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Off to Trinidad!

3 Aug

I’m leaving tonight for Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. I am working on the Organization of American States on a video to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the OAS scholarship program. The video will mostly consist of interviews with former recipients of the scholarship.

My main assignment is will be interviewing the Director of the University of Trinidad and Tobago, a former recipient of the OAS scholarship. Since most of my filming will take place only in one day, the OAS asked if I’d like to stay in Trinidad for a couple of extra days (paying for my own food and hotel after Day 2 in Trinidad) since they are arranging the flights for me. I took them up on it since I’ve never been to Trinidad before, so I will be there for a week.

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New opportunity!

23 Jul

Great news!  I was referred by the Pan American Development Foundation to work on a video for their affiliate, the Organization of American States (OAS or “OEA” in Spanish) in the Department of Human Development, Education and Culture.

The project is a video to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the OAS scholarship program, which funds a student from an OAS member state to pursue higher education in another OAS member state.  The video will mostly consist of interview testimonials from former scholarship recipients.  Some OAS scholarship recipients are now directors of hospitals, universities, professors, and ambassadors all over the hemisphere.

Since most of the interviewees are in Latin America and the Caribbean, my supervisors have been working to get local student film crews to conduct the interviews on location remotely (at limited to no cost to the OAS!).  Since many of the interviewees have connections with local universities, this was fairly easy to do.  Though as the producer, I will personally film at least two of the interviews myself.  One will be in Washington (the interviewee works at the World Bank, right across the street from the OAS building), and the other will require travel.

I’m so grateful that PADF recommended me to work on such an exciting project!

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Colombia cuts down

22 Jul

The BBC News reported today that Colombia has recalled its ambassador to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. This comes as the latest development in the row between the two nations over accusations that Venezuela not only tolerates Colombian rebels including the FARC, (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) but provides a safe haven for them on its soil.

When I was in Colombia a few weeks ago, I talked with several locals about the problems in their country. Most of the locals that I talked with were very displeased with the way their country is represented to the rest of the world. Most people outside of Colombia consider the country to be a very dangerous place (and in fact, I had to pass a security clearance to travel there for work). When people think of Colombia, they think of drugs and violence, which of course are still problems, but they are not nearly as widespread today as people think they are.

Something that really interested me was an advertisement campaign for Colombian tourism that actually utilized this erroneous sentiment and made light of it. The ad read “Travelers to Colombia are at risk… of having fun!” Whether this ad campaign is really dispelling the fears that people have of traveling to Colombia or whether the campaign is poking fun of a serious issue– I don’t know. But I do want to go back to Colombia!

Holy crap, earthquake in MD!

16 Jul

I was woken up this morning by a 3.6 magnitude earthquake.

At first I thought I was still reeling from happy hour. I was really surprised that it woke me up because 1. I was still a little tipsy and 2. I’ve been know to sleep through fire alarms. It felt like a strong blast of thunder, except it came from below. I live in the basement of a house, and I could feel the ground and the walls shaking and rattling. There was also a lot of noise; it sounded like a plane taking off.

Apparently there have been no reports of significant damage (other than a few picture frames falling off the walls) and no injuries. I know that this was a tiny one, but it was really kind of terrifying. I don’t like it when the ground moves.

This is why I don’t live in California.

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Back in the U.S!

8 Jul

The visit with PADF to Colombia was overall amazing and productive.  I got a lot of great footage and stills.  I feel like my Spanish has definitely improved.  I’ve already become Facebook friends with several people from the PADF Colombia office.  I’m very excited to start postproduction, though I’m definitely going to miss the mountains, the cool weather, and the amazing Colombian food.

One of the video projects I’m working on (a lower priority than the Heroes of the Hemisphere videos) is CAIF (Centro Atencion Integral a la Familia), which is basically a school and family center partly funded by PADF.  I filmed classes with the children, classes with the parents, the playground, even a football game.  Part of CAIF goal is maintaining cultural identity.  Some of the children dressed up in traditional Colombian costumes and performed a traditional song and dance.  This was one of the most challenging parts for me to film only because the kids were so adorable that it was difficult for me to hold the camera steady.

