An inside look at 1080p: Princeton's first visual journalism group
You may have seen their “Bicker Week in Frist” video - maybe you even laughed out loud and shared it with your friends - but the recently launched visual journalism club on campus, 1080princeton, has a whole lot more in store.
Although the bicker video has been the most popular since the website launched on February 11th, attracting over 1,500 viewers in the first hour posted, the video is actually a deviation from the type of journalism the club generally intends to produce, according to co-founder William Gansa ‘17.
In the video, random undergraduates in the Frist Campus Center were asked to play a word association game with the names of the eleven eating clubs on The Street.
https://vimeo.com/156356094
“We had initially hoped to do something more substantial about bicker, but the clubs were understandably reluctant to let us film in the clubs and to film the actual process,” Gansa said. “The bicker video was sort of a one-off.”
Regardless, it seems that the click-baity, buzzfeed-esque style of the bicker video, released in the midst of the high-stress week of spring bicker, did help spread the word about the new group.
1080p was officially formed in September 2015 by William Gansa ‘17 and Nick Sexton ‘17, with the goal of producing high-quality video features of different groups, stories, and events around campus, as well as offering an alternative outlet for journalism at Princeton. Their team now consists of eight other video-journalists and expects to expand in the coming months.
"We aren't interesting in making ourselves part of the narrative by appearing on camera," Gansa said. "Instead we hope to immerse the viewer in the story--bam, you’re in it, here’s a taste of it, and then you’re out again.”
Although the group does not intend to report on breaking news, they do hope to become a trusted news source for serious issues facing the student body. According to Gansa, the group is currently working on an oral history of the Black Justice League sit-in’s that took place last November.
“We’re hoping to treat it [the BJL video] in a way so that people will have a better understanding of motives on all sides of the argument, and that will also put us squarely in the middle of the campus conversation,” Gansa said.
The name of the organization refers to a full HD video resolution and represents the club’s commitment to producing rigorous, professional quality film and photography.
The club also hopes to provide mentorship and access to equipment for people with less experience in video and photo production.
Gansa said his favorite part of the journalistic process is learning about new subcultures by immersing himself in them.
“The great thing about journalism is that you are forced, when you make a video or when you write an article about anything, to become an expert, to really dive into an attempt to get this understanding of a world that you have had no idea about," Gansa said, "in order to be able to present to other people an empathetic and knowledgeable portrait of whatever it is you’re covering."
-LZM