Kenya: The Graffiti train

screenshot: Nairobi Graffiti Train ( Video : 5D Mark III )

Riding the Graffiti Train

In preparation of the Kenyan elections 2013 the mood was tense with the memories of the 2007 post election violence which cost over a thousand Kenyans their life.

So the scene was full of election prevention programs. State run, private and foreign.

One of the initiatives was a group of Graffiti artists who decided to paint one of the main trains with peace messages, going up and down through one of the major informal settlements of Nairobi. An area that saw a big fallout of the violence during the 2007 elections.

We turned the story around in 2 days. For being a ordinary feature story, we could actually take time with finding the right locations and waiting for the right time of the day. I shot the whole peace virtually out of the hand and only the interviews with a tripod.

The camera we used was a Canon 5D Mark III with a 24-105mm F4 and Image Stabilized. The Canon IS actually is pretty powerful and when handled correctly, you can shoot video almost without tripod.
I only use Tripod for quality pans and interviews, where it would be just too exhausting of holding a camera by hand. But with less and less pans, which always reminded me of the 90ies, i think the necessity of carrying heavy TV Tripods all over the show, is about to vanish.

The piece is by far not perfect. A couple of situations we had to compromise cause subjects where not available at the daytime we would loved to have them but that is feature news, which in the end always comes with a little bit of a compromise. Its not documentary film.

See the whole piece here: http://www.arise.tv/latest/arise-news-27-feb-1183
from 00:08:42 min .

here is the vimeo direct link: https://vimeo.com/61885904