Week 1 on 6 - 11 Feb 2012 | Week 2 on 13 - 18 feb 2012 >>

Introduction to the workshop of two weeks.

After the welcome of the General manager Sam, the students started out right away with filming. The assignment was to introduce themself on film, So make a small portrait. In this way you can see right away how the students were handling the camera. It was a good way of getting to know each other. So some students did film nice introductions, but others forget that sound was also important.

So nice shots with a lot of depth of field but much too far away to listen what the person was saying.
After lunch the students watched some of the reports of Tazama TZ and discussed them.
Analysing material is so important for the learning process. It trains the students in finding original angles to a story.
It was a very good first day of the international workshop where the students from Rwanda, Burundi,Kenya and  Tanzania shared their interest in making film.
Homework for the next day: Read a newspaper and look for a good story to tell and give a presentation.

Tuesday:

What makes a good story?

The students started the day with the presentation of the homework; The students have to do a presentation of a chosen topic out of of a newspaper. They have to explain why they want to make a report about it, what they will film and explain what they will see.  

The students were asking questions to the  given presentation, they were pretty critical, and that is good so the student who was given the presentation sharpened his/ her report and views.
In this way they were training in creating angles and thinking in a visual way. Students liked it so much that they decided that every day we will have an hour to discuss their presentations.

At lunchtime students mixing and talking to each other, sharing experience. In the afternoon students recap on the rules of filmmaking. We know that all our students suppose to know this, but still it is important to talk about it briefly. After this trainers give them an assignment in camera work. They had to film a scene and edit it in the camera. So when we preview we had to see the scene right away. They had to work in groups, and that was for some groups a bit of a problem. There was a lot of discussion and talking instead of filming. It was clear that these future filmmakers are passionate and stubborn and have their own way of thinking. Very good characteristics for a filmmaker, but not always easy.

Advanced camera work and story telling
Today students worked on an advanced way of filmmaking. Reality tv.. Why??

• Tazama tz contains a lot of report with topics which cannot be directed but happen in the reality. 
• In is an advanced way of camera work
• It is an advanced way of storytelling.

The students had to work in groups and film a scene of which they did not know what will happen… The first year students of KFI helped us, because they were the actors on our little reality scene we came up with. So the students had to film the scene and do interviews afterwards about the story of the scene. With this assignment they train to adjust the camera quickly because the situations are changing constantly.

They have to think about continuity, and understanding what the story is about.
But also trainers train them in telling a story and they have to make shots that the editor can edit it.
Some of the groups were very good, working together, creating a crew and keep it like that. So the camera operator was the camera operator and listened to the director. In some groups everybody was the director and there was a lot of discussion.
3 editors were making the final edits. Maybe it was a bit difficult but it was a lot of fun!!

Interviewing.

This day was about making interviews. Very important, because the content will make a difference in your final product.
The students got lessons in making a good interview, what kind of interviews exist and a lot a lot of tips!!!!!!
All the students are really nice together, sharing, talking, learning from each other!

Pre production.
Today we start reviewing the edits of the reality scene filmed on day 3. After that the trainer explaint what we need to know about documentaries.
Also the students learnt about making a synopsis, treatment, script, shotlist, callsheet.

We saw some of the report of Tazama tz as an example.
It was a long week with a lot of information and a lot of learning. Now the students are ready for some real action!!! We are going to make some report for Tazama tz. This weekend they have to start researching topics. So we can work with that on Monday. So no free weekend.