all nighter

2:34am

just fully finished the intro and the intro videolog edits.

I also placed a lot of the footage. it all needs to be edited down tho and a good deal of it will need narration/ clarification. There are some problems with the clips, but I am choosing to ignore them for the moment so I can just get through this before 9am

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so the video is a complete mess right now, but i am completely done selecting clips. no chance I will be done by the morning

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just muted and edited the going into the township footage so I can put narration over it.

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to do....STILL:

make narration for going into the township

edit down the tour baphumelele footage

add narration/clarification to the tour footage

clips of drawings from day 1

video logs from first day

clips of the younger children

muting to add narration

narration on what a typical day was like

ALL little kid footage

downtime footage

working in the cluster home

getting to know the older kids

bye bye

post trip reflection from everyone to go over end- essentially answering the statement in the beginning, how baphumelele impacted our lives (didnt have time to collect this footage)

soooo tired already!

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Narration to the orphanage done! Now tour and about... this is going to be more difficult... I also have a lot more footage for it. I think i am going to export this version of the movie to itunes before I do anything else, just because some of the clips are being weird and I dont want to loose everything again! the estimated time is about two hours...? uhh ohhh maybe I will sleep for a couple of hours while it loads, although im scared i wont wake up

narration: intro

The hayleys, laura and I were astonished by the spectacular landscapes that welcomed us into Cape Town. We stayed in an apartment in the city.

cut to video log: we just got here.

just redid part of the intro, so much more to do before tomorrows presentation....

So here's the deal, it was taking me WAYYY too long to work in final cut, so I am back to imovie. Cross your fingers it doesnt crash again. I am really nervous!
Just finished redoing the intro. I just need to re-record the narration that goes over it

I am still having problems with the imovie app, but have managed to reselect all the Cape town scenic footage this weekend. The footage from the intro is completely lost, but I dont really have time to reshoot it. I need to edit all the clips down again and then select home clips. this is so frustrating.

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my imovie project just entirely deleted itself. Awesome.

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i have a day left to do this. Obviously there is something wrong with imovie, so I am downloading final cut now. I can't risk working on another project just to have it be deleted again.

Troubleshooting

Two apple stores later and still no progress. It is worse than I thought. The best they said they could do was wipe the drive for imovie; they said that something must have saved wrong. Not much help at all. This means I am going to have to COMPLETELY start over. the stills I have from my screen shots don't help much since I edited down those clips so much already. luckily I still know wht I am going to do and wrote down what I said for the narration.

Havent fixed imovie yet, but this is a screen shot of some of what I have....

Troubleshooting

So i got imovie to work again, but all the edits I made in the intro are gone. thats the airport/plane scenes, the intro with the wall collage, and the narration clips, and all the scenic cape town clips. so basically all the work i did this week and last week was for nothing, but at least it is working now. There must have been something wrong with a transition or something that i did to those clips. I am still going to delete all the other misc. videos I have tomorrow to make sure this doesnt happen again. I already deleted all the clips that i dont need for the doc. all i have now are south africa clips

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ok so i was wrong, they didnt really fix it. it just doesnt make sense because only the documentary project isnt working. It still plays other videos instead of the documentary. When i am in the sa doc project and click play project, another project will play over it. I am going to have my brother look at it tomorrow to see if he can fix it, if not then I am going to have to start from scratch. hopefully it is not my computer because i dont want to lose my footage. I am going to go back to the apple store tomorrow too.

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I exported all my old videos to itunes and deleted them from imovie, but it didnt help what so ever. I still have my orginal south africa movie one, but i dont want to delete it. I may end up using it if i dont get my documentary project to work.

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restarted my computer. still nothing. a clip must be corrupt in the project

Journal entries from the trip

DAY 2

We are in South Africa. The children at the home were so excited to see us. I spent the day through the lens of my camera, trying to capture every little moment I could. Today reminded me of working at summer camp, but the kids here have more freedom and less supervision. When a group of kids came home from school today they began to jump of ledges, doing things adults deem dangerous, and chasing each other. I was scared that one of them was going to get hurt and tried to discourage the jumping. The ratio of adults to kids here is really not balanced.

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the kids were chaotic when we tried to organize the bag drawing thing. In the end, I was pretty impressed by what they ended up doing. I had my camera out. One boy followed me around today. He wanted me to keep taking his video so he could watch it. It was adorable.

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We went up to the top of table mountain today. I was bummed because my camera had run out of battery by then, rendering me unable to capture the breathtaking views on tape. We went to the waterfront mall for dinner. There is huge difference between where we are staying and Khayelitsha!

