Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
"I've Got So Much Things to Say Right Now..." Bob Marley
We had a meeting with our lecturer on Wednesday 6th May at 4pm. We were on time, we waited outside the door for her to signal our entry. We were asked more questions than we could ask. She saw our footage and some still photographs. At that point we had both captured footage with only one tape outstanding; the one that was shot on the weekend. The 15 minutes was up in a flash and we had no choice but to exit.
After the meeting, we were able to bombard Stephan Noreiga (Photoshop teacher at SBCS) on the steps of the compound (hahahaa), he was able to clear up a few mind boggling principles in After Effects for me, and promised to give us some tutorials. There were a couple of other things carded for that week, but some issues outside of school impeded the process a bit, so the only thing that got accomplished on that weekend was sourcing some Adobe tutorials and researching some elements of design.
On Tuesday 12th May, St Bernard Marcelle and I met at GIS (Government Information Service) to go through and select the archival footage we needed for the documentary. Karlene stayed at school capturing footage we shot over the weekend. It went good, the GIS footage got me very excited and to top it all off, he found some pastries and made me a cup of tea ;) he's so considerate. We were done at approximately 8pm (hence the reason I was hungry). The footage then had to be captured on the following day at the school. Karlene and I also used that time for a production meeting. On Thursday there was something work related to address, so I didn't stay in school, but I dropped by the school or a few minutes, Karlene and I met to finalize plans for the weekend and got a chance to ask Ricardo some questions pertaining to the instruments we would like to hear in the WHT soundtrack.
On Friday 15th May, Karlene's mom dropped off the car for me, so that I could go to Champs Fleur campus to get some work done. I intended to get a couple of hours sleep before going, but I never did. Nevertheless, I got to school at around 9pm and started capturing the main interviews and organizing each of them into bins. (Did I mention that each time Karlene opened up our project it took hours upon hours to conform and index? So we decided to recapture since it may have been because tapes were captured in entirety and captured into different projects). I don't know why I thought that I would have been able to work on other things on my list... like fix the writing on the parchment paper, remove the white background from the parchment paper and add images to the wall... but capturing and 'bin-arizing' as Karlene would say, took the whole night into the next morning and I was only able to capture 4 tapes. The mistake I made was to save the captured tapes on the C drive of one of the computers while my external drive was in use, rendering and exporting the opening montage that I had been working on previously. Before I left, I saved a copy of the project to my hard drive.
I left Champs Fleur Campus for my bed on Saturday morning. Both Karlene and I returned on Saturday afternoon to encounter a series of editing issues.
At about 9:30 that night Ricardo picked us up to take us to the studio with Brian Morris so we could get our soundtrack out of the way. It was the highlight of the day!
Well, on Monday 18th May, my body was literally shaking. I decided to go home and get some rest. I got home after 6pm and took my laptop to bed and sourced some photos and worked on the logo for a bit before falling asleep with laptop on stomach.
The next day Karlene and I headed to Champs Fleur. Her task was to work on the rough and mine to cut the archive footage into the bits and pieces that we would need to build the wall that we were going to play it on; build the Photoshop walls that were going to be used in both the opening and the archive footage, capture all the Patwa dialogue so that we can get the translation and if I had time, I wanted to work on promo items, I was excited to develop some of the ideas I had.
Karlene and I had a chance to discuss how we were going to divide our work.
Karlene - colour correction on the edit (Karlene started this); audio; music and sound.
Rhian - effects and transitions on the edit; lower thirds and other titles and text for the edit; credits; subtitles (we were both insisting that the other does this for different reasons, but Karlene didn't feel like she could do it especially with the edit (which can be a burden considering that we were off to a late start, so it was decided that I would); flyers; call cards; cartoon effect for GIS footage; poster; dvd jacket; dvd stamp; and I would attend the Encore class.
We left the school on Wednesday in time for our meeting with Ms Sampson. Prior to leaving the school, we tried rendering the project, but it wouldn't work, so we left early to go to POS to render before our meeting. It still hadn't rendered. I had gotten most of the things that I had set out to do except that I got stuck with After Effects on the wall, I just could not get it to work, so I never did get to working on the promotional items.
