DVD Update #11 Rehearsals

Day 1: All the teachers, volunteers and recently arrived interns meet the students

We've completed 1 full week of rehearsals and while we are trying desperately to stay on schedule, the kids are getting a little antsy. They want to get out there and get in front of the camera. But we've also had less than perfect attendance. This is in part due to last week's Cyclone Laila and 1 resulting fever. And this week both boys have had stomach problems and have been out for 1-2 days. Because of the background of the kids, it can be hard to track them down when they don't show up and while the parents have been supportive, they are not always communicative or responsive.

Due to attendance issues we decided to take on 1 more girl from Chennai. We first met her at the annual day of the school both boys attend. Their English teacher wrote a very cute drama for the kids to act out to show off their English talent. Our new actress played a teacher and played it very well. It was extremely hard to track her down considering it is summer holidays. However, it turns out her grandmother and uncle both work for a house (as domestic help and a construction worker) 1 block from our office. We were able to talk with the family and while they didn't seemed disinterested, said she could participate. We gave them a copy of the pilot episode in hopes that they realize what a great opportunity it will be for her.

We start each morning with some light yoga stretching. My goal is to get them to eventually do 5 minutes of meditation. Currently 30 seconds is a struggle. (Note: the boy on the left had to remove all his clothes because he walked in the cyclone to the office for rehearsals and was drenched)

Students spend 45 minutes reviewing vocabulary and practice speaking
English with each other and their teacher.

The students spend one hour reviewing phonics and doing reading related activities.

Before lunch students spend 15-20 minutes writing in their workbooks practicing words and sounds they have learned in reading class.

After lunch students work on their lines with on the volunteer English teachers.

Follow us on twitter: sistaKAA

It's official, you can now follow what's happening with the DVD production, rehearsals, and the shoot on twitter. Visit my twitter feed or follow us to get instant updates @sistaKAA

DVD Update #10 Cyclone Hit Chennai

Nothing like an off-season cyclone, flooding, and power outages to delay a project. Luckily, we only lost one day of our intended schedule, but were still able to rehearse and work with the kids. Unfortunately with the temperature drop and being out in the rain, one came down with a fever. Hopefully it is short lived and she'll be back on her feet again soon. We don't exactly have under studies.

One of our students is picked up on her uncle's motorbike after rehearsal.

The road in front of our office was entirely flooded. We all had to walk through it up to mid-calf...don't think about it. Really, it's best not to think about all the micro organisms that thrive in such conditions. It's been almost a week and I'm still standing. Although now we have three kids out.

DVD Update #9 Interns, Rehearsals & Props

Quick update from the ground:

We have selected 6 talented interns to join our production team. They will be helping with camera direction, editing, lighting, production management, rehearsals and scouting out locations. We are very exciting to have this dynamic group of students and professionals onboard for the next few months. With their permission I'll be posting their bios to the blog in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. They are up and coming film makers!

Rehearsals with the students start tomorrow. I'm putting together the final rehearsal schedule which will include everything from a daily yoga class to spoken English and art projects. Anyone have suggestions or want to be involved, please let me know!

We have finished cutting and paper maching all the letters and sounds for the segments we will be shooting in June. We are in the process of painting them. Hope the 5 litres of paint lasts for all the props, it was almost $100US! Eeks! I'm compiling a list of all the other props we'll be needing to make, collect and buy. I'll post the list to the blog, if you have any of the items, please donate for a few weeks. We promise to take good care of it.

DVD Update #8 Guest Illustrator

The English team is always looking for talented creative types that are willing to help out a good cause. We are in constant need of illustrators and designers to help us add the fun, creative, and cute touch to the educational materials we develop.

I would like to publicly thank Vaibhav Kumaresh, recipient of India's Best Animator Award 2005, of Vaibhav Studios for being our guest illustrator! He has been working on our 'Simple Instructions' illustrations and they are cute beyond words. I love his cartoon style--mischievous yet naive characters sometimes with overly exaggerated noses and sometimes without noses at all. The kids are going to love these! Stay tuned, you'll be seeing these and more like them in the upcoming DVD modules.

Thanks Vaibhav! If you'd like to contact him regarding your own animation or illustration project please email him: vaibhavkumaresh [at] hotmail [dot] com

Write your name.

Hold your nose.

DVD Update #7 Restructuring

Staff Script Writing Workshop

Originally we had hoped to do a lot more fund raising to help us secure funds for this project and kickstarter was just one avenue we were using. Sadly, with the economy, our other attempts have been fruitless. However, that isn't stopping us from moving foward, we've just had to rethink our approach and strategy...like good creative development educationists that we are.

So, we have restructured and rethought the project. We will be outsourcing the creative fun bits: songs and animation to our previous directors. The educational bits, we will produce ourselves.

Thanks to the help of volunteers in the US and India, we have 20 scripts that we are editing and finalizing. We will begin rehearsals with the students next week while we finalize the schedules, scout the locations and continue making props. We hope to start shooting the first week of June. It's a lot to get done, but since I'll be on a flight to the US on July 12th, it's gotta get done!

We have also identified a great set of interns that will be helping us put it all together, everything from writing, editing, prop making, filming and post-production editing. It is going to be an exciting team and I am really looking forward to working with everyone on this project.

Teachers making props

Taken on the first day of prop making. Five of the teachers working on our program in Chennai have agreed to help us with prop-making and rehearsals this month. The props will all be cardboard and paper mache. It's a long process and lots of cutting, sticking and painting required but its a cheap option!