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Table of Contents Page
1.Background 22.Aims of the 9 day workshop 2
3.Products of the workshop 3
4.Impact/Results 3
5.Lessons Learned 3
Annexe I 7
Annexe II 9
Annexe III 10
Annexe IV 12
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EVALUATION REPORT for the BCMD video workshop July 2010
BACKGROUND
This was the third documentary video workshop organized by Bhutan Center forMedia and Democracy and the first time that the workshop was open to any young
person. In previous workshops, BCMD drew their participants from the media clubs
of select high schools in Thimphu. For this workshop, BCMD made an open call to
youth and to schools in Thimphu, Punakha and Paro and interested participants
applied for the workshop. The only criterion was that they had to be between the agesof 16-21 years old.
Announcements were made on the radio, and all high schools (public and private)
were contacted and provided the forms, an application pick up and drop off box was
also set up in Voluntary Artists Studio Thimphu (VAST) in Thimphu. Applicants
could also email their applications into the office.
BCMD received more than 45 applications, of which 20 students were selected based
on their evident interest. Some applications were immediately disqualified for not
fitting the age limit, or indicating a complete misunderstanding of what the workshop
was about. Participants were from: Mothithang Higher Secondary School, RinchenKuenphen Higher Secondary School, Nima Higher Secondary School, Punakha
Higher Secondary School, Kuenga Higher Secondary School (Paro), Kelki Higher
Secondary School Yangchenphu Higher Secondary School and Drugyal Higher
Secondary School (Paro).
The resource persons for the workshop were Greg Watkins, Stanford University, andDechen Roder, a Bhutanese filmmaker.
BCMD supports filmmaking for youth to enable them to give voice to issues of
interest and concern. It is also a part of the overall media literacy programme that
BCMD conducts in Bhutan.
AIMS OF THE 9-DAY WORKSHOP:
To familiarize students with documentary production filmmaking and all the phases
(planning, production and post-production)
To give students practical training and experience in making their own films, and toprovide basic tools for effective story-telling.
To teach students basic film language, teamwork, approaches to documentary
production, and the role documentary can play in forwarding democracy.
To expose Bhutanese youth to different film genres (documentary, short film) and
teach them how to view films critically and analytically.
To help the students express their concerns and interests through a new medium, and
to participate actively in their society through the potential voice of documentary.
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PRODUCTS OF THE WORKSHOP
In groups of 2-3 students, 5 short films were produced during the workshop:
1) Unbalanced Nature2) The Story of Tshering Yangzom3) Khaman Singh Ghalley is a Waiter4) Poverty 105) A Day in the Life of Ranjeet
IMPACT/RESULTS:
The 9-day workshop was successful in teaching the students the above aims. Given a
few mishaps with the computers, all 5 films were well made and executed. It is highly
evident that the students understood the overall aim of documentary being a medium
for new voices, as all the topics they chose to focus on dealt with social issues, or
shed light on mostly unheard stories.
The student evaluation reveals that the students learnt a lot about filmmaking and
communicating their ideas. Many students mentioned that they hoped for a 2nd
level
course, which would teach them even more. Many of the students realized both how
challenging it is to make a film, but also how exciting and interesting it is to be
involved in production. Students also learnt how truly collaborative filmmaking is,and learnt to work well in teams. After this course, many students revealed their new
or enhanced ambitions in becoming filmmakers or working in the media industry in
the future.
The workshop also helped to reinforce an understanding of the documentary film in a
society that is tending to veer towards fiction film and entertainment media.Participants also learned that all films are an articulation of a point of view and this is
an important realization in a country where media are young (TV was introduced in1999) and many youth have yet to develop the critical thinking skills needed to view
media.
The final day screening for friends and family enabled youth to meet with their
audience. It gave them an opportunity to articulate their experience and to take stockof what they learnt. This is valuable in itself and gave the youth the experience of
being accountable for the media they created.