The next day I finished work at 7:15pm, it was a long hectic day! It was particularly demanding because we are at a very busy period and I was taking a week vacation. Considering the circumstances, I thought I was lucky to have left that early. I then wanted to go home instead of school because of safety (having to walk through Woodbrook to get to school as opposed to taking a taxi on Wrightson Road to go home) and because I felt that by the time I got to the school and settled in, I would not have sufficient time to accomplish anything, but if I went home I'll be able to work on the items that needed to be printed. I called Karlene, but she preferred that we met in school. It worked out because I got there safely and was able to catch Ms Sampson in school and have her show me how to use a mic in Premiere to do a voice over to create subtitles. Karlene and I weren't in agreement with what should be done first. She wanted the items for the documentary done, while I felt that the items for the printers should be done first. The items for the documentary came first because it needed to be timed appropriately.
The following night was definately a Champs Fleur night. I got there around 10pm and went straight to work. I did the graphics for the lower thirds and the other text titles for the documentary and created cuts and sequences for the footage in Patwa. I got nowhere with After Effects. I desperately needed guidance, because I couldn't figure out what was going wrong.
Saturday was a productive After Effects day. I forgot the writing sequence for a bit and worked on the wall. I felt good. It wasn't complete, but it was looking up. Stephan told me he would take a look at what I may have been doing incorrectly on Sunday.
Sunday 24th May, was a productive voice over day. I met with Nnamdi at 2pm and we began the voice over session. I thought it would have taken approximately two or three hours, I had planned to meet with Stephan after, to see if he could help me to sort out the After Effects issues. So I filled in all the subtitles. The typing part was easy. The lining up part was really time consuming, particularly because I don't speak the language, but luckily there are some words that I was able to identify which help in the lining up of text and voice.
On Monday it was strictly After Effects for me. I really wanted to attend the Encore classes, but it was decided that it may not be the best thing to do right now as time was of the essence. Nevertheless, I added animated the photos on the wall and later that night Stephan came by to look at the writing sequence I was trying to create in After Effects. The problem that I was trying to use particles to turn text into sand that blows away, but the machines would need more RAM. As a matter of fact, the machine we were using kept cutting off. So I abandoned the sand idea, and it was for the best. I'm glad he came to take a look.
The cartoon effect was carded for Tuesday, but it was abandoned eventually as well, it wasn't working with the footage. I pulled some photos and did 85% of a poster.
Ofcourse Wednesday met us in school. The footage of people speaking Patwa had to be imported into the main project that Karlene was working on and the subtitles had to be included. This was frustrating, because we now had to use another machine to open up the subtitled sequences from my drive while filling in on another machine that had Karlene's drive. I was also able to add the lower thirds (I didn't like how it looked, so I showed it to Karlene who agreed and we took it out) I also added some of other chapter titles. We also had a meeting with Ms Sampson that day, so at around 4:15pm we headed off to POS, we also had to submit the opening montage and the edited piece that Karlene was working on. On Wednesday night we slept.
The next morning I was up bright and early. I wanted to finish the logo and the other printed pieces. Most importantly, I really wanted to do the Encore class as I felt we needed it, and if I had to use the software then I would need to at least have a fair understanding of what I was expected to do. Tutorials help, but that explanation you get in a classroom setting is priceless. (especially from dem Sampson lecturers). I finished the logo, designed the Encore menu and started a poster. Yippee! I felt good. This meant that everything else could be completed. Karlene and I kept missing each others calls that day. When I got to school, she had also started a poster. Communication barrier. She thought I needed help, but I thought that it was on my list, so I'm doing it while she will work on the edit. It was good, because hers was more of a movie type poster, while mine was more informative. The Encore class was understandable, so that was good. That night I started working on the dvd stamp.
On Friday 29th May, the dvd stamp was completed and sent to be pressed. I collected it on Friday afternoon. I had intentions of working on the other items that had to be sent to print, but decided not to. The printers assured me that I can get it on Monday, so I went to Champs Fleur campus and completed the bele, stick-fighting, jab-jab, jab-molasie, pierrot grenade and dame lorraine walls for the edit and I fixed the wall and writing sequence of the opening montage. For some reason I could not get to view the movies. I left on Saturday morning, I got two hours sleep and headed out to attend to a work related matter.
