NOTE FROM JONAH: Before I begin this tale, for those not from New York or New England — please re-read the headline above in your most sarcastic inner monologue.

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In front of me was a perfectly still and prestine alpine lake. There was no trash floating in the water, the sky was clear of pollution and I couldn’t hear a single car honking its horn. This was not your average Chinese landscape.

Then, when the Chinese man in the tight suit said “Jonah Mathew Kessel” I walked forward on a red carpet in front of the amazing landscape. As I walked forward one of the theme songs to Star Wars began to echo across the alpine lake behind me. Trying to keep my composure and not laugh at the choice of music used for my introduction, I gave an unrehearsed speech describing the beauty of Jiuzhaigou National Park, found in Sichuan Province on the Tibetan Plateau.

Behind me was a circa 10 meter red banner that read “World Famous Photographers Focusing On The Fairyland — Jiuzhaigou.”

I introduced myself in Chinese and quickly switched to English in my speech to a large Chinese crowd of nature lovers and photographers. As I spoke in English a translator would repeat after me, giving me time to look around and reflect upon the situation. I gave one of the most generic thank you speeches anyone has ever given and then watched as a flood of cameras and cell phones snapped photos of me shaking hands with the man in the suit.

As hundreds of people took the same picture of me, I looked at the sign again. It read “World Famous Photographers … “. While I didn’t know it when I woke up, this would be the day, someone decided myself and 11 other colleagues were “World Famous.” (Again, if you aren’t from New York or New England, please re-read the last sentence using your sarcastic voice).

It was one of the stranger moments of my three years in China … But let me rewind and help explain how and why I got to this stunning place.

Two Months Earlier

Two months earlier an art gallery called and asked if I would be interested in going to photograph Jiuzhaigou National Park. They said I could stay for as little as three days or longer if I wanted and it would be like a “paid vacation.” For going to the park, saying a one-minute speech, and giving them 20 photographs — they would give me 10,000 RMB ($1500) and cover all of my expenses.

The circumstances were a bit fishy but I decided to give it a go. I agreed to their terms and hung up the phone. Minutes later they called back and asked “By the way, do you know any other foreign photographers in China?”

If you throw a rock at a foreigner in Beijing, you are most likely going to hit either (a) an English teacher or (b) a photographer. Having thrown many rocks at foreigners in Beijing, I happen to know a lot of photographers (and a lot of pissed off English teachers). I asked them why and they told me they needed many foreign photographers to go. I asked how many they were looking for, and the woman replied — about 12 or 15.

And this is when I realized, I had just signed up for my first “white guy job.” If you are unfamiliar with this term — in China, some foreigners get jobs, simply because they are foreign, not really from any merit, skill or ability. Also important to note, “white” in this sense refers to anyone, not from China.

My friend Mitch Moxley is actually writing a book about this right now. His book, tentatively titled “Tall Rice” details some of the funny jobs you can get in China, just by being foreign. Mitch uses these experiences to talk about greater topics from China.

Journalist Mitch Moxley’s TALL RICE: The High and Low Adventures of a Foreigner in China, inspired by the article “Rent a White Guy” in The Atlantic, chronicles Moxley’s outrageous adventures in Beijing, from fake businessman to Chinese propagandist to low-budget music video star, a young man’s search for identity in the most unexpected of places, to Katie Salisbury at Harper Perennial, by Stephanie Sun at Weed Literary (World English).

Based upon some of Mitch’s earlier writings on the topic we can definitely expect a fun read from this one due out in the summer of 2013. Check out some hilarious experts already published by the Atlantic Monthly here:

• Chollywood: Behind the scenes of China’s booming film industry
• Rent a White Guy: Confessions of a fake businessman from Beijing

While I had heard a lot of tales from Mitch and others about jobs like this, I had yet to really take part.

Although this was a bit of a “white guy job” — it was certainly a “white photographer guy job.” I called some friends and got a few signed up to either (a) endure or (b) enjoy the trip with me, pending on how it would go. Amongst photographers who joined me were the immensely talented Chi Yin Sim, Peter Carney, Jeff Lau, Keith Bedford and Jasper James.

While some of our foreign group were indeed photographers, a couple others slipped in — including some architects and some Italians who seemed to be more interested in smoking cigarettes than taking pictures.

