Return To The Land of Plenty

After five weeks, we're back in Los without a single post from the field to the site.  C'est la vie.  Ghana was a successful mission, but I was woefully lacking in time, patience and mostly the ability to post.  Suffice to say, there are many stories to tell and they will start to appear here soon.  The days we had to wait for situations beyond our control seemed to last months.  The days we were able to work began at dawn and quickly accellerated until night.  There were days of flooding, and days of heat, smog and sweat.  There is much data to process and regurgitate:  60 odd pages of notes, observations, rants, lists, poems, proverbs and questions.  37 rolls of film wishfully washing through a development bath at the lab across town.  300mb of digital snaps.  Approximately 40 hours of video to digitize and start editting into the film we set out to make, now more accurately to become the film we actually shot.  We met many wonderful people who took us in, took care of us and taught us a lot.  We saw much hardship, and much joy from small things.  Little giant steps.  And most important to the overall scope of the mission, sixty bikes were delivered to sixty villagers who's lives will now be changed for the better by a simple, human powered vehicle.  They learned to fix simple problems and identify bigger ones so they can keep the machines working for them.  Some even learned to ride for the first time.  The friendships we forged are a reward which more than outweighs the exhaustion and relief to be back on familiar ground.  Check back for details in the days ahead.  Viva.

Comments

[Felix]

Welcome back -- Can't wait to hear your stories! Are you suffering from culture shock, or is it just a blessed relief to be back?

[jbranigan]

I'm looking forward to reading your stories! My brother, Dave, is the Peace Corps volunteer in the village in Ghana where you stayed. He turned me on to this site. Great stuff you're doing.
Cheers

[Todd Mattson]

The pIctures are stunning. Can't wait to see the doc. What did you shoot on? Did you take down the SDX, or did you get a DVX for the shoot, or otherwise? Are you planning on a film out? If so, and you shot on Panny gear, the guy at DVFilm (offices based in Austin, processing in LA) offers big discounts for SDX/DVX/Varicam transfers, simply because they're easier to make look good. Welcome back!!!

[bafc23]

Hey Todd, thanks. We shot on a DVX at 24p with some timelapse sequences in 30p with a skinny shutter - the SDX was deemed too anti-stealth for our lowkey approach. Also used a Viocam helmet rig for some riding sequences. We're still raising funds for post and trying to figure out the final path, so film-out is a possibility. I'd be curious to know more about DVF's method and cost, for this and some other projects - send me a PM and we can discuss it.