Selecting music for movies

Hello everybody!

Today I started with a class about how to select music for film. I gave the students a couple of "rules" which they can use when they select music for a fiction or documentary. For instance: Do not use very melodic music while there is dialogue. After my presentation, with demonstrations of all the rules, I gave the students an assignment. They had to select music for fragments of 4 different movies. Unfortunately Final Cut Pro (the video program) wasn't very cooperative today so the assignment had a little delay. Tomorrow I'll repeat my class for the group. During my stay I realized that it is very good to repeat your lesson at least once!
After the class I'll present the students assignment from today....


Bye,

Joep

Hi everyone!

I think the pictures speak for itself, but I want to add that this was an amazing experience! Today we are going to Moshi to meet Cyprian (the rapper) and prepare the shooting day tomorrow. So longer blogs will follow...

Ciao!
Alette

T.I.A.

This is Africa! Pics made on safari at the Ngorongoro crater..

Ngoro Ngoro

Today we went to Ngoro Ngoro crater. It was beautiful!! But now we are all so tired, we left this morning at six o'clock and came back at KFI around eight.  It was a three hour drive to and from the parc, but boy was it worth it!!  I will show u guys the pictures tomorrow because now I'm even to tired to stand on my own two feet.

I just wanted u to know that we had a great, no let me rephrase that, fantastic day and now we are all going to bed.

Cu tomorrow

x

Today was a very special day for me. One of the students invited me to come with him to his house and celebrate the birth of the baby of his sister. It was one of the most impressive things I ever encountered. Mainly because the family were very honoured to have a Msungoo (white person) visit them. They were so lovely and I was one of the stars of the celebration. I even had to join the ceremony and give a speech ( something I find very difficult, but now I really enjoyed saying thanks. )

You are seeing a picture of me with one of the traditional masai guests.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Ngoro Ngoro National parc. Something I really look forward to. Eventhough we have to be ready at six O'clock in the morning :(

Sunday I'll write more about the lesseons we are giving and what I think about being a teacher. For now I only want to say:

My experience at KFI TANZANIA is turning out to be one of the best things ever happening to me.

Final assignment group 1 (part 2)

And the other 2 movies!

Badae

Joseph Arie Joep and Arjan

Final assignment group 1

Hello,

Here are 2 final assignments from group 1. Two more will follow.


Bye,

Arie and Joseph

Slumps excursion today

Mambo jambo?

Today we had a very smelly day, we visited the slumps of Arusha. We saw, as you can see at the picture, woman washing their clothes in dirty water. It was an impressive excursion after an interesting discussion. We noticed that the students are really passionated about politics and they had a very strong opinion about the president sleeping on the road(?).

The last time we visited Arusha it was quiet, because it was sunday. But today it was really crowded and busy, so that was a nice surprise. There was a huge market with second hand clothes and a LOT of shoes. It's weird to think that some of these clothes are coming from our country.

After lunch the groups edited the material that we have shot yesterday. We saw really great things and are curious about the final results.

It's finally time to relax now,

lala salama!

Alettie and Sanne

Trip to A-town and prepare for next project

Mambo vipi!

Joseph and I decided to skip todays excursion. Because of the fact we already visited the slumps of Arusha and we have to prepare for our safari to Ngorongoro this saturday, we went to change cash! First we took the dalladalla to the city centre and after that we walked our way to the shopright (to buy some western chips) and to the bank.

When we came back we prepared some things for the next documentary on monday. This will be a documentary about the live of the Tanzanian musician Cyprian. It will be a tuff day were we have to film at seven different locations (!!) But we'll manage. Tommorow we will discuss with the crew and on sunday we have to scout the shooting locations... Joseph edited some audiofiles which he had recorded last weeks.

Another more sad story of today was that the new football (Joseph and I, with help of group1, bought this morning)had a leak after landing in the bushes at KFI... Hopefully we can get another one..

Badae! Joseph & Ari

Foutje bedankt

each 1 teach 1

Hello everyone :)

Today we discussed four different modes of documentary's. During this lesson we learned a lot about the differences between our cultures. For example we watched a movie about a farmer and the KFI students thought it was about the cows. In this film there's snow and the students thought the cows would freeze to death. We watched the movie Machine of the Night too, a movie about the nightlife of Amsterdam. The student saw bandits and people trying to steal because they are very poor. Everyone who has seen this film will probably be very surprised. 

I will add a picture to this blog. As you can see this is me and my group of students during a brainstorm session.

Xx Annie

First day teaching!

