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The Visual Anthropology workshop program
The workshop was carried out by the principle "learning by doing". Through their personal experiences of doing fieldwork with camera, we could discuss a whole range of questions related to camera use, methodology, theory and narration.
In this poster we present the programme given, with the different lectures and exercises given. And it is followed by our comments on how it worked and what came out of the exercises.
The program was divided in three parts
Part 1 Lectures, seminars and practical exercises. Where we gave the students a limited repertoire of means for film and methodological strategies. They had practical exercises to do between each seminar. These exercises where also a way of starting up the fieldwork. 11 days
Part 2 The students had three days for fieldwork, where the students got supervision on the spot
Part 3 The editing phase. The last 3 days.
Week 1:
Monday November 24th:
Formal opening of the workshop by Dean Iya Moussa, FALSH
Evelyne had a welcoming and presentation exercise.
Trond had an opening lecture and screened his photodocumentary
'The struggle of living', which is made in Ngaoundéré.
Afternoon: Ivar Barane gave a lecture on camera use.
Student had camera exercises just outside the classroom.
Exercise for next meeting, snap 7- 10 photos in order to present a history
Tuesday November 25th
The Muslim Ram Feast. No class.
Wednesday November 26th
Presentation of the photostories
The students faced many technical problems, they did not know how to get the digital zoom off, they had light problems, focus problems etc.
Stories: the presented stories gave many possibilities to discuss interpretation & representation. Many pictures where shot from the Ram Feast, but how evident was it? Examples: Is it satisfactory to show people in a gandoura (muslim long costume) in order to understand it is feast? Will viewers understand that it is an eating séance, when they see a group of children sitting on the floor occupied with something?
Next exercise: Going from still image to moving images within a frozen frame, the plan sequence.
Thursday November 27th
Presentation of exercises:
Discussion on what has been accomplished: One scene from the entrance of a shop. Good idea, but nothing happened the three minutes of filmingà timing.
Second, a road intersection, where the cars and vehicles moved- good idea, but the chosen position became confusing - the viewers lost feeling with directions and perspectiveà positioning
Third sequence showed the setting of an infusion to a baby at the hospital. How to represent such an event? By wide angle shot with all activities around the event or a medium shot with only nurse, mother and babyà framing.
Lecture on camera movements; tilting, craning, following; different framings; close up, medium shot and long shot. Here the main message was to communicate the difference between shots initiated by the actor and shots initiated by the filmmaker.
Exercise done at midday.
The result was not very uplifting.
The whole class was happy when we finally saw Felicite's exercise; following a duck. We saw through that exercise several times. Applause.
Friday November 28th
Presentation of the students film projects, Trond, Evelyne, Bajika, Dr.Bell & Bente
Presentation of new exercise - process with sound (only the internal microphone on the camera used at this stage)
Saturday November 29th
Morning- Trond presented parts of his doctorate work at the Norwegian Mission, comparing Christian and Muslim youths in one of the quarters in Ngaoundéré, including the screening of 'Struggle for living'
Afternoon:
Looking through the exercise of a 'process'.
They had got their first experiences filming for their project. They where exited, and Bajika, their methodology teacher, where uplifted and happy by their comments and accomplishments.
Exercises: How to use the external microphone?
The students sat with the camera, exercised through the instructions, and practiced outdoor while the lecturers were present.
New exercise given: Film a process with external sound + each team present their filmscripts based on the project descriptions for Monday morning.
Sunday November 30th
Morning
Trond filmed the installation of the new general secretary in Eglise Evangelique Lutheren du Cameroun (EELC) in Cameroon, as a part of his new researchproject "les frequance du plataux…". A project on the Pere, a suppressed ethnical group, which is revitalized through the activity of radio journalist and activities related to the church.
Students worked with their exercises, some individual guiding on the spot. Booms had been made and were distributed.
Evening dinner at Hadjias, former Victorinne - a down town fish restaurant. Vitorinne had been islamized since last.
Week 2
Monday December 1st
Presentation of exercises.
Problems - noise from wind, zeppelins made were not good enough.
We discovered from the screenings the need for introducing the use of manual focus. Focus practice in class.
New exercise:
How to present social space? We screened several sequences from different films, 'A castel in Africa', 'Cows are better than money', 'The fish come with the rain'.
Tuesday December 2nd
Morning- The lecturers had formal meeting with the Dean. Students did their exercises.
Afternoon:
Screening and discussion, feedback on the students exercises on describing space by moving images. Discussions on what's the relation between space, the person & his interactions with others, the activities.
Wednesday December 3rd
Afternoon
Evelyne gave a lecture on 'The socialness of things'
Screening of the interviews- feedback and heavy supervision on keeping the concentration on the main character.
