This blog describes the video project which ran as part of KEMRI's 2014 SLAS - School Leavers Attachment Scheme
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Saturday, July 5, 2014
A fine drama
An absolutely awesome drama from a group who mainly got on with it themselves and a little post-production magic from Alun. Have a look at these performances!
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Kemri SLAS 2014 Future self Film
After much trial and error Sonate Pictures came up with this video. It
is directed by Nakiya Zoheir, the sound engineer and narrator being
Solomon Kombe and with Teddy Karisa staring. Hope you enjoy.
Special thanks to Chris High for the dedicated work and the many
hours he spent with us. Our appreciation is also extended to Alun
Davies, Nancy Mwangome, Betty Yeri Kanze and Bethwell Onyando
for making the entire project a sucess.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Great appreciation to the Amazing Lens Goup
Congratulation to the Amazing lens for their effort in coming up with a film on the promotion of the school leavers attachment scheme.
Goodbye.
May God shower all those who made this project a successful one with his unlimited blessings.
By Bernard
Sunday, June 22, 2014
My new favourite PV exercise
A lot of what I use in workshops goes back to a group I got going at the Open University called the PV-OU Research Circle. Often we'd find ourselvs trying things out without quite knowing where we were going. Getting stuck and improvising was extremely productive and many fine ideas like 'evil interviews' were born.
The video logo exercise dates from a little later, but had the same quality. At a departmental training for making new media I found myself with a very short patch to fill and came up with the idea of asking the same simple question to a set of people talking directly to camera with pretty much the same shot. The result sat on the front page of the departmental web page for a good two years and I still enjoy showing it as an example of what's possible in a very short time.
It works by following a sequence of short questions, and editing so the answers are almost superimposed.
This time around we combined it with a title sequence from the disappearing game, which has the same punchy feel to make something that quickly gets across a feel for the who the group are and some of the energy and feelings at work.
It works by following a sequence of short questions, and editing so the answers are almost superimposed.
This time around we combined it with a title sequence from the disappearing game, which has the same punchy feel to make something that quickly gets across a feel for the who the group are and some of the energy and feelings at work.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Being a sound girl
Being a sound girl was the most fascinating role that I played during the one week course. I had never before imagined how exciting it would be. Listening to nature through the connections I made was one of the things I enjoyed besides the fact that I was one of the important people behind the scenes. This, however, does not eliminate the fact that it was not all rosy balancing the sound from the environment and that of interest. The co-operation offered by my team mates played a key role in ensuring that the activity was a towering success. Neither do I forget the guidelines offered by Chris in a bid to ensure that my output especially on the sound systems was high up on the Richter scale.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
All the way through
An important part of learning video is that it's hard to carry out parts of the production cycle until you've seen the whole thing. Thinking about filming or scripting like an editor makes for better films and is hard to do until you've seen an edit.
So if there's time it's good to take groups through a whole production cycle before they get onto films they really care about. The important thing is not the quality, but rather the opportunity to work on everything. In this case we also used it to introduce post-production. Here're the results:
So if there's time it's good to take groups through a whole production cycle before they get onto films they really care about. The important thing is not the quality, but rather the opportunity to work on everything. In this case we also used it to introduce post-production. Here're the results:
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Getting the first media going
An important part of participatory video work is getting participants thinking like film-makers. The best way I know of of doing that is making films....Trying things out, looking at the results and discussing it. This also helps with other things like being comfortable with the technology and the pressures of being on camera, but I'd still say the biggest pay off is learning to think through how something is going to look and feel to an audience and then getting interested in how to achieve particular effects.
One of the things I'm working on with Al is a set of exercises and games used in PV to offer this space to think. Here's the results of a good trustworthy favourite, the disappearing game:
One of the things I'm working on with Al is a set of exercises and games used in PV to offer this space to think. Here's the results of a good trustworthy favourite, the disappearing game:
Pitching ideas
We've divided our participants up into 3 groups and asked them to work out names for their newly formed production companies. The result was
Al and I have taken the role of executive producers with a set of films we would like made. We pitched four ideas, and then asked them to discuss them and come back to us later with their own pitches. One idea per group and preferably different. I've no idea what will happen, but the ideas going in are:
Al and I have taken the role of executive producers with a set of films we would like made. We pitched four ideas, and then asked them to discuss them and come back to us later with their own pitches. One idea per group and preferably different. I've no idea what will happen, but the ideas going in are:
- An interview with a future self
- A promo for the SLAS
- A documentary about one person's journey through SLAS
- A family comedy or drama about a child leaving the family to study further.
At the end of the day, the students pitched back and we have
- An interview with a future engineer
- A promo for SLAS
- A drama about a single mother and her off to KEMRI son
Monday, June 16, 2014
Getting going right
Today the challenge is to set the attachment students up well to make good films by the end of the week. So there's an emphasis on building up skills and awareness of how to make films, but also organising themselves and working together.
Our planning yesterday was held up by all sorts of normal setup snags, and so I'm up early in the remnants of a world cup game to finish writing up the plan for the day. It's not that there isn't a plan, but part of the aim of the week is to leave Al and his team with a good set of notes and resources for their work in local schools.
Our planning yesterday was held up by all sorts of normal setup snags, and so I'm up early in the remnants of a world cup game to finish writing up the plan for the day. It's not that there isn't a plan, but part of the aim of the week is to leave Al and his team with a good set of notes and resources for their work in local schools.
Kicking off
It's a great feeling to be working with a group on a video project again. My first impressions of the 2014 SLAS group is that they're bright, willing and soaking up everything they can.
I'm in Kilifi visiting my PhD student Al for a week to work on facilitation skills with him. We're using the presence of a group of 9 school leavers on an attachment scheme here at KEMRI to develop some ideas for how to use video in schools.
The attachment scheme is an opportunity for school leavers to visit at KEMRI over 3 months and learn more about what goes on there. Its an opportunity for them to think about their futures and whether that includes more study and a career in science or research.
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