Saturday 30th May. Time drawing near, I worked on the poster, flyers and did a long draft for this blog :) Couldn't find an end so I didn't post. It became really hard to blog since so much time was spent using school computers that we couldn't blog from. The next day Karlene and I went to Champs Fleur, she worked on the edit and I completed all the walls and rendered them and I edited the extra pieces for the dvd: the patwa piece and the Q&A. Ms Sampson came by to help us sort out the problems we were experiencing with the machines. I left Karlene there at 2am as I had work the next morning.
On Monday night we went back to Champs Fleur. Karlene got there before me. I did the credits and researched comment cards. I think they are really important for the report that we have to submit and they needed to give us accurate information, but not be too lengthy for viewers. I added the new lower thirds to the documentary, changed some of the titles. Then went back to drafting a comment card.
On Tuesday night, it was crazy, the machine never stopped choking. At one point I was able to work on the edit adding the video walls and tweeking the edit while Karlene sourced various sounds. Navid and Kyron helped us out a bit. Navid came and sorted out some audio editing issues we had. And while I was rending the entire piece a few seconds at a time (it was the only way it could be done) Kyron was there to press Ctrl S and Enter while I slept on myself. Thanks guys. Navid also sorted things out with Encore and showed me a neat short cut. All in all we made it and I will be sleeping tonight for the first time in I don't know how long.
After the meeting, we were able to bombard Stephan Noreiga (Photoshop teacher at SBCS) on the steps of the compound (hahahaa), he was able to clear up a few mind boggling principles in After Effects for me, and promised to give us some tutorials. There were a couple of other things carded for that week, but some issues outside of school impeded the process a bit, so the only thing that got accomplished on that weekend was sourcing some Adobe tutorials and researching some elements of design.
On Tuesday 12th May, St Bernard Marcelle and I met at GIS (Government Information Service) to go through and select the archival footage we needed for the documentary. Karlene stayed at school capturing footage we shot over the weekend. It went good, the GIS footage got me very excited and to top it all off, he found some pastries and made me a cup of tea ;) he's so considerate. We were done at approximately 8pm (hence the reason I was hungry). The footage then had to be captured on the following day at the school. Karlene and I also used that time for a production meeting. On Thursday there was something work related to address, so I didn't stay in school, but I dropped by the school or a few minutes, Karlene and I met to finalize plans for the weekend and got a chance to ask Ricardo some questions pertaining to the instruments we would like to hear in the WHT soundtrack.
On Friday 15th May, Karlene's mom dropped off the car for me, so that I could go to Champs Fleur campus to get some work done. I intended to get a couple of hours sleep before going, but I never did. Nevertheless, I got to school at around 9pm and started capturing the main interviews and organizing each of them into bins. (Did I mention that each time Karlene opened up our project it took hours upon hours to conform and index? So we decided to recapture since it may have been because tapes were captured in entirety and captured into different projects). I don't know why I thought that I would have been able to work on other things on my list... like fix the writing on the parchment paper, remove the white background from the parchment paper and add images to the wall... but capturing and 'bin-arizing' as Karlene would say, took the whole night into the next morning and I was only able to capture 4 tapes. The mistake I made was to save the captured tapes on the C drive of one of the computers while my external drive was in use, rendering and exporting the opening montage that I had been working on previously. Before I left, I saved a copy of the project to my hard drive.
I left Champs Fleur Campus for my bed on Saturday morning. Both Karlene and I returned on Saturday afternoon to encounter a series of editing issues.
- Premiere Pro wouldn't open on the computer that the project was stored on
- The project that was stored on my drive showed missing links and couldn't be used
- Ms Sampson guided us on what to do to get the computer started and to do the Save As to get the project on my drive, after which we were to transfer it to Karlene's drive from another computer as the one I used initially did not have the capacity to hold any additional files (we eventually had to delete the project from the computer's C drive)
- The project took forever to open on my drive
- When it opened and we attempted to transfer it to Karlene's drive, it took a few hours
- When Karlene was about to start working it got stuck
- Ms Sampson had to come over to sort us out. Turns out Karlene's drive did not have sufficient space and to top it off, we captured in the wrong HD mode
- Stephan came by to drop off the tutorials he promised us and I was able to figure out where and why I was stuck with the opening sequence
At about 9:30 that night Ricardo picked us up to take us to the studio with Brian Morris so we could get our soundtrack out of the way. It was the highlight of the day!
