Easy stories with Photobooth + iMovie

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Easy stories with Photobooth + iMovie.

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Our team in collaboration with staff and community members is developing a creative approach to produce a unique client-centred documentary with people living with mental disabilities. What does it take to shut down an institution and move clients into community care facilities? Will they be better off in their brand new community house?

The training day on May 21 formed part of our A Penny For Your Thoughts initiative.

Click on the link to watch our current training clips here.

OUTCOMES:
The Change Media team introduced our methodology and showed examples of past projects, including Pinnaroo Surfer, 10×14 Bricks – Stories from youth in lock-up trailer and 10×14 Bricks My Crib – Shane’s story.
The 14 participants, 11 support staff and managers and 3 clients, learned hands-on with HDV cameras, how to set up gear, handheld and tripod work, how to record good interviews, including sound, framing and lighting.

Before lunch break, Felix demonstrated how to use computers to create instant clips, using Photobooth and iMovie.

After the break 3 clients joined the team. The support workers used their newly learned skills in interviews with several clients outside the training facility.
At the same time we ran our mobile computer lab inside the training room to show how easy it is to create instant videos with iMovie and Photobooth. Strathmont staff and clients worked together for the rest of the day, experimenting with the software, editing their stories and creations in iMovie, training how to shoot with HD cameras and reviewing the interviews they recorded earlier. We also discussed how to best integrate digital media into their workflow, within community care and institutions.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates! The final documentary will be launched at a national health and disability conference in Adelaide, mid August 2012.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
The feedback was great, many participants commented on how much they learned and that they are keen to use digital media as part of their support work. The support workers expressed strong interest to get digital media equipment into each of the care facilities to work creatively with their clients, make micro docos and creative reports with their clients.
Our team also documented aspects of the training day to be included in the final documentary about moving Strathmont clients into community care.

Edit for Working on Country Forum 2012

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Indigenous Working on Country Forum 2012.

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The team also created s new peer-produced training video, that will form part of our Indigenous Media Training online resource and will be uploaded by end of May 2012 on our online training tool kit.

Click on the link to watch - Laurie explains how to transfer your footage from SD card to Final Cut – Working on Country.

Click on the link to watch more training clips here.

OUTCOMES:
The edit workshop enabled the Ngarrindjeri team to use latest technology in digital video production, working with SD card HD cameras and record instant training videos about their newly learned skills.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates!

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
As a result of the successful edit – the Department of Sustainability was thrilled with the documentary and wants to show it to the Minister!!! – the team is now discussing to take part in Uncle Moogy’s trip to Sydney end of May, to launch the Yuki [the bark canoe] on the Darling Harbour as part of an Indigenous water craft forum held at the Australian Maritime Museum May 30-June 1.
We are also negotiating with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority to invest into professional equipment for the three teams in Murray Bridge, Meningie and Raukkan, to fast track the Ngarrindjeri trainees and enable them to access high-end gear on a weekly basis.

We are confident that if the teams get appropriate support and continue their training with the same enthusiasm they have shown so far, they will be able within the next year to produce their own media and take on professional work.

Working on Country Forum 2012

Click on the image above or the link to watch – Indigenous Working on Country Forum 2012.

If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Click here for the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities WoC Forum website.

OUTCOMES:
Change Media founders Jennifer Lyons-Reid and Carl Kuddell ran two 3-hour workshops during the five-day event, to demonstrate hands-on how the rangers and their organizations can use digital media and set-up small media initiatives in their communities. It became clear to the participants they can share important stories and knowledge for future generations, with some excited rangers even rallying for funding to start their own productions!

Meanwhile, the Change Media trainers and Ngarrindjeri media trainees managed the pressure of covering an event, (dozens of parallel activities you can only shoot once, noisy generators, and sand in your camera’s focus wheel, to name a few!). To increase the challenge, the team also agreed to shoot and collate footage for the Department of Sustainability media kit, (including interviews, overlay and photos) to be delivered midway through the forum.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates!

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
During the edit workshop in May 1-4 at Camp Coorong, the Ngarrindjeri trainees said that shooting a documentary about the Working on Country forum gave them a deeper understanding of Working on Country, as they had to engage with the workshops and knowledge shared on a different level, as media makers and as WoC rangers.

It was brilliant on the job training, from scheduling interviews and events, shooting on the fly, ferrying media from the on-the-field camera teams to HQ editors, to upload, edit and export in under 2 days – short of building a time machine they couldn’t have been more effective…

This Change Media initiative is a collaboration with the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority, and their rangers were involved in all aspects of the production, as they want to independently run their own media hubs in Meningie, Raukkan and Murray Bridge. The forum was a great hands-on environment for them to test their skills, and the fun isn’t over yet. In early May, the Change Media trainers have run another four-day workshop at Camp Coorong, this time focusing on editing, and all the joys and intricacies of media file management!

They honed their editing prowess using the footage they shot at the WoC Forum! So, the whole thing comes full circle! And the final step is for the team to make training videos of the rangers learning their new skills, so they can do it again and train others. Perhaps someone can film the filming of the filming, the Gordian knot of sharing knowledge…

Finally, a big thanks to Fiona Frazer and Katharine Sale from the Indigenous Programs South East and their team at DSEWPaC, Grant Whiteman and his fabulous colleagues at Calperum, ALT, and all the rangers and supporters who worked with us on this project, especially our Ngarrindjeri partners. We are looking forward to doing more amazing work with you all!

