Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin June 3rd, 2010

Art made by Jah Army:

• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)
• Kenya: Day 26 – Photos (0)
• Kenya: Day 20 – Week 3 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 19 – Photos (0)
• Kenya: Day 9 (0)

Tags: Jah Army, Kenya 2010, Missions, Photography, Trips

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Penguin June 3rd, 2010

Here are my first set of photos:

• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)
• Kenya: Day 26 – Photos (0)
• Kenya: Day 19 – Jah Army Art (2)
• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Kibera, Missions, Photography, Trips

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Penguin June 3rd, 2010

Pray for:
- That we’d be able to get the Filamujuani documentary done
- that Risiki’s finishing her movie will encourage the others in the class to step up

What happened:
- worked on my screenplay
- chatted w/ M
- went to Kibra Academy. Risiki surprised me with all her pre-production done. so i told her that she would be the first to start production.
- went home

It was really exciting to see the kids engaged in production. Not before too long, Risiki had a small crowd forming around the “sets” to watch what was going on.

She had drawn a whole bunch of storyboards, but when we started shooting, she maybe only used 5.

As we approached the end of the day, she wanted 1 more shot. When she got it, I asked her if she needed Monday to keep shooting, but she said she was done. It’ll be interesting to see it come together in the edit.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to take the finished movie and toss it up on youtube for everyone.

On a side note. Ken and I weren’t able to start the Filamujuani documentary. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make up the time tomorrow or Saturday.

• Kenya: Day 26 – School fees (0)
• Kenya: Day 24 – Cheers! (1)
• Kyrgyzstan: Day 3 – 7/9/08 (0)
• Kyrgyzstan: Day 2 – 7/8/08 (0)
• Kyrgyzstan: Day 1 – 7/7/08 (2)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Production, Trips

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Penguin June 2nd, 2010

Pray for:
- Wisdom in interacting with beggars
- That the Filamujuani documentary would show the world what’s happening here

What happened:
- went to Jah Army, some of them started doing their screenplays
- went to Prestige to have a meeting with Ken. talked about the Filamujuani documentary; Kibera TV; the role of markets and entrepreneurship in community development; and a bit about story structure.
- went to Kibra Academy. the kids did poorly on their general exam, so a lot of them got punished. didn’t really have class.
- went to Prestige to wait for Ken
- went to Small Group. we talked about success.
- set up a meeting with Erica about Kibera TV for next week.
- went home

Tomorrow, we begin filming the Filamujuani documentary. We’re going to focus on 3 stories: Frances, Amina, and Yasin. The 3 of them are going to be graduating this year, so the things that we’re teaching them will be particularly important. It’s also a very timely project because Ken will be going back to the states to “show” people what’s going on here.

I love doing quick and dirty documentaries.

The other day, I finished Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life by Robert Lupton. It was great. It totally changed the way I view charity, community development, and the role of markets. It didn’t answer my question from Day 5 where I encountered the beggar. That’s not true. It answered it tangentially, in that when we give charity, we remove dignity and perpetuate the problem. There are definitely times when charity is needed and when those times are require a lot of wisdom and discernment in the Spirit.

Instead of charity, “we must come to deeply believe that every person, no matter how destitute or broken, has something of worth to bring to the table.” But the question is, what do these poorest of the poor bring to the table? It’s a question I struggle with with each child that runs to me with outstretched hands.

When I see the poor, I see them begging, I ask myself, how can I best help them? This morning, I saw a kid, maybe middle school aged, getting up from sleeping under a blanket on the side of the street. Sure, I could give him 100 shillings, and he can buy a snack. But what about tomorrow? I can give him 1000 shillings, and he can feed himself for a week, but what about the following year? What happens when, come August 30, I leave? What happens to my “dependent”?

I think, “If I only had an office where I could employ them, then they could earn their day’s wage and we both win.” But what can they do? I guess it’s my fault for not asking. I’m going to find out.

Then there’s the old woman at the gate into Prestige. Every morning, she comes with her mat, sets it down by the gate with her various cups to collect change. She has a cane to help her with her pigeon-toed gate as she goes to the plaza to relieve herself or maybe make a deposit at the bank. I don’t know because, again, I don’t ask.

I guess that’s why I’m here, isn’t it?

• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)

Tags: Charity, Kenya 2010, Missions, Trips

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Penguin June 1st, 2010

Pray for:
- God to do his thing regarding Kibera TV/Slum TV
- real community development to happen that will transform Kibera

What happened:
- today is Kenay’s independence day. Pretty much everyone has the day off. No school!
- went to Jah Army. Michael, after some struggle, is starting to get loglines.
- Jah Army was performing at DC, so I went to give them my support. The event was supposed to start at 12, but when I left at 1:45, it still hadn’t gotten started. the event was presented by KCODA to build awareness for good governance
- Jah Army went to the KCODA hq, where I met Erica and Brian, who are running Kibera TV. some of their people had come to interview me last week.
- went to Prestige and met with Gwatila to talk about Zuki
- went TV shopping with Gwatila
- went home

Apparently, this whole Kibera TV/Slum TV thing is a pretty good idea, considering that we weren’t the only ones that thought of it. KCODA has been doing what they’re calling the Kibera News Network since April. Most of their stuff is uploaded straight to Youtube after some basic editing.

