J'on's Garden - by Brendan Rohr

http://www.billgentile.com, WASHINGTON, DC, 11 August 2011 -- Brendan Rohr joined our most recent Backpack Journalism Workshop largely on the recommendation of a colleague at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) who had taken the course in June. With a limited amount of gear but lots of talent and desire, Brendan produced an excellent piece on a character he found at the Botanic Garden in downtown Washington, DC. Brendan's approach is exactly what I define as the "character-driven" methodology that we refer to as backpack journalism.

For the record, I define backpack journalism as the craft of one properly trained practitioner using a hand-held digital video camera to tell character-driven stories in a more immediate, more intimate fashion than is achievable using a conventional, shoulder-held camera and a team that includes camera person, sound person, correspondent and producer. Backpack journalists do it all and, most importantly, we make the pictures, which are the driving force of visual communication. (There's a reason they call it tele-VISION.) In the field, a backpack journalist shoots, acquires sound, produces, reports, interviews. We write the script. In some cases we narrate the piece. Depending on circumstances, we either edit the piece on our own, or we sit side-by-side with an editor assigned to the task.

Backpack journalism is not the 6 o'clock news reported by a single, multi-tasking journalist. It is a character-driven methodology with a specific, time-consuming approach and application that yields unique results and that does not work in all situations.

I think you'll get a kick out of Brendan's piece.

For more information on the Backpack Journalism Workshops, see http://www.billgentile.com.

-- Bill Gentile

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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• Jons Garden Brendan Rohr
• backpack journalism
• Bill Gentile
• The Backpack Journalist
• Backpack Journalism Workshop
• backpack video journalism