Hi Everyone!

This is the first time I write something on this blog. It was also the first time for me to teach the KFI students. Fortunately it went very well. The students are really motivated. Anne and I taught them about different kinds of documentary modes. I thought it was really exciting, because it was the first time and you never know how the students pick it up, but it went very good.

In the afternoon we gave the assignment to make a short documentary item of a special mode, for example the participatory mode. I went with some students to some little shops, like a small butcher. The subject had to be money, the students that I went with, had to make something in the educational mode. Money is ofcourse a sensitive subject for a lot of people here, so it took a long time before my students could film somewhere.

I am really glad the sun is shining all day and I am really looking forward on teaching tomorrow again!

Ciao!
Alette

end

After a week of beautifull story's and a lot of films I will go to zambia to meet the Kambisa group. It was a big learning experience for us all and I want to thank all KFI & HKU students and Sam and Mesechu! And I will keep reading the blog to follow you all.
Asante.

iris

Movie

Hey,

Here's the movie of my class from yesterday! 6 hours compressed to 2,5 minutes!

enjoy

Joep

Video

Hey!

Today was Filmmusic Day! The class was all mine. Iris and Arie made a lot of footage which I'm editing right now. Tomorrow I'll place this movie on the blog. I hope you can get a good feeling what it is like here in the KFI and what it is I'm teaching. So see you all tomorrow!

Bye

Grtz Joseph

usiku mwema!

today....

what did we do actually? we had an excursion and laughed, discussed, drinked, singed, enjoyed the weather, falled almost in the water, became vegetarian (as long as we are here......), watched movies.....people, animals, nature.

we lived an Afrikan life!
in josphs lesson we singed which was so mutch fun. de class was split in 4 groups and every group had an different part to sing. and after learning each part we singed all together.
over an hour we will see the film: king kong......I'm looking forward to see the faces of the afrikan students....their reaction to movies is so beautiful. totally in another world.

saterday we will visite the ngorogoro nationale park. people say it's the most beautiful park in tanzania.

looking forward too the next day!
Sleep well!
Sanne

Discussion, excursion and JAWS!

Mambo vipi!

We had a nice visit at Kephas house again today. The new group could see how the farmer life is like.. First we had discussions about the lack of machines in the agricultural culture of Tanzania. Weird if you compare all our cows, chickens, porks etc in big "accomodations" to that few cows Kephas and a lot of other families have in this country.

After our excursion it was time for Joseph to teach about film music. Really interesting class for all of us! After some introductions we had to see Jaws, the students really enjoyed watching. Now we have to sing!!!

Later more..

Ari

Hard to say goodbye..

After a nice day we had to different kinds of emotions to deal with. First we were happy that the new group introduced themselves! After that we had the viewing of the last assignment group 1 gave to the students of KFI. We have seen four different documentaries about poverty. It was nice that the first group had the opportunity to see their afforts back in these documentaries. The KFI students did it really well!

After this viewing it was time to say goodbye.. The HKU students where really emotional after getting some thankfull words and nice presents. See the pictures below! BAADAE, Ari

Hakuna Matata

Jambo! 

Today the first group left us. It was very special for us, the second group, to see what has grown between the first group and the KFI students since their arrival. And from now on it is up to us to continue their great work. The students are a bit upset but I notice that in Tanzania people do not deal with emotions the way we are used to do. Anna, Evelyne, Paco and Tobias: thank you very much for leading us the past days.  Furthermore we watched the Lion King. The students were very excited because Hakuna Matata and some other phrases in this film are Swahili. We also watched the four documentary's the students made. The subjects are very heavy: HIV, pregnant women in hospitals, young people who do not have access to proper education and the last film was about the Dalladalla busses, but even this film brought up the corruption in Tanzania. All the films are very interesting and nice to watch. There are a few things they have to learn, for example how to use translations. These things are so normal for us, but it needs to be explained to the students here. Forgetting these small things in my opinion the students are very talented and in the next three weeks we will make excellent filmmakers of them. As they say here: each one teach one. 

Xx Anne

bye!

Some pictures are about their work in process (they are finishing their documentaries today) and Ari is preparing the final viewing . 

A big goodbye to group 1. Thanks for your nice work and enthousiasm.

iris

almost leaving

Hello!

Two days ago the new group arrived. That means that we are almost leaving. We don't like to go. It's very difficult to leave this behind. It feels like there still remains so much to learn from both sides, but I am sure that the second group will do a great job. They are also very excited to teach and to learn. 

