Logo Concentra Award
Looking back on Berlin - Sabine Streich
Streich is the driving force behind The International Videoreporting Award. For the third edition, the award moved from Weimar to
Sabine Streich is the VJ queen of Germany . She was one of the first independent german VJ's and is also involved in the training of VJ's at broadcast stations like ARD, ZDF and Deutsche Welle.
Where did the entries come from?
We had 430 entries from 42 countries. There were a lot of participants from exotic countries like Mali, Uganda en Kenia but also from Australia and all European countries. The five continents were represented. Compared to last year, we noted twice as much countries this year. Also, there were twice as much television stations that sent in their candidates. Striking was the large amount of films that were produced for newspaper websites.
How would you rate the quality of the Award entries?
The work of video journalists equals more and more the quality you would expect from traditional television crews. You notice that they can invest more time in their subjects. Furthermore, they learn to cope better with the possibilities this approach offers them, like getting closer to their subject. On the other side, I personally missed humor in the items.
Were there trends in themes?
Yes, we received a lot of entries with war themes. One of the winners was ' Guantanamo', a striking portrait of the situation in the infamous American prison on Cuba . There were also a lot of social themes like homeless people, poverty and specific items like women circumcision.
How do you feel about the winners?
The winners were very good. Like you know we had eight categories: two international awards, two German awards, a talent award, a special jury price, a reporting price and an online price. The winners cover a broad spectrum of styles.
How do you see the future of The International Videoreporting Award?
It keeps on growing and with the cooperation of newspapers we've discovered a new growth potential. We see that large stations like Sat1 in Germany are getting interested in the phenomenon. The new developments on the web also offer us new possibilities. Like the idea to use the internet to set up a cooperation between VJ's. A new interactive and blogging generation of websurfers has emerged.
Do you also notice trends in the VJ's style?
In the early beginnings of video journalism one saw a lot of VJ's focussing on their style and the introduction of certain style elements. Nowadays you don't even see that a VJ shot an item. Still, good VJ's remain true authors and within the VJ community there are some masters in this matter with a firm selfconscience and a personal style.
Which films were your favorites?
That's a tough one. If I have to choose: 'Guantanamo' and 'Walter'. Both authors managed to rise above their original task and made a film on their own like only a true VJ can.
There are 1 comments on this entry so far...
A very passionate advocate of video journalism and frankly where would many of us be without the awards ceremony Sabine has created. It's heartening to come to know the many VJs around the world.
My memories of the hard slog when we started in 1994 are still raw; many of them happy, but we were isolated which probably explains why out of the many VJs from that era there are so few of them around today.
The Video Journalism Awards, Concentra, ONA Awards and Batten provide a platform to broaden our traditional definition of the news agenda and how we might produce news of excellence. But we should be mindful of using the opportunity to explore, to encourage greater diversity and talent from non traditional sources so we might understand each other better. Broadband gives us that outlet.
Now, just like the film world has evolved with differing styles and genres, I look forward to VJ evolving. From what I saw in Berlin we're already in the petri dish, and 'Guatanamo' "Joseph Kony" and 'Walter' were my favourites as well. Here's Stephan and Ruud - two of the winners talking about their films http://www.viewmagazine.tv/Video journalism awards.html
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