The group was carted around for a couple days attending some very stereotypical Chinese events including an enormous banquet featuring traditional song and dance accompanied by a fog machine, bubble machine, snow machine, laser light show and a completely out of place psychedelic backdrop.

Our group was also given front row seats to the 2011 Miss Jiuzhaigou Finals. Hundreds of others crammed in behind us to get a look. But hey — we were now world famous. World famous photographers only sit in the front. The competition was hot, but in the end contestant number 9 took this years crown, although I was really rooting for number 6.

And just to put your mind a rest, in case you were wondering — in a Tibetan beauty pageant, there is no swimsuit contest.

Following these exciting events, we heard countless speeches by low level officials from … well, I’m not exactly sure where they were from.

Back at The Gorgeous Lake

Back at the gorgeous lake I was not the only one who had become “world famous” — the architect, the businessman, the smoking Italians and my five photographer friends were also now “world famous.”

When the ceremony was finished the large crowd dispersed. The group of world famous photographers would then spend three days photographing this amazing spot. Throughout these days, people who had seen the ceremony would continually stop me asking to take my picture or to talk to me. This was a strange juxtoposition.

On one hand, I was photographing an amazing place. There was countless half frozen waterfalls, amazing walking paths surrounded by fields of moving water and clear lakes everywhere.

In a place like this, I think its actually hard to take bad pictures. And while the scenerio was beautiful, on the other hand, I felt a bit foolish being there. Knowing that it wasn’t the quality of my pictures that mattered, but the color of my skin that was important.

A beautiful picture by a Chinese photographer, would not have been wanted. While China is certainly booming in some areas, in other areas there still seems to be so much value put on image — that all logic is forgotten.

While this did bother me, the place itself is simply fantastic. This I suppose, is the dichotomy of the “white photographer guy” job.

For more information and photography from Jiuzhaigou National Park — see last week’s post here.

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Mind-boggling. Exciting. Funny. Diverse. Contradictory.

There are so many words one can use to describe China. But one word I would not necessarily use is beautiful. While China is often stunning, it is rarely stunningly beautiful.

In my three years in China, I’ve traveled to about 25 provinces. And after going to all of these place, very rarely would the word beautiful come to mind when describing them. Sometimes I end up in beautiful villages, however they are usually extremely poor and trash is almost inevitably scattered across the landscape. And when you do see stunningly beautiful areas in China, you are usually surrounded by 20,000 of your closest comrades.

Interesting, exciting, funny, diverse — sure. But beautiful — not necessarily.

However, last week I had the opportunity of visiting Jiuzhaigou National Park on the TIbetan Plateau in Northern Sichuan. And after three years in China, this marked the first time for me that I found a place — stunningly beautiful. Although I was not alone, compared to visiting the Forbidden City, this place was like visiting a ghost town. While in the summer, crowds soar here, in the winter it feels much more like the Sierra Nevada than China.

The national park, which is indeed a famous tourist attractions in China, is also an UNESCO World Heritage Area. UNESCO describes the area as:

Stretching over 72,000 ha in the northern part of Sichuan Province, the jagged Jiuzhaigou valley reaches a height of more than 4,800 m, thus comprising a series of diverse forest ecosystems. Its superb landscapes are particularly interesting for their series of narrow conic karst land forms and spectacular waterfalls. Some 140 bird species also inhabit the valley, as well as a number of endangered plant and animal species, including the giant panda and the Sichuan takin.

Although the park does get crammed full of tourists in the summer and fall, during winter — for the most part this place was extremely empty for Chinese standards.

The road through the park gives very good access to countless waterfalls and lakes. The fauna and landscape are perhaps the only place I’ve been in the world that reminded me of Yosemite National Park. I’m not sure if the rock climbing crowd has truly explored this area, but even from the road, it looks like there is an endless amount of untouched surfaces to climb.

For me this was a great change of pace and it reminded me — there are still pristine areas left in China not completely over run by tourism, pollution or enormous sky scrappers. The facilities that were there, were actually very nice. There were a few resorts scattered around the park and within the park hundreds of kilometers of walking trails — many of which are on very cool wooden paths surrounded by waterfalls on all sides.