LESSONS LEARNED
1) Understanding Editing Before Shooting
One thing that the resource persons took for granted, and did not realize, was that
most of the students werent familiar with the basic phases of filmmaking and
production (shooting and editing after). After their first shooting assignment, we
realized most of them didnt know that video is edited later. Many had shot thinking
that it was to be the final version, and had messed up a few times, and started over.
In future workshops this phase of being able to edit, and play with the footage in post-
production should be introduced before they go for shooting.
2) Editing Time, Computers, and Uploading Footage
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In the evaluation report, many of the students claimed that they did not learn enough
about editing and some also mentioned they would have liked to learn the process of
how the footage is loaded onto the computer. These comments and feedback indicate
a few suggestions for future workshops.
1)
Ensure that the computer to student ratio is better for future workshops. Thistime it was about 6:1 (students to a computer).
2) Give more class instruction on editing to the students. We had given them abrief overview (about 1-2 hours), and wanted them to learn individually. But
perhaps next time, it should be longer, 3-4 hours of class instruction/practice.3) Also teach students how the footage is loaded onto the computer.
3) More Hands-on Work and Applying Theory
Many of the evaluation reports from the students mentioned that they learnt the most
in the practical and the least in the theory. This is important to note, and
incorporate into future workshops. The workshop gave a lot of time to experience the
assignments on their own but the lack of computer and editing time did not allowstudents to fully grasp the process.
The first assignment for all the students was to have someone tell them what I
do.. and to cut visuals over it. This project was supposed to be done by every
student (shot and edited) and was to incorporate much of the theory taught. Due to alack of computer time, many were not able to complete their projects. It would have
been a very concrete learning experience (practical) to apply their theoretical
knowledge.
1) Again, this issue may be solved with a better computer to student ratio in future
workshops.
2) It may also help to think of more interactive ways to teach theory. A suggestionwould be to show clips from popular feature films and break down the sequence and
shots while discussing the language. Or have students watch a sequence and break
down the scene using the film language. We also did not have the students storyboard
shots (something that was done in previous workshops), possibly that should be re-
introduced in future workshops as an exercise in applying theory.
3) We did fine with the tripods we had, but it would be good to have one tripod per
group.
4) We should add, in either the schedule or the report, the value of watching 'dailies'
on the TV, both to remember the value of a TV in the room and to emphasize thevalue of sharing work along the way.
5) Similarly, though this would be another demand on time but it would have beengreat to have full rough-cut screenings of everybody's work toward the end. We did
this with one project for the class, but then had to go to just the teachers and each
group watching cuts together. This is partly the consequence of sharing computers,
which, in a sense, it cuts our time in half. With one computer per project, we would
be able to say, for example, "Let's edit all morning and watch rough-cuts in the
afternoon."
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4) I-movie Software Issues
During the course of our workshop, there were major complications with 2 Mac
computers and the students projects in I-movie. Two groups had to move their work
to another computer half way through their editing, and one group had to move twice.
It is extremely difficult to move I-movie projects (as opposed to other editingsoftware) and this meant the students had to start editing from scratch, which severely
compromised their final work.
We believe both problems arose from the I-movie software, not being able to handlethe heavy editing. If the software cannot be changed, certain precautions must be
followed in future workshops.
1) Make sure that everything imported into an I-movie project is of recognizableformat (for example .avi and .mp3). We believe that some of the problems
arose because I-movie could not properly read certain audio formats that the
students had imported, and this corrupted all the projects on I-movie.
2) Although we covered camera safety and handling, I think we were not clear oncomputer handling. We of course did not allow any food or drinks near the
editing stations, but we had not properly gone through handling the computer
with care. I think some of the computer problems arose because students
might have been too rough and impatient with the spinning wheel and hit
certain keys over and over, till the computer and program froze. For future
workshopsit should be clear to the students that patience and gentle care forthe computers is also required!
3) We had to buy the software Flip Converter for Mac in order to improve thefiles being imported from the Flip cameras. This is why the students weren't
able to experience uploading (it also had the affect of bogging down one of thecomputers for importing).
4) We should also note that the Flip cameras we have are going to be more andmore difficult to use as other technology improves. It's a question of budget,
of course, but newer cameras with better sound would help a lot.
