fbpx

The Making of Thames Town: D J Clark shows how he shoots a typical multimedia assignment for the Economist

Guest post by D J Clark:

Over the past five years I have seen my freelance photography work transition slowly into a specialism in multimedia – predominantly photography plus video. For many editorial publications, offering video as well as pictures is an attractive proposition and can stretch a single day assignment into two or three. Yes it is true it is not possible to shoot stills and video at the same time and get great results, but for feature stories, particularly those that involve a lot of travel, spending extra time to produce a video for online often makes sense for both me and the publication. 

At work shooting Thames Town with the Canon 5D mmiii
At work shooting Thames Town with the Canon 5D mmiii

I have worked with a single camera body hanging from each shoulder for 25 years, one with a long lens and one with a wide, and this I believe is still the best solution for shooting stills and video for online. For me, the DSLR is far from dead. For editorial assignments it provides an affordable and easy to use video solution that delivers a quality that replicates the look and feel of the still images. 

In this 23 minute video I talk through an assignment for The Economist, from the choice of kit, through the shoot to the edit. It’s a simple practical workflow, designed to fit within the budget and time constraints of most editorial multimedia assignments.

Below is the completed video:

With thanks to Zixi Wu who shot the video and stills of me.

D J Clark freelances for The Economist multimedia, he also teaches on the Bolton University MA in International Multimedia Journalism based in Beijing and is currently DP at Assignment Asia, a new current affairs program due to launch on CCTV News very soon.

Subscribe to our newsletter