Differences in Our Production Process Here

In an earlier blog, I described the production process the students are using for our two videos for Manos de Esperanza. But what I didn't say is that there are at least two aspects of the production that we are doing differently here than we would at home in San Francisco.

One of those is site selection, or scouting locations. Usually, before a shoot, a member of the production team goes out to the location where the shoot will take place, and looks at it in terms of lighting, audio, setting, and other factors that may affect the shoot. With that information in hand, the production team, on the day of the shoot, can be better prepared for the setting that awaits them. With the production we are doing here, where we visit a place for the first time on the day that we do the shoot, such location scouting has been impossible. That means greater challenges for the production team, possibly more time required to set up for the shoot, and the need to take along on the shoot every possible piece of equipment that might be needed.

The other is the issue of releases. In the U.S., students must obtain releases - signed statements that the individual agrees to be videotaped and to be seen on camera - from each person who appears in a video. We brought along release forms and prepared to translate them. But when we described this process to our Salvadoran hosts, they vetoed the use of release forms. Given the mistrust that survives the civil war, our hosts assured us that the people we videotaped would not be willing to put their signature on a form. They suggested that if we used release forms, no one would participate in the video. To solve the problem, I drew, from my Human Subjects experience, procedures that are used when signing a consent form to participate in a research project might have the effect of putting the research subject in danger. Rather than ask our interviewees to sign a form, we asked them to say their names and indicate on videotape that they agreed to the interview. Simultaneously, the production assistant kept a record that the respective individual had agreed to appear on tape.

When students come back from their BECA 580 experience, they have skills not only in remote production, but in working in under-resourced countries, where they need to adapt their skills to the situation at hand. These differences are but two examples of the kinds of adaptations they need to make.