Today we had a meeting and told the second group how we teached the students. When I sat there I realised how beautiful this project is. Here we are with 10 total different persons. All of us can bring different information and the students appreciated it so much. I never met people like them. They are so motivated and they have so much to tell. It's really special. 

Here a picture from the meeting and also one from Joep who is playing on a piano in the 'Via Via' bar. We went there thursday. It was a kind of 'saying goodbuy' party for us. The picture is not very beautiful because I made it with my phone.

Making Process "the final" 2

And now the final "making process".
Also with sound design by the students

Greetz Joep

Video 1

Here's another film made by the KFI students. All audio is recorded after shooting the movie!
Footsteps, voice, fx... Music is by Johny Greenwood.

Bye

Joep

Paint party

we're here!!

hi, snugglebunnies!! We arrived in Arusha, yesterday evening. We were nackered (don't know if I spelled that correctly) but had a long night sleep in the beds of group one. They were so kind as to give us their beds while they slept on the floor. This morning I had a culture shock. The minute u step of the terrain children come running up to u and start holding your hand and walk up with u. It is gorgeous over here and there aren't any creepy crawlers, which is going to make my stay a lot easier. 

The people here at KFI are friendly and open and they make u feel right at home.  nd they laugh all the time..

have to go eat lunch. I'll keep u posted

Colinda out :)

jambo

Hello everybody, 

As you have heared I arrived.... it was a very warm welcome and good to see everybody so happy and healthy. The first day we went on a excursion to the slums and I saw Arusha back after 8 years. I still recognized the main street in Arusha and some big roads has been developed. And I saw the kilimanjaro and mount meru, yes they are still very beautiful.

KFI is situated in a very nice and quiet area, so I can imagine that our students feel good in their nice home and at KFI. 

Yesterday we had a very good try out with a shooting for Xplastaz. They came to shoot a little shoot out-promo. The KFI students formed a team and discussed with the HKU students what to do. Although the KFI students were very nervous meeting Xplastaz they did a good job on filming the promo. Afterwards we discussed together what they thought went good and also was a difficult part of the shooting. The KFI students mentioned that especially the lead on the set was difficult (Xplastaz loves to direct himself soo....) and also the tasks on the set were not clear for all students. Next time we will organize a roleplay for the students, so they can experience  what kind of tasks need to be done to have a good working filmset. 

Today it's saturday, so a non-working day. I started the day with a welcome/goodbye tea/coffee/cake party on Moivarolodge.  After a lot of sugars and coffee we went to KFI. but we are all here at the KFI some students are editing on their documentary and some playing football. Later on we will paint the wall together. It will be the goodbye party of HKUgroup 1, because yesterday the second group arrived and will take it over from group 1. It will be an emotional goodbye I think because the first group is so attached to the KFI students they hardly can leave this place. So that's a good sign i think. They can think of a good follow-up:).

I would like to Thank KFI for this great opportunity and look forward to see the beautifull films they made.

Regards, Iris

excursion

Hello!

Today we had an excursion. We saw very beautiful things. We walked from the side of the city to the center. It was beautiful to see how the environment was changing when we came closer to the city. Again it was very heavy to see such a poor people. I asked one of the students were he grew up. He told me that he grew up in an environment just like that. I asked him where he wants to live in future if he had the whole world. He said: Holland and than my village again. And that made me realize that the people are not unhappy there. They are happy, they just prefer a lot more. Like normal roads, a better health system, and more money for the kids so they all can go to school.

We are almost leaving. I wish I could stay longer. There is so much to see here, so much to learn. I have the feeling we are not ready yet...

Evelyne will put some photos on the side from our excursion today. 

Bye!

Anna

Iris has arrived

Skamoo!

Yesterday we picked up Iris, she is HKU coordinator of this project.

Today we had good conversations with eachother and the group. After our discussions this morning about industry, we went to visit the industry and slumps of Arusha.

This afternoon we white painted the wall for tommorow so that we can make nice things on the wall with the students..

On this pic you see Tobias and I in action..

Tommorow we'll aspect the second group of HKU, karibu!

SeeYa!

Music

Hey

Today the students were busy editing and shooting there documentary. So there was no one to teach sound design. I prepared some examples for my Film Music class next week. I composed
different soundtracks under the movie JAWS.







I made a very exiting piece totally different using other types of music. Finally I'll show the original movie so the students will know what the power of music in film is. That's all for today!