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DAY 3

Today was the second day at the home. The day went a lot smoother. I don't understand how the women in the home care for all these kids alone. They are so amazing! it is like a 4:30 ratio. Laura hayley and I went to the waterfront tonight. It was fun. We ate at the Dodge.

The kids are so cute!

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DAY 4

today was our first free day. we went to hout bay and seal island. The views were spectacular. we went to the waterfront again. We pretty much know our way around the mall by now.

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DAY5

today we played putt-putt and went to the mall again. I bought a springboks sweatshirt(the name of the rugby team here). Now all I need to buy is BEADS!

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DAY 6

The kids are SO cute. I wish i could do more to help support the home. They Hayleys, laura and I have already started talking about how we want to come back for an entire summer or year. The weather has been kind of yucky...

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I keep thinking about the kids. I want to go back there now.

toubleshooting

so my imovie application has decided to get bugged. Its not letting me edit my clips and plays some of my past movies instead of the documentary. great. ive tried quitting and reopening the app but nothing seems to be working. Looks like i am going to have to make a trip to the apple store tomorrow, which means less editing time :-/

I consulted my brother. he is coming down on thursday and is going to back up my footage and other films. Hopefully this will cure my computer problems.

Narration: intro

In the summer of 2009, my three friends and I volunteered at the Baphumelele Children's Home in South Africa. The home was founded by Rosie Mashale in 2001 in the township of khayelitsha. The home helps support abused, neglected, abandoned, or orphaned children, most of whom are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS pandemic. With only the support of her community, and no money, Rosie started the home and today Baphumelele is refuge for 140-160 children, from newborns to 19-year olds . Rosie has not only made an impact on the children she works with, but everyone she comes into contact with. This is our story. How Baphumelele impacted our lives.

(over opening segment - map/ wall)

Laura, Hayley T, and I went to south africa with Hayley Y and her mom and little sister. Hayley's family is from south africa and has been previously involved with Baphomelele. Because we were only able to volunteer for ten days, we couldnt stay at the home, instead we stayed in an apartment in Cape Town, where we got our first impressions of South Africa

(over the scenic clips of Cape Town)

Plan for Week 3

Keep editing. I want to have a rough cut of at least the first half by friday to show Brooks.

Working on the documentary

I havent been able to post this weekend. I got logged out and completely forgot my password...

but basically I have just been staring at my computer screen the past two days. I am working on mixing day 1s video logs with the scenic clips of Cape Town. I also need to work on cutting the footage down. There is WAY too much.

Editing the documentary

Selected the opening clips and filmed the intro. I also stabilized a bunch of the shaky clips. Right now the Cape Town scenic clips are in the beginning. I plan on inserting narration over them (about Cape Town, about us, why we came, what we planned on doing there). I will go into the history of the home when we get to the clips of the home later on in the documentary. I feel like it would be more appropriate there. I want the story line to be about how the kids changed our lives.

Working on the documentary

Today I continued to review the footage and select clips for the beginning segment.

Story board

I am going to do things in chronological order pretty much from the trip. I have about four hours of footage total and a whole bunch of photos. I really want to introduce us before I start and give a background on who we are and why we chose to go to Baphumelele. I also want to give the viewer a general knowledge on South Africa, specifically Cape Town and Khayelitsha. I want to give a background on the home as well.

Working on the documentary

Reviewed footage from the trip. Began to brain storm ideas for the story board

Week 2: Research and Story Board

What to do:

Research

Think of ways to narrate the documentary

Review footage!!

Make Story board

Select clips

Working on the documentary

Started thinking about how I want my documentary to be like.

Reviewed footage

Working on the Documentary

I have begun to review clips and select ones I like

Research:Baphumelele Children's Home

The website -->http://www.baphumelele.org.za/

Search Story

Search Story- Possibly the opening credits? (click here for link to youtube

Documentary Review: Invisible Children: Discover the Unseen

Synopsis:

3 boys go to Uganda in search of a story

What I liked:

-They way the presented the background information

-Mashed up the video log clips

-How shots change with sounds

-Narration

-collection of different stories that all relate to the same topic

-how they make each story personal

-how it is broken up in sections

-they way they make the different interviews seem like a conversation between all the people
-reflection at the end

What I learned:

-importance of good narration

-mashing things up looks good, makes more interesting

-using quick cuts that match the beat of background music is powerful
-bloopers can be effectively used, makes the video seem more real too

Laura Week 1

Today I am working with Laura. We are going to watch the Invisible Children Documentary and begin reviewing footage. Hopefully we will also get some ideas for the story board.