Photographically, getting to this park in the winter was truly a treat. Waterfalls, ice and gray skies make some longer exposures during day time hours pretty easy. At f/32, ISO 50 I could get a lot of exposures up to 1.5 seconds and create some nice motion blut. If I were to go back, I would surely bring an ND filter. I saw a couple Chinese photographers with ND filters shooting 30 second+ exposures, which I would love to see how they turned out.

Beyond long exposure waterfall photography the color of the park is very cool. The alpine lakes remind me of those I had seen in New Zealand and in volcanic areas in Hawai’i. Unique minerals in the area create some amazing colors in the water. Combined with some stunning visibility, the colorful lakes contrast very nicely against the white snow and green trees.

According to Wikipedia:

Seven of the nine Tibetan villages are still populated today. The main agglomerations that are readily accessible to tourists are Heye, Shuzheng and Zechawa along the main paths that cater to tourists, selling various handicrafts, souvenirs and snacks. There is also Rexi in the smaller Zaru Valley and behind Heye village are Jianpan, Panya and Yana villages. Guodu and Hejiao villages are no longer populated.

While we did visit some of the villages, like many Tibetan things I’ve seen, the areas seemed a bit fake and people were scarce. However, our guide told us we could rest assured “The Tibetan people here are both very happy and rich.” Sadly, the current series of self-immolation monks is just around the corner from this area … The propagandized statement was just one of many our guide would make.

Oh yes … my guide. The circumstances in which I was being guided around this place is a story in itself.

And while the story itself is not nearly as beautiful as the park, it is a pretty entertaining and includes me walking down a red carpet to the music from Star Wars.

Ill tell that tale next …

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NOTE FROM JONAH: These pictures belong to a small series “Two Hours and Twenty Minutes.” The pictures were all taken over the course of two hours and twenty minutes on November 1, 2011 between 3:21 pm and 5:41 in Seoul, South Korea. If you are just joining the series here’s what you’ve missed:

• The Soul of Seoul
• Hello Kitty de la Seoul
• Autumn: Good for the Seoul
• Heart in Seoul

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Yep. That’s me up there surrounded by cameras in my office — in my new two piece matching Hello Kitty pajamas. It simply pays to be comfortable for long edits.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, you may have noticed an influx of Hello Kitty related posts recently.

Before I moved to Asia I thought Hello Kitty was just a brand targeted at little girls. In an article earlier this year the Swarovski CEO Robert Buchbauer said:

“She’s just a symbol of happiness, and I think it’s very important these days to transmit some positive messages to the people, and I think Hello Kitty is perfect in order to do so.”

But oh how we were wrong. This is no ordinary cat. And I’ve been learning how wrong I was over the past three years since I’ve been in Asia. Now, I would describe Hello Kitty as more of a cult style cultural phenomenon than a brand.

While the Hello Kitty line is certainly made up of material objects, the symbol is more than a bag or key chain here. Even in the most basic of definitions, Wikipedia says:

The Hello Kitty trademark has spread globally; Sanrio earned over $1 billion annually in sales outside of Japan, as of 2003. Although mainly aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty product range goes all the way from purses, stickers and pen sets to toasters, televisions, clothing, massagers, and computer equipment. It has a cult-like following among adults as well, especially in Asia, where Hello Kitty adorns cars, purses, jewelry and many other high-end consumer products. Several Hello Kitty TV series, targeted towards young children, have also been produced. Examples of products depicting the character include dolls, stickers, greeting cards, clothes, accessories, school supplies, dishes and home appliances. Her fame as a recurring Sanrio character has led to the creation of two officially licensed Hello Kitty theme parks, Harmonyland and the indoor Sanrio Puroland.

First, understand that in Asia — you can actually get Hello Kitty … everything. Both fake and real Hello Kitty embroidered items exist from toilet seat covers, to credit cards, to keychains, to stickers, to handbags, to the classic stuffed animal to a matching two-piece pajama sets. License plates, iPhone cases, towels and t-shirts are other common items.

Big business around the world have actually caught on to this for quite some time. In a research paper entitled “Hello Kitty and the Identity Politics in Taiwan” Assistant Professor Yu_Fen Ko in the Dept. of Public Communication at Hsih-Shin University in Taipei tell

In the end of 1999, Chunghwa Telecom Co. got on the bandwagon and launched a series of “Hello Kitty Phonecard.” The entire stock of 50,000 cards were sold out in five minutes after the counter windows were open. Meanwhile, Twinhead Computer introduced a special edition of notebook with a Hello Kitty on its pink cover. Apple Computer also promoted a strawberry-colored iMac with a set of Hello Kitty stationary gift. Yue-Loong Automobile even had a Hello Kitty limited edition of March. Makoto Bank issued Hello Kitty credit cards. Furthermore, according to a poll by Chinese Television Network, Hello Kitty was rated the number three most figure person in Taiwan in the year of 1999. Early in the year 2000, McDonald‘s launched another joint venture with Hello Kitty, “the Love for Millennium Meal Package,” 450,000 sets of Hello Kitty to be purchased with any meal option. Again, it caused heated discussions.

Clearly, Hello Kitty in Asia has a bit of “Beatle Mania” to it. And its not just kids who wear and use this stuff. I remember a colleague at China Daily who would come into her professional job with a Hello Kitty laptop case everyday. I’m currently traveling in Anhui with a Chinese colleague who credit cards are printed with Hello Kitty images and logos.

In South Korea, the Hello Kitty game seemed to be one step ahead of China, although I’m sure its still a bit behind Japan and Taiwan.

In Myeongdong Market you couldn’t walk ten feet without seeing something with the pink cat’s face tattooed on it. In fact, Hello Kitty is so popular in South Korea — there’s an entire cafe dedicated to it. I meant to swing by this place, but given my extremely short time period in the country, I thought the UNESCO World Heritage Sites were probably more important to see (pictures in next post). However, blogger Natalie Chai did make it there and has shared some photos of the cafe with us here.

These fine images from the café generously donated to the Hello Kitty cause by Natalie Chai. See Natalie’s Web site here and her Twitter feed here.

From booths to seats — even the espresso foam is Hello Kitty themed.

So you might be asking “So what’s the deal? Asians like Hello Kitty. But why do you?” While my admiration of the cat is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I think the visuals surrounding Hello Kitty culture goes beyond toys and material objects.

The visual branding of Hello Kitty is a good representation of Asian popular culture. From the light yet neon-ish color palatte to the round bubbly kitty: these types of symbols, colors, graphic design and general visual atmospheres are used in branding, advertising and mass communication all over Asia. We see the style come up every time there is a global event such as the Shanghai World Expo or the Beijing Olympic Games. Mascots in Asia always seem to have a little bit of Hello Kitty in them.

In America we see the pink cat and move on with our day. However, this is the symbolic, cultural and visual branding for a continent. The influence of this branding and advertising on the daily lives if people in Asia is so immense, that it actually changes the way people see things. This is where things become interesting.

Westerners look at Hello Kitty as cheesy. But the pink cat is not cheesy here, where the large majority of the world’s population lives. In fact, a larger percentage of the world would say that Hello Kitty is not cheesy and is in fact a well designed vibrant product.

In Japan, Hello Kitty actually has a role in politics:

In May 2008, Japan named Hello Kitty the ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong, which are two places where the character is exceptionally popular among children and young women. This marked the first time Japan’s tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role.
UNICEF has also awarded Hello Kitty the exclusive title of UNICEF Special Friend of Children.

However, to be a bit balanced, the widely popular cat’s legacy has not always been good:

• In 1999, a brutal murder known as the Hello Kitty murder took place in Hong Kong. The popular name of the case derives from the fact that the murderer inserted his victim’s head into a Hello Kitty doll after decapitating her.
• As of August 2007, Thai police officers who have committed minor transgressions such as showing up late or parking in the wrong place are forced to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands for several days as penance.
• During the financial crisis of 2007–2010, a poster of a Hello Kitty pre-paid debit card expanded to roughly 1 meter in length was displayed on the floor of the US Senate by Senator Byron Dorgan as a demonstration of extreme methods used by credit companies to attract “children 10 to 14 years of age”. Though not an actual credit card, it was criticized for its promotional website encouraging users to “shop ’til you drop.”

