By D J Clark

Chinese newspaper photojournalists are increasingly shooting multimedia assignments

Dali is one of China’s best loved destinations and it’s also home to one of the country’s most prestigious photography events. Now the International Photography Festival has launched a multimedia contest to celebrate the best work from China and abroad. The competition is designed for, but not exclusive to, photojournalists working in the news industry and is driven by 26 of the largest commercial newspapers in China, who have made the festival their annual meeting place to discuss developments in the newspaper photography business.

Last year the discussions were largely about developments in multimedia news stories domestically, but this year the organisers are seeking to expand the event beyond China’s borders by inviting a group of international speakers and setting up the country’s first international multimedia competition. In doing so they are hoping to contextualise the progress of what is happening within Chinese newsrooms with the rest of the world.

The competition is divided into three categories:

1: Spot News: A video of no more than five minutes covering a live news event shot expressly to be shown on a digital platform (website, mobile, tablet) by a single photojournalist

2: Feature: A video by one of more people no more than ten minutes on a newsworthy subject shot expressly to be shown on a digital platform (website, mobile, tablet)

3: Interactive: A project by one or more people that includes multiple videos, audio, graphics, slideshows or both. Flash, HTML5, interactive projects and Apps should be entered in this category. Videos included
in the interactive section can not be entered into other sections

There is a top prize of 10,000 RMB (around £1,000) in each category and a special grant of 20,000 RMB for the best emerging multimedia journalist to work on a project to be screened at next year’s festival.

Entry is free. You just need to send an email to: contest@dipephoto.com with

· Your name & phone number
· The category you want to enter and whether you are a Chinese or International entrant
· The link to your multimedia entry

All entries must be received before midnight (Beijing time – 5pm BST) August 31, 2011. More information about the festival and contest at http://en.dipephoto.com.

Chinese multimedia award nominees at the Yang Xiaoguang multimedia workshop in Beijing

By Dan Chung

Just some of the many large cranes on show at BIRTV

So that’s the end of our coverage of BIRTV 2011. It was an interesting show this year and although there were a lot of Asian products that appeared to be imitations of Western brands I was pleased to see there was also some original thought from some manufacturers. It was also clear that quite a few Chinese and Korean brands are now trying to forge their own identities, rather than simply selling OEM products for rebranding by resellers. I want to finish our coverage with a few pictures of products we didn’t have time to video but thought were interesting.

Korean manufacturer Varavon was showing an enhanced version of their Armor EX DSLR cage which they showed at NAB 2011. The new version has a shoulder spar, pad and counterweight added to the basic cage.

Varavon shoulder rig system

Cheap LED light solutions were plentiful at the show but these inexpensive Falconeyes panels caught my eye. They were incredibly light, thin and cost about US $70. They were not the best light quality and are non-dimmable, but for the price I can see they might have uses.

Falconeyes inexpensive lightweights LED panels

Another interesting LED panel design was from Beijing Brightcast whom we interviewed on the first day. Somehow we missed this product. Called the Butterfly light it consists of two rotating panels that fold down into the size of a regular 1×1 panel.

Brightcast Butterfly lights

DiscoveryCam were showing an electronic follow focus for Canon DSLRs that seemed to work quite well. Price was around US $400.

Discoverycam USB follow focus for Canon DSLR

Swit had a new bright single LED camera light designed for ENG work. The S2040 is dimmable and has barn doors. They were also showing a new LCD monitor designed for DSLR use.

Dynacore had a new lightweight dual battery charger for the Sony BP batteries that power the EX1/3 and PMW-F3. They also had a v-lock power distribution plate for DSLR use – seems like most Chinese battery manufacturers have a version of this at the moment.

Dynacore dual Sony BP battery charger

Dynacore V-lock power system for DSLRs

And last but not least, possibly my favorite item at the show, the very bling HDC-1860. A Chinese made ENG camera that certainly stands out in a crowd.

The camera that Ali-G might own

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

PCHood is a Chinese company that has been around for a while making monitor hoods for LCD screens and laptops. They have recently started marketing video products as well under the Cinematics brand name. The company sell a Mattebox that has gained popularity in budget film making circles as well as a range of DSLR rigs and an electronic follow focus. New for the show was an adapter to make stills lenses look more like a Cine lens and a portable workstation with built in sunshade and wireless HDMI transmitter/receiver.

The Cinematics electronic follow focus for Canon DSLRS

By Dan Chung and Sara Li

It seems like there is a new DSLR accessory manufacturer born every day in China, although some of them don’t seem to be doing much innovation. Sunrise is a brand I had never heard of before the show, and given the flimsy feel of their rigs I would not seek them out. They look very similar to existing American products but I personally wouldn’t use them.

The Sunrise range of DSLR products

Take a look at the video below and see what you think.