Radio/TV/Film/Video

Last Thursday, Kenz and I had our first class of "The Fundamentals of Radio/TV/Film/Video". I am so excited about it, but I wasn't so sure at first...

This is the way Ghana works(as I have briefly mentioned before, and as I have more recently continued to perpetually experience): No one really knows, everything is always "tomorrow", there is no concept of precise/exact time, and the answer always depends on who you ask.

To make a long story short, we didn't know where our classroom for our class was (surprise, surprise haha)for our film class. So, we asked at least seven different students/administrators at the School of Performing Arts, each with confused faces, mumbled responses, and many unsure answers. Kenz and I were waiting in what we thought was the right classroom, when 3:30pm rolled around (the start time of the class), and no one was there except for the two of us.

Michael, an extremely friendly Ghanaian student, decided to help us solve the puzzle and walked us to our class in the rain, all the way across campus. We arrived twenty minutes late to a rowdy, giggling classroom, at-first hesitant to step into the loud, all-Ghanaian class. Good thing we did, though.

The class is taught by two (yes, kind of unusual, I know) male professors. As we entered class, the students were in the process of making "class rules"--which also seemed a little unsual. Everyone was extremely friendly and there were lots of laughs throughout the two-hour class.

We will be meeting every Monday to watch the films and we will meet on Thursdays to discuss other multimedia material.

One of our professors asked the class, "Who is interested in going into the (film) industry?" I excitedly raised my hand, along with a few other Ghanaians. He walked over to my desk and sweetly asked, "Oh, where do you want to work in the Ghanaian industry?" I lowered my hand, smiling at him, unsure of how to respond (as I one day would love to work in the AMERICAN film industry).

This past summer, my brother and I received the exciting opportunity of being able to experience a 21-hour day of being "on-set", as movie extras for the upcoming movie "Blood Done Sign My Name" (2009). It was an experience unlike anything I've done before. We got to go through hair, makeup, wardrobe, etc., and waited patiently in between takes, as we sat in the courthouse pews dressed in scratchy clothing from decades ago.

The thing that intrigued me the most, though, was watching the DOP (the Director of Photography), as he took photos from take to take. His camera was saddled in a big, black sound-proof box, so the movie camera wouldn't pick up on the noise of the camera's shutter. What an incredible job. One day, I would love to be the "DOP" of a movie, and even sooner, I would love to shadow/apprentice a DOP on a featured film. I think it would be such a challenging experience, constantly toying with different lights, environments, and settings. I hope this class will enable me to more extensively understand technical aspects of radio, television, film, and video.