A film featuring regional press reporters as they learn how to become video journalists, has won an international film award.

The documentary ‘8 Days’ features journalists from the Hull Daily Mail and the Liverpool Echo as they gather footage of Cleveland police re-enacting a press conference and interviews following a bloody murder.

The film picked up the International Independent Award at the International Video Journalism Awards in Berlin, and was filmed by David Dunkley Gyimah, a senior lecturer in digital journalism at the University of Westminster.

David is also the course leader on the Press Association’s Diploma in Video Journalism, and some of the documentary was filmed at PA’s base in Howden.

David said of the film: “I usually shoot cold. There wasn’t any prep. I rarely have time to prep, I always kind of fly by the seat of my pants.

“You have to be very disciplined and only shoot what you know you are going to use. 8 Days is about 15 minutes long and I only shot a total of about 20 or 30 minutes of material.

“When I film, it’s like I’m shooting still pictures.”

David (left) collects his award.
Photo by Vincent Mosch

The film features Hull Daily Mail reporters Katie Knass and Lisa Bingham, sports journalist Charlie Mullan and photojournalist Jack Harland as well as Liverpool Echo multi-media editor John Dempsey.

David’s award was one of eight handed out during a three-day festival in Berlin. All the winning films can be seen at www.videomission.com

David has worked in film and broadcast news for 18 years. In 1994 he joined digital TV station Channel One as one of the first NUJ-accredited video journalists and has since worked for the BBC, Channel 4 News, ABC TV News South Africa and WTN.

In 2005, his broadband website www.viewmagazine.tv won first place at the prestigious Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

He has toured the US lecturing on video journalism, and is working with the Press Association to produce a template for broadband video journalists.