While I do laugh a little every time I see a man on the street selling Hello Kitty towels, a theme shop in the mall selling only Hello Kitty items or when my Chinese colleague goes to pay for something with her credit card and the Cat comes out of the wallet — this image is as powerful as one gets in this continent.

More on Hello Kitty in Asia

• Official Hello Kitty site here.
• Official Hello Kitty blog here.
• Assistant Professor Yu-Fen Ko paper “Hello Kitty and the Identity Politics in Taiwan” here.
• Natalie Chai’s blog entry about her visit to the Hello Kitty café in Seoul here.

UPDATE 7:46 PM, NOV. 10, 2011

This just in from photographer Jojje Olsson (Twitter, Web site). After writing this post Jojje alerted me that a NEW Hello Kitty restaurant is coming to Sanlitun, Beijing — THIS DECEMBER! On Weebo, this advertisement has be re-tweeted 2,700 times! You know where I’ll be, this December!

NOTE FROM JONAH: The following pictures in the next five posts were all taken over the course of two hours and twenty minutes on November 1, 2011 between 3:21 pm and 5:41 in Seoul, South Korea. If you are just joining the series here’s what you’ve missed:

• The Soul of Seoul
• Hello Kitty de la Seoul
• Autumn: Good for the Seoul
• Heart in Seoul

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I don’t pretend to understand South Korea, or for that matter — China.

However, after spending 22 hours in Seoul this week I was truly shocked by how different it is to China. Sure, its another country and perhaps those ephemeral borders aren’t so ephemeral. But in my extremely short time in the country, I was just shocked by how “with it” the capital city seems to be. Also having just made a video on North Korea, it was shocking to see just how far South Korea has come. I certainly wonder if the skinny guards on the northern size of the DMZ glance to the South thinking “I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.”

On the South side of the DMZ — you see color. They dress to impress. You see this in Shanghai, but there’s more of a mix there. In Shanghai you can still see people in more traditional Mao era clothing. Beyond being well dressed, the Korean population seemed calm and collected. People were not shoving to get on the subway and were queuing for taxis. In 22 hours in Seoul, I saw one person spit — and he was a Chinese tourist.

Chinese spitting is one thing thats still hard to understand. Especially when I see this behavior close to a border. Why do people on one side of the line frequently spit, while those on the other have learned how to exist without constantly hacking up flem and leaving it on the streets for all to enjoy?

While Seoul’s population of 10 million doesn’t stand up to some of China’s biggest cities — its nothing to sneeze at and while examining how a city functions, its always interesting to see how so many people get around in small confined areas.

I think you can tell a lot about an Asian country by what happens when you first leave the airport.

For example, in most cities in China when you get outside of the airport, you will be approached by black taxis (illegal, or freelance drivers) and there will be a place to pick up real taxis. Real taxis will use their meter, however, they might not go the quickest way. In India, upon leaving an airport (or train station) you are bombarded by begging children, yelling tuk-tuk drivers, black taxis and a hogwash of third world rif-raft. In Southeast Asia, tourist related organizations prey on those getting off planes. Hostels, organized tours and resorts are waiting like fisherman, every time a plane lands.

In South Korea, I was approached by … no one.

I went to a cab line that moved swiftly. I showed the driver an address (written in Korean) and we proceeded to go straight their, sans scams, mafan or delays of any kind.

An iPhone based guidebook I had read said Korean drivers “are reckless and the streets are plagued with seemingly perpetual traffic jams” and you should avoid using them. Granted, I think this may have been the worst guide book/ap I have ever seen, but after having lived in Asia for a number of years, I found the driving to be about as safe as it gets. Traffic exists, but nothing compared to Beijing or even LA.

The “togetherness” of Seoul went beyond the clothes and traffic. The details were there.

While riding in elevators, I didn’t fear for my life … a possibly unjustified fear I have in China every time I set foot in an elevator that somewhere on it has a sticker that says “made in China.”

Is it fair for me to trust something more that is made in Korea than China? Are wages higher and therefor reflect in better workmanship? Our perception of a product’s quality based on their origin is interesting. I know I trust Japanese made cameras before say, Chinese. However, I hadn’t really considered too much about Korean products and their quality factor.

It was these little things that seemed to be nicer. Things seemed more legit and certainly less fake.

