There’s rarely any planning when I shoot video – the fleeting nature of the news and feature stories I cover doesn’t tend to allow for it. That was certainly the case when I wound up on the set of a 3D porn movie recently.

I had initially rejected the idea of shooting video of the project in anticipation of the (copyright) complications which might be associated with gathering footage. But it became clear that the makers of the film were laid back enough to allow me to publicise their latest creation in whatever medium I wished.

And so myself and a reporter spent the afternoon observing the rehearsal and subsequent takes of a fairly tame love-making scene in a faux cave-turned-love-nest adorned with erotic artwork and constructed around a giant phallic fountain.

World’s First 3D Porn? from Ed Jones on Vimeo.

My video equipment is efficiently basic – a Canon 5d Mk II, a tripod and a Sony URX-P1 wireless lapel microphone for interviews. I don’t carry an LCD viewfinder, follow focus rig or external microphone for ambient sound, essentially because I haven’t found the need for these things yet (though I’m sure I may in the future). And for the moment I’m keen to keep my setup minimal, which makes things easier when rapidly switching between stills and video.

I went back and forth between the two formats constantly, trying to build a rough mental storyline for the video while simultaneously censoring what I shot in anticipation of the cultural sensitivities of AFP‘s global clientèle. I didn’t intend to document two and a half minutes of pixellated bodies writhing around the love-cave in its entirety, but hopefully to capture something more subtle and tongue-in-cheek.

As usual I successfully managed to ruin a couple of great shots by being indecisive and pressing the shutter in the middle of a video sequence for fear of missing an endearing photo – but once I got myself in check I was able to methodically gather the material, helped by the repetitive nature of the rehearsals and takes.

Once the safe shots were out of the way and I knew I had enough video to construct something watchable, I turned my attention to capturing more candid moments and began planning the positions for the interviews.

In the past I have conducted the interviews myself, but this time I coordinated with the reporter and we agreed an interview method. We would pause in between questions, allowing me to change camera angles, and the interviewee would start the answers with the question, providing more complete soundbites.

I have tried this approach before and found that too many interruptions can impede a natural-sounding interview. But for my Japanese adult video subjects, accustomed to fornicating on film, the sight of my less-than-intimidating lens was no cause for a sudden bout of self-consciousness.

Sony Radio mics were all that was used for sound

Despite the noisy surroundings, the URX-P1 wireless lapel mic I had brought along was more than sufficient to isolate excellent sound quality from the interviews; I had adjusted the levels in the camera manually first. Ambient sound quality using the camera’s built-in microphone was not really a concern, as I knew that the eventual voiceover would be the more prominent sound.

In any case, the relatively narrow dynamic range of the built-in mic was actually helpful in cutting out some of the less welcome low and high frequencies found on a busy film set in a reverberating warehouse.

Upon return to the office I immediately turned around a ‘webclip’ of the day’s footage, as the text and photos were slated to move to clients with the following morning’s features. A ‘webclip’ is a short, simple, 30-60 second series of unvoiced shots featuring descriptive captions that clients can embed within a website or cut with other footage to supplement a story.

The final video would be sent to broadcast and internet-based clients two days later on Monday, which left me the weekend to write a script and prepare three versions of the video: one voiced (complete with voiceover), one for natural sound (for foreign language translations), and one for web clients – the version which affords the most creativity because it is not likely to be altered or re-edited (like the previous two), but rather embedded within websites.

After ruthlessly culling all unnecessary information and sound bites from the script, it was sent to the news desk for subbing. Then I recruited two colleagues to provide the English language voices of the actors in my interviews and added my own voice to the rest of the sequence.

Ed Jones with his Canon 5DmkII kit

From the camera, the video files were downsized into a more manageable and editable 720 x 1280 format using the pro-res codec. The footage was edited in Final Cut Pro, using almost no colour correction, grading or ‘looks’. Minor levels adjustments were made to some shots, and compression was added to the voiceovers. Finally the sequence was exported using Final Cut Pro’s Compressor, keeping the dimensions but changing the codec to H.264.

Once this was done, a dopesheet detailing dates, names, a shotlist, and a transcription of the script and interviews was embedded in the IPTC information of the video file, before being handed over to the AFP TV department who checked everything over before beaming the package to the agency’s subscribers.