Well, on Monday 18th May, my body was literally shaking. I decided to go home and get some rest. I got home after 6pm and took my laptop to bed and sourced some photos and worked on the logo for a bit before falling asleep with laptop on stomach.
The next day Karlene and I headed to Champs Fleur. Her task was to work on the rough and mine to cut the archive footage into the bits and pieces that we would need to build the wall that we were going to play it on; build the Photoshop walls that were going to be used in both the opening and the archive footage, capture all the Patwa dialogue so that we can get the translation and if I had time, I wanted to work on promo items, I was excited to develop some of the ideas I had.
Karlene and I had a chance to discuss how we were going to divide our work.
Karlene - colour correction on the edit (Karlene started this); audio; music and sound.
Rhian - effects and transitions on the edit; lower thirds and other titles and text for the edit; credits; subtitles (we were both insisting that the other does this for different reasons, but Karlene didn't feel like she could do it especially with the edit (which can be a burden considering that we were off to a late start, so it was decided that I would); flyers; call cards; cartoon effect for GIS footage; poster; dvd jacket; dvd stamp; and I would attend the Encore class.
We left the school on Wednesday in time for our meeting with Ms Sampson. Prior to leaving the school, we tried rendering the project, but it wouldn't work, so we left early to go to POS to render before our meeting. It still hadn't rendered. I had gotten most of the things that I had set out to do except that I got stuck with After Effects on the wall, I just could not get it to work, so I never did get to working on the promotional items.
The next day I finished work at 7:15pm, it was a long hectic day! It was particularly demanding because we are at a very busy period and I was taking a week vacation. Considering the circumstances, I thought I was lucky to have left that early. I then wanted to go home instead of school because of safety (having to walk through Woodbrook to get to school as opposed to taking a taxi on Wrightson Road to go home) and because I felt that by the time I got to the school and settled in, I would not have sufficient time to accomplish anything, but if I went home I'll be able to work on the items that needed to be printed. I called Karlene, but she preferred that we met in school. It worked out because I got there safely and was able to catch Ms Sampson in school and have her show me how to use a mic in Premiere to do a voice over to create subtitles. Karlene and I weren't in agreement with what should be done first. She wanted the items for the documentary done, while I felt that the items for the printers should be done first. The items for the documentary came first because it needed to be timed appropriately.
The following night was definately a Champs Fleur night. I got there around 10pm and went straight to work. I did the graphics for the lower thirds and the other text titles for the documentary and created cuts and sequences for the footage in Patwa. I got nowhere with After Effects. I desperately needed guidance, because I couldn't figure out what was going wrong.
Saturday was a productive After Effects day. I forgot the writing sequence for a bit and worked on the wall. I felt good. It wasn't complete, but it was looking up. Stephan told me he would take a look at what I may have been doing incorrectly on Sunday.
Sunday 24th May, was a productive voice over day. I met with Nnamdi at 2pm and we began the voice over session. I thought it would have taken approximately two or three hours, I had planned to meet with Stephan after, to see if he could help me to sort out the After Effects issues. So I filled in all the subtitles. The typing part was easy. The lining up part was really time consuming, particularly because I don't speak the language, but luckily there are some words that I was able to identify which help in the lining up of text and voice.
On Monday it was strictly After Effects for me. I really wanted to attend the Encore classes, but it was decided that it may not be the best thing to do right now as time was of the essence. Nevertheless, I added animated the photos on the wall and later that night Stephan came by to look at the writing sequence I was trying to create in After Effects. The problem that I was trying to use particles to turn text into sand that blows away, but the machines would need more RAM. As a matter of fact, the machine we were using kept cutting off. So I abandoned the sand idea, and it was for the best. I'm glad he came to take a look.
The cartoon effect was carded for Tuesday, but it was abandoned eventually as well, it wasn't working with the footage. I pulled some photos and did 85% of a poster.
