Once upon a time, if I had told you that a small camera available from most electrical stores would - in the right hands - provide the BBC's entire Global News division with regular, unique news video footage from around the world, you'd have been within your rights to look sceptical. But for almost two years that is exactly what BBC World Service journalists, based on all continents, have delivered.
As global video coordinator, my involvement with the International Video Project began when I was asked, as a French speaker and small camera enthusiast, to train staff in Senegal. The Dakar office was the fourth overseas bureau to receive this training.
In October 2010, after a successful pilot in Islamabad, the IVP was preparing to run nine more international training courses - in Nairobi, Kabul, Cairo, Dakar, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Delhi and Abuja. The aim was to provide basic video newsgathering training to language service reporters based overseas - with no prior experience of working with pictures necessary. In the past few months I've trained colleagues in Bangkok, Singapore, Delhi and Hong Kong. To date, over 200 reporters from over 40 countries have been trained.
So what of the cameras themselves? The Kodak we've been using is not a particularly sexy piece of kit. But it is small, discrete, relatively cheap and comes with an external microphone jack, making it easy to record broadcast-quality audio as well as video. It's no longer on the market, so we're in the process of finding a suitable replacement. It will have to match the original requirements and slot in as seamlessly as possible into our workflow. Watch this space.
The three-day training course provides reporters with basic filming and editing skills - as well as a camera, laptop and 'Gorilla' tripod, all of which conveniently fit in one bag. With just these, and an internet connection, we've been able to put together full TV packages. We have captured breaking news moments, added to existing agency material, filmed studio recordings, provided footage for Global Video Unit products and recorded voices that would have often remained unheard.
Over the months, the volume of content has increased and the quality improved. Working as part of the Global Video Unit in BBC Television Centre means a video can end up on BBC News online, World Service language sites or World TV. We provide full editorial and technical support to all trainees: it's not easy to work with pictures when they haven't been the centre of your journalistic trade!
For some reporters it's been a challenge. Others, such as BBC Uzbek's Rustam Kobil, have taken to the small cameras with apparent ease. Rustam took his camera on a trip to Moscow, looking at the impact of the increase in the Muslim population there. Back in London, he worked with the Global Video Unit to produce a final package that was aired on BBC World TV, BBC Turkish TV, published on the BBC News website, and translated for several other language services including BBC Urdu and BBC Russian.
In the new ways in which we are now asked to work, the small cameras offer an exciting means to multimedia, multi-lingual ends. In the next few months, with the help of language producers, we aim to get more footage from trainees published on more platforms and in more languages.
I look forward to seeing where the next chapter in the small camera story takes us.
Elise Wicker is global video coordinator, Global Video Unit, BBC Global News.
