What technologies do you love the most?

By Matin Durrani

Here at Physics World, we’ve had a regular programme of videos since 2009, when I led the way into a brave new multimedia world by interviewing the director-general of CERN Rolf-Dieter Heuer. What Heuer had to say was pretty interesting and the question-and-answer format is a common genre among  online videos, but I have to admit that a film of two guys talking to each other while sitting on chairs in an office isn’t the most riveting thing you could ever watch. Even if the chairs were at CERN and one was occupied by the boss of one of the world’s top physics labs.

Since those early days, Physics World has developed and diversified its multimedia efforts, thanks in part to the ideas and inspiration of my colleague James Dacey, who has the rather grand job title of multimedia projects editor. Our content now includes a rolling programme of video documentaries, our 100-second-science strand and even an animation.

What we’ve been trying to do in all cases is to make sure that videos make the most of the format, by having something happen that’s visually arresting, telling a story, showing human emotions, giving a sense of location and – ideally – having some wit or passion. We’ve also started commissioning videos, such as this film about astronomers’ quest for dark skies.

Another thing we’ve done is to buy a decent quality video camera of our own – along with LED lights and a microphone – that we can take when we’re out and about at conferences or events. We’ve used our kit recently at the launch of the International Year of Light in Paris, where we talked to some of the delegates, including the Nobel laureates Stephen Chu and Bill Phillips, in what is known in the trade as a “vox-pop”. My colleague James did most of the filming in Paris while I rounded up people to talk to, but how hard, I wondered, would it be from a technical point of view to record some footage myself?

To find out, James and I headed out one afternoon a couple of weeks ago to Corn Street in the heart of Bristol, where Physics World is based. My goal: to grab members of the public and ask them what technology they love the most. (It’s a question that’s vaguely science-related and one, we thought, most people would have a view on.)

As you can see from the film above, we came across a cast of interesting characters. (All the boring people were presumably at work stuck in offices.) My biggest problem was actually getting the tripod sorted out and remembering to turn the microphone on in time. I also realized how important it is in online films to take plenty of “general views” – footage of where you are that you can cut in between people’s answers and give a flavour of where you are. Then, of course, I had to remember to encourage people to be pithy and concise to camera. It’s also surprising how much attention you get when you set up a tripod and camera in the street.

So while I’ll be the first to admit the film isn’t going to win any Oscars, even if James did edit it, I’m posting it for posterity and to give you a little insight into our approach to film-making.