Video Workshops Weeks 6 and 7

Video Workshops, Weeks 6 & 7

Four girls arrived at the safehouse during Weeks 6 and 7, and three girls left.  One was able to go back to her family; on the other hand, two recent-arrivers climbed the perimeter wall and took off together.  It was traumatic for everyone.  I hope they are okay.  

Shannon and I were able to make sure everyone got to make a film for the screening, except for one girl who arrived on our very last day at the safehouse before the screening.  We'll do a short film project with her at the beginning of March.

As warm-ups for each workshop during Weeks 6 and 7, we worked on some of the important details for the screening, such as filmmaker biographies.  Each cineasta created a biography, using the following formula (altering it as she wanted):

Biography =
2 characteristics of your personality +
2 talents +
2 things you enjoy doing/2 hobbies +
2 beliefs
+
5 years in the future...
2 things you will have accomplished
2 things you will be doing moving forward
2 descriptions of your life 5 years in the future

Each girl also took a picture to serve as her director image.  We couldn't show faces as you typically would for a director image, but the girls had a lot of other ideas.


Two biographies + images:

Yo soy alegre.  No me gusta que hablen mal de mi.  Soy un poco seria.  Soy talentosa en bailar y jugar ajedrez.  Disfruto jugar fútbol y escuchar música.  Mi pasatiempo es ir de compras y ir de paseo.  Yo creo en Dios y en mi misma.  Cinco años en el futuro, dos logros que habré realizado son: acabar mis estudios y después ir a la universidad.  Yo quiero viajar por todo el mundo.  Estoy estudiando, jugando, bailando.  Yo en cinco años me miro que soy una doctora y con mi profesión de trabajo viajaré por todo el mundo y voy a estudiar mucho para llegar a ser doctora.  Y también voy a ser bailarina y voy a enseñar a muchas personas lo que he aprendido.

I am happy.  I don't like anyone to speak badly of me.  I am a little bit serious.  I am talented in dancing and playing chess.  I enjoy playing soccer and listening to music.  My past-time is going shopping and going for walks.  I believe in God and in myself.  Five years in the future, two things I will have achieved are finishing my studies and, after, going to college.  I want to travel around the entire the world.  I will be studying, playing, dancing.  In five years I see myself as a doctor, and with my work I will travel around the world and I'm going to study a lot to become a doctor.  I also want to be a dancer and to teach many people what I have learned.  

Soy feliz.  Me gusta jugar y reir.  Soy talentosa en hacer los oficios y soy escritosa.  Disfruto jugar pelota.  Durante los cinco siguientes años, voy a cumplir el colegio y ser lo que pienso.  Voy a ir a la Universidad Central en Quito.  Yo quiero ser profesora.  Voy a vivir con mi familia.

I am happy.  I like to play and laugh.  I am talented in doing chores and I am a writer.  I enjoy playing ball.  During the next five years, I will complete high school and be what I want.  I want to go to the Central University in Quito.  I want to be a professor.  I will live with my family.

The final film project was an interesting challenge for the workshop because it would consist of a lot of individual films; 17 as it turned out.  It wasn't possible to do group projects because girls were continuously arriving and departing from the safehouse; and a different girl or two or three would be absent each day for a doctor's appointment or a meeting.  So the projects needed to be individual, independent.  But I also wanted them to be a unit in some way, linked even more than by common theme (which was "significant moments in life").  So I asked the girls to each choose an hour of the day in which to place their film (their memory), and then we could lay out the films according to the 24 hours of the day.

The next step for the films was image design.  Shannon and I asked the girls to create 6 storyboards (or more) to visually represent the words they had written.  We demonstrated some examples and we brought in a stack of photographs to look through with the girls.  The main rule was the same rule we'd worked with throughout the workshops - you can't show your face.  We were encouraging all kinds of creativity and hoping for images that weren't only literal representations of the written words.

And then - filming began!  Each girl could film her storyboarded shots in live action or use stop-animation or archival footage from the Prelinger website.  One of the girls chose to have no images accompany her words.  She wanted the audience to sit in the darkness and listen. 

We filmed during the span of a week and a half, working in small groups.  The filmmakers listed the sounds they wanted to accompany their images and words.  Many of the sounds were recycled from the Map Soundscapes project. 

Filming came down to the wire with the arrival of new girls, and so there wasn't time for the girls to edit their projects themselves, unfortunately.  Instead they gave me detailed instructions, so that I could just be the button pusher, along with my husband Chris (co-button pusher).

Video Workshops, Weeks 4 and 5 (I'm behind!)

Weeks 4 and 5 - January 24th through February 4th

The second half of the workshops grew very busy and so I haven't posted in a few weeks.  I know we did fantastic things during weeks 4 and 5 - I'm looking through my notes to jog my memory. 

