Chennai ELCs Training #2

Last Thursday and Friday we held a training at the Chennai Block office for all the Chennai BRPs (Block Resource Persons). The Chennai BRPs are all running Spoken + Reading English programs at their schools. Thursday was focused on training them on spoken English content. And on Friday we focused on reading content.

The morning was spent doing a pre-test, learning the new reading jingle and reviewing how to do an evaluation. In the afternoon we split them into beginner and advanced groups. Each group was responsible for teaching one week of content and two activities to the rest of the group.



After lunch we spent the afternoon acting as students in a classroom while groups presented their content and taught us activities. Everyone took their student role very seriously and created a challenging (but very life-like) environment for the teachers. It was a fun and engaging way of covering lots of material and trying out new activities. Nobody was tired even though we had just eaten a big lunch.

We were finally able to give all the Chennai BRPs flashcards, picture cards, para cards and the first draft of the bilingual teacher's manual. The student activity workbooks will be sent to them next week. It's finally starting to feel like a complete program.

DVD Update #5: Filming!

Going to the first day of the shoot
Uma Rani, Kirstne, Sumangali (back row), Swetha, January, Vignesh, Chandru (front row)

Day 1, Audio Recording 2pm-7pm

We picked up the students at noon and brought them to the office. The Koovathur kids had also arrived. I asked Swetha and Chandru to come and help me get lunch from a nearby hotel. Upon leaving the office I realized that Swetha didn’t have chappals. Apparently her chappals broke at the bus stand when she reached Chennai and so she was barefoot. So after putting in our order for lunch we went to a small chappal stall and bought her new chappals for 40Rs. For lunch we ate parrota and meals together in the office with all the staff. For most of the students it is their first time being around computers and in an office. They wanted to see everything and explore, but we had to keep an eye on them so they didn’t disturb the office too much. We finally left for the hall in two cars at about 2pm. The kids and their teacher all piled into the ambassador with Parvathy. Sumangali, Priya, Kalai and I all went in Suman’s car and followed the ambassador to the Goethe Institute, Max Mueller Bhavan. Walking into the studio for the first time was a little exciting for everyone. They had never been in a big studio space before. It is like big concrete hall, that had a a vinyl floor rolled out in the middle. The production crew had put up a backdrop for the set and blacked out the windows. For the first day on the set, the students mostly sat with the music technician and the actors and practiced the jingle and other tunes that will be used in the episode. They recorded their voices for the music--wearing big headphones and talking into a mic. Even though it was their first time performing, they didn't seem to have any stage fright. They all warmed up to it very quickly. Although it did take them some time to get all the tunes down...and the music technician will need to have to edit a lot to make some of their recordings useable, but they were very cute!

On the set waiting for the directors to say "Rolling, Action!"

Day 2, Shoot 7am to 7pm

I was up and at Brinda school by 6:30am to meet the two boys. Vignesh was there right on time and came alone, at least a 15 minute walk requiring crossing a very busy street. Chandru was 30 minutes late but came by his father’s auto. We went to the office and picked up the Koovathur girls, got in the taxi and went to Max Mueller Bhavan.

Today the students got to put on their costumes, make-up and stand on the set in front of the lights for the first time. Very exciting, but they soon realized it was also very exhausting and hot. We were able to run the air conditioning unit for the room when we weren't shooting, but it was too loud to use all the time, so the room got very warm after awhile. We were constantly rushing up on set with water bottles and biscuits to keep the kids energized. Nobody knew what to expect the first day of the shooting, but we all figured out very quickly that this was going to be a slow long process that involved a lot of waiting around. The production crew had to shift and adjust lights. The camera men had to find the right angles and the directors had to set the stage. And then we had to manage the kids and make sure they weren't going to tear down the sets.

A long day on the set in front of the lights. They did an amazing job staying energetic and enthusiastic all the way through.

Day 3, Shoot 7am-10pm

I had another sleepless night singing “A kite cap, a cone cap” and “Tommy is a tall tiger” in my fitfull sleep. These songs and the jingle are going to drive me crazy. I guess its good that they are catchy, but if I can't get them out of my head soon, I might go mad.

