Food For Thought

Today in class two media groups screened their unit projects. Both of them were documentaries. My group, Dan, Caitlin, Brin and I, made a documentary for Ecology class. To learn about ecology, our class spent a week in Zahirabad, a dry, rural town in South India. This was our first destination in our month long tour of India. Before we left for Zahirabad, we had many group discussions on our thesis statement and topic. Each of us were a bit wary of the journey that lay ahead. I know I was worried about the inconveniences of travelling, my inexperience with filming, and the tedious setbacks we would be sure to suffer. Yet I also felt a sense of excitement. I had faith that our group would produce a good documentary. We arrived in Zahirabad after a long and hot jeep ride. My media group and I had shared a jeep so we could discuss the project. I ended up falling asleep. After we arrived at the organization that would be hosting us, we picked rooms. Brin, Caitlin and I roomed with each other since we were working together on the project. The next day we all woke up with colds. Despite our coughing and sneezing we collected our equipment and had a relatively productive day. Every evening we spent hours going through the footage we had shot that day. When we arrived in Hyderabad we finished up the last of our shooting and began video editing and recording sound. This was a challenge since it is almost impossible to find a quiet place in India. Even inside a convent there was constant noise. We heard horns blaring and dogs barking outside and our classmates echoing voices from another floor among other random noises. After Hyderabad we took a break from our project. We had finished our ecology class and begun our religion class. After returning to Visthar we made any finishing touches on our documentary and then we screened it in class. We were each a little apprehensive about how our classmates would receive the documentary. However we were met with many congratulatory remarks and positive comments. After so much hard work, I was happy that our documentary turned out so well. I now had something I could be proud to show my family and friends.

Advertisement