This is a picture from CAIF overlooking the football pitch and the town of Popayan.

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Off to Colombia!

2 Jul

I’m leaving the States again this weekend, this time for Colombia.   I will be there for all of next week.

I’m mostly staying in the capital city of Bogota where my organization, the Pan American Development Foundation has an office.

I will be filming several projects in Colombia, but the main one is conducting a video interview of one of the 2010 recipients of PADF’s Heroes of the Hemisphere awards.  The Colombian “hero” works to preserve the indigenous Guambiano people of Misak by initiating profitable economic development projects.  Misak is considered to be a fairly dangerous place in the country because of the illegal drug trafficking in the area.  I actually had to get a security clearance from the country office before leaving.  I’m traveling with my supervisor this time (I went to the Dominican Republic alone), so that makes me feel a little bit better!

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Update from the video lab

24 Jun

I had a meeting at the Pan American Development Foundation office this week in the Organization of American States Building downtown to talk about my recent business trip to the Dominican Republic.  I had prepared a DVD of a few highlights from the footage to share with the communications department.  Everyone seemed pretty happy with the footage that I shot.

After logging and capturing the footage into Final Cut Pro, my next step will be to send PADF the interview footage that I shot, so that we can determine which parts of the interviews will provide the strongest statements about the programs that PADF sponsors.  I also need a little bit of help with translating the interviews since I’m not quite fluent in Spanish.  PADF has an unlimited subscription to You Send It, a file and media sharing site, so I can easily send them footage electronically.

Once I have fairly solid (and translated!) statements from interview footage, I will work to make the video into a cohesive story.  The DR video will be one of six videos that I am producing this summer for PADF’s second annual Heroes of the Hemisphere awards gala.

If you need me, I’ll be in the video lab!

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Back from the DR!

16 Jun

I just got back from a week in the Dominican Republic, with the Pan American Development Foundation.  I went to do some filming for several video projects in the country. I mostly stayed in the capital, Santo Domingo, where PADF’s DR office is located and took day trips to several cities across the country for the various filming projects.

The first and most important project was interviewing and shooting B-roll video for this year’s honoree for PADF’s Heroes of the Hemisphere awards event.

I also shot video and interviews of Centro Puente in Dajabon, an beneficiary organization that works on borders issues between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  On Mondays and Fridays, Haitians are permitted to cross the border into the Dominican Republic to sell their goods at a binational market.  I actually got to go and shoot the market and the border.

Finally, I shot interviews and video about the new fire station that PADF donated money to build in Bavaro, a tourist resort area on the south-eastern part of the country.

I was scheduled to travel with PADF to Colombia next week, but we decided to push the trip back to the end of July because of the upcoming elections.

All in all, I shot about six hours of footage total.  Now, I have to log and capture all the footage into Final Cut Pro, and make the footage into videos.  So basically, I’ll be spending the rest of the summer in the editing lab!

I had an awesome time in the DR and hope to come back some day (preferably to one of the beaches!).

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Off to the Dominican Republic!

6 Jun

I am leaving tonight for the Dominican Republic to shoot video for the Pan American Development Foundation.  I will be flying into the capital city, Santo Domingo, and driving to Las Matas de Farfan, where I will be interviewing this year’s honoree for the Heroes of the Hemisphere awards event.  I’ll be bringing my Canon Vixia HV40 HD camcorder with a shotgun microphone.

The honoree, Amarilis Castillo, works to improve conditions at the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  The border is one of the most challenging areas in the country, particularly after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  Castillo created a network of civil society organizations called Nuestra Frontera (“Our Border”) to combat poverty in borderlands.

I’ll be back in the States next Monday!

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Extreme Close Up

17 Mar

This is actually a piece of gum that I found stuck to the concrete outside the Mary Graydon Center.  As you can see, I really took the Photo Index Book’s suggestion of “ugly is beautiful” to heart.  I though that this would be a great subject for “extreme close up” because no one really ever takes a close look at gross litter on the ground, especially when it’s been in someone’s mouth.

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