I never thought about making money when I set up Kigali Wire. From the beginning it has always been an experiment and it remains so. I never thought about making money when I shot my first photojournalism essay – which is in dire need of an editor’s hand… forgive me, it is my first bash at the medium. And I never think about money when people use my stuff. So, why am I thinking about money now?

Because, I reckon I stand to make more money on by-products than I (probably) ever could from straight journalism. Since doing the photojournalism essay, I’ve received the following enquiries:

– 5 invites to give paid talks – that’s me above, about to give one of them in Kigali.

– interest from a major newspaper in commissioning an edit of the piece.

– interest from a couple of NGO’s about doing similar photojournalism pieces on a commission basis.

That’s almost $2,000, even if the latter two don’t come off. All the tools I use are cheap. All the digital tools I use are free or low cost.

I’m beginning to hope think it might be sustainable to do the stories I want to do, in the way I want to do them, if I keep in mind that by-products are the only earner. And if I get more creative in what by-products I come up with.

This is something Vaughan and I have talked about loads over the years – maybe one day we’ll unveil our world-beating chip van model for the future of journalism... And I’d say this kind of thinking is at the core of what the Frontline Club stands for.

Of course, this isn’t new, but – in these utterly grim times for old media – thinking along these lines might offer a glimmer of hope for any would-be freelance journalists out there. And it deffo plays into the whole how to be a foreign correspondent thinking some of us talked about recently. To make this work best, I reckon you still need to…

go somewhere cheap. And odd. The odder the better. link

Photo taken from my personal Flickr account  

Kino-Plasmat 1,5/1/2 Inch, Wollensak f.3,5/1,5 Inch, 2,8/3 inch Trioplan Meyer new York, Wollensak 2,5/1/2 inch include wide Angle Attachment and Elgeet 1,9/1/2 inch
Very interesting and Rare military Gun outfit delivered for Vietnam War reporter, with case and 5x lenses Kino-Plasmat 1,5/1/2 Inch, Wollensak f.3,5/1,5 Inch, 2,8/3 inch Trioplan Meyer new York, Wollensak 2,5/1/2 inch include wide Angle Attachment and Elgeet 1,9/1/2 inch link via Cinematical

Why am I here if I don’t want to get close to gunfire? Well, I am not and never will be a frontline war correspondent, but it was getting increasingly stupid not knowing this stuff.. Just before the summer I was all ready to go on a trip to see the EU mission in Chad and was stopped from going because I hadn’t done the course. Then there’s the little matter of the first European war of the 21st Century, awaiting EU observers. And even the most timid journalist is someone
who runs the wrong way: towards trouble, rather than away from it. link

Here’s the Reuters take on a similar course. Some British journalism students also went through the mill and then there are the Romanians.

In Belgrade shortly after the capture of Radovan Karadzic, Marshall scouted the route of a nationalist march and potential hotspots for violence. Instead of knocking on doors asking if people had a phone line he enquired whether they had broadband.
“A friendly family with fast broadband and a balcony overlooking the street let us use their room as a base,” he describes. “We were live for 50 minutes, feeding images straight from the camera to the internet and into Isleworth while riots were happening literally 20 yards away. Operating from a satellite truck would have offered neither the high vantage point or the safety of our position.” link

Sony Tape Recorder – call me old school, but why make life more difficult than it needs to be? This takes AA batteries and normal cassettes, which you can buy pretty much anywhere link

While Alex is loaded down with books,

Have been agonising over what books to take – trying to find the balance between books that Iâ€ll only read once, those friends in Kabul have requested that I bring, and those that I ought to read for my PhD link

What with David heading off to Chad at the weekend, the travel bug is clearly in the air. Not sure exactly what David has in his bag, but I do know he’s carrying a Nokia N95 with Qik installed… Fingers crossed, it works for him. And a big thanks to Qik for getting the phone to David before he left.

Filmmaker Matt Clift talks about how he went about making a one man documentary film about an orphanage in Uganda in 2007. He details the problems he had, the equipment he used and offers a number of tips for wannabe filmmakers working in difficult environments,

Where I was going there was no option for going back home or to the video equipment hire shop for something I forgot so I had to get the equipment list right. I tried extensively before leaving to find a list of items that were recommended for a one-man doco shoot but unfortunately I had no luck. Therefore I thought there would be benefit in providing a list of what I took, why I took it and a review as to how it performed in the field. link

Kevin Sites filed text, video, images and audio from twenty wars for the duration of one year between 2005-2006 for the Yahoo HotZone project. Pictured above is the equipment he took with him. It all fitted inside one rucsac. Just a couple of years later and I think it’d be even smaller than it was back then. But what would you replace? And what would you replace it with? Here’s what he had

Sony HDR-HC1 – High-Definition Digital Camcorder (With X 0.7 Wide Angle Converter Lens)
Samsung SC-X105L – Digital Camcorder With “Headcam.”
Apple 12-inch PowerBook – Laptop Computer.
Hughes R-BGAN – Satellite Modem
Thuraya/Hughes 7101 – Portable Satellite Phone.
Palm Treo 650 GSM – Mobile “Smart” Phone link

Compare and contrast with what Naka Nathaniel worked with for the New York Times until recently.

“We did two remote live video feeds. We also produced an in studio news programme that relied on those live video feeds and also had pre-produced content and interactivity through Skype and basically it was a whole newscast. In much the same way as what the corporate media was doing for their own newscasts except we were able to do it for far less money and no resources whatsoever really and we ended up with at least 5,000 viewers at one point to the programme without any outreach. That demonstrated, at least when you have a huge event, there is a market for this, or an audience for this.” link

Wolf was previously imprisoned by the US government for refusing to hand over video footage he shot during clashes between police and anti-G8 protesters at a demonstration in San Francisco in 2006. he went on to serve more time in prison than any other American journalist. As he says in the video above, he needs to raise $1,500 to get the project going. It’s a fascinating idea using easily available, free or cheap technology, mobile networks and the internet to build a new news network. If he can prove the concept on a repeated basis, he could well be building the future for live broadcast journalism, at least on a local level.

In a series of behind the scenes films ITV’s Mark Austin and Phil Reay Smith describe life working as reporters in Helmand province, Afghanistan. And by the looks of things it’s all rather snug. As Mark says, “It’s the best food in terms of being in a theatre of war that I’ve ever tasted.” I swear that’s a Shepherd’s pie you can see being served up in this short clip. Apparently, the big problem comes from the snorers in the crew… via Press Gazette.

From the Digital Journalist way back in 2003, war reporter Joseph L. Galloway gives sage advice to wannabe war reporters on what to carry and how to avoid being killed. I’ve extracted a few highlights,

Strive to look as much like a private of whatever service you are travelling with. You do NOT want to stand out like a sore thumb. BLEND IN! If you look different you may thus appear important to someone peering through a sniper scope…
…There is no way I can prepare someone who has never witnessed combat for the shock of the first sight of a badly wounded soldier, screaming in pain, begging for his mother. Or the sight of the face of a young soldier in death….a soldier of either side. You will learn to process the images and move on and do your job. But what you see in battle will never leave you. link