The experience of one of the students on the project…. 

hello all

I am one of the students doing the digital projects with murray and jon weve been working with them for two days and this post is being posted on the last day with them. Its been fun with these two and my experiences are probably going to help me later in life (plus we get all this new brilliant equipment)

last night at around 4:30 we went to give an interview to a piece of living seychellois history, a man named kantilal jivan a well known man in the seychlles capital he is a historian, a top conservationist and has many numerous awards from science academys and unversitys without having a formal education(makes me think twice about my own education).

I hope that anyone reading this will eventually see the movies we poduce and will enjoy them.

Today started off badly with a crash in the town centre in our hire jeep. the car in front slammed on and unfortunately i was too close behind to avoid a collision.

The police were on the scene within minutes which we found quite surprising considering their general laid back approach to things.

It also turned out that our hire car was failing to display a valid insurance certificate on the windscreen so the police officers decided to take us ‘down town’ to the central station until we could prove that the car was insured. I also had to complete a very indepth statement.

We called the hire company and explained that we were being held at the central station because the car appeared not to be insured.

The company sent a guy over with the valid paperwork and we were released.

The last two days since I started this workshop has been WOW.  I’ve learnt how to opperate different types of video-camera,digital-camera and new computer skills.

I’ve been with Jon the most and he’s great.

Joining this workshop has been a good way to get out of the class and do some interesting stuff which may come into good use in the future.

Murray has also been great and his been teaching us the audio stuff to go with go with our movies that were making based on seycheles.

We’ve also done some sight seeing tothe missionlodge at Sans Sousi, the Market in town and the Botanical Garden. On Tuesday 24 the GAME (Gibson,Alex,Marcel,Eddy) group got the chance to interview Mr Jivan, an absolutely amazing man who had quite a lot of stories to tell us .

So far we have gotten 2 beautiful videos of the Sunrise and the Sunset.

This is the first camera and video recording experieces that i have ever had. We have done a few interviews and made a few short recordinggs for our documetory on the seychelles.
We have also learnt to use the equipement which is the cam recorders and the digital cameras.
The teachers have shown us the different kinds of shots and angles that you have with film making.

Our first real shot was an interview with the owner of Temoolgees department store, Ms Oliarji, where we asked her about tthe government and the problems of dealing in the seychelles. Our second one was the sunset at Beau Vallon beach where we setup equipement and took the whole setting we the speeded it up and a beautiful sunset can be seen in about a minute and a half.
Signing off a would like to thank Jon and Murry who has been patient at all times and we are all greatful that they took the time to teach us what they know.
Marcel  

It was our first day with the kids and after just one day
I think the films the kids produce are going to be very special.

The kids are all super keen and have already planned what they are going to shoot.

This afternoon i went with a small group into town to interview two people who where suggested as been potentially very good people to interview.

One of the guys, an 84 year old was very excited to see us. he got out his scrap books of all the people he’s had as guests at his home and these included the Queen and Prince Phillip, Mother Terresa, Omar Shairif, the list is endless. He showed us the photos to prove it.

We’re gonna go back after school tomorrow and interview him properley. we were a little unprepared question wise when we saw him today.

We start at 5:30am tomorrow with a surf shoot at sunrise on George Harrison’s and Peter Seller’s old beach. A different group of kids that want to show in their films some of the fun stuff teenagers do out here.

Another good film I’m thinking.

After a long flight we arrived into the heat and humidity of Mahe.

Nina kindly collected us from the airport and delivered us to our rather plush accomodation for the next three weeks.

After unpacking we took a saunter down to the turquoise waters and cooled off..

It’s the eve of the project trip to Seychelles and we’re just relaxing with a whisky and coke round at Murrays in Stoke Newington.  Plane lifts to the skies Friday eve around 9:30 and drops into the indian ocean Saturday morning.

We’ve even organised a venue to watch the FA cup on Saturday afternoon.

Our multimedia workshops with the International School on Mahe are scheduled to start on Monday morning, so enough time to adjust
to the new surrounds and climate.

“Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, far from African coast, a bunch of islands offers to its visitors a range of tastes, smells and visions at the crossroad of Asia and Africa. Whatever you are looking for - white sandy beaches, rocky mountains, luxuriant forests or plain deserts - you’ll be fully satisfied.
If your fascination relates to snorkelling in coral reefs, trekking, or birdwatching in a unique nature, you will enjoy what you’ll discover there.

Away from commercial ways, those countries : Madagascar , Seychelles , Mauritius and Reunion Island , thanks to their isolation, preserved among their inhabitants an incomparable kindness.”

We have less than a week to get all our prep ready for departure to the Seychelles on Friday 20th May.

Cafesociety.org will be working with the International School in Victoria - Mahe for a three week period to produce a selection of short films through a series of practical new media workshops.

It’s been hectic planning the project in between our current contracts and projects with schools in the UK.

We hope this blog will entertain and stimulate you.

Hopefully everyday we will have new stories and images to post and keep you all informed on how the project is going.