Labour Pains

Saturday was a great day. I was reminded how much this participatory film-making process is a creative process, and as such can take awhile to take form, and you can't be sure exactly where people's energies will lead the fledgling film. But I guess that's one of the exciting dynamics of the process - at it's best it really does feel like a shared journey and shared learning. On Saturday afternoon in the grounds of the Legacy Lodge, where we've been running the workshops, the film first made an appearance in the world and began to take shape in the minds of the participants and on the flipchart sheets - in the form of ideas or themes, visual motifs and other elements. Click on the flipchart images to see some of the ideas.

The first two days of workshops had been incredibly intense and hectic for all five members of the team (Alison, Olga, Gift, Chris and I) but I was trying not to get too overwhelmed by just being in Africa (everyone else on the team are quite seasoned travellers) and trying to get all of the workshop plan organised alongside juggling lots of kit. We're using smartphones, iPads, camcorders and a professional camera.

We'd run a whole selection of exercises (As some of the other posts have described) to help familiarise people with the kit, aspects of film grammar, to bond as a group, build a rapport with us, and most importantly to begin to think about what makes what they do as teachers in Malawi, special and worthy of sharing.

There's so much to say about these three days but I think for now I'll just post some pics and head to bed. Filming early at  the first school.