Example: Interview with Ismaïla, where Ismaïla starts to speak about his personal lifestory, while the camera move from him to explore the room. The camera passes sometimes by the character and we can see that the contact is completely lost.
Inteview with the student couple, Justine is nicely portrayed while Clement is filmed on long distance from below, where we see more of his naked legs than his face.
Interview of Melanie- could not be performed
After going through the techniques for organising the rushes by timecode, the students started shotlisting the footage
Presentation of the filmscripts: The last discussion, before the students start their filming days Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We discussed what the main idea about their projects is, and where will the focus be?
Thursday December 4th
Filming and fieldwork, some assistance on the spot
Friday December 5th
Meeting with the Department of Sociology, Dr. Bell, Dr. Djingui, Trond Waage, Saibou Issa, Evelyne Tegomoh, Bente Sundsvold + Kahn Johnson (translator)
Afternoon: The students screened 30- 40 minutes of their footage. We looked through quite intuitively, and commented both on technical questions, filmic issues and gave some ideas about how to continue.
We ended the day with eating Beignets from the student couple restaurant together.
Saturday December 6th
Film and fieldwork- some assistance on the spot by Evelyne, Trond, Bajika & Bente
Sunday December 7th
Afternoon:
We commented on the footage and how it links to the story.
Some of the groups were not finished with the shotlisting, and had a lot of work to do before the loading of rushes into the computer next morning.
Team 1- Melanie- had a very good material and ideas for structuring, so we decided they got one computer for themselves. Hopefully they would finish first, and make available one computer for the two teams sharing one computer in the final spurt.
Team 2- Beignets DEA- starts loading Monday morning,
Team 3- Ismaila- starts loading Monday afternoon- they had still a lot of shotlisting and selections to make.
Week 3
Monday December 8th
Loading, shotlisting and selections
First rough versions of "Melanie" and "Beignet" finished during the afternoon. "Ismaila"- team got the computer late, and loaded during afternoon and into the night.
Comments:
Melanie: The story had twisted from its initial idea to portrait Melanie's marked activities to a stronger emphasise on her family life. A broader but a weaker story?
Beignets DEA: At this stage the film was about how to make doughnuts. Where is the information about the particularity of this student couple economic adaptations and innovations?
Tuesday December 9th
Elaboration of the stories - and some instructions on elementary editing practises, cutting, sync/ unsync sound/ images, moving of clips.
Team Melanie & Beignet worked on further editing in the morning, Ismaila got the machine late again- 1700
The Ismaila team got feedback on their rough cut selection:
At this stage the edited version consisted mostly of interviews, giving an impression of a selfish and unsystematic person. Was not that the opposite of their personal experience and what they wanted making this film?
Evening- meeting at Saibou's house with the department of sociology,
"The Future for Visual Anthropology at the University of Ngaoundéré".
After the meeting Trond and Bente went back to campus to help the teams with the editing. The Ismaila team had made a new selection- but unsynced the whole timeline.
Finished very late-
Wednesday December 10th
The Melanie team decided to do some major changes due to the feedback they also got the day before.
The Beignet team went back to the editing- after the feedback from the first screening. The team provided some new rushes, and the film developed into a much stronger focus on Clement.
The Ismaïla team reorganised the whole story line. New selections were found and utilised, which made it possible to show in practice what the team had been occupied with from the beginning, but now by means of activities instead of interviews. A total transformation had happened. Applause- Ismaïla's doings were back in the film.
The teams started transcribing the verbal information of the rushes.
Thursday December 11th
Trond and Evelyne stayed with the students the whole night to do the subtitling of the films.
Melanie was onlined.
The Ismaïla film and Beignets DEA had some sound problems, and there was not enough time to do the final finish on the editing for these two films. Beignet DEA was screened for Justine before the public screening. She liked the film, but had one comment, which we did not have time to add to the edition before the public screening. The comment concerned her argument for accepting to have a film made about them, to encourage the government to support students, who wish to start small enterprises during their studies. Her comment will be taken care of in the final 'polishing' of the films in Tromsø.
Closing ceremony & Opening of Laboratory in Visual Anthropology
At 2 pm December 11th 2003 the public screening of the films started at the ENSAI conference hall at campus.Each workgroup presented their films and made a short introduction of their work. One of the protagonists, Mr. Ismaïla was present at the premiere. After the screening of the film Ismaïla gave his comments on the film and the filmmaking process to the audience. He was very happy for the film, and he presented his ownership to the products by saying, 'Thank you for watching my cassette'. The atmosphere was so wonderful and humorous, and during applause and cheering he invited everybody to come and visit his shop at Tongo Pastoral.
After the screening the Dean of FALSH, Dr. Iya Moussa summed up the experiences of the workshop and the future plans for utilising this experience in the curriculum at the University. He claimed the successful workshop for closed, and the 'Laboratorie d'Anthropologie Visuelle' for opened!
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