So much work was put into this show, I underestimated how much is really required to put together a show. A massive thanks has to go out to my fellow LCC’ers who really took control, Yolanda, Ivy and Amelia, much love towards you all right now (and others of course).

There was always that niggly feeling that only a few would turn up, but how wrong was I when the flood started at 6pm (30 mins before the actual opening). From then on, they just came and came.

I had a good chat with Simon Norfolk and got to finally meet Mr David Campbell, which was a highlight for me. Too often in this virtual life we all seem to lead, you forget how good it is to actually speak to someone face to face.

Seeing the work on offer and how everyone’s final projects turned out was an immensely proud moment, it really looked amazing, even if I am biased.

The beer all went, I think we had one bottle left and from all accounts, a good night was had by all. Thanks to my wife, I actually have pictures to show. Yup, bloody photojournalist who didn’t take pictures, honestly!

The exhibition will run until May 24, Mon – Wed & Fri – Sat 12.00 to 17.00. Would be great if you found time to have a look at the diverse projects we have all shot.

Update:

Phil Coomes, Picture Editor at the BBC, has kindly written about the show last night and featured some of our work. There is just something amazing about having your work on the BBC, a feeling of job well done Thanks Phil!

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Before I applied for this MA, I read a post on the infamous Lightstalker’s website about the degree and one comment has stuck with me since:

“…You’d get a hell of a lot more out of your £3,000 or £10,000 if you chose to use that money to fund some of your own projects. Your time shooting real projects will be twenty times more valuable than your time spent ‘studying’ in a classroom, let alone in an online setting.”

I couldn’t disagree with the author of the quote any more. Yes I could have saved a considerable amount of money by adopting this approach. The problem is I would most likely have ended up like the vast majority of other documentary photographers out there trying to be noticed. The author assumes that anyone can head out and produce amazing stories with a Canon 5d, something I’m not so sure about anymore.

What Paul and John have achieved with me, and indeed many others on this course, is to take raw talent and ensure it’s polished. They have given us access to the key influential people in this industry and it has allowed us to send work in and have them view it, a task not easily performed if you are nobody.  How many other newcomers can count on having Ed Kashi as a mentor to rip you a new one when asking advice about the latest project.

I’ve travelled to some interesting places and met some amazing people during this course, Burma being the most amazing on a personal note, the more recent being able to spend time with the Bushman of Southern Africa. I’ve also made some very good friends, who have helped me along the way.

My style has changed, and it’s something that I feel will constantly change as I move forward. The advice I’ve received from all on the course was worth every single penny, you just cannot learn somethings by going out there on your own. Most people train to do their jobs, so why are photographers immune from this?

I still get a number of emails from people who are thinking about doing the course. All I can say is, work out exactly what you want from it. For me, it was more about learning the art of storytelling from those who have been there and done it. I was under no illusion that I could make money from this as a career once completed, hell many seasoned pro’s are still finding that hard so why the hell would a snotty not-so-young photographer be any better?

It truly has been an experience and I owe Paul Lowe and John Easterby a massive amount of gratitude and thanks.

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Day One.

There’s nothing like a 1500 km drive across southern Africa to get you in the mood of spending time with an indigenous group. Not only did I have to put up with heat like an oven door (it’s spring at the moment, so thankfully not that hot but still 34 degrees), the last part of the journey was a joyous 240 km trip on gravel roads. Whilst I enjoy driving long distances, gravel roads are a bitch as they require intense attention span all the time, due to the fact the sand is soft and often the car slides out of control. Hours of time wit Colin McCray and rally driver helped, see games are useful.

Finally died around 8pm, total driving time 17 hours from door to door. Seems as this poor sod also had enough of the road, that or some muppet didn’t notice a GIANT lizard (4ft long) crossing the road.

Day Two.

