The games are starting at 10am Tokyo time but 3am Geneva time and it’s amusing getting to work. Yesterday was really tiring as I’d been woken by workers at 7am. So far we’ve seen about 40 matches and Italy’s defeat was a shame. We only have one match at a time but four of them in total so our day is 14hrs long.
The teams today are: germany vs nigeria, US vs australia, France vs. Angola and Greece Vs. China.
As I arrived home today, after a slightly more relaxed day I found that two tapes had arrived in the post. It’s the ones from the final fling. I still need to go through them and find usable footage. I’m going to be editing that over the next two or three days, depending on what the work load is for the other documentary.
I’m feeling inspired, thinking of the logistics of the first weeks back at uni. First I need to find a home, and once that’s done work on creating an action plan firstly for the year ahead academicaly but also for the smokescreen project. I need to make sure the project is far clearer in people’s minds and check that I have one or two crews that are ready to do the work professionaly, making sure to get a variety of shots for dynamic video productions.
It’s the fourth day of the FIBA championship so it’s the fourth day where I wake before 0400 european time. I wouldn’t mind staying in bed a bit longer.
I’m starting to understand the game better and I’ve seen that certain teams are far more entertaining to watch than others. On friday it’s a day of rest.
My dissertation research is currently stagnating as I’m so exhausted by the time I get home.
The Lebanon edit is finished for the moment so I should be less tired, at last. On the sixth there’s a projection of the full program so far.
I’ve just thought back to my Tanzania edit and how I used to have a mentality whereby making longer documentaries was better than short ones. It’s a mentality I lost when in England whilst doing my HND. I was brought up to concentrate on using screentime as efficiently as possible, forgetting that occasionaly it’s important to let things breath. In December the same documentary will be around 50 minutes long.
The first day was a long one with twelve matches recorded. Four matches at a time three times with an offset of half an hour between starting times in pairs.
It’s amazing how many time breaks there are in this sport.
Work continued on the Lebanon edit I’m working on.
Related links: Photos from the event
For the next few weeks I’m going to be living according to the FIBA schedule of games and it may be hard. there are going to be a few early mornings which end around 1300 CET so that’s not going to be too bad.If I had a passion for basketball this would be perfect. It’s going to be a new experience for me.
Theorizing Documentary (Afi Film Reader)
A New History of Documentary Film
Television and the Public Interest: Vulnerable Values in Western European Broadcasting
Documentary in the Digital Age
A few of the books I need to get through over the next few days.
Last night I watched Six Degrees of Separation
When mentioning smokescreen I always have the impression that it’s there to hide something but that’s the name of the student tv channel at uni. We’ve already been working on a number of things. We’ve been finding volunteers, preparing the logo and such.
Last night I was working on the content management system which would be used to get the website online. For the moment it’s devoid of content but that should change within the next few days and weeks.
To get a taste Smokescreen
There’s some great news and some bad news. The great news is that the English government says it managed to prevent a series of terrorist attacks within the last twenty four hours. What’s not so great is that many people end up stranded at various airports around the world. Apparently over 200 flights and 200,000 people are affected in the UK alone with repercussions around the world.
For those who are already on the spot this was good news since it means they’re forced to extend their holidays by a day or two. For those who were stranded at the airport it’s the nightmare scenario we’d all hate to experience. We’ve all known delays but in this circumstance we’re talking about hours of delay.
I hope that the idea of preventing people taking laptops and other devices on planes is not realised as I’d hate to be forced to put my electronics in the luggage hold as I know how battered it would be.
The next two weeks or so shall see me resting but not from media work. There’s a good chance I’ll be working on a project about a Prison in the Lebanon. It was shot a few weeks ago and the person in charge of the project needs help with the editing.
It looks as though it’s going to be an interesting project. I’ve already viewed quite a bit of footage, read the voice over text and discussed the idea. I’ve started to form some ideas of how to create the story and tomorrow this should progress further with me going in to work.
In around two weeks I’ll have an interesting work shift, from 5am to 1300 hours, in other words my work day will be finished when other people get their work day started. We’ll see how that goes anyway.
Ciao for now