POSTIVE PRACTICES:
1) Showing short films/documentaries
We were quite diligent in showing short documentaries and films to the students
through the course, and that was a good exercise. After each film, we would discuss
the approach, the intention, the style, the content, and the visuals. As Bhutanese
students are not used to seeing any Bhutanese media that is not a feature commercial
film or a program on BBS, I think it was important to expose them to different genres
and possibilities, and most importantly to have them talk about it. We had the students
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talk about what they thought, rather than we tell them what the films were about. This
was essential to having them understand these films better and also have them think
about their own films.
2) Discussion and Debate
We also often made the students give feedback on each others ideas and projects, and
this was very successful in the brainstorming phases. It forced the students to view
ideas critically and analytically. These sessions led to interesting debate and
discussion, and also made the students understand that every individual can have adifferent perspective and approach to the same story or issuesomething crucial to
documentary filmmaking.
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Annexe I
Daily Activities
July 5, 2010- Monday
MORNING. What is documentary film?
How is documentary different from fiction?
What are main elements of documentary?
3 phases of production
Understanding themes vs. story
AFTERNOON. Camera- Techniques, safety,
film language, composition, lighting, sound.
Say it, Dont Show it B-roll
Ice-breaking Activity
WATCH:
Short Bhutanese films and short
documentaries.
ACTIVITY: Brainstorm in groups possible
documentary projectstopics curious,
confused, concerned
Everyone must share one topic or idea withthe class.
ACITIVITY: Watch parts of GNH
documentarythink of b-roll to insert tomake it more visually interesting.
ACTIVITY: go out in groups to film: Have
a person talking.
Compose shots according to assignment.
July 6, 2010- Tuesday
MORNING: Watch footage from yesterdaydiscuss what the shots mean.
Interviewing and sound techniques. Eye line,
Getting interesting answersReview composition and film language.
SOUND and lighting
AFTERNOON. Begin editing short clips from
yesterday.
Other group- watch clips from movies.
Different approaches to filmmaking.
Observational, Personal, Classic
ACTIVITY: break into groups. Take turns
interviewing each other. How can you makethe answers interesting?
WATCH:
Clips from documentaries
ACTIVITY: start editing
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July 7, 2010 Wednesday
MORNING: Watch edited works from
yesterday
Discuss more on approaches.
Storytelling: How to write a script. How tobreak down a story. How to plan an approach.
AFTERNOON: few edit on imovie stations,
rest of group do shooting exercises
interviewing each other, and overlapping
action.
ACITIVITY: break into groups, come up
with mock script and approach for given
story.
ACTIVITY: continue editing
Finalize groups and brainstorm with ideas
for documentaries.
July 8, 2010- Thursday
MORNING: Watch edited works from the day
beforeDocumentary ethics and Research methods.
Brainstorm ideas and come up with a storyline
and shooting script.
Make sure there is enough to show it and not
say it.
How to write a shooting script.
How would you go and cover this?
What is the approach? Write a shooting
script to cover this.
ACTIVITIY: Start shooting
July 9- shooting, and some groups start editing
July 10-
More shooting
watch short documentaryunderstand b-
roll and editing visuals, and all make lists of
all the elements included in a film (sound,
graphics etc.)
July 11- July 12 Editing
July 15- FINAL SCREENING
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Annexe II
List of Participants and their documentaries.
"Kaman Singh Ghalley Is a Waiter"
Kencho WangdiPhuntsho WangdiUgyen Wangchuk
"Poverty 10"
Santosh RaiChimi Wangmo
Yeshi Tshomo
"A Day in the Life of Ranjeet"
Khina Maya
Choney Wangmo
Tashi Choden
"Imbalanced Nature"
Dorji Tashi
Rupa Devi Rai
Sonam Rinchen
"The Story of Tshering Yangzom"
Karma Gyeltshen
Kuenzang Jambay
Pema Rinchen
*15 participants: 9 boys and 6 girls.
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Annexe III
Evaluation Report
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Annexe IV
Invitation and Poster designed by the participants
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