Up at a reasonable time to call contacts and fixers. As usual, the ones who were supposed to be there weren’t and my main contacts decided to not answer, the phone. Armed with a water, I decided to walk out into the bush and look for a bushman, and yes, I found a family.

The rest of the day saw me spending time with this family and learning copious amounts of information about the San way of life. Bare in mind,this is the kalahari desert and the heat is intense. I have a newfound respect for any photographer who works in Afghanistan and does so during the day. My domke with the rollei in, film, recorder and other bits was killing me. Needless to say, my bushman family fou d it funny my shirt was so wet.

It is amazing to learn about something you never really knew. I’m like a giddy school kid on Christmas morning when I start these projects.

Compared to the platfontein community, the kalahari bushman is more traditional and still mostly live the way they have done so for thousands of years.

There are restrictions on hunting and movement, the ANC gave the kalahari San 6 farms, which are used to house a number of families. They do still have a large population who live in the kgalagadi transfrontier park, but aren’t allowed to hunt, they require permits to do so. It’s ironic that land that was once theirs, is now controlled by foreigners who require permits for all activities.

Whilst there is no official census, everyone is in the opinion that there are around 900 kalahari San in this region.

The heat was beating me like chris and rhianna having a domestic, so decided it was a good idea to take my new San friend and drive to the nearest shop to buy them dinner. They had agreed to perform a rain dance for me and i felt it necessary to provide the post-dance snacks.

The San supplement their income by making crafts for passing tourists. The cost is too low in my opinion, R50 for a bow and arrow.the amount of time taken to create the combination surely warrants for double that price, at minimum, yet tourists stand around in their designer clothes, dolce vita sun glasses and haggle with the bushmen to include two sets for the sad price. My view of modern humanity isn’t very high, and in times like this, i feel justified form having disgust towards my fellow man and woman.

After a long and hot afternoon spent dodging the sun and learning as much as i can about the bushman, without sounding like some small annoying child who asks many a question, they started to prepare for the rain dance.

The dance itself has roots in the need for water. The kalahari isn’t exactly known for it’s water, so they place a massive amount of importance on the dance itself.

As the days heat was dying, they started a fire and started the trance-like shuffle around the fire, chanting and singing a verse meant to appease the sun. Bushman religion sees two main characters of worship: the sun and nature. Both powerful and deserving of respect.

The dance itself was mesmerizing, in a way I felt like I was intruding with the rollei and sound recorder but they welcomed me and even stopped when i needed to change film (the perils of medium format, you can’t exactly spray and pray).

Overall my time spent with the kalahari San has been an experience I won’t forget in a hurry. The San people, on a whole, are incredibly warm and welcoming. They’ve put up with my barrage of questions, been very happy that someone was interested in their story and also asked me questions about my life, such as airplane travel, cold weather and food.

Day Three.

Day three was spent ensuring i had the shots i needed to get, in all honesty, i had been pretty diligent the previous day and shot the bulk of my story. The benefit of having such an organized wife like mine has been the introduction of lists into my workflow. I often write out a storyboard before I shoot any story so as to give me a better idea of what exactly trying to say with my pictures and also give me a reference when I’m struggling to keep myself in mode.

Again the heat was a major issue. Working with a big camera and 40 degree heat isn’t fun, especially when you are walking around the bush with little, or no, heat.

Finally finished the day buying a bracelet for Emma that ‘auntie’ had made for me from ostrich shell and porcupine spikes. I felt they charged too little for their craft, especially if you take into account the time needed to create them.

The day ended with a typical African sundowner overlooking the desert and looking forward to springbok pie. It’s a shit job really but someone has to do it.

Day Four.

Day four started much like day one, up at 1am to hit the road and beat the heat. The drive saw me go from the most north western tip of south Africa, right next to Namibia and then onto upington. From there it was a mad dash right from west to east through the freestate and finally Into kwazulu-natal. What I loved about the landscape was the space, towns were measured by how many hundreds of kilometers they were from each other.

In total I’ve driven 3019 kilometers in four days. It is excessive, my carbon footprint is now so large i need to stop using any form of transport for a month to break even.

Now the hard work begins, developing, scanning and editing my work into 25 images that give a true representation of what the modern bushman is today. It’s a big call, who the hell am I to try and say ‘this is what they are, believe me’ something that has been weighing on my mind since I started this.

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Luckily the low-cost carriers had a special this month that allowed me to take a flight from Durban to Johannesburg and then do the 5 hour drive into the Northern Cape to meet up with the elders and my contacts. Entering Platfontein is an experience in itself, kilometers of nothing but open land and then all of a sudden, a left turn on the R31 road and then 10 kilometers to the start of the “town”. The fact they have been placed here by the current government, with nothing around them for miles, is a story in itself.

As with any project like this, getting myself known to the relevant people was key and the first morning was spent being introduced to various village elders and other important people in the community. Platfontein houses the Khwe and !Xun tribes, in an informal split between the two. I agreed with the elders that the best way to introduce myself and explain my documentary and goals was to offer a braai (barbecue) and supply the meat and drinks. This way I could talk to each elder individually (with the help of a translator) and hopefully express what I was trying to achieve.

The braai itself went down well and good relationships were formed, I can honestly say this was a brilliant idea and it gave me the necessary access and trust to the community. I had done intensive research beforehand about what I wanted to document, especially since part of the story looked at how the modern Bushman is changing due to modern pressure, and then managed to spend the rest of the weekend shooting and meeting with various people. The Bushman are incredibly warm and welcoming. I know that many of my peers have walked this path before and shot the Bushman as more of an exotic freak show, and this was something that not only the Bushman were aware of but also myself.

Respect is everything in this game, no need to be digging up dead bodies to get a good image. Good honest conversation and respect will do you wonders.

In the end I shot 17 rolls of medium format film, granted I’m not a spray and pray shooter but feel I have got a much better understanding of the 3rd generation Bushman community in Platfontein and the issues they face. This is phase one complete, the next two phases both present numerous logistical hurdles as well as access issues, but this is all part of the challenge and fun of it.

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As Southern Africa resolves decades of oppression and white rule, the struggle by the San people for human rights in Southern Africa is starting to become known to the international community. Issues faced by the San people, such as alcoholism, malnutrition, loss of traditional hunting lands and economic dependency, have left them vulnerable. Basic human rights have been taken away from them. Their land, food and traditions all socially shunned by governments not allowing political participation.

Since the 1990s, the San have been able to make inroads with various governments to ensure political recognition and representation was forthcoming. However, the San people are currently facing other social issues that challenge their way of life and leave them with an uncertain future.

My Approach

My aim is to spend the next five months looking at how the San people of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana are currently living and adapting to the pressures of modern society and political change within Southern Africa.

The key areas I want to document are:

• Land
• Tradition
• EconomicDependency
• Health

In each of these areas, I want to document how the San people are adapting, or in some cases, not to the pressures placed on them by the various governments, who now control their traditional lands. It will include looking at how these governments, and various NGO groups, are ensuring they are treated as an indigenous people and allowed to practice cultural and traditional methods without feat of prosecution, such as hunting in state- owned game reserves.

On the economic dependency aspect, I want to understand how todays Bushman is providing a living for their family, as well as ensuring traditional ways are taught to the younger members of the family.

Lastly, I want to document the life of a young San. This approach will see me spending a large amount of time with the person whilst trying to get a better understanding of what life is life for a modern San today. What pressures they face, what challenges and what they feel is the future for the San people of Southern Africa

Timetable

Due to the geographic nature of this project, and the fact that the San people are nomadic and occupy three different countries at any given time, this will be broken down into a per- tribe basis.
I plan to spend a week with each tribe, as and when time permits. The San Organisation and the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) will endeavor to help me as much as possible in spending time with the various groups for longer periods of time.

I will endeavor to visit major tribes in RSA, Botswana and Namibia. For the last part of the documentary, I will spend time with a young Bushman who lives in Kimberley and works in the mining industry. This will see me spend a week with the person initially to fully understand their daily way of life.
As the relationship builds, I envision spending further time in, and around, Kimberley.

The approach taken by me for this project will be similar to my Rethink project on The Afrikaners. It will be shot with medium format film and potentially 35mm film, when deemed necessary.

I want to move away from the posed african men in loin cloth shots so often used by my peers and want to portray the San as something other than an exotic sideshow for Europeans.

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In recent times, since the first democratic elections in 1994, the Afrikaner has become an anachronism in South Africa – rejected by the black majority – a tribe produced by Africa, but with nowhere else to go.

The recent murder of Eugene Terreblanche, a well-known right-wing Afrikaner leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) – an Afrikaner nationalist movement – has pushed the plight of the Afrikaner back onto the front pages of newspapers. Terreblanche had recently started calling for a “free Afrikaner Republic”, exploiting perhaps, a simmering resentment in a minority of Afrikaners following the advent of democracy in 1994.

In 2008, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) awarded the Afrikaner people membership during its IX General Assembly in Belgium. This award recognises indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities and independent states or territories, which lack representation internationally. For some, the Afrikaner people have become a stateless nation, a people whose self-determination is under threat.

In December 1990, Carel Boshoff, the son-in-law of former apartheid Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, purchased a town in the Northern Cape from the Department of Water Affairs. The aim was to create a “volkstaat” where the Afrikaner way of life, culture and identity was preserved. The Afrikaner “selfwerksaamheid” (“self reliance”) approach to life is strictly observed and followed in Orania. Afrikaners fill all jobs from management to labour, and man all services such as schools and shops. Emphasis is placed upon a communal way of living – everyone helps out where needed. This way of living has often given outsiders the impression that Orania and its people are living in the past, and are clinging to an untenable, race-based heritage.

These images represent Orania as it is today. Numerous press reports suggest that Orania is a town of racist extremists entrenched in the past. However, I feel that Orania and the Afrikaners who call it home, merely have the desire to have a place where they can continue to live their way of life on their own terms and ensure a culture and heritage isn’t forgotten amongst the new generation of Afrikaner in Southern Africa.

The PDF of work can be downloaded from here, and the project can be viewed on my portfolio site.

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Citizen journalists are not professional journalists – they are members of the community who contribute to news production through various types of media, and participate at different levels of the news production process. They may gather, process or disseminate news of all kinds, particularly on the internet using web logs or “blogs.” Their contribution is, however, immediately controversial. In the industry they may be considered a valuable resource for more accessible news, for example the popular CNN iReport function, which relies on news and information from citizen journalists. Others consider their contribution a threat to journalistic standards, and to the industry at large.

I consider that if the growth of citizen journalism remains unchecked, the news industries and consumers accessing the news stand to lose on various fronts. A consequence may be that declining standards of news production will reduce the value and credibility of news made available to the public.

Impact of New Media

New Media is defined as the emergence of digital information and communication technologies (Wikipedia)
Currently there are over a billion internet users worldwide, with two-thirds of them believing that the internet is now a valuable news source. All major news organisations in broadcast and print media have websites. An online presence is essential for maintaining revenues in the face of competition. Revenues of online newspaper companies have consistently increased over the years. In the Unites States, for instance, eight percent of the New York Post’s revenues come from the internet, while the Washington Post collects 14 percent of its revenues online (Sidlow & Henschen, 2008: 231). These figures are another indication of the decline of traditional print media and the potential loss of jobs in journalism.

The integration and structural reforms that the new media have sparked have been opposed by many professional journalists, particularly because of job losses that have resulted from the new paradigm in journalism. Recently, 1800 redundancies within the BBC in the United Kingdom were announced – the end result being a 10 percent cut in commissioning, which would save the organisation £500 million over time (Thompson, 2007). The cuts were expected to be in news and current affairs and were needed to invest in interactive online technology. Furthermore, the cuts were aimed at building compelling multimedia and multi-platform products and services (MediaGuardian, 2007).

There are further examples of losses to traditional print and broadcast journalism in the United Kingdom related to new media. In February 2005, the Daily Telegraph announced that 20 percent of jobs would be cut to allow £150 million of investment in technology for the online era. The company’s journalists were dismayed at this and many resigned and leaked rumors about poor working conditions in the company’s offices (McNair, 2009: 148). In Scotland the reaction was more substantial. When Newsquest, the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom implemented cost-cutting and restructuring plans in 2007, a strike broke out because journalists alleged that their ability to produce news had been undermined (McNair, 2009: 148). All these examples illustrate the inherent likelihood of instability in the news industry if changes are not be implemented cautiously and responsibly.

The demand for online news is changing the role of journalists and the tasks they perform. Journalists worldwide are becoming more versatile, many of them training themselves to use and produce internet resources. Journalists are now expected to be multi-taskers, and may for example be asked to learn how to podcast whilst creating a print version of a news article, while also editing video packages to be uploaded to blogs or their news organization’s website. This may lead to a journalist being spread too thin over his diversified tasks, so decreasing the quality of the news compiled. The traditional approach of generating news using a camera crew, sound and presenter is now looking dated and is no longer financially feasible.

Role of Citizen Journalists

The Web log, or blog as it is often known on the internet, is one of the main reasons why citizen journalism has become so popular and widespread. A blog is the published content of an individual over the internet, and may contain his or her written thoughts, uploaded videos, or news that he/she has gathered. A blog can contain almost any type of multimedia product. The network of blogs on the internet today is called the blogosphere. According to Technorati, a website which tracks blogs – the number of blogs online has been doubling on the internet every six months since 2003.

The power of the blog lies in the writers – the man in the street, intellectuals, scholars, political activists, journalists and ordinary man on the street. While many of these blogs have personal content, others are political in nature and openly contribute to public discourse of social issues. However, many of the authors of these blogs are not competent to address the issues at hand.

Qualified journalists undergo on average, three years of formal education and training to achieve their degrees in journalism. They are bound by standards that ensure their work is always valid, credible and accurate. Citizen journalists who contribute to blogs, forums, and other websites are not subject to any industry rules and standards. For example, the Journal World’s “Citizen Journalism Academy” in the United States, has 25 local citizens who regularly submit news reports to the newspaper and its TV station partner. Compared to the rigorous training of journalists, the academy’s citizen journalists only had to undergo five sessions of training on news writing and other topics lasting only a few days (Rich, 2009: 11). OhmyNews, the worldwide leader in the citizen journalism movement (based in South Korea), offered an alternative journalism educational degree to people who wanted to be citizen journalists. They remodeled an abandoned rural elementary school to implement rapid training.

In the United States, the Society of Professional Journalists trained people to become citizen journalists using a one-day training program – in stark contrast to the typical four-year degree in journalism. There are also pseudo-acknowledgements of the code of ethics of journalism. Online newspapers like Minnpost.com, require writers to sign a contract that confirms they understand these ethics. This undertaking is merely a token compared to the hard training and rigorously developed professionalism of qualified journalists (Meyer, 2009: 41). The need to formally train to become a journalist will soon lose its appeal. If training for one day is believed to be as good as training for more than four years, and if both are considered true forms of journalism, then journalism majors will soon disappear from schools and universities.

Several television networks in the United States, for example MSNBC and CNN, use citizen journalists to report on events, especially breaking and fast-developing ones like natural disasters. This may be an efficient way to gather news, but there are inherent dangers in using unqualified journalists, with a substantial threat to privacy being one. For example, in South Korea, a female student was branded the “dog poop girl” just hours after someone took a picture of her leaving her dog’s feces inside a subway train. South Korean internet users chastised her for breaking social norms and posted pictures of her online. Soon, the mainstream media picked up the news, with the resultant publicity traumatising the student and causing her to leave university (Wikipedia).