Vignesh met me at Brinda at 6:25. The car picked us all up at the office at 6:50. We arrived at MMB by 7am and had tea and biscuits. As soon as Sumangali and Parvathy arrived we started getting the kids ready—makeup and ironing costumes. The kids were on the set by 8am doing some filler shots of them playing near the caravan while the other actors got ready. Chandru had the best part—playing the drum attached to the caravan. Yesterday we only got about 25 minutes on film and needed much more, so today was going to be a LONG day...lots of scenes to cover in a very short time. We had had high hopes of finishing early, but ended up barely dragging the kids out of the studio at 10pm. Lots of lessons learned about time management! We will need to adjust our planning and schedules a lot for the rest of the episodes.

A week after the initial shoot, we went to the Koovathur school and shot some scenes outside.

Some hilarious moments on set:

• One student can NOT pronounce tub and it comes out as ‘dub’
• When the kids met the creature they were totally freaked out. But even before he put on his costume, they picked out who he was in the room without having any clues. He has long hair and hadn’t shaved. He kinda already looked like a creature.
  
• Watching kids record for the first time—big head phones on listening to the music without being able to hear their own voice. They were mumbling and off tune.
  
• One student kept adding “ing” to every phrase in the song. It took many many tries to get it right. She was saying things like: “Read booking” “Play gamesing”
• Street/folk dancing during cap song...the boys love it. This may be a hit song. They went wild when they heard it and couldn't stop dancing to it.
  
• Cultural bathroom issues. The kids had perhaps never been in a bathroom with toilets and no squat toilet before. The girls were squatting on a marble floor bathroom with a toilet. Luckily there was a drain in the floor and they were washing it with water, but still--inappropriate. We found an outside toilet behind the studio that was squat style so that we could avoid the issue.
  
• Chandru saying “cut” “take” and “action” before the directors. We had to remind him many times that it was not his job.
  
• Chandru using friendly verb forms with adults which is actually viewed as being very impolite. We had to have a talk with him about how and when to use polite forms of Tamil.
• Chandru needs a minder to sit with him, remind him every 2 minutes to be quiet. We may need to hire an assistant just to monitor him in the future.
  
• “Vignesh is a always a good boy” said by Vignesh after Gilli Gilli Valli said he was a good boy. He only talks in the third person.
  

The kids have become very serious actors very quickly. They remember their lines, know when and where to be and can change their personalities as soon as they hear the word "Rolling, Action!" But they have also started demaning A/c cars and will need to start wearing sunglasses to hide from the papparazzi. What have we created?

DVD Update #4: Photos on Flickr

An update regarding the DVD shoot will be posted soon, but in the meantime, you can view lots of pictures on flickr: Eureka Child.

DVD Update #3: Article in The Hindu

To see the complete article in The Hindu on October 7th, 2009, visit this link:
English fairy tale for students of Tamil-medium primary schools

DVD Update #2: Measurements & Rehearsal

All of our other pending projects have been pushed to the side this week. The pilot episode for the DVD is full speed ahead and there is lots that needs to be done. Thank goodness for a team of people: producers, costume designers, set designers, musical technicians, content people (us), actors, parents, teachers, and friends willing to give feedback, etc. This would never be possible without everyone enthusiastically working together on this project.

Last week we went to the school with a tailor and had the kids selected for the DVD measured. Cloth was bought and the tailor stitched them new DVD school uniforms. We choose bright fun colours: orange and purple. Sadly the tailor got the top and bottom confused and made the dark purple into shirts and blouses which will totally drown out the kids. We had asked for orange shirts and blouses. There needs to be a bright colour on top to offset their skin tones and hair colour. Deep purple will hide them entirely and we will only be able to see their teeth and the whites of their eyes on camera. Not acceptable! But we paid the tailor anyway. The producers are currently scouring the city for new lighter purple cloth and a tailor that can stitch 6 shirts in 24 hours.