We finished gathering sounds for the Map Soundscapes project (described in the Video Workshops, Week 2 post).  Here are some of the completed projects (as Vimeo links; I haven't had good luck uploading sound files or videos directly to the blog):

Map Soundscape Group 1

http://www.vimeo.com/20968781

Map Soundscape Group 2

http://www.vimeo.com/20969592

Map Soundscape Group 3

http://www.vimeo.com/20969405




During one of the workshop days, the girls designed logos for their movie production companies.  My friend Erika helped them create stop-animations of their logos.  Here they are:

Heart by P

http://www.vimeo.com/20980531

Donde Fue Mi Globo/Where'd My Balloon Go by K

http://www.vimeo.com/20980256

Flying by J

http://www.vimeo.com/20980086

Dive by E

http://www.vimeo.com/20979888



At the end of Week 4, we started writing the final projects.

For the final films, I wanted to get at important moments (big and small) in our lives and I was hoping that the girls could use the films to say something that was on their mind - about something that happened to them, something that they want in their life, etc.  But I didn't want to push.  So I put together a few different writing prompts that each girl could choose from, and each prompt had many options within its instructions.  I also needed to keep in mind the varying education levels within the groups, and encourage drawing instead of writing where that was most comfortable.  Some of the girls have great difficulty reading and writing. 

Prompt #1
Part 1
Draw an image that represents one of the following options:

• a specific moment (a memory) in which you made an important decision
• the first moment you saw the sea
• a moment when you were courageous
• a moment when you were afraid
• a moment that didn't happen how you wanted it to
• a moment when you lost someone
• a moment in which everything changed
• a perfect moment

Part 2
Write 5 questions about the moment you have drawn.


Part 3
Write 5 statements about the moment you have drawn.



Prompt #2
Part 1
Same instructions and list of possible moments as Prompt #1


Part 2
Draw a series of three images, dividing the moment you chose into three parts: beginning, middle, and end.


Part 3
Write two sentences of description underneath each of the three drawings.


Prompt #3
Part 1
Answer the following series of questions:


When was the first time you saw the ocean?  Describe this moment.
What was a moment in which you were very courageous?
What was the moment in which your heart beat the fastest?
What is the best smell you have smelled?
What was a perfect moment?
What was the moment in which you discovered your favorite food?
What was the most fun game when you were a child?
What was a moment in which you were scared in the dark?
What was a moment in which you woke up from a vivid dream or nightmare?
What is the most beautiful rain you have experienced?
What was the first time you didn't go to bed at your bedtime?
What was the first time you saw the sunrise?
What was the first day of school like?  How did you feel?
What was your favorite dinner or get-together with your family?
What was the first time you traveled to a new place?
What was the first time you heard your favorite sound?
What is the most beautiful thing you have seen in the sky?


Part 2
Look at your responses and add a note to each answer indicating the time of day in which that moment took place.


Then choose a group of moments that took place during one part of the day - morning, afternoon, or night - that are most important to you in some way.


Prompt #4
Part 1
Read two short examples of fiction writing.


Part 2
Using story puzzle pieces drawn from hats, a paper with incomplete story phrases, or only your imagination, write a short story.


Prompt #5
Part 1
Look at the following list of moments and choose one that you would like to write about:

• a specific moment (a memory) in which you made an important decision
• the first moment you saw the sea
•  a moment when you were courageous
• a moment when you were afraid
• a moment that didn't happen how you wanted it to
• a moment when you lost someone
• a moment in which everything changed
• a perfect moment

Part 2
Look at the information provided about haikus and look at two sample haikus by Pablo Neruda (with my translation):


La vasta noche                          The vast night
no es ahora otra cosa                 Now is nothing
que una fragancia.                     but a fragrance


Hoy no me alegran                    Today I am not made happy
los almendros del huerto.         by the almond trees of the field.
Son tu recuerdo.                        They are a reminder of you.


Part 3
Write down short notes about your moment.  Use the short notes to assemble a poem (it doesn't have to be a haiku).


Shannon and I worked with each girl one-on-one during the course of Weeks 4 and 5.  I am so impressed and proud of what they wrote.

                                                     It was a morning of a cruel awakening

                                                    The only sound I heard was that of the car that was taking me to that place

                                                    That song that I remember

                                                    I couldn’t accept what had happened to me

                                                    I had to leave and I felt like my soul was being crushed

                                                   With great pain I had to accept my reality

                                                   I felt like my life was over

                                                   I saw my whole life collapse in front of me and I felt powerless

                                                  All I could do was ask God for the strength to go forward

                                                 And faith that in some moment I would leave there

                                                     The sound of Bachata
                                                     A dark night
                                                    When I left my house

                                                      A ghost story