Lviv production-training for TV-journalists under the project “Regional Eye – Strengthening conflict sensitive coverage in Ukraine’s regional media” for TV media, who do coverage of problems of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) is over. Here are some impressions of what was heard and achieved.
Iryna Shevchenko, TV channel OTB, Kharkiv:
– There was no feeling that you are “pushed”. Though there came understanding of what exactly has to be changed in the methods. When preparing a story, a cameraman quite often works on the topic independently, and a journalist does exactly the same. As if it is somewhat not nice to “bother” the cameraman. As a result, the shots you receive, are not totally compatible to the text. During the training I realized that one had to cooperate more with the cameraman, in order to make every shot relevant. As for pauses and natural sound – all this is very new and creative, this adds vitality to the story. I am an author of programs dedicated to a certain subject, there is not any particular rush at work, so I have time to work on the picture. When I was going to Lviv, in addition to receiving answers to professional questions, I wanted to learn, how people with different mentality, from other regions of Ukraine, feel in the West. I saw that they feel fine. They are comfortable here. We heard positive stories, saw understanding of how to move on with life. That is why the story I produced is about stereotypes and overcoming them. Meetings were very different, and people – unique. All that gave me an opportunity to implement my ideas perfectly well.
Tetyana Dovgan, TV channel DOBA, Vinnitsa:
– I remember very few trainings, when one can study during practical activity. From the very beginning till the end of the training in Lviv we worked in order to produce a quality outcome. We discussed all our visits to locations. We spoke about the necessity to avoid empty shots, which are not relevant to the text. In spite of the fact that sometimes it is really not enough time to produce a story, one has to work in more details on visualization: watch what the cameraman is doing, suggest him what to shoot. And one more thing. The IDP topic is very sensitive. Journalists have no experience of covering it. That is why quite often conflicts are provoked. The trainers taught us not only to be objective, look at the situation from different angles, and look for a perspective, when working on a script. At the same time they taught us to make a “unique proposal” – look for zest, ask yourself whether your story is unique.
* “Regional Eye – Strengthening conflict sensitive coverage in Ukraine’s regional media” – is a 1,5 year project, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Media Consortium of five organizations: Thompson Foundation, the Institute for Regional Media and Information, the European Journalism Centre, MEMO 98 and Association “Spilnyi Prostir”.