Bye

joep

our final excursion

Today our group had theire final excursion. We went to Arusha to see some of the industry and a waterconserver. By the water we get out of the Dalla-Dalla and walked in the slums from Arusha. We walked besides and over the railroad. We saw a lot of children waving at us.

After the excursion we gave the cameragroup an assignement. They had to film one of the storyboards they made the other day. The story was about a man coming home to catch his wife in bed with another man. It was quite funny because the group focused their story a lot on the sexual part. We did not expect to see such explicit scenes and were actually a little shocked.

The other groups were editting their documentaries while two groups were shooting there documentary's.

Because tomorrow is our final lesson, we decided to give a special lesson for the group. Because of that Ari, Tobias, Iris and Ramah painted one of the walls white.

greetings,

Paco and Tobias

 Today two groups shoot their documentary. One about HIV and the other one about kids who work on the streets. For example people who sell things to others who are sitting in the bus. It's so nice to see how much time they put in this project. The assignment was to make a short documentary about something in Tanzania. It has to be something to show in Holland. Something we don't have. Something people should know in our country. So this subjects are the result. Tomorrow two other groups are going to shoot. One about the health system, which is very corrupt and one about the life of the people who work in the dala dalla. Very interesting! I am very curious about the results. Maybe we can post a movie when it's ready.

Bye

Anna

Quiet at KFI

Mambo!

The directors went to their locations or where allready shooting. The cameramen have had their last instructions or were shooting also. The editors practiced with sound design and I had an apointment with Cyprian to plan our documentary about his life as musician.

Now I have to go because Iris is arriving at Kili Airport..

Badae!

Ari

Kefas

After our early discussion this morning Kefas, one of our students, took us on an excursion to his house.  We walked off the terrain of KFI and after a hundred meter down the road he told us to walk on the terrain of the local church. We went around it and then we had to climb under some barbed wire. On the other side of the wire was a very steep very small mountain path that leaded us, through a lot of bushes, to a river. Down at the river we had to pull off our shoes and cross it. At the other side we had to climb another small mountain  and op top of that was kefas house. That was a very strange way to wake up. This was the most fun school-to-home walk I ever did. At his  house we met his parents and they showed us the farm. After that we took another little mountain path back home. On the way Arie and I saw a Masai father and mother building there own house. It was made totally out of sticks and clay. Arie took some pictures but after a while the Masai wanted money so we took off. 

After the excursion Ari, Paco and I gave a lesson in Hierarchy on the set and after that Paco and I gave some more lessons in Lighting. The students now know how to film a nice interview with just daylight and some styrofoam. we also told them a few tricks with white balance and prepared them for the documentary shoot tomorrow. Evelyn and Anna Helped the directors with their last research for tomorrow.

Greetings Tobias, Paco and Evelyne

Our fifth excursion!!

After discussions about the lack of water at farmers we visited a farmer family.

And wow what a nice enviroment there is behind the KFI!

We went to the farmer family of Kephas, a student of KFI. He lives at the other side of the river. We had to cross this river but we didn't mind because then we had a beatiful view on the enviroment near Moivairo village, the base of KFI.

After visiting the farmers we walked our way back to the institute. On our way Tobias and I saw some massai people building a house of wood and mud. Impressing to see.

Also Tobias, Paco and I gave lessons about filmcrews and their responsibilities. Again we had a fine day!

I, Anna and Evelyne helped the directors for preparations on the documentary shoot tommorow and the day after tommorow. They are really excited to film their items..

Grtz Ari & Anna

Audacity

Mambo!

Today the students worked with the audio software "audacity". I gave them an instruction and after this they worked on there own! My motto today was: practice, practice, practice, practice....
After finishing at 5:30 some of the students couldn't stop working. Tomorrow we'll discuss the results of the assignments! The assignment was about basic audio editing.

Bye

Joep

Tanzania soccer shirt

This is my Tanzania shirt, that i bought yesterday in Arusha for 5,000 Ts (2,50).

It's nice is it?

Directors Class

Hello Everybody!!!

Today Anna and I gave 4 of the students: Abisae, Goodluck, Eldad and Levina a lesson about directing a documentary. It was very nice because they really understand us and were very exited. Our plan for this week is to make a small documentary about something the directors like to show rest of the world about Tanzania or Arusha. 

Today we were brainstorming about different subjects and it was interesting to compare de differences between Tanzania and Holland. For instants, what Anna wrote about the bus, we told them that in Holland it isn't normal to sit on somebody's lap you don't know. The students where laughing very hard because they couldn't imagine such a thing!!! It's very funny to tell them about social things in Holland that differ a lot from social things in Tanzania. 