Research Week 1 Plan

Baphumelele Children's Home

HIV/AIDS

South Africa (what is happening now and what was happening when I was there)

History of the Township

History of Cape Town

Documentary Review: 21 up South Africa: Mandela's Children

I am particularly interested in this documentary because it takes place in South Africa! Hopefully I will get some good ideas!

Synopsis:

Reconnects with children who they filmed when they were 7, then 14, now 21 and follows how much they have changed with their country (particularly under Mandela's Rule)

What I liked:

-TIME LAPSE! love that they followed the same kids for so long --> makes it more powerful

-Nice to see how their prospectives have changed since they were 7

-Diversity

- Like how they juxtaposed similar scenes when the kid is younger and 21

What I learned:

-There is a huge issue of unemployment in Townships

- You can contrast more than landscapes: employment, $$, culture

-give background of HIV/AIDS

Documentary Review: Discovery Atlas:Italy Revealed

Synopsis:

Exploring Italy through the lens of native Italians

What I liked:

-followed six different Italians, made it more personal

-background info

-flips in between all of the different narratives

What I learned:

-personal details makes more interesting documentary

Documentary Review: Blindsight

Synopsis:

Six blind Tibetan teens attempt to climb Lhakpa Ri (23,000 ft!) in order to challenge Tibetan views on the blind.

What I liked:

-Opening scene is all black - you can't see just like them -->LOVE it

- Title was in braille, then translates to english

What I learned:

-its cool when you make the viewer take on the perspective of the people in the documentary

- the songs they sing carry on as background music... I wanna use that in my documentary with the girl singing halo

Documentary Review: No Impact Man: The Documentary

Synopsis:

Colin Beavan and family strive to spend a year living with no impact on the environment.

What I liked:

-fade of voices from clips

-directness

-raw footage in the home

-honestness

-time lapse

-He blogged while he made the video

What I learned:

-keep the clips true to you

Documentary Review: Frontline: Digital Nation

Synopsis:

Tracing the digital revolution's impact on this generation.

What I liked:

-Use of video logs

-narration

-blurred out background in interviews, puts focus on interviewee

What I learned:

-group discussion vs. one on one interview

-show place with voice over

Documentary Review: The Human Face

Synopsis:

John Cleese explores the different expressions of the human face and the importance of facial expressions through informative narration, interviews, and comedy sketches.

What I liked:

-Stop action shots!

-Quick cuts

-good flow between all scenes, very fluid

What I learned:

-cool to mismatch different styles (comedy next to interview)

-connect one thought to the other

Documentary Review: Endless Summer II

Synopsis:

- Follows two surfers in their search for the perfect wave

What I liked:

-like map scene!

What I learned:

-Be careful how you phrase things

-Don't repeat the same clip too many times

-Don't overdo narration

-Beware of being corny

- Don't script things

- It is important to make everything feel authentic

Documentary Review: Anthony Bourdain No Reservations

Synopsis:

Describes a location's culture and people with a focus on food.

What I liked:

-how direct he is in the narration

-colloquial

What I learned:

-best to be direct

-word choice can be like you are talking to a friend BUT know your audience

Documentary Review: Survivorman

Synopsis:

Les Stroud survives in the wild for seven days.

What I liked:

-Very direct to audience

-Knows who he is talking to

-Informative

-Connection

What I learned:

-Speak to the viewer, makes them feel like they are experiencing it with you more

Documentary Review: Unmistaken Child

Synopsis:

About Tibetan Buddhist Monk, Tenzin Zopa, and his search for the child who is the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama

What I liked:

-nice breaks where viewer is just watching actions rather than hearing an interview

- The repeating patterns of similar shots

-the shots of facial expression

What I learned:

-You don't always need words to progress the plot

-background music sets the tone of scene

-make sure to give some sort of background so the viewer knows the context

-dont assume they know as much as you do

Documentary Review:Born Rich

Synopsis:

About a group of kids who were born rich and the lifestyle/ awkwardness/culture of it

What I liked:

Good cuts and fades

intro good

Flash backs, older footage

crosses with topics in different interviews

What I learned:

- Put more emotion when I narrative things, monotone makes things boring

-change of pitch and passion can be detected in narration

Week 1: Getting ideas

To Do:

Watch documentaries to get inspiration

Review footage from the Trip

Research

Make Story Board

Documentaries to watch:

Invisible Children

Born Rich

Unmistaken Child

Survivorman

No Reservations

Endless Summer II

The Human Face

No Impact Man: The Documentary

Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed

Blindsight

Frontline:Digital Nation

21 Up South Africa: Mandela's Children