What points should be taken into account to picture protest gatherings?

Question

Assuming the scene to be:

The speakers are on a high dais (platform/stage).

The fence is around 12 feet from the dais.

The people are around 10000.

Time is around 10:00 AM.

and the photographer cannot go onto/near the dais.

Questions:

1. What should be an ideal POV (assuming the photographer can't climb a tree)?

2. What (out of speaker/people/anything else) should be considered to be kept in focus (assuming the max zoom optical to be 14x)?

3. Any example as to how to apply rule of thirds in such a gathering? Is it even needed?

4. Any other thing that should be kept in mind regarding shutter speed etc. in this situation?

EDIT 1.

If I am at the back of the crowd, and I want the speakers and the crowd both in the picture, then all I'll be getting is the back of the heads of the crowd. Is it acceptable?

Answer

I can think of two basic approaches:

1. identifying a scene isolated, maybe for a single moment, from the rest of the crowd: think of the "riot kissers" from Vancouver
2. giving a sense of completeness, all the crowd seen together, all the heads closely packed, with a lot of details and a lot of action going on.

From these basic approaches could come the choices to be made (a wide angle will be needed to give a picture of the whole crowd, a tele zoom will help to isolate a single face, gesture, pose, interesting moment). More than the rule of thirds I would care about balancing the crowd in the context of the square/place of reunion: you don't want to fill your frame with the sky losing details of all the people around you.

And, but this goes without saying, it is very important to avoid to get in danger!

ps: if you can't climb a tree, which is not necessarily easy while having the photo gear with oneself, you could always go upstairs, if there are buildings open to the public, no?

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