From Chennai to Hong Kong - Thank you!

Another kickstarter backer video with behind the scenes preview of what you'll see and hear on the DVD. Thanks for all your support.

From Chennai to Hong Kong - Thank You! from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

H is for Henry

As promised, several kickstarter backers receive a video message from India dedicated to the person of their choice. From Ann Anderson, is "H is for Henry". Enjoy Henry!

H is for Henry from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

Blooper Reel from Eureka Child's English DVD Series

Last Day of DVD Shoot: June 25th, 2010

Eureka Child DVD Series Behind the Scenes

Eureka Child English DVD Shoot Behind the Scenes from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

A quick update from the production. Four more days of shooting...lots of bloopers coming soon! :) Stay tuned.

DVD Update #12 Shooting Begins

Success with a steep learning curve...

We are two days into our 17 day shoot and still mostly on schedule. We were able to cover a script a day plus deal with all the first time trouble-shooting kinks of setting up sets in poorly lit, echoing rooms, teaching kids lines on the spot and fixing/finding props at the last minute. We're all exhausted but in two days I feel like I personally have just attended film school and have learned an enormous amount about how to make the next few weeks much smoother. When we aren't filming, I'll be spending my time simplifying and organizing the scripts better to make sure the shoot days are smoother. When we are filming I'll prep people better for the entire day so we can move faster as a team.

Day 1 Set: Kids painting props for the school annual day

Day 2: Kids at school talking about the sounds they've learned that day.

Before each scene, the kids practice their lines with a coach.

Shooting in 100-104F weather is exhausting, especially since we are on location and do not have a cool AC studio space to use. This means we can't even have fans on when the camera is rolling. Snacks and lots of water breaks are essential!

A true experiential learning experience for everyone. We all pause to watch and listen to the last take to see what needs to change, mistakes we've made and what worked well. Digital cameras and instant playback are such a blessing when working with kids.

Production Team Meets Chennai Filmmaker R.S. Prasanna

The production team, a dynamic group of ten volunteers, interns and Aid India staff, met today to confirm roles and responsibilities and discuss the (slightly grueling) schedule. R.S. Prasanna, a Chennai filmmaker, was our chief guest and motivational speaker. He led a very helpful discussion on how to make a movie with little or no budget. That's us! We focused on trouble shooting especially in the areas of lighting, sound, direction and keeping the momentum going for 3 weeks, especially with the kids. So glad to have a resourceful and experienced filmmaker on call for this initiative.

Two of the child actors prepare a bingo game card using opposites vocabulary. The main focus of the 2 week rehearsal preparation has been to build up their confidence of English vocabulary, grammar, writing and reading that they have already learned through games, activities and one on one interaction with multiple teachers.

The phonetic sound letter props are almost finished. These will be used throughout all the segments to help reinforce the sounds being taught in each segment. Do you know what sound 'ie' and 'oo' make? Think 'tie, die, fried and ' and 'moon, spoon, stool, boot'

Today we took the letters outside and filmed the kids dancing around with each sound in various locations. Still lots more to do, but we got about 1/3 through the letters before the sun got too high in the sky and we were attracting too much attention to be productive.

Adam, our camera in charge, is spending his summer holiday volunteering for this production. Lucky us! He arrived less than a week ago and has already bonded with the kids--playing games, introducing kiwi to them for the first time and teaching them how to hackey sack. And has already spent several long hours in the sun filming on the streets of Chennai.
A great addition to the team!

Our Chennai-based interns are hard at work on their laptops checking scripts, sourcing last minute items, location scouting and working on story-boarding. These guys will be assistant directors as well as our main post-production editing crew. This production would not be possible without such a talented technical team!

DVD Update #11 Rehearsals

Day 1: All the teachers, volunteers and recently arrived interns meet the students

We've completed 1 full week of rehearsals and while we are trying desperately to stay on schedule, the kids are getting a little antsy. They want to get out there and get in front of the camera. But we've also had less than perfect attendance. This is in part due to last week's Cyclone Laila and 1 resulting fever. And this week both boys have had stomach problems and have been out for 1-2 days. Because of the background of the kids, it can be hard to track them down when they don't show up and while the parents have been supportive, they are not always communicative or responsive.

Due to attendance issues we decided to take on 1 more girl from Chennai. We first met her at the annual day of the school both boys attend. Their English teacher wrote a very cute drama for the kids to act out to show off their English talent. Our new actress played a teacher and played it very well. It was extremely hard to track her down considering it is summer holidays. However, it turns out her grandmother and uncle both work for a house (as domestic help and a construction worker) 1 block from our office. We were able to talk with the family and while they didn't seemed disinterested, said she could participate. We gave them a copy of the pilot episode in hopes that they realize what a great opportunity it will be for her.

We start each morning with some light yoga stretching. My goal is to get them to eventually do 5 minutes of meditation. Currently 30 seconds is a struggle. (Note: the boy on the left had to remove all his clothes because he walked in the cyclone to the office for rehearsals and was drenched)

Students spend 45 minutes reviewing vocabulary and practice speaking
English with each other and their teacher.

The students spend one hour reviewing phonics and doing reading related activities.

Before lunch students spend 15-20 minutes writing in their workbooks practicing words and sounds they have learned in reading class.

After lunch students work on their lines with on the volunteer English teachers.