Since citizen journalists are not bound by the same standards and ethics of qualified journalists, the risk of placing news-gathering abilities in the hands of amateurs must be carefully considered. The unacceptable loss of privacy referred to above is likely one of many unintended consequences of facilitating and using citizen journalism.

Role of Amateur Photographers

Citizen journalism also impacts negatively on the quality of photography made available to the public. Stock photography has been hardest hit by the rise of amateur photographers, and has seen the price of traditional stock images plummet. Professional photographers who rely on the sale of their images are now at the mercy of citizen photojournalists. Anyone with a cellular phone with a camera can take a photo of an event and post in on Twitter or Facebook. The process of taking the shot and loading it to the internet with a worldwide audience can take as little as a few minutes. Photojournalists who are paid to ensure that the public get high quality images are thus competing with citizen photojournalists who produce inferior imagery. Currently, because of citizen photojournalism, speed and not quality is the winner in the marketplace. The July 2007 London bombings accurately reflected this tendency, with many traditional newspapers running grainy, badly composed images on their front pages.

Supply and demand will eventually make professional photographers redundant, and their high quality photos will become inaccessible. Photojournalism is all about representing a story through an image. Photojournalists, who have trained for years to capture their images according to the nature of the storyline, make sure that they are giving their audience the pictures they need to see. The image they produce is an accurate and appropriate representation. Regrettably, the careers of professional photojournalists are under threat because of the upsurge in citizen photojournalism. The training, work experience, educational background and work ethics of photojournalists will no longer be relevant.

Citizen photojournalism also has the potential to reduce privacy. With professional journalism, all photos are taken with permission. It is part of the ethics of journalism which every journalist should observe. Even editors cannot publish a photo just because they think it is interesting, or because they think it will make the news sell. Clearly such restraints are not in place with citizen journalism, and pictures posted on blogs for example, rarely have permissions. Celebrities, who are still entitled to enjoy their private lives, have had significant invasions of privacy, in part attributable to citizen journalism.

Professional photojournalists never manipulate or modify their images to suit public consumption; this is against the ethos of their craft. However, citizen photojournalists are known to digitally modify images at times. The software to do this is widely available with most point and shoot cameras. In short, citizen photojournalists have the power and means to create a new version of “the truth” in order to attract the attention of the public. The end result is that the public are not being informed – rather they are being misled.

Conclusion

It is easy to point out the positives of citizen journalism, especially if one considers the contribution to the reporting of news related to spontaneous events like natural tragedies. Their contribution also enriches and encourages public discourse as more people are empowered to talk about issues that are of concern to society. However, the dangers of citizen journalism are significant. Having substantial numbers of untrained journalists writing and blogging their version of the story has the potential to mislead the public. News publications are required to assure the public that the news they report on is true, unbiased and reflects both sides of the story. With contributions from citizen journalists and photojournalists, these assertions are immediately in doubt. The credibility of reporting institutions may be at stake.

Training and experience are the factors that separate professional journalists from their amateur counterparts. If news organizations feel the need to use the cheaper services of citizen journalists, they should ensure that the training of citizen journalists is on a par with the basic expectations of professional journalism. Proliferation of opinion in the internet is acceptable, but that information needs to be accurate and verifiable.

Privacy issues also need to be considered. Interested parties need to look past the perception that citizen journalism levels the playing field, and instead need to consider whether their privacy is being compromised.

The public, watchdog bodies, pertinent government authorities, consumer and journalistic organisations, all need to assess the issues in the citizen journalism debate. Mechanisms and procedures need to be considered and implemented to ensure that news is accurately and professionally presented. There is far more at stake than the pride and careers of professional journalists. The need and right of society to be reliably informed needs to be secured and affirmed

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Online gaming and LAN (Local Area Network) parties have risen in popularity in the past few years. The biggest, Dream Hack held twice annually in Sweden, set a new world record in December 2007 for the worlds largest LAN party: a staggering 10,554 computers under a single roof.

