Sky’s Blog @ The Dalai Lama Foundation — Spreading the word in a networked world

I interviewed John Sorensen, producer for the Project Happiness documentary, asking him what happens behind the camera and then after all of the video has been shot.

[In the photo you see John, Dawa (the TCV cameraman mentioned in the audio clip), and Yeshi Khando, the teacher who picked up this project and ran with it at Upper TCV.]

John’s team of professional collaborators, David Goulding who handles the “big” camera, and Brian Buckley, who captures the sound while they’re shooting, are also interviewed in our series.

This is a challenging process, with video captured in several formats, several shoots in the field, and diverse cultures with different familiarity with the technology.

Listen as John describes the process of making the documentary, shooting in California, Nigeria and India, and how the team works to create the raw footage that then goes to the “cutting room” where it turns into a final documentary. John speaks with knowledge, insight, and deep feeling about the process.

If you’ve listened to my recent audio and/or podcasts, you already know that one of the things that’s most frustrating in developing countries is the lack of reliable electric power. Emmanuel was really impressed with the electrical infrastructure in India because here it is the exception, rather than the rule, for the power to be out. In places like Dharamsala, there might be a short outage of 15 minutes in a day, or you might go for days without any interruption. The longest failure I ever experienced was about 4 hours. People take it in stride, but only local commerce can take place during a power failure - it would be a disaster for any Internet-based business, or for any business requiring computers.

Many businesses do have one or more uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) that provide a short stretch of battery power for their computers in the event of a temporary failure, but in Emmanuel’s area in Nigeria, power outages might stretch for a couple of days, so a UPS won’t do any good. And gasoline is scarce and expensive, so a generator isn’t an option.

Solar power has to be one possible answer. Today Brian took a car and drove to purchase a four-panel solar array for Emmanuel to take back to his school.

This is a “cafeteria interview*” of Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba, conducted in New Delhi on Friday, the 30th of March, 2007 at the YWCA. Beginning in 2005, after encountering The Dalai Lama Foundation on the world wide web, Emmanuel began a study circle for adults. This expanded into 14 adult circles and 25 students circles, and centered around 8 schools in Jos, Nigeria.

Religion is a sensitive issue in Nigeria, as in many places, and Emmanuel has been able to help people learn about international peace and ethics based on the life of the XIV Dalai Lama in a non-religions atmosphere based on our common humanity.

Private schools play an important part in education in Nigeria. Public schools cannot handle the entire load, and students frequently begin school at a late age, so private schools have stepped in to carry part of the load. Students are encouraged to stay in school until they graduate and sometimes do not graduate until as late as the age of 23. (The photo shows Faith, Emmanuel and Mercy at Chonor House in Dharamsala.)

“Very honestly … my contact with the Dalai Lama Foundation in the first place has transformed my life. Each person knows himself - I know my background, but since January 2005 it has transformed my life in a number of ways. I should give a few examples…”

*I call these cafeteria interviews not because they offer a varied menu but because they’re sometimes conducted in a noisy or populated area, giving you the flavor of the locale, but also you’ve got to pay a little bit of attention in order to follow the interview.

[Listen to the interview using QuickTime or VLC Media Player...]

When I go to Dharamsala, no matter what my intended major focus, I always have a half dozen concurrent side projects. No exception this time. I spent several days talking with people and keeping those relationships and projects alive. And introducing new people to old people. Playing the role of human glue to bring people together. This was my fourth trip.

Now that I’m finished there, I’ve returned to Delhi, having arrived by train last night. The students from Nigeria and California, with the teachers and part of the video crew, were all driven down (in seven cars) to Pathankot where we picked up the overnight train to Delhi. We arrived in Delhi at 5 am. Delhi streets are fairly busy any time of day or night, but we had an easy time of it since we had a “tourist” bus waiting, which is at the disposal of the student group for the next couple of days.

(The photo shows the computer room at Chonor house, overflowing with me attempting a video transfer, two video cameras running, and two computers on the Internet.)

Today the photographers and video makers (and I) are looking thru photos and copying and editing them, as well as copying video files. And preparing blog entries which can be uploaded from the YMCA around the corner. While in Dharamsala, I copied the TCV videos (about 20GB) to a LaCie USB drive, and this morning I copied the Nigerian videos from Emmanuel’s camera to the same drive. This drive will go with John Sorensen back to GraceCreek Media so the video will be available for use in the documentary that’s being made for Project Happiness.

Several thoughts, and perhaps a cautionary tale or two for traveling geeks:

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