Follow us on twitter: sistaKAA

It's official, you can now follow what's happening with the DVD production, rehearsals, and the shoot on twitter. Visit my twitter feed or follow us to get instant updates @sistaKAA

DVD Update #10 Cyclone Hit Chennai

Nothing like an off-season cyclone, flooding, and power outages to delay a project. Luckily, we only lost one day of our intended schedule, but were still able to rehearse and work with the kids. Unfortunately with the temperature drop and being out in the rain, one came down with a fever. Hopefully it is short lived and she'll be back on her feet again soon. We don't exactly have under studies.

One of our students is picked up on her uncle's motorbike after rehearsal.

The road in front of our office was entirely flooded. We all had to walk through it up to mid-calf...don't think about it. Really, it's best not to think about all the micro organisms that thrive in such conditions. It's been almost a week and I'm still standing. Although now we have three kids out.

DVD Update #9 Interns, Rehearsals & Props

Quick update from the ground:

We have selected 6 talented interns to join our production team. They will be helping with camera direction, editing, lighting, production management, rehearsals and scouting out locations. We are very exciting to have this dynamic group of students and professionals onboard for the next few months. With their permission I'll be posting their bios to the blog in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. They are up and coming film makers!

Rehearsals with the students start tomorrow. I'm putting together the final rehearsal schedule which will include everything from a daily yoga class to spoken English and art projects. Anyone have suggestions or want to be involved, please let me know!

We have finished cutting and paper maching all the letters and sounds for the segments we will be shooting in June. We are in the process of painting them. Hope the 5 litres of paint lasts for all the props, it was almost $100US! Eeks! I'm compiling a list of all the other props we'll be needing to make, collect and buy. I'll post the list to the blog, if you have any of the items, please donate for a few weeks. We promise to take good care of it.

DVD Update #8 Guest Illustrator

The English team is always looking for talented creative types that are willing to help out a good cause. We are in constant need of illustrators and designers to help us add the fun, creative, and cute touch to the educational materials we develop.

I would like to publicly thank Vaibhav Kumaresh, recipient of India's Best Animator Award 2005, of Vaibhav Studios for being our guest illustrator! He has been working on our 'Simple Instructions' illustrations and they are cute beyond words. I love his cartoon style--mischievous yet naive characters sometimes with overly exaggerated noses and sometimes without noses at all. The kids are going to love these! Stay tuned, you'll be seeing these and more like them in the upcoming DVD modules.

Thanks Vaibhav! If you'd like to contact him regarding your own animation or illustration project please email him: vaibhavkumaresh [at] hotmail [dot] com

Write your name.

Hold your nose.

DVD Update #7 Restructuring

Staff Script Writing Workshop

Originally we had hoped to do a lot more fund raising to help us secure funds for this project and kickstarter was just one avenue we were using. Sadly, with the economy, our other attempts have been fruitless. However, that isn't stopping us from moving foward, we've just had to rethink our approach and strategy...like good creative development educationists that we are.

So, we have restructured and rethought the project. We will be outsourcing the creative fun bits: songs and animation to our previous directors. The educational bits, we will produce ourselves.

Thanks to the help of volunteers in the US and India, we have 20 scripts that we are editing and finalizing. We will begin rehearsals with the students next week while we finalize the schedules, scout the locations and continue making props. We hope to start shooting the first week of June. It's a lot to get done, but since I'll be on a flight to the US on July 12th, it's gotta get done!

We have also identified a great set of interns that will be helping us put it all together, everything from writing, editing, prop making, filming and post-production editing. It is going to be an exciting team and I am really looking forward to working with everyone on this project.

Teachers making props

Taken on the first day of prop making. Five of the teachers working on our program in Chennai have agreed to help us with prop-making and rehearsals this month. The props will all be cardboard and paper mache. It's a long process and lots of cutting, sticking and painting required but its a cheap option!

'English made easy' in The Hindu

The Ready to Read program and the DVD initiative was featured in The Hindu this week. Clink on the link below to read the article.


The Hindu: English Made Easy, April 5th 2010
by Seem Sanghi

An Video Introduction to Ready to Read

An Introduction to Ready to Read from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.

The Ready to Read program is designed to be an innovative intervention by teaching English reading and writing through a phonetic and whole language approach. In addition to introducing basic phonics through Total Physical Response (TPR), it also introduces students to common sight words, writing practice, group play activities and reading time. This dynamic reading program, specifically designed for Tamil-medium students, fits in a bag and can be easily transported. The need for this program is heightened by the fact that there is no comparable alternative, which uses culturally appropriate and relevant content. This balanced program supplements the primary school curriculum, enabling students to read words and simple sentences within a few weeks. In 2009-2010 it was piloted in 36 schools with about 2000 fourth and fifth standard students in eight districts across the state. The results to date have been encouraging and we have received an overwhelming response from teachers and students.

If you want more information regarding the Ready to Read program, please leave a comment, or email: info@aidindia.in.

Wow! Great news!

We did it, or rather all our kickstarter backers did it. We have reached our $4,000 goal for the next episode of our DVD project. Thank you so much to everyone who has pledged and is backing this project. Your support means a lot all of us on the English team at Aid India. It is encouraging to know that there are so many people out there supporting and encouraging us to continue this work. We met with our directors last week and have begun talks about the next several episodes. Now that we've raised enough money for another episode we are that much closer to our goal of completing the project. We hope to have the next shoot in June.

But we still have 16 days left on kickstarter and each episode is going to cost about $4000, so please pass this onto friends, family or colleagues. We can still use all the help we can get. Additional funds raised beyond our $4000 goal will go towards additional episodes. And the more episodes we can produce in one go, the more we can bring our costs down.

Please pass this on to friends, family and colleauges. We aren't done yet. For information about the reading project and the DVD initiative, please follow the link below to our kickstarter site: