A Big Week

A LOT has happened in this past week, aside from the AU profile published about me (see next posting).

I purchased the URL "zambianforge.com" which is currently re-directing here. However, I am starting to plan a non-blog oriented website for this film.

I upgraded from Final Cut Pro to the Apple Production Suite, so I now have access to Motion, and more importantly, DVD Studio Pro 3. I am now encoding mpegs directly from FCP with Compressor, and my rough DVDs are 24P. This has been an important step, as I am now getting a better feel for how the motion intensive scenes really look. Also, it will greatly decrease the amount of time I need to burn an extra copy of a footage disk. All around, this is a big step forward in my production process.


I've brought 2 more bodies on board.
The first, Hilary, will be interning for me, helping out with some of the last parts of the digitizing process, and making DVDs. She is also going to help manage the production of the promotional video I am about to create for the FORGE program.

The second person, Nadine, is going to cut together a trailer for "Zambian Forge" and work on creating a package that can be presented to acquire grants or other sources of finishing funds. I have already created a document to support this effort that outlines the scenes, characters, and interviews that will make up the film.


Digitizing (Yes, I am still digitizing!)
Footage ingested since the last update:
An early interview with Geno.
Interview with "Brown": the Zambian man who was appointed to head the Library by the Zambian government.
Interviews with students from Meheba High School: Victor, Bina, Prudence
A huge scene where the Forge volunteers ride together with Angolans as they repatriate to Angola.
Footage from our drive up to Meheba from Lusaka, our arrival at the settlement, introductions, moving in, and first reactions.


Also, in an earlier post I mentioned that I'm going to produce a side project: "Songs of Meheba" from the audio I recorded. The first Choir group has gone through the audio sweetening process, courtesy of Amit Shoham of Tarantic Records:
http://tarantic.com/

More updates to come soon!
David