At the end of the lesson the 4 students were very happy about what we teached them and they said they don't want us to leave!!!! So that was a big compliment for us and we were very happy to hear that!!!!

Today Tobais and I gave another camera class. We decided to learn the students what shutterspeed is and how to use it. We gave them al little assignment and we watched there assignment.

After lunch we started the lesson about lightning. This was new for them so we had to start from the beginning. We've learned them what the 3-point lightning is and gave them a assignment to see what it does in a outdoor situation. I't was very hard to learn them about the 3 point lightning because they have just one lamp and no tripod for it. So we had to be creative and used foam and also the reflection of the walls.

After the assignment Anwary Msechu had to give our lesson again but this time in Swahili because some of the students didn't really understand our lesson.

After that lesson the students understood our lesson better and we watched some examples and our videoclip Klokkijken and see what we did with lightning.

So it was a good lesson for the students but we have to learn them tomorrow the same so they will understand our lessons and use the information in the future

greeting from KFI 

Tobias and Paco

Audio/software class

Hey

Today I thought the students how to work with software and digital audio. The class took 6 hours! After the theory (which I practiced while explaining them) the students made a short story in sound design using existing and own recorded samples.
Tomorrow they'll start working individually using "audacity" software. The students were very enthusiast after today's lesson, so I hope tomorrow will be a productive day for them!

Bye

Joep

Another KFI asignment video

Here's another assignment from KFI. Camera, editing, sound design and acting by students of KFI.

Enjoy

Joep

Yesterday Evelyne and I had a very interesting day. Levina is one of our students. Saturday we asked her about something we could visit on sunday. She said that we could go to Mushi, her hometown and visit her family. We really loved this idea.

So yesterday we were waiting for the bus. Suddenly he was there. Every bus here has his own boss and also someone who works for him. He gets the people inside and collect the money. So this guy pushed us in the bus and the driver decides to push the gas pedal very hard. I think we were going faster than an airplane. It was very scary. People in the bus were complaining but it doesn't matter. The bus was driving so fast because he had a competition with the other busses on the road. Because every bus has his own boss, every day is a match to get the most people inside your bus. So I had two men who were sitting on my lap. The bus was very full. One thing that is very special about this culture: if the bus is full, it means you'll take all the children on your lap. So if you have two kids with you as a mother, you just put one kid on the lap of a stranger. The stranger gives her purse to you. The people here are just one big family. I like this very much! Everybody calls each-other sista or brother!

When we arrived in the city I was a little bit shocked. I can't explain why, it was just very impressive. We took another bus to Levina's home. When we arrived I saw a big difference between her home and the place we are staying with the Film School. The nature and colors were so different. Everything was more red over there. We met the whole family and we did get a wonderful lunch. We made some photos. Here you can see a couple of them.

I really have the feeling we saw the African live yesterday. It was an opportunity most of the tourists don't get so we appreciated a lot. Levina is such a nice girl. She is the one with the yellow t-shirt. Before we left the village we gave the children some candy because Evelyne and I fall in love with those kids. 

Bye!

Anna

Teaching Editors/Camera(wo)men/Directors

Todays Journal

Joep was teaching different theories about Sound Design.

The classes during from 10:00 am till 13:00 pm and from 14:00 pm till 15:15 pm.

After these hours the students went outside to record an audio story...

Paco and Tobias were teaching camera and lightning lessons.

Anna and Evelyne teached directors about researching and writing and I did some communications for KFI and worked on a weekly planning. Now we will evaluate last week, anticipate to the rest of the week and write down some notes for the changing of groups at the end of the week

Badae!

The Speakers

Here are the speakers we purchased for KFI! Today I'll start using them in my lesson.

bye,

joep

Visiting Arusha again

Today we went to Arusha again. This time only the boy's went to go to Arusha. The girls went to Moshi with Lavina, to visit the town and the family of Lavina.

In Arusha we had pizza for lunch. After that Paco bought a national soccer team shirt. Never agree with the price the shopowner tells you because there is always space for negotiation. 50% saved by Paco! Well done brother..

After that we went to the supermarket. That was tootally awsome. We bought some western products like cola, peanut butter, chips and Tanzanian beer. At last we took a beer at the Empire, a nice pub with pool and music installation. We had a business talk with a nice Tanzanian man about an assignment to make music, what will be performed by Joseph and maybe the next HKU group??!

Badae! Paco, Ari & Tobi 

Pictures Arusha National Parc

Pictures selected by Evelyne