Photo by tungphoto
I’m pleased to say that the 20 minute radio documentary part of my project is finally up on my website and you can find it here.
Any feedback would be gratefully received!
Oh and don’t forget to listen to my interviewees as they talk for ’30 seconds on…’ interesting agricultural, technological and Afrocentric topics.
I’ll keep updating this and other parts of my site!
ENJOY
I’ve always had pre-hand in nerves. Today was no exception. Check
it, check it again, find an insignificant double space or weak choice of word,
go back to the start and check it again. Until finally, you pluck up the
courage to part with the product of hours of concentration and procrastination
and submit. That pretty much sums up today’s hand in. – The written
evaluation of my documentary and the production process that went along with
it.
Being an ex-literature student, I enjoy analysing. Forget a
difficult Sudoku or a word search, give me a bit of Keats or a couple of
sonnets, and I will underline, highlight and annotate until my heart’s content.
But analysing Aid20 was different. I found it exceptionally hard to focus my
thoughts. The documentary has consumed so much of my time and so many of my
thoughts this year that 5000 words just didn’t seem to be enough to put it all
into words. However, with lots of subtitles and heavy editing (and re-editing)
I’ve finally submitted what I hope is a comprehensive analysis of the entire
process, and only a few words over the 5000 guide.
So the coursework is complete. All that remains is for me to
polish off the additions to the audiovisual areas of this website.
Almost… I hope that this won’t be the end. Far from it. I will
endeavour to continue blogging about my findings and new developments. I’ll
also be adding to the content that’s available here.
Once it’s tweaked, I aim to make my radio documentary available
online if anyone should want to give it a listen. I’m not done quite yet!
You may have noticed some changes on my website. I have three new
pages where I will be posting some video, audio and photographs which I took to
accompany the radio documentary.
And while we’re on the subject, the documentary is finished and
handed in! Friday was the hand in, which goes some way to explain my silence
online for the last week and a bit. It got a bit frantic at the end, it always
does doesn’t it?! I was tweaking until 11am on Friday, but it
eventually came together in my first ever twenty minutes of radio documentary.
Very exciting.
I was surprised at how quickly I made progress. I’d been practically
having nightmares about Audition. But sticking to my guns, and editing at home
proved to be the right choice in the end. Several times, I got up out of bed at
midnight feeling guilty at having one too little of it
during the evening. I swear some kind of magic happens at that time of night
and I had some productive spells. As the bank holiday drew to a close, I dared
to preview the programme to a select few, which proved to be a very valuable
thing to do. -I made some quite radical changes to the structure, and managed
to chop the programme down from nearly thirty minutes to twenty.
And then it was time to get arty! (Or at least as creative as I
dared.) Authenticity was so important to me whilst producing my documentary. I
wanted the programme to have a flavour of Ethiopia and Kenya, and for them to be
easily distinguishable from each other. So I used actuality, music and sound
effects, as well as pieces I had recorded, trying to describe as best I could
my surroundings.
So, the big question… am I pleased with the result? Well, yes, I
suppose I am fairly. But it’s not over yet, not until I get everything up on
here and looking lovely. I’m working on it! So keep your eyes peeled during the
week!
Adobe Audition and I are not on speaking terms. Numbers 1 all the way up to 5.
Today I, we, encountered our first technical problems- just after I’d had a real life documentary beginning starting to make shape on the monitor. It seems I have two uncooperative and totally incompatible versions of Audition, one at home and one at university. Which unfortunately means I have a choice to make: edit at home, or in the rather restricted summer opening hours at uni. Due to other commitments, it looks like the former has won. University time then can be spent editing the video for the website and recording voice over pieces and dubbed actors.
With only a couple of weeks left, this is quite concerning. Especially as it means re-doing what I thought I’d got done and dusted today. But I’m still determined to use all my fantastic interviewees and their interesting stories as well and as effectively as possible. So, less of a problem, more a stumbling block. -Let’s face it, up until now everything had been running suspiciously smoothly.
In other news, I had a great start to the week inLondon and then moving west to Bath. I conducted my last lot of interviews, and enjoyed some really interesting, in-depth chats about mobile technologies and ICT in Africain general. I was also absolutely delighted to see some of the material I gathered published on the Guardian’s Development website, on behalf of Send A Cow. A favour I was delighted to exchange for the access they kindly gave me to their projects and the farmers they are working with in both countries I visited. I’m no photographer, but it was a real boost seeing them up there! (Hawa, Hirpo, Tarike, Fadlu and Kuafa are the four wonderful farmers who spoke to me.)
Right well, the only way is up, isn’t that what they say?..
After backing up and backing up again (just to make sure) it’s finally time for me to get editing. I have until the end of the month to produce my first radio documentary. And a lot of work to do for it. Out inAfrica, I recorded several hours worth of interviews, nearly one thousand photos, and another few hours of video clips. With all this material I aim to produce a twenty minute radio documentary as well as content for this here website.
So where do start? Well my aim for this week is to get all my audio ‘clipped up’. Once this is done, I can start thinking about which voices I really want to use in my documentary, and which I feel would be better used as small features. I have collected alot of audio on other issues. – The drought inEast Africafor instance. This was an issue which unsurprisingly was a big discussion topic whilst I was inKenyaandEthiopia, despite the fact that I didn’t reach the troubled region whereSomalia,EthiopiaandKenyaconnect. I hope that these will create interesting contextual pieces which will relate to my project.
I will be spending time listening to other radio documentaries. (so do get in touch with any suggestions!) I hope that this will generate some ideas as to how I want to approach the presentation of my own.
I am also very aware that I need to begin thinking about accurate representation of my interviewee’s voices. I was fortunate to meet some generous colleagues who helped me to translate my interviews. Now I must find actors who will voice up the responses that were given to my questions.
All this, and OF COURSE I’m still yet to confirm a name for the final piece! Mind maps a-plenty I feel…
So, three and a half weeks to go. It’s really come upon me rather suddenly. I’m worried, but also very excited about revealing some of the interesting discoveries that I made on my trip. I promise to get some sneak peaks up here very soon!
I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer.
One of my biggest concerns as I pack and prepare to leave for Kenya is that I might drift from my main focus on the impact that mobile technology is having on farmers and the charities which exist to help and support them. However, the excitement and discussion which surrounds mobile phones in the developing world is constantly making me think outside the parameters of this question.
So partly in an attempt to bulk out and give background, and partly because I want this multimedia documentary to capture as much of this explosive new industry as possible, I’m giving myself a few other pointers…
What technologies are being used?
What are the consequences of using these technologies on charities?
What are the consequences of using these technologies on farmers’ livelihoods and agriculture?
How are these technologies beginning to support agricultural businesses?
What are the global consequences of using these technologies?
Why are countries developing at different rates?
What does the future hold?
With all this in mind, I hope I’ll be able to conduct relevant and interesting interviews for my radio documentary.
Back to the to do list then…
Aid 20 