The tap water at my hotel tested good enough to drink. I ate raw oysters on the street in a busy shopping district. This is something I probably wouldn’t do in most places in China. In general, raw seafood and Asia (with the obvious exception of Japan) don’t always mix well.

The feeling in the streets of Seoul was also much different than in other parts of Asia. I saw young girls drinking beer and smoking cigarettes in the in the streets, acting independently of men and seemingly free from some of the other social pressures which often change the behavior of the female population in North Asia.

The shopping culture I associate with Shanghai and Hong Kong was here in full swing.

In the very famous Myeongdong Market, you can buy almost any main brand western item from North Face to Adidas. DVDs even looked real — and cost similar to the price of a United States DVD (roughly $14), opposed to in China where DVDs are always fake and usually cost about $1.50 (and might be in the wrong language).

This area actually fits the stereotypical notion of what westerns think Asian shopping areas are like. Neon signs lining the streets actually creating enough light to illuminate the ground for shoppers.

And while the maze of streets is lined from top to bottom with outlet stores, hip brands and restaurants — the actual street filled up with small vendors and street food. I thought this was a great balance and made the market very lively. I also noticed some of the strangest street food I have ever seen. A lot of really weird looking things.

My hotel room was said to be a boutique 5-star resort. A couple times a year in Asia I try to visit a place like this. I book a nice hotel room in some country, and see what US $300 will get me. And here in Korea, it actually does get you something that you might pay $1000 for in the US. For 2300 RMB my room had a private relaxation pool, two showers, one bathroom, separate living room, office, bar and coffee center, wardrobe room, and a bedroom with a king size bed. The entire suite was 70 square meters and was surrounded by 180 degree views over looking Seoul, with remote controlled curtains.

While $300 isn’t exactly cheap, this room could have been at least four times as much in the West — and with this view, pending which city it was in — even more. With boutique hotels in Asia you usually get more bang for you buck than in the West, but often some of the details are missing. Here in Seoul, the service and standards actually matched what I would expect from the west.

The icing on the cake for me, in how “with it” Korea seems — is WiFi access. The city has created a network which actually covered everywhere I went (granted I didn’t make it to the outskirts or even close). The internet and communication has become so much a part of our lives (some of us … more than others) its really nice to see a city take the initiative to create access for a moving population that is so expansive.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on culture here. There’s are just mere observations from spending 22 hours in this city. Now that I have a taste for Korea, I would love to go back and travel to more rural areas to have a look at how quick some of these factors fade, as you move away from the capital.

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is a response from a comment from a guest blog I wrote for DSLR News Shooter. See the original post here.

After finishing a couple projects for the New York Times and some shorter video pieces, I had the opportunity to do some long form video journalism for the Asia Society, once again on the topic of desertification (this now being the 14th video I’ve made on the subject).

The threat of desertification is an issue of global concern. In China, expanding deserts are taking a heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of citizens all across the world’s most populous country. China lost approximately 660,000 squares miles of land to deserts between 2005 and 2009 alone.

While there is not one single solution to combating desertification, Kulun Qi, a dry area in northeastern Inner Mongolia, has shown signs of hope that may eventually work as an example to others adversely affected by encroaching deserts around the world.

At the Desert’s Edge documents the trials and tentative successes of a collaborative effort between locals, governmental initiatives and NGOs fighting to combat China’s growing deserts by planting vast barriers of trees.

Cinematic Journalism and the Resell

If you follow this blog, you’ll notice this footage is a re-edit and combination of twelve short videos Kit Gillet and myself made for Shanghai Roots & Shoots and Dragon TV on the Million Tree Project. I think its a good example of how to use your assets as a freelancer.

We had characters and interviews that never made the 12 previous videos, and enough content to make a completely different video with its own monetary and intrinsic value. Clients frequently ask, and sometimes demand “exclusivity.” When I say, this cost a lot more they don’t understand and are sometimes largely put off by it. However, as freelancers, our images are our assets and repackaging and reselling content can make a real difference in our incomes.

While the other videos were “short and sweet” – this one is on the long side. The request came in for a 10-minute video which was at first was a bit intimidating.

