TNP's Taxi Talk series wins award

The inspiration for their award-winning four-part online series came from American web series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.

The New Paper's Azim Azman, 30, and Noor Ashikin Abdul Rahman, 27, used that to produce a series of stories on taxi drivers here in a simple, yet telling, manner.

The result: Best Digital Package of the Year award at the annual English/Malay/Tamil Media (EMTM) Awards held by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) yesterday.

The series, Taxi Talk, was published in print and online last year.

Mr Azim, who is now with The Straits Times Online, said: "We wanted to get the backstories of taxi drivers, what they eat, their most interesting passengers. We wanted to tell their story."

The process of selecting suitable drivers, experimenting with the filming equipment and finally filming each driver took two months.

Click below to see the Taxi Talk series

 

Miss Ashikin has been doing both print and digital stories for TNP for the last couple of years.

She said: "It was the first time we had attempted filming in this format - putting a GoPro in front, with Azim filming from the back seat and me filming with a third camera.

"I think it is always important to use different devices to tell stories to the readers."

'PROUD'

TNP's Digital and Visual Editor Jonathan Roberts said: "I am immensely proud of Ashikin and Azim. A team of two pulling off a project that usually needs a full film crew deserves respect.

"But more than that, they gave us four great stories that also proved to be a hit with readers."

The Straits Times emerged a big winner yesterday, winning 15 out of the 18 awards.

They include Journalist of the Year (Christopher Tan), Young Journalist of the Year (Chua Siang Yee) and Story of the Year (Irene Tham).

The Business Times clinched Infographics of the Year and Illustration of the Year, thanks to correspondent Kenneth Lim and Infographics Editor Simon Ang respectively.