WPP launches multimedia contest.
Written by David WhiteBut you can’t enter. You must be chosen, magically. At least Ed Kashi is the chair, I feel better now. I have no idea whatsoever though how any pieces are nominated, entered, chosen, judged or ignored. I don’t know when the pieces could have been produced. I don’t know much at all actually, but It is GREAT to see the WPP foundation moving in the direction of accommodating and acknowledging multimedia. My gut feeling is that the selection process will need refining, but wtf do I know.
Press release here.
Discussion (8 Comments)
yes, the lack of transparancy on who can enter and how entries are selected is questionable and will definitely lead to speculations. Will they ask producers to nominate themselves?
… and Tim Herherington!
This is a big step in the right direction!!!
Fair play WPP. More to do but I hope they know this and them on board, I have faith they learn for 2012 and have the courage to face their criticisms openly with confidence.
Good stuff!
Are they nuts?? How would it be possible to know all of the worlds multimedia that has been produced? I just wish i could submit.
Sucks you can’t.
So strange. Oh and why i’m at it, I hate their 1990 website. Makes me cringe every time I see it.
-Ehrin
Definitely a move in the right direction, but honing required methinks. I have just asked Ed for more details as to why this methodology…hopefully we will find out more soon.
Entry… My bet is that the prospect of people sending in 5 hour long
multimedia pieces to a jury who are busy will be the logistical reason.
Idea: Maybe have the jury filter their choices upwards instead of all if them watching? So the jury only watch those that have been filtered in a reverse pyramid so the cream rises to the top?
Either that or a closed entry system. Just guessing mind you why they closed the competition… Some change is good change as I cannot see Ed Kashi struggling to define what photography is in closed rooms of the great and the good.
Kashi and Hetherigton are great choices. Tim in particular with Restrepo and his quite stunning Liberia film. He has always been narratively and functionally driven using the best method to do the job.
I bet by 2013 this part of WPP takes over. Maybe this could be the catalyst the industry needs. Give them time to learn I say and I am critical of the push towards explicitness from WPP and this opens them up to more creative possibilities beyond the limited ideology of stories in 10 or so images.
Reverse pyramid: they split them up with criteria so all entries get watched once by a judge. They edit down then next stage, 2 other judges watch and pass up their edit until they all watch the best final selections. That would be my idea… Otherwise they have to restrict entry and cause controversy?
I just spoke to someone at WWP. I wanted to know who is in the nomination committee. They will not tell until the award days. This to protect them from receiving emails from all over the globe of people wanting to let them know about their project. (just as I would have done). She told me that the people in the nomination have great knowledge in the field of multimedia and the productions that are being made. I would have preferred another selecting procedure but lets give them the benefit of the doubt. It is great that multimedia productions are included after all.
They need a transparent criteria and a published methodology at least.
This is great, they have opened up the genie in the bottle… If they think about it, this is GREAT for photojournalism in all it’s forms!
Some problems are good problems and WPP have a great problem… None of this WPP duckrabbit post Steve Mayes describing intellectual angst nonsense.
Whoever said they have “great knowledge” just put more pressure on the jury… I mean organise yourselves better please WPP and be careful what you say?