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 #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!