Ofcourse Wednesday met us in school. The footage of people speaking Patwa had to be imported into the main project that Karlene was working on and the subtitles had to be included. This was frustrating, because we now had to use another machine to open up the subtitled sequences from my drive while filling in on another machine that had Karlene's drive. I was also able to add the lower thirds (I didn't like how it looked, so I showed it to Karlene who agreed and we took it out) I also added some of other chapter titles. We also had a meeting with Ms Sampson that day, so at around 4:15pm we headed off to POS, we also had to submit the opening montage and the edited piece that Karlene was working on. On Wednesday night we slept.
The next morning I was up bright and early. I wanted to finish the logo and the other printed pieces. Most importantly, I really wanted to do the Encore class as I felt we needed it, and if I had to use the software then I would need to at least have a fair understanding of what I was expected to do. Tutorials help, but that explanation you get in a classroom setting is priceless. (especially from dem Sampson lecturers). I finished the logo, designed the Encore menu and started a poster. Yippee! I felt good. This meant that everything else could be completed. Karlene and I kept missing each others calls that day. When I got to school, she had also started a poster. Communication barrier. She thought I needed help, but I thought that it was on my list, so I'm doing it while she will work on the edit. It was good, because hers was more of a movie type poster, while mine was more informative. The Encore class was understandable, so that was good. That night I started working on the dvd stamp.
On Friday 29th May, the dvd stamp was completed and sent to be pressed. I collected it on Friday afternoon. I had intentions of working on the other items that had to be sent to print, but decided not to. The printers assured me that I can get it on Monday, so I went to Champs Fleur campus and completed the bele, stick-fighting, jab-jab, jab-molasie, pierrot grenade and dame lorraine walls for the edit and I fixed the wall and writing sequence of the opening montage. For some reason I could not get to view the movies. I left on Saturday morning, I got two hours sleep and headed out to attend to a work related matter.
Saturday 30th May. Time drawing near, I worked on the poster, flyers and did a long draft for this blog :) Couldn't find an end so I didn't post. It became really hard to blog since so much time was spent using school computers that we couldn't blog from. The next day Karlene and I went to Champs Fleur, she worked on the edit and I completed all the walls and rendered them and I edited the extra pieces for the dvd: the patwa piece and the Q&A. Ms Sampson came by to help us sort out the problems we were experiencing with the machines. I left Karlene there at 2am as I had work the next morning.
On Monday night we went back to Champs Fleur. Karlene got there before me. I did the credits and researched comment cards. I think they are really important for the report that we have to submit and they needed to give us accurate information, but not be too lengthy for viewers. I added the new lower thirds to the documentary, changed some of the titles. Then went back to drafting a comment card.
On Tuesday night, it was crazy, the machine never stopped choking. At one point I was able to work on the edit adding the video walls and tweeking the edit while Karlene sourced various sounds. Navid and Kyron helped us out a bit. Navid came and sorted out some audio editing issues we had. And while I was rending the entire piece a few seconds at a time (it was the only way it could be done) Kyron was there to press Ctrl S and Enter while I slept on myself. Thanks guys. Navid also sorted things out with Encore and showed me a neat short cut. All in all we made it and I will be sleeping tonight for the first time in I don't know how long.
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Curse of the Rainy Interviews
Would you believe that while capturing footage, I sat at another computer and typed my post for the week, and as usual I read and re-read the post 'thrice' and then I hit 'publish', then 'view blog' and taadaa... the title of the post was there, and the post wasn't?!! It was disappointingly magical! I still don't know what happened.
So here it goes again (it's going to be a shorter version though).
On Saturday (2nd May) we had a production meeting at school, we also used the time to capture and exchange footage. We also made plans for Sunday.
On Sunday (3rd May) the plan was:
So here it goes again (it's going to be a shorter version though).
On Saturday (2nd May) we had a production meeting at school, we also used the time to capture and exchange footage. We also made plans for Sunday.
On Sunday (3rd May) the plan was:
- Get to Paramin at 8:30am to get some b-roll footage
- At 1:00pm Nnamdi will meet us in Paramin where we will conduct his interview
- At 2:00pm the rest of the Patwa speaking Paramin crew will join us so we can capture some Patwa in linguistic action
- At 4:00pm, pack up and head for home.
- We got to Paramin at 9:00am and got some b-roll footage, but unfortunately we couldn't get up the hills to get the other things we wanted.
- At 10:30-ish we decided that we would go downtown to get some vox-pops. Those were fun! Until a guy approached us to be on camera and expected to be paid, when he realized that we were serious about not paying him, he asked for a $10 contribution. He obviously did not know who he was dealing with, so he was dismissed. NB We did not interview him because we were not interested in the first place.
- At 11:30-ish, there was a down pour of rain. This meant that we could not go to Paramin because the shoot was scheduled to be outdoors.
- We decided to intercept the 1:00pm interviewee - Nnamdi - so we could meet him at his home in St Augustine instead of having him go to Paramin. After many attempts to contact him via telephone, we were successful and headed to St Augustine
- When we got there, we set up and as soon as we were ready to begin shooting, a down pour of rain came. The sound of it was unbelieveable! (Did I mention that midway through our interview with Holly it rained excessively and though it sounded good on the headphone when it was captured in Premiere it sounded horrendous).
- We learnt our lesson and waited for the rain to stop. Fortunately Nnamdi had scheduled that time for us any way, so we kept him entertained with some editing tips. The rain didn't stop until about 3:30-ish. At 4:30-ish we were packing up to head to the west.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Shado Beni is Shado Beni
Did you know that Shadow Beni is a Patwa name? See? Some words of the language still exist today, and we don't even realize it. Anyway, our plan for Saturday (25 April, 2009) was to go to the market for 6:30 am; go to our school's open house from 10:00 am to noon; go to Santa Cruz to get b-roll footage and get some vox-pops if we can.
Well, we went to the market! It was nice! Got some other people who speak Patwa; a vox-pop; and some translations of items sold in the market (and the translations included shado beni haahaa).
We stayed on longer than expected at the open house, but we didn't mind. And at 5:00 pm-ish, we called it a day. And decided that on Sunday we would try to get the footage that we didn't shoot on Saturday.
On Sunday (26 April, 2009) we went to Santa Cruz to get the footage we wanted and intended to go to Paramin, but we met heavy bumper to bumper traffic that came from nowhere. We decided that we would do Paramin on another day, and instead, we got the b-roll footage we needed from around town, Woodbrook and the Botanical Gardens.
Well, we went to the market! It was nice! Got some other people who speak Patwa; a vox-pop; and some translations of items sold in the market (and the translations included shado beni haahaa).
We stayed on longer than expected at the open house, but we didn't mind. And at 5:00 pm-ish, we called it a day. And decided that on Sunday we would try to get the footage that we didn't shoot on Saturday.
On Sunday (26 April, 2009) we went to Santa Cruz to get the footage we wanted and intended to go to Paramin, but we met heavy bumper to bumper traffic that came from nowhere. We decided that we would do Paramin on another day, and instead, we got the b-roll footage we needed from around town, Woodbrook and the Botanical Gardens.
Forgot to Mention Other WIP
As a result of not blogging for some time, I forgot to mention the other aspects of the project that are a WIP (work in progress).
- We were constantly calling NCC Channel 4 to get some archival footage. We were eventually told that we would have to try again after the summit;
- I made contact with a friend who has a friend that may have some footage of Carnival characters that we may be able to use, so hopefully this week he'll be available to see both or one of us to go through the footage. If we get what we need then we may not need to pursue NCC Channel 4;
- Our Audio Consultant will meet with us this week to show us how to build our music bed. We gave him a brief, general idea of what we want it to sound like;
- We have also contacted the last Pierrot Grenade, he agreed to do an interview with us.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Back in the Race
Unfortunately I was out for a while, but I'm back and in good spirits. Work was being done while I was away. It's itemized to make it easy for you.
PART 1 - PARAMIN
We did a shoot in Paramin. Boy was it adventurous, we were taken to heights that was described as "it so high yuh cud touch God foot, but doh tickle 'im... ". Matthew accompanied us, it was the first shoot that we worked on with him and he was an excellent assistant. He was on top of his game, we didn't once have to tell him what to do. And best of all, we were fed, we were priviledged to experience the best tasting spicy Paramin chicken there was, the only thing that was wrong was that it wasn't enough, we should have gotten some to take home :0
We were able to conduct interviews with four persons who have very different Patwa influences and experiences. One of which was extraordinarily compelling, but we didn't know how juicy it was until about a week later (I'll explain as we go along). And, just as we were leaving Paramin that night, we met a real Patwa master and champion bongo singer, we kept the beers coming and the stories kept coming, it was a nice lime and we were lucky to have it recorded. NB to lecturer - we did not engage in the consumption of alcohol and therefore remained sober while thoroughly enjoying the lime. I never got home that night and had to bunk by Karlene. Forgot to mention that we went to build contacts and were supposed to stay for a couple of hours, but because we were prepared, we were able to record lots of valuable information.
PART 2 - SHUT DOWN IN CUREPE
So, the following day Karlene and I set out to St Augustine for two reasons: firstly to get translations for the patwa we recorded and secondly to help one of our contacts with some editing skills etc.
Well, we had experienced a bit of trouble with the car in Paramin, but it worked and we got home. On that day the car worked well, so we headed off to St Augustine. Just as we got to Curepe we decided that we needed to get something to eat and decided to make a right turn to get some Chinese food. Well, we stopped at the traffic lights and the car shut down and couldn't start. Everyone blew us. The car started again and shut down again whilst making the right turn - in the middle of the road. Need I say that horns blew even more aggressively? We were able to make the turn (after a few attempts) and decided to head to the nearest gas station for the car and to get some food for us. Well, we never made it, we were able to get a couple of guys to push us to the side of the road. We postponed our appointment and called it a day. Karlene bamboozled some men at a nearby car-wash, they advised us. We gratefully accepted and headed home.
PART 3 - A 2ND TRY AT ST AUGUSTINE
Karlene had a flight, so I went alone, it was good. We were able to get the translations of the footage that we got. And that's how we learnt of the strange story that one person told. I was constantly told that no one has ever really tried to document Patwa in the way that we have attempted and I realized that that was one of the reasons for everyone's willingness to assist. They are a really good bunch.
PART 4 - HOLLY BETAUDIER
Yes, we interviewed the icon, the man himself. It was indescribable. The stories were captivating. We could have stayed all day. Informative and entertaining. It made up for having to pay for the ticket that Randy got :0 (you are never in control of what comes out of your miscellaneous costs in your budget). Nonetheless it was an enjoyable experience. Holly's wife and puppy were also gems and very accommodating.
It was Randy's first time with us and Matthew's second. We can't complain about those guys.
PART 5 - THE FAILED DOWNTOWN ATTEMPT
Madam Karlene and I attempted to go downtown to get some vox-pops. We were warned by Sherece and Simone that it wasn't such a good idea, but we were too determined. We left the school at around 4:00pm, but there was so much traffic that we didn't get there until after 5pm. It was unbelievable. We called it a day.
PART 6 - THE PATWA CLASS
Karlene (poor thing) had to do this one alone, I had to work. I'm sure she'll report on this.
THE SAGA CONTINUES
Tomorrow we're off to the market to shoot two Patwa speakers from Paramin. It should be very exciting. We'll let you know how it goes.
PART 1 - PARAMIN
We did a shoot in Paramin. Boy was it adventurous, we were taken to heights that was described as "it so high yuh cud touch God foot, but doh tickle 'im... ". Matthew accompanied us, it was the first shoot that we worked on with him and he was an excellent assistant. He was on top of his game, we didn't once have to tell him what to do. And best of all, we were fed, we were priviledged to experience the best tasting spicy Paramin chicken there was, the only thing that was wrong was that it wasn't enough, we should have gotten some to take home :0
We were able to conduct interviews with four persons who have very different Patwa influences and experiences. One of which was extraordinarily compelling, but we didn't know how juicy it was until about a week later (I'll explain as we go along). And, just as we were leaving Paramin that night, we met a real Patwa master and champion bongo singer, we kept the beers coming and the stories kept coming, it was a nice lime and we were lucky to have it recorded. NB to lecturer - we did not engage in the consumption of alcohol and therefore remained sober while thoroughly enjoying the lime. I never got home that night and had to bunk by Karlene. Forgot to mention that we went to build contacts and were supposed to stay for a couple of hours, but because we were prepared, we were able to record lots of valuable information.
PART 2 - SHUT DOWN IN CUREPE
So, the following day Karlene and I set out to St Augustine for two reasons: firstly to get translations for the patwa we recorded and secondly to help one of our contacts with some editing skills etc.
Well, we had experienced a bit of trouble with the car in Paramin, but it worked and we got home. On that day the car worked well, so we headed off to St Augustine. Just as we got to Curepe we decided that we needed to get something to eat and decided to make a right turn to get some Chinese food. Well, we stopped at the traffic lights and the car shut down and couldn't start. Everyone blew us. The car started again and shut down again whilst making the right turn - in the middle of the road. Need I say that horns blew even more aggressively? We were able to make the turn (after a few attempts) and decided to head to the nearest gas station for the car and to get some food for us. Well, we never made it, we were able to get a couple of guys to push us to the side of the road. We postponed our appointment and called it a day. Karlene bamboozled some men at a nearby car-wash, they advised us. We gratefully accepted and headed home.
PART 3 - A 2ND TRY AT ST AUGUSTINE
Karlene had a flight, so I went alone, it was good. We were able to get the translations of the footage that we got. And that's how we learnt of the strange story that one person told. I was constantly told that no one has ever really tried to document Patwa in the way that we have attempted and I realized that that was one of the reasons for everyone's willingness to assist. They are a really good bunch.
PART 4 - HOLLY BETAUDIER
Yes, we interviewed the icon, the man himself. It was indescribable. The stories were captivating. We could have stayed all day. Informative and entertaining. It made up for having to pay for the ticket that Randy got :0 (you are never in control of what comes out of your miscellaneous costs in your budget). Nonetheless it was an enjoyable experience. Holly's wife and puppy were also gems and very accommodating.
It was Randy's first time with us and Matthew's second. We can't complain about those guys.
PART 5 - THE FAILED DOWNTOWN ATTEMPT
Madam Karlene and I attempted to go downtown to get some vox-pops. We were warned by Sherece and Simone that it wasn't such a good idea, but we were too determined. We left the school at around 4:00pm, but there was so much traffic that we didn't get there until after 5pm. It was unbelievable. We called it a day.
PART 6 - THE PATWA CLASS
Karlene (poor thing) had to do this one alone, I had to work. I'm sure she'll report on this.
THE SAGA CONTINUES
Tomorrow we're off to the market to shoot two Patwa speakers from Paramin. It should be very exciting. We'll let you know how it goes.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Propose & Present
Wednesday was the big day for proposing and presenting to the class, and it was recorded by the lecturer. We were a bit nervous, but we were glad that we were 2nd to present. The rules were that we had a maximum of seven minutes to present and after which, our classmates were allowed to ask us a maximum of two questions.
Although we forgot to mention a couple of items, we think that we covered all aspects of the criteria. The two questions directed to us came from Renata: Explain the differences in the spelling of Patois/Patwa; and Kyron: How do we intend to reach our secondary target audience? (Not quoted).
We called a couple of our classmates to find out what they thought about the idea and the presentation, generally everyone said that they liked both the idea and the presentation, in addition to that they also thought that: we would have to do a lot of research; one classmate offered to assist with some footage (it turned out to be unsuccessful) but we really appreciated the gesture; another said that she loved our outfits and didn't realize that lagniappe was Patwa, she explained that before the presentation she was not interested, but now she wants to learn more about it; another said that she didn't think much about it before, but after the presentation she's looking forward to seeing the documentary.
We are pleased about these comments and we look forward to producing an enlightening documentary.
Although we forgot to mention a couple of items, we think that we covered all aspects of the criteria. The two questions directed to us came from Renata: Explain the differences in the spelling of Patois/Patwa; and Kyron: How do we intend to reach our secondary target audience? (Not quoted).
We called a couple of our classmates to find out what they thought about the idea and the presentation, generally everyone said that they liked both the idea and the presentation, in addition to that they also thought that: we would have to do a lot of research; one classmate offered to assist with some footage (it turned out to be unsuccessful) but we really appreciated the gesture; another said that she loved our outfits and didn't realize that lagniappe was Patwa, she explained that before the presentation she was not interested, but now she wants to learn more about it; another said that she didn't think much about it before, but after the presentation she's looking forward to seeing the documentary.
We are pleased about these comments and we look forward to producing an enlightening documentary.
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