I think it’d be a really cool idea if we managed to partner with them and develop a proper Kibera TV network with more than just news, but other programming as well.

Putting the stuff online is cool and all, but it would be even better if we could develop community around it as well. Still need to think through the details on that, but I’d rather join with a group who’s already doing something, rather than start our own thing completely. Even if we’re only sharing resources, we may be a huge benefit for each other.

It’s pretty exciting how it all came together. I had just tagged along with Jah Army. They met with the program director and I was just chilling. Then, Erica popped her head into the office and saw me. She had seen the interview I did the previous week and we started talking.

Funny how things like that work out. Hopefully, the rest of it works out just as easily.

Praise God!

• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Kibera TV, Missions, Trips

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Penguin May 30th, 2010

Pray for:
- Shooting a quick and dirty documentary about Filamujuani
- Looking for a small group

What happened:
- met Ken at Adam’s Arcade
- went to Nairobi Chapel for church
- went shopping with Eva. she bought a new wallet, talked down from 950 to 500. bought a scarf, talked down from 250 to 200. bought a pair of boots, talked down from 2500 to 1200.
- went to Steve’s thanksgiving. his daughter, Siva had been sick. her intestines and tubes hadn’t fully developed, so she couldn’t pee or poop. now, she’s ok, and it was a thanksgiving for her. i took pictures for Ken.
- went to Prestige to meet with Gwatila and Ken to talk about Zuki
- dinner: beef briani
- went home

In this review: Normalcy, Seeing, Missing

Normalcy
==
As I settle into my second week in Nairobi, I settle into a sense of normalcy. I wake up, go to work, have lunch, and then go home, waiting for the cycle to repeat. It definitely helped that I started right away.

Normalcy and rythm is actually a very good thing. It sounds dull, and in some ways it is. Thus, my decision to stop blogging daily updates. Though I’m still blogging daily thus far.

What makes it a good thing is it allows you to plan the future. It allows you to make decisions about what’s to come. Decisions about your life.

I’m starting to get familiar with the lay of the land. Prestige, Adam’s, Junction, Nairobi Chapel, all along the same road.

Seeing
==
After Gwatila’s shoot, we sat around and got to the topic of the power of seeing.

Often times, we take for granted what we have seen, experienced, and learned and how that changes not only our perspective, but also our ability to project and envision.

Sometimes, people need to be shown exactly what’s going on for them to understand. That is the power of video. It enables people to see things that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to see.

So, this week, we’re going to shoot a quick and dirty documentary about Filamujuani and what’s going on here and the change that it is bringing to Kibera. We’re hoping that it’ll be shot and edited over the next 2 weeks.

Missing
==
Being here for 2 weeks, the thing I’ve missed most is the people that I left in the states. Family, friends, people I care about and care about me. The physical and temporal difference has really started getting to me.

I knew that I was going to miss people, but I didn’t realize I would miss them this much and so quickly.

It’s been nice receiving emails, even if they’re breif. It’s also been nice being able to text M, even if they’re within very narrow windows of her being awake. It’s an 11 hour time difference between the two of us.

• Kenya: Day 12 (0)
• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Trips, Zuki

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Penguin May 28th, 2010

What happened:
- went to Adam’s Arcade at 9:30. had breakfast, journaled. Ken was supposed come pick me up for Gwatila’s music video
- Ken shows up with Kim, the guitarist, at 11:20.
- get to Gwatila’s at 12, start setting up lights, etc for Gwatila’s music video.
- I shoot some set photographs
- by 4, we’ve only finished Kim’s shots and he has to go.
- we consider shooting some scenes with Gwatila, but we don’t really have the time and start packing stuff up at 5:40
- we sit around and chat about Filamujuani and decide to shoot a quick and dirty documentary this coming week so people can see what we’re doing and the sort of impact we’re having
- we go to Spice Roots, an Indian restaraunt for Tom and Deb’s farewell dinner. we’re supposed to get there at 8, but get there at 9. they order food, get some appetizers at 10, get the actual dinner at 11.
- we go to Havana at 12:30, a local bar/club and dance the night away
- i get home at 2

Gwatila is an actress, poet, singer and has her first published book of poetry, “Blue Mothertongue“. Ken is shooting a music video for a poem she wrote called, “Dear E”, which was put to music.

While Ken was shooting with his 5Dmk2, Gwatila was coming up with a shot list. At the end of the 4 hour shoot, we had 6 of 32 shots done for a 2:18 music video.

This is one of the reasons why planning is such a crucial part of filmmaking. In fact, planning starts in the script. The script is a series of descriptions of what is and what isn’t on screen. Pre-production takes that concept a step further and figures out, practically, how do we show what’s in the script.

Now, there are definitely instances where it takes a long time to even get 1 shot. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m also not advocating sticking so close to the plan that you don’t allow for inspiration or serendipity, nor is getting the shot THE primary task.