However, when you start piecing together a video, 10 minutes does go pretty quick. However, for Web purposes I believe it is on the long side. The challenge here is creating something that isn’t boring, not rushed and can hold a viewers interest for 10 minutes without them clicking on another page. Admittedly, this might be impossible.

Do people watch 10-minute videos online?

When it comes to Hulu or other online movie sites the answer is, yes. However, with news videos I believe the 10-minute mark is pretty steep.

In a recent review of Kessler Crane’s Pocket Dolly on DSLR Newsshooter, photographer Chris Gibbs commented on the film:

If I have one comment it would be about the use of these sliders. I just don’t appreciate the effect in journalism. Furthermore, over the web, the effect rarely plays back satisfactory. Just an observation from a viewers perspective!

While Chris is directly referring to the slider, I think he may be refering to cinematic news in general. Is it ok to use a jib for a news report? If I decide to setup a dolly, am I changing what’s actually happening? Are you tricking the audience? Is it less truthful? I think these are all valid questions and I can sympathize with the old-school photojournalism view here. However, the fact that people don’t follow the news and do follow movies is a good symbol to me that we need to make (as Dan Chung so elegantly says) “real life look as good as cinema,” if we are going to keep a modern audience involved with current events.

Nothing in my films is ever “setup” to the extent I tell people what to do. However, I might setup my gear with anticipation of something happening. The more you film and shoot the more predictable shots become and the better you can get at creating a cinema style news report.

Nonetheless, I think its important to think about Chris’ point in order to keep ourselves in check. Cinematic news is a fine balance between recording events with precision, without changing them and making things exciting to watch. When the photographer starts changing reality, thats when we’ve gone too far.

On the other side, if we make news videos which audience members don’t watch — then we have achieved nothing at all, except for wasting our time and someone else’s money. When the assignment came in to make a 10-minute video, it was obvious to me I had to make the video a little more cinematic than the traditional “man in front of camera” talking video, simply in order to get people to continue to watch without clicking off.

Chris has some beautiful images from Alaska and beyond. Check out his site here.

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As a video journalist I’m frequently approached by people asking me to come film — whatever it is they have that’s going on. A Chinese rock band, a new brand or some really exciting business conference are the usual suspects. These people often think their event would be so fun to film, that I would love to do it — for free.

Sadly these people are mistaken, and generally speaking whatever guest speaker is at the “Annual Chinese Conference of Bilateral Business” is not actually that interesting.

However, last week while at a small bar in Beijing a Québécoise approached me and told me he had built a device out of a tricycle that could paint Chinese characters on the ground with water droplets as it was peddled. I stopped for a second and thought about it and my first question was — why?

And his answer was … “because!”

Meet French Canadian Media Artist Nicholas Hanna. This guy decided to build a device for no reason, that doesn’t really serve a clear purpose. So, I decided, this would also be a good time to create a video just “because.”

I wanted to keep it short, sweet and corky. An afternoon filming, a weird soundtrack with an upright bass and a didgeridoo and some editing and we had this fun device on film.

Ironically, I found the best way to film this strange contraption — was on another tricycle, peddled by the days assistant Annie Sallaberry. Now picture both of these tricycles peddling through the old streets of Beijing and you can imagine we were quite the spectacle. As we filmed, people would actually just start following us down the street as if we were the Pied Piper of Chinese people.

As working visual journalists I think its a really great exercise do go out and shoot stuff for fun. Its really easy to get in the habit of only shooting when working. But this two day project was a lot of fun and helped me get back to my roots a bit. It reminded me why we do this in the first place — because its fun.

So — for no reason at all, enjoy.

Kit List for this Project:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Canon EOS 60D
• Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
• Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
• Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
• Franken-Rig made from Ikan, Genus, Jag35 and Zacuto parts.
• Kessler Krane Pocket Dolly v2.0, Traveler Size
• Kessler Crane All Terrain Outrigger Feat
• Rhode NTG Shotgun Condenser Microphone
• Pearlstone Universal Shock Mount
• Sony UHF Wireless Lavalier System
• Zoom H4n Mobile Handycam Audio Recorder
• (2x) Manfrotto 190Cx Carbon Fibre Q90 4-section Tripod
• F-Stop Satori Expedition Pack
• F-Stop Tilopa Expedition Pack
• (3x) F-Stop ICU (small, medium, large)
• Blackrapids RS-7 R-Strap

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This post was originally written for Dan Chung’s DSLR News shooter blog.