LAN Parties from Daniel Cuthbert on Vimeo. Transcript available here.

To the uninitiated, a LAN party is a gathering of computer enthusiasts and gamers who get together and play games against each other. In this modern age of always-on connectivity and online presence, many at the Durban FRAG party commented that it was good to get together, be social and play games against each other. Often many arrive solely for the social aspects of being around likeminded people.

Held every month, the Durban FRAG admins weekend begins early friday morning. The task of setting out hundreds of tables and chairs to accommodate the gamers takes around two hours, and then the task of ensuring the 400KW power requirement is met. Get this important step wrong and you’ll blow the electricity board in an instant. The gamers arrive around noon on the friday, bringing with them a whole host of equipment often more associated with large rock concerts and outdoor performances. Large PC cases, widescreen monitors, keyboards and all the necessities for a weekend of gaming. Make no mistake, there is no going home to sleep or refresh, gamers often sleep beneath their computers once the effects of the caffeine drinks have worn off.

A wide variety of games are played by the gamers but a few firm favourites seem to be the choice de jour for aspiring combat veterans: Call of Duty, a first person shooter game and Dota, a custom scenario for the popular World of Warcraft games. In addition, the console games like Guitar Hero prove popular amongst inspiring muso’s.

The prestigious World Cyber Games held this year in the US, will see gamers from around the world battling it out to be crowned the top gamer. This competition has a large prize fund and many gamers earn a salary from playing games, taking it from a hobby to a full-time career.

Gaming in South Africa is still in its infancy. There are large LAN parties held every month around the country, but it’s nowhere near the level seen overseas. Another issue facing gamers on these shores is that eSport isn’t seen as a proper sport yet, but there are plans to change that in the near future and rightly so.

In the minds of sports mad South Africans, a sport is something that is physical and whilst wielding a Guitar Hero guitar might be athletic to the gamers, to others it’s seem as a hobby.

Electronic games and other forms of online role-playing games is a big industry. Last year alone in the US, it accounted for 3.8 Billion dollars worth of revenue with an astounding 46 million gamers in the US alone. With the World Cup being held later on this year in South Africa, it’s important to look at future sports that don’t necessarily involve copious amounts of physical activity.

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The first series of assignments took me out of that comfort zone and really made me get my act into gear. With the final results for last terms assignments in, it was good to see what i’d been doing wrong and what i’d been doing right. I’ve never been one to write essays, I guess it takes a different person to be able to write an academic paper, especially when you haven’t done one in nearly ten years. As expected, I didn’t do as well as i’d like to have on the written essay. One of the comments was about it not being academic in approach, which to be fair wasn’t far from the truth.

I will, however, endeavor to write a better academic paper. It would be great to have a lesson on the do’s & don’ts when writing academic papers as this was a big weakness for me.

One the documentary front, I presented the People of Durban project and thankfully John really enjoyed it. I received some important feedback and will act upon that over the next couple of weeks.

The course has really made me concentrate on telling a better story using a smaller amount of images. I feel my editing strength has grown immensely, thanks to the help of John and Homer. From a weakness point of view, I still have so much more to learn about producing interesting documentary work, thankfully the lectures from Paul and John are helping, as are the guest lecturers. Also learning what makes a good documentary from a commercial point of view would be helpful.

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This has been a fantastic personal project of mine to do, and has lead to many assignments from clients who enjoyed the work, so a heartfelt thank you goes out to both those featured in the project and everyone who enjoyed it.

I’ve updated the website and created this slide show (I think I need to go on a DuckRabbit course to really master multimedia).

I will also be submitting this as one of my assignments for the LCC.

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