The first month

Everyone who is wondering what a typical first month in Ghana looks like will not find his answer by looking at the experience we had. Because our first four weeks were anything but typical. Though pinning down a standard is already hard enough, our time would even be less comparable to those of tourists or our predecessors. It is marked by special events and an exceptionally long settle-down-time.

With our arrival we six volunteers fell into a quite busy, eventful surrounding being with AIM, because of the forthcoming and long longed-for (about 10 years) opening of the training center. Our role as workshop teachers had to take a backseat for the time being and our job was to lend a hand, document and join the hustle. But this gave us the opportunity to get to know the surrounding and rituals and adapt behaviours. When it came to starting the workshop we then already felt at home and had no problems having a normal everyday life.

The filmworkshop soon started to pick up speed. It takes place at two schools: the Newtown M/A in Ayensudo and the Essaman United in Atabadzi. Both of these villages are reachable via the mainroad towards Cape Coast and it takes about 20 minutes of travel time to Ayensudo and 25 minutes to Atabadzi followed by an additional 10 minute walk. Here in Ghana, they differentiate between form one, two and three at schools. These divisions are basically the equivalent to our school years in Germany. Therefore, it just makes sense that the students from form three know the most about filming and what comes with it. At both schools we have a few of these students in our workshop, however more newcomers in Ayensudo than in Atabadzi, which is clearly reflected in the classes. In this term we deal with “Theory of shots”. This is more practice than theory, though. This is because our goal is that both actors as well as camera people master the essential skills, the building blocks, for their work. Regarding the actors this means getting used to not laughing and not talking while filming, to play their role convincingly from start to finish and to behave and act in every take exactly the same. For the camera people this contains to think in shots, to use the camera as their human eye and if needed to instruct the actors.

So far we are successful to address and practice all these aspects made possible through an by the students improvised short story, among other things. With these we practice and film every scene multiple times till the students internalized the structures of a film set. All that I can say: This is fun! It is a lot of fun, because the students learn quickly, are eager to learn and they understand what we want them to know. And that some of them film with great passion, actually motivates me in the end, because at times it can be exhausting, as we have to cope with the restlessness and talks of the group. On that note I look quite confident on the time ahead of us. If we are going to archive what we intent to remains to be seen.