On a recent assignment for the New York Times I was tasked with filming a filmmaker.

I’d taken portraits of photographers before, but I had never filmed a filmmaker. Its hard not to have a little bit of anxiety when you know the person you are filming not only knows what you are doing, but has their own opinion on how to do it.

The idea was to create a behind-the-scenes video that describes how Chinese filmmaker Zhao Liang makes his films.

The first step was getting my hands on his films, which wasn’t the easiest thing, given his films are not available in China. Your first question might be — why aren’t Zhao’s films available in China? If you get your hands on one of them the reasons for their unavailability will become pretty clear. For the most part, the content of Zhao’s films is not exactly the type of material the Chinese government wants you to see.

I have discussed previously that I am not necessarily a documentarian, but as a visual journalist working with cinematic storytelling the two fields are certainly not too far off. Regardless of how you work with video, I believe Zhao’s films can teach us all something.

On my first screenings, I though Zhao’s films didn’t necessarily have “beautiful photography”. Even from the samples of the films I used for my video, you can tell most of his films are not multi-million dollar productions or maybe not even multi-thousand dollar productions. These are truly grassroots-style productions that often use gorilla-style photographic techniques.

While the photography isn’t necessarily beautiful, it is in fact extremely powerful, which in itself, I would consider beautiful.

As an image maker, I spend so much of my time trying to compose beautiful images that I had to spend some time thinking about why I felt these images were so powerful. I think the answer comes in the relationship between your content and your images.

Zhao’s films show a truthful view of China, rarely seen. The raw video footage makes the truths and injustices he reveals even more real. Let’s say that Zhao was about to use jibs, dollies or even regular tripod use while filming — the visuals would feel way more contrived. There is some tripod use, but a large majority of this footage is handheld and there’s quite a bit of shakiness to it.

These things are a bit counter-intuitive to a lot of us who spend half our day thinking about gear; however, the effect is one that should be applauded. Not only does Zhao let the footage speak for itself in a digital age, the raw nature of the images actually reaffirm the stories he is telling.

I would describe Zhao’s films as having a “slower pace.” He’s not in a rush to tell his stories. You can tell this — even by the mere fact he spent 12 years filming his movie “Petition.” However, I believe the slow pace matches that of his characters’ realities. This pace creates the opportunity for the audience to actually experience the reality of his subjects.

To visualize this Zhao has left in some less-than-exciting images and scenes. However, these images are real. There are seemingly very few contrived scenes which many other filmmakers set up to help tell their story.

Videos with an interesting story, but that have boring or disconnected images are clearly not good. Videos with amazing imagery, but broken storylines are also not good. In video journalism and documentary film making, the relationship between our images and stories is what separates great productions from the pack. Whether this means holding back on production level like Zhao has or going the opposite direction — when our images and stories work together, our videos become infinitely more powerful.

And in a world where gear means so much its refreshing to see Zhao showing us that you don’t need a million dollars to make a film with a million dollar impact.

The New York Times, Ai Weiwei and Zhao Liang

While my portion of this project was a “behing the scenes” look of Zhao Liang’s productions, New York Times reporter Ed Wong’s lengthy profile shows a much different side of making films in China. Wong reveals how many believe Zhao has now “switched sides” in order to continue to make films in China. While Zhao is still very respected, his cooperation with the Chinese government on his recent film Together as well as a decision to pull out his film Petition from the Melbourne film festival has cost him friends, including the controversial artist Ai Weiwei, who only recently was released from prison.

The Times included a video from Ai Weiwei along with mine as part of the Ed’s story as well as photography by Beijing based photographers Chi Yinsim and Shiho Fukada.

For journalists, cinephiles, videographers, photographers and documentarians — the piece is very interesting and I encourage all to check it out.

– To read New York Times reporter Ed Wong’s story on Chinese filmmaker Zhao Liang click here.
– To find Zhao Liang’s movie check out dGenerate films web site here.
– To read a follow up to Ed’s story, check out New Yorker writer Richard Brody story “CHINA’S CULTURAL EVOLUTION” here.