I'm trying something new with a blog. This is an instructional blog teaching how to use a video camera to tell good stories, to change the world, to express yourself and maybe earn a living doing it. You may be a camera operator already, you may be a director and want to know what the requirements are to work with pictures. Perhaps you want to document your child growing up and present a video diary to him or her on their 21st Birthday.
The fundamental principal of anything creative is to have passion for it. Without passion you might succeed, but not as precisely. I chose a career in broadcasting during the painful birth of the new South Africa and I chose this field to make a difference. I grew up as a white child in apartheid South Africa in a country at war. And I had no idea it was at war because the state controlled the media and kept it secret from ordinary people. I found out what was happening in my country accidentally, through underground VHS tapes doing the rounds. These were films that the international media made about the crisis in South Africa and the truth about life in the townships. Out of the folly of my parents generation under apartheid South Africa, it was my utmost desire to do my part to ensure a dangerous silence could not happen again. So I aimed to be a filmmaker. and at the same time aimed to fulfill a creative urge to tell stories about the human condition.
After completing a three year diploma in film and TV, I found my way to working for the BBC in Johannesburg. By 1998 Nelson Mandela was in power and South Africa’s political landscape had changed, so I moved to London and worked for the BBC there. In 1999 I took a year sabbatical to study a master degree in International Development at The University of Bristol. Today I work as a freelancer filming for various news and current affairs programmes at the BBC as well as training camera and editing skills to people as passionate about making a difference as I am. Some of the recent work I done have been for the BBC World Service Trust, these include training camera and editing skills to professionals in the Middle East, UK, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
This is set up as a blog, written and compiled daily or weekly depending on the time I have at hand and the enthusiasm it is read at. It is also for all the students I have had - to recap on the lessons I have taught them. I hope you find it useful.
Philip Darley
The fundamental principal of anything creative is to have passion for it. Without passion you might succeed, but not as precisely. I chose a career in broadcasting during the painful birth of the new South Africa and I chose this field to make a difference. I grew up as a white child in apartheid South Africa in a country at war. And I had no idea it was at war because the state controlled the media and kept it secret from ordinary people. I found out what was happening in my country accidentally, through underground VHS tapes doing the rounds. These were films that the international media made about the crisis in South Africa and the truth about life in the townships. Out of the folly of my parents generation under apartheid South Africa, it was my utmost desire to do my part to ensure a dangerous silence could not happen again. So I aimed to be a filmmaker. and at the same time aimed to fulfill a creative urge to tell stories about the human condition.
After completing a three year diploma in film and TV, I found my way to working for the BBC in Johannesburg. By 1998 Nelson Mandela was in power and South Africa’s political landscape had changed, so I moved to London and worked for the BBC there. In 1999 I took a year sabbatical to study a master degree in International Development at The University of Bristol. Today I work as a freelancer filming for various news and current affairs programmes at the BBC as well as training camera and editing skills to people as passionate about making a difference as I am. Some of the recent work I done have been for the BBC World Service Trust, these include training camera and editing skills to professionals in the Middle East, UK, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
This is set up as a blog, written and compiled daily or weekly depending on the time I have at hand and the enthusiasm it is read at. It is also for all the students I have had - to recap on the lessons I have taught them. I hope you find it useful.
Philip Darley
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