What planning does, is it forces you to think through everything before actually doing it. It frees your mind so those moments of inspiration and serendipity are free to happen. Since your mind is no longer thinking about what HAS to be shot, it can be freed to wonder, explore, and play. You’ve already considered the possibilities and tossed out the ones you know won’t work. All that’s left, are the ones that will.

Planning also frees up time so getting the shot isn’t what you’re doing. I hate it when I get to the end of my day and I still have a ton of shots left to get, but I can’t miss my day either. So I switch into functional mode. I get the shots I need in order to tell the story. But often times, those shots are devoid of life. They work, but they don’t have that sense of magic that really connects.

Planning, it’s your friend.

• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Planning, Pre-production, Trips

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Penguin May 27th, 2010

Pray for:
- a vision that transforms the community
- wisdom of how to implement that vision

What happened:
- went to prestige. did my devos. waited for ken, who didn’t show up.
- met with Gwatila to talk about Zuki. plotted out episodes 3-4 and started talking about ep 1.
- went to Kibra Academy, taught pre-production: location lists, character lists, stripboards, prop lists, storyboarding, and shot lists. tom also came out and did an exercise with the kids, had 2 actors try to both get what they want
- Tom dropped me off at Adam’s Arcade, walked home w/ my headlamp lighting the way
- had first power outage

Today, Tom came out to class. Most of it was pretty uneventful, but as we approached the end, it was time to say goodbye. Tom is moving to Rwanda after spending a year in Kenya. He’s spent quite some time with the kids, teaching and helping them work on Zuki.

Zuki started out as a soap opera written, shot, acted, and produced by the kids. The goal was to produce this and sell it to local TV stations as a way to bring money into the community. But as the project went along, many of those goals got put on the back burner.

One of the problems, was that the kids aren’t very experienced with writing or production. In fact, they don’t have any experience. As much as we like to believe in gold coming out of the most unlikely places, the reality is that screenwriting, video production, and video editing are difficult. Each one is a craft that needs to be refined in its own right through failure, trial and error, and critical feedback from peers and audiences.

In the mean time, writing duties for Zuki have been mostly taken over by Gwatila and Ken.

Another problem is the lack of resources.

A few months ago, a small group of women pooled their resources and bought the school 8 laptops. Then, one day, they were stolen. This is Kibera. It’s still a slum with all the things that come with slums: theft, murder, rape… lawlessness.

So what to do?

My recommendation to Ken was to set up a production company. He could start with 2 or 3 laptops, a consumer HD camera, and some Flip HD cameras. The Flips would be used for training and even shooting some low level programming. The consumer camera could be rented out so that they can shoot weddings, documentaries, or whatever other projects. The laptops could be taken in to Kibera as lesson platforms, but more often then not, it would stay at the office for work.

What this does, is it sets up a goal for the students. After they finish school, they have a place where they can actually envision themselves working. Even if they don’t work at the production company, they can rent gear or time on the laptops to produce material and bring money into the community.

So, what then of Zuki? Our goal this summer is to write, shoot, and finish the first 42 minute episode and use it as a platform to sell the rest of the 4 part mini-series, potentially leading to a full 13 episode TV series.

I still need to have conversations about SlumTV.

• Kenya: Day 15 – Week 2 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Trips, Zuki

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Penguin May 26th, 2010

Pray for:
- pastoring Ken
- those remaining in my classes, that they would learn a lot

What happened:
- went to teach Jah Army, only half the class showed up.
- went home. lunch: meatballs + fries
- went to prestige to journal. saw ken & tom
- went to Kibra Academy. half the class showed up. taught how to write a screenplay. homework: write a 4 pg screenplay
- went to Junction, met up with Ken & tom. they worked on Zuki. we were at doorman’s, i ordered tomato soup
- went to Nairobi Java House for dinner, had a burger
- Tom went home
- sat around with Ken talking about life
- went home

From this point on, my blogging is going to become irregular. The only times I’m going to post are if I have a significant thought or comment. I will continue to do weekly reviews.

• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Trips

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Penguin May 25th, 2010

Pray for:
- kids have motivation and focus
- against the enemy’s tactics of discouragement and distractions

What happened:
- went to Kibera; Kigan and I miscommunicated and he went to wait for me at Kibera Academy; reviewed their loglines; taught about character development; homework: write biography for main character
- some local people heard about what I was doing and came to interview me
- did my devos
- went home for lunch
- went to Pristige Plaza, met with Gwatila and Ken to talk about Zuki. Started getting the overall arc down.
- went to Kibera Academy. Looked at the students’ book to see how they were progressing. A lot of them didn’t do the homework right. Or others had missed class. So class turned into a makeup session. Ended class early.
- went home

It was pretty discouraging today to see a good portion of the kids not doing their work. This is not to say that all of them are guilty, there were those who did try, and those need to be rewarded.

I just need to remind myself that I can only teach the material, they have to learn on their own.

• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
• Kenya: Day 8 (1)
• Kenya: Day 7 (0)
• Kenya: Day 6 – Week 1 in review (1)
• Kenya: Day 51 – Portraits (3)

Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Trips

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