Health + Arts Research Centre training

OUTCOMES:
All participants trained hands-on in no-nonsense video techniques, including HD camera and sound work on Day 1, a strong focus on recording interviews on Day 2 and how to build engaging narratives, create video messages and artistic documentations. Three main project proposals were developed, alongside mentoring for several individual concepts.
We also developed a scope for a larger partnership with the Health and Arts Research Centre, to create art with people living with dementia, as part of a long term research project. We started to develop creative concepts to support survivors of involuntary ElectroConvulsiveTherapy, ECT, in finding creative ways to address issues around memory loss, the injustice experienced and ways to connect to other electroshock survivors and advocate for changes in the mental health system.

On the second day the group reviewed their test footage and discussed possible improvements and changes for their second attempt at interviewing and developing story structures.
We watched interview techniques training videos and tips how to structure a story in 5 key points, on the examples of our Ngarrindjeri workshops.
Before and during lunch we discussed different strategies to craft messages and use digital media for CACD work and social justice campaigns. Special focus was given to cross-cultural process and equitable negotiations, the push for excellence as a political necessity especially in community arts. We demonstrated examples from our latest creative laboratories with Bell Shakespeare and refugee communities.
After lunch we continued with viral campaign examples [The Perfect Refugee advert ideas and Sir Thomas More], and elaborated on ways to determine who is your audience, how to target campaigns, work with message ambassadors/ mavens, to reach inactive supporters and fence sitters, and how to avoid targeting hostile audiences or preaching to the converted. What is the buy in, what does it take to get anyone to act – who benefits, how do we reach [format, time frame, linkage, what is our power of influence, how can we increase it?]
Then the three teams continued to work on their creative 5 points plans and recorded high quality interviews, based on their experiments from Day 1. Special focus was given to working with radio mics, shot sizes and framing, using natural light and identifying design elements such as good backdrop. Another important areas was how to develop empowering questions and building trusting relationships within a short and formal interview set up, that make everybody feel safe and supported, while addressing issues around whiteness, privilege, equity and equality – how is your liberation bound up with mine?
One group developed digital storyboards for the ECT story, from idea to printed storyboard.
We set up computers for each team to upload their footage, manage their files, edit their interviews and story pitches and experiment with non-linear editing software and overlay footage.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates!

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
In feedback sessions during both days – from initial expectations, to how the process worked and what possible future collaborations may bring – we discussed our process, costs, time frames and how to engage communities.

The feedback was enthusiastic throughout, people reported that they learned new and relevant skills, confronted and overcame fear of technology and made new connections. Especially moving was the feedback for our ways of challenging perceptions and representations of ‘other’ and life-changing moments for some participants as they developed new ways to cope creatively with very difficult mental health issues. The team decided to meet again with the next 4 weeks and was very interested to run more workshops with us.

Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Ngopamuldi – Working on Country

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Ngopamuldi – Working on Country.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

The team also made several peer-produced training videos, that form part of our Indigenous Media Training online resource in our online training tool kit.

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Ngarrindjeri Nation Pitch.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Click on the link to watch - Owen explains the 5-Point Story Plan for Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Ngopamuldi – Working on Country.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Owen shows storyboard process for Ngarrindjeri Ruwe Ngopamuldi – Working on Country.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Click on the image above or the link to watch - Owen explains basic interview tips.
If your device can’t play the clip, click here to watch it on Vimeo.

Click on the link to access Change Media’s online training tool kit prototype.

OUTCOMES:
The project covered storytelling and camera techniques, shooting on traditional heritage locations, interview and event coverage techniques and editing. The resulting short film is a follow up on last years’ Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country, and is available online and will be used by NRC staff to present at the inaugural Indigenous rangers conference in Renmark, April 2012, and for training, recruiting and PR. This project built on the success of the workshops in the last two years.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates! This film will be used as training and induction tool for Caring For Country projects in the Coorong and also features as part of our online training resource.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: We have retained several young members from our first groups at Camp Coorong, Meningie, and Moogy’s Yuki in Millicent/Murray Bridge, while gaining new participants from Raukkan, Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge. All of the team have recorded their own training videos and had hands-on task during the production, including production skills ranging from organizing the shoots, securing interviews with elders and representatives, storytelling, creating digital storyboards, presenting on screen, camera and sound work, uploading and file management, to editing and music production.

The NRC and its Heritage Rangers employed on a long-term contract have agreed to setting up a micro business and utilizing digital media as part of their everyday work. Already their rangers and Caring For Country workers are using GPS-enabled ‘Cyber-Trackers’ to map and track sites, re-vegetation efforts and link it with traditional knowledge. Recording knowledge by interviewing their elders will form part of the essential training over the next year.

Again, many thanks to all of the Ngarrindjeri members and staff who worked relentlessly to make this project happen.

Ngarrindjeri women’s workshop

The team worked on several peer-produced training videos and documentaries, that will form part of our Indigenous Media Training online resource.

Click on the link to watch their training clips here.

OUTCOMES:
The project covered storytelling and camera techniques. The participants reviewed the rough cut edits currently in post production, which were on hold after one the team leaders suffered an aneurism [she is in recovery now]. The review enabled the team to provide feedback and suggestions for the scope and vision of the overall project.

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: Stay tuned for updates! This film will be used as training and induction tool for projects in the Coorong and also features as part of our online training resource.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: We ran this workshop after receiving strong expressions of interest from Ngarrindjeri women and their elder, Ellen Trevorrow, to learn basic digital media skills and be able to record their cultural practices on their own.