As the video hit the wires, I was able to watch the climax of a frantic weekend, as my own low-budget production popped up on websites, and hopefully TVs around the world. Other AFP bureaus in Europe, South America, and the Middle East were able to translate the feature for clients in their regions, giving added momentum to my two-minute insight into what is probably the world’s first 3D porn film.

Ed Jones is a staff photographer with AFP.

I arrived in Hong Kong in May 2009 and did what any photographer in the bargain camera capital of the world would do; go shopping – I was keen to get my hands on a video-capable DSLR. Whilst AFP has a deal with Nikon and supplies staff with Nikon equipment, I also have a basic Canon setup of my own. At the time the Nikon D3s had not been released, though an agency-wide upgrade is imminent.

Hong Kong women shrug off tattoo taboo from Ed Jones on Vimeo.

After getting to grips with the DSLR video function, it wasn’t long before I was proposing a video feature to the Hong Kong bureau chiefs. Newspapers have been at it for a while; photographers already gathering video for two or three years perhaps; a timeframe which increasingly seems to constitute ‘a while’ in the conveyor-belt culture of technology and it’s blossoming relationship with the word ‘obsolete’. AFP has been slower to pick up steam with photographer-generated video, but with good reason: the agency already has a television service capable of producing features and a some select news coverage, and until recently the technology was simply not malleable enough to squeeze into the workflow of AFP’s hundreds of photographers without detriment to the very things that keep it competetive: the speed to meet the neverending deadlines of 24 timezones, and unsurprisingly; cost.

Now thanks to some extremely clever chaps in the upper-echelons of the agency, it is possible to transcode, compress, and transmit HD footage from a DSLR to a desk on the other side of the world as fast as a few photos. My latest video-based endeavour was much less demanding: being a feature I had more time, and as such I decided to provide a text story and photos in addition to the video.

I also wanted to see for myself what it would involve to tackle the feature as a full-on multimedia journalist and be self-sufficient in providing the story. Using around two minutes of footage, 500 words, and maybe six photos or more, I would tell a brief story about the increasing number of conservative Hong Kong women getting tattooed. My equipment was as minimal as possible – I wanted gathering the video to be simple and quick: a DSLR body, a tripod, 70-200mm and 17-40mm lenses, a reflector, and an external sennheiser mic — enough to fit in a small camera bag.

Ed with his personal Canon 5DmkII kit

Ambient light in dingy tattoo parlours was a concern, but the reflector and a wide aperture was easily sufficient to keep the interviewees lit. It was the language barriers, the tiny parlours still trading as I conducted my interviews, and actually finding a Hong Kong woman who was conservative enough to be included in the story but liberal enough to talk about her love of ink in English, that proved the toughest challenges.

Unlike shooting news footage where a short period of time must be forecefully divided between gathering photos and video, I found that without these constraints I shot far too much footage; a scattergun approach that meant I ended up with lots of material but not enough real quality. The shooting time of the video comprised of a couple of two-hour video interview and photo-taking sessions, and another two hours to gather extra footage on the street and to return to one of the studios for some action shots.

The editing took a little longer, and was done in small sessions spread inbetween my usual work schedule across five weeks – a delay partly due to the need to comply with the agency’s video style which I was learning for the first time. This meant compiling three different edits of the footage for television and web-based clients. The broadcast version should be able to be re-edited by TV clients, with a package of extra footage in case they should need more choice. No cut-away shots during an interview, and no overlapping audio called for less creative freedom, but essentially retains flexibility for whoever wants to use it. The web version allows much more creativity in the edit so that the product can be directly uploaded to websites with the minimum of intervention. On top of all of this is I have to submit a heavily detailed shotlist, a document explaining when and where all the included shots were taken, and details of the interviewees. The shotlist also includes the text story and the voiceover script as a reference for clients.

Once finished, it was extrememly satisfying to see the story, photos and the video appearing on websites and in publications around the world, and whilst the feature is not as polished as I would have liked, I will refine my approach for future stories – for which I already have a few ideas.

Upon reflection, I feel increasingly fortunate that it is the tools of our trade that are now capable of such attention-grabbing video results – the opportunity to continue to visually record the world firmly cemented in the hands of photographers. From weather features to war stories, the ability and the need to implement video segments into our workflow is here. At AFP photo editors are already handling video alongside pictures. From now on, the challenge for news photographers will be to gather and transmit footage fluently and with the minimum of hassle…and then let the desk worry about it.