Last week we meet with the parents of the students from the school in Chennai. We discussed the program and the logistics of the shoot. They all agreed and signed off on the permission slip. I am trying to keep in mind what I would be thinking and feeling if I were in their shoes...if I had been selected to act in a DVD in 4th or 5th grade, it might be the biggest thing that had ever happened to me. I wonder how something like this changes your life as a kid. Is it the biggest event to date for them? Considering movies are so popular here, giving kids an opportunity to act in front of a camera on a set is a pretty cool experience. As part of our side video project, the making of the DVD, we are going to do little video bios on each student when we drop them off at home this week.


Yesterday we had a 4 hour rehearsal with all six students and our main actor. She is great with children and they all seem to love her so it is working out perfectly from that perspective. She took them through several excercises and warm-ups to get them playing with their voice and facial expressions. And then she went through the first episode with them line by line. There was a lot of laughing and positive reaction to the script--Thank goodness! The kids seemed excited by the story line and picked up on the English very quickly. Only 3 of the students (all the girls) have been exposed to the program before. The boys haven't had any experience with the program so they are a little slower to pick it up, but tried really hard. Everyone had a good time. We ended the rehearsal with a parrota lunch and then managed to get all the kids home, earlier than expected.

Escorting them home was half the adventure yesterday. While we know that these kids come from disadvantaged backgrounds and live in slums, we never really see or experience the slums. Chennai has a few large slum areas, but most slums areas are hidden throughout the city down narrow lanes, hidden behind corners and blocked by walls or buildings. One turn off the main road and it is a different world. A world one wouldn't know exisited in Chennai unless you make an effort to find and see it for yourself. Yesterday I walked through two slum areas to drop off the kids after rehearsal. Being a foreigner there is obvious curiosity as to why I'm there. It's ok to see foreigners on the main roads, but there isn't any good reason why I should be walking through the slums otherwise. This was very clear in one area when the young men started calling out to me. As soon as we announced we were there with a student for a 'shoot for a school program' the attitude changed entirely. Not only was the student given slaps on the back (in congratulations), but we were shown straight to his house and everyone was instantly super helpful. It's all about relationships and establishing the right connections. We will be dropping him back again the rest of the week. It'll be interesting to see how their reaction to me and the others changes over time. But it'll be more interesting to see how he and the other students change over the days of the shooting. Will it increase their self-confidence? Will they display more pride? Will they step up to the acting role? Will they freeze up in front of the camera?

More after the shoot!

DVD Update #1

The DVD project is moving along very quickly! Last week we conducted auditions for the childrens parts in the DVD. We spent about 2 hours at a nearby school with about 20 children. Tarun & Anushka brought their camera to record the students for reference later. We played games with the kids. Sang songs. Asked them to play charades. Taught them some of our phonics sounds and actions. And generally encouraged them to be a little wild and crazy and have a good time. There were definitely some dominate characters that stood out.

Students singing in unison for camera close-ups.

Students playing a game in with the actress that will play our main 'teacher' character.

Students volunteering for charades.

We have selected the students, 3 boys and 3 girls. We will have four main speaking parts and two additional roles for activities and games. We are in the process of getting school and parent permission this week. We will hold rehearsals next Monday and shoot Wednesday-Friday and again the following Monday. Lots to be done this week: costumes, sets, and finalize the script and jingle. Fun fun fun!!

Back to Work

I've just returned from three weeks in the US. The primary justification for my trip was to renew my visa, but seeing family and friends was the real reason I wanted to go. It wasn't a particularly restful or re-energizing trip, but it was a very necessary break.

While I was home I was able to visit the Portland AID Chapter and give a presentation about the Ready 2 Read program. They have helped to fund the pilot episode of the DVD project, so it was fun to be able to meet the members face to face, talk about education in India, and generally share about the project both its successes and challenges.

I'm back in the office and trying to get caught up on emails. We are in the process of editing the script for the episode. We will have auditions with kids next week and have reserved a theater space to do our shoot near the end of the month. It's finally coming together. While there are still many details to sort out, it is an exciting process and I can't wait to see the final product.