Hi guys, we made it to India! First stop: Mumbai. Mumbai was such a big city with so many people in it. There was someone in every corner I looked, literally. And there was always some kind of sound in the street, even during the night. Also there was so much traffic all the time. There was no rush hour, the “hour” lasted the whole day. My first impression of India was dirty and too crowded. I felt so claustrophobic at times. It was weird because one minute I would like it and then the next minute I wanted to get out of there. Before coming to India so many people told me that I was going to have a culture shock, so I got there expecting one but never got one. I got more like a food shock. I had never eaten Indian food before (and I don’t plan to eat more of it haha). I wasn’t a big fan of curries and the food was way too spicy for me. Most of the time I couldn’t finish my meal because of the spiciness. But Mumbai is only the first stop in India, we later will go to rural India in Jamkhed and to the city of Pune, so it will probably we different there.
During our stay in Mumbai we studied for five days in Whistling Woods, a film, communication, and media arts institute. There we learned all about making documentaries, for example how to use a film camera, how to use the audio and microphones, how to use the editing software, and how to edit videos. The first few days there we took a variety of classes on filmmaking and the last days we filmed and edited.
We based the documentary on an NGO called VIDYA which focuses on providing education for the less-privileged communities in India. There we spent one day interviewing students, alumni, and teachers about their perspective on success. The last two days we went back to the school to edit the documentary. The days here were so long and tiring but I did learn a lot. I’m not really good with cameras and I’m a pretty slow learner so I didn’t actually learn a whole lot about how to use a camera but I did learn a little. I learned the most basic stuff like how to adjust the aperture and shutter speed, and getting the right frame and angle. I had done editing once when I edited a video but it was really basic. I used iMovie (which is just the editing software that came with my MacBook computer) but for this documentary we used Adobe Premiere Pro, so I wasn’t familiar with it but they taught us a little about how to use it. I basically just edited the “B rolls” (which are just the clips in between interviews, and then the interview clips they would call it “A rolls”). Making that video definitely inspired me to make a travel video. I’ll probably do one of India (that’s my hope). Maybe I’ll do it just because I said it here. Let’s see.
Next stop: Jamkhed
