DSF San Francisco 2005

Multimedia Sonnets from the people

Daniel Meadows or Dr Dan, as he now is since he presented his years of experience in digital storytelling for his PhD, inspired us all with his keynote speech at the Festival on Saturday morning.

He began in serious mood and at the start seemed less optimistic about digital storytelling. None of the jokes and light hearted stories that marked his presentation last year. The doctor was in diagnostic mode. "I am a photographer trying to look into the future, which I find difficult because photographs are always in the past." Echoes of his philosophical digital story Scissors. "The photograph album is time's coffin with a glass lid." But he was certainly not putting the movement into an early grave even if the BBC was poised to write the obituary of an interesting experiment for which TV Editors could find little enthusiasm. The BBC Telling Lives digital storytelling project has been closed and Daniel himself will return to teaching next year when his attachment with the BBC ends leaving a smaller Capture Wales team to wave the flag.

He challenged the festival to move beyond the confessional style of storytelling, done for its own sake. To consider the finer demands of making digital stories for the mass media. A series of digital stories made in Wales were shown to illustrate his points. The story of a boy and his dog which had to be remade to omit a reference to a park he visited regularly; a girl looking for her father who may have been prey to impostors with ill intent. The stories were glowing examples of "multi media sonnets from the people". They drew us in and helped us to understand, to glimpse behind the curtains of their personal space. But not everyone out there has integrity, many mean harm, some cause it inadvertently.

"It's not just personal therapy, getting something off your chest." There are responsibilities attached to storytelling and we have things to learn from the professional gatekeepers of the media. Editorial issues are important. Sometimes though, they are just too fussy or even prejudiced. A riveting story made by a woman who is blind was almost rejected for broadcast because the first image was held for too long.

Daniel challenged us, "Shame those who wish to keep the medium to themselves. Not by prising their dead hands off the tiller, but by making good and compelling digital stories." I've worked with Dan and I know how he agonises over each story.

He also made us examine the integrity of our stories. We have creative responsibilities. "Never borrow emotional content from elsewhere." If we don't have the material we should make it rather than use someone else's pictures and music.

He did make us laugh with a satirical look at big media trying embrace citizen media. The hypocritical concern about maintaining standards whilst at the same time broadcasting gung ho coverage of the Iraq War. "Up yours," Dr Dan retorted.

He concluded with an optimistic challenge and a little wisdom inherited from his mother. "Not all big media producers are witless baboons. Change will come. Softly softly catchy monkey."

Again we were inspired by the integrity and thoughtfulness of Daniel Meadows. It was fitting, and in the tone of the festival, that he was welcomed into the Digital Geezers Club during a short presentation at the end of his speech. Dr Dan - Digital Geezer.

posted by Dawnriser @ 14:47