their little secrets.
I myself have a ways to go yet in this new paradigm, but I have found that I can do what I do as a Solo VJ and sleep at night knowing I am being true to the story, true to myself - and this is because of the ability to ask questions, get straight answers from someone who isn’t afraid to share his experiences and knowledge. The ENG people could learn a thing or two about that.
And that goes a lot further than a paycheck in my opinion.
When all is said and done, we want the news to be better, we want the opportunity to speak as a voice in the digital wilderness. Whether it be through TV or web video, we just want to tell our unique stories as how we see them.
And that benefits all of us in the end.
Interview was very fair. I am not sure if you support Rosenblum or not. You should not have let him bully you to print the interview. He generates a lot of insults and hatred it seems from many people, wherever he goes it seems. Is it all jealousy? Others who promote these ideas do not get so much poison directed to them. Many of the schemes he promotes seem to be purpose for enriching himself, do they enrich others I do not know. On Mindy Mcadams blog she reports from the Travel Channel training that Rosenblums course is not worth the time and money unless you value the introductions to the travel channel personal.