Colombian walking speed

Once again I am just amazed by the Colombian walking speed.
I have discovered Colombians have two walking gears: slow and fast. The fast one is FAST, the person walks so fast you can hardly catch up with a woman if you're a man. The slow (and normal) one is s- l- o- w.
This is the gear the attendants in shopping centers use. I am so amazed!
You ask for something and the attendant says "Ok, I'll take a look" and starts walking away in 0.3 km/hour. Beware when following them, because you risk walking into their back.
When they eventually come back, they are always courteus and friendly, expressing their joy of helping you.

I am so amazed how Colombians are so freed from stress. I think I envy them...

One major obstacle for Latin America

If Colombians only knew... that the entire world is speaking English. Wherever you go in the world, English is the language that opens doors for you.
Now that we live in virtually connected world, so even more. We connect through English, we learn through English, we publish in English.
English is the language of international business. It is the language of trade, investments and cooperation. It is the language that the whole world understands.
Except Latin America.

I am sorry to state this, but as long as Latin America doesn't prioritize English in their school system, this continent will never experience true economic growth.

Editing "By your Side"

We have now begun editing the short film "By your side"! Editing means to cut together the videos that were shot, first in a simple way, then refining more and more, then adding on-location sound, sound design and color corrections.

The plan is to have the film ready around at the beginning of June this year, and then begin the distribution. We want to distribute both to film festivals and television channels.

"Lion of War" film on its way

The film franchise "Lion of War" is going forward. You can now follow what's going on at lionofwar.com. "Lion of War" is the story about King David and the Mighty Men, yes, the ones in the Bible.

There will be three Lion of War films, and they will be based on the book series Lion of War by Cliff Graham.
The first film will be called "Day of War" and will be produced by Grant Curtis, who also produced "Spider Man 2" and "Spiderman 3". The film will be directed by David L. Cunningham, who also directed "To End All Wars" and "The Path to 9/11".

There will also be a motion comic produced along the films, an animated series that you can follow on You Tube and also download an iPad. Check out the trailer on You Tube here. Further, there will be documentaries produced, on location in Israel, about the real King David.

I encourage you to stay updated with this unique film franchise.

Shooting "By your Side"

Finally we shot the short film "By your Side", a film about a garbage collector who meets a rich girl.
We had a team of about 20 people and we shot the film on a Canon 7D DSLR camera. We rented lights locally, one smashing HMI and a couple of 1000W's. And a "genny" of course (a generator for the lights).

We had an EXTREMELY tight schedule due to the limited time we had the main actor (he was flown in from Bogota), so we had to work every minute. The second day of shooting we basically worked 23 hours in a row, starting in the morning and ending in the next morning. We were so thankful to the owners of an apartment in El Poblado in Medellin, who let us in with a whole film crew and letting us shoot almost all night through.

Last production meeting before shoot

Yesterday we had our last production meeting before shooting our short film "At your side".

Double-checking everything, especially the art department (what to bring to the set, how to decorate it, what actors are wearing etc). In film production lingo, these things are called "props" (things on the set seen in camera), "costume" and "set decoration".

There are quite many things that need to function on a film set, and a short film production can be quite complex. The weather needs to be collaborative, actors and extras need to be on time and wear the right clothes, technical gear needs to be working and handled correctly, and everybody needs to know what they should do at the right moment, especially when the director shouts "Action!" Or as in Spanish, "Acción!" Filmmaking is like mounting a foldable factory in a couple of hours in a place you don't know and hoping that it will work, then putting it down and moving it to another place, then the same over again but totally different.

Colombian pace

Something interesting about Colombian shop assistants, is that they can walk in slow motion. You ask for a thing over the counter. The sales person takes a walk to get it for you. This walk is s-l-o-w.

In Europe, we are programmed to interpret this as an offense. It means "What do I care if you buy something from me."

I need to reprogram. It's just a healthy sign of a stress-free environment.

Lighting workshops

Film lighting is a whole science that people dedicate life spans to learn. To grow a bit more in this area, we set up a couple lighting workshops. We rented two professional Arri 1000W at night time (extra cheap), added our own "construction lights" and experimented. One thing is for sure, you learn lighting by doing. I lead the workshop and had the participants recreating specific lighting seen in films, one from "Inception" and one from "Traffic".

The word for "now" in Colombia

The word "now" in Colombia is most interesting.
The original word in Spanish is "ahora".
But that doesn't mean you should use this word if you want to say "now".
The word you should use is "already". In Spanish, it is "ya".
Here, "ahora" means "a little later". (can be anything between 15 min and 2 hours)
If you want to say "in fifteen minutes", use "ahorita".

Summing up:

"Now" = "Ya"
"In 15 min" = "Ahorita"
"In an hour" = "Ahora"

Then, of course, if you want to say, "Immediately", that would be "ya ya".

How to close a car door in Colombia

If you are thinking about going to Colombia, here's a tip. Don't slam car doors.
My experience from home is that people get irritated if you close a car door too softly. In Colombia, it's the opposite. People get offended if the car door makes any noise when closing.
Why the car doors in Colombia have much softer springs than in Europe, I don't know.
Just remember, when closing the door, follow with the hand all the way until you feel that click. And be happy.

Things that need to change in Medellin

If I could change things in Medellin, one of them would be the high rate of crimes. I've lost count on all the stories of robberies, murders and gang wars I have heard about here.
Sure, Medellin has changed A LOT to the better during the last years. This used to be the city where people hardly went out night-time, unless you wanted to expose yourself to cartel shootings. Now it is much safer. But that doesn't mean it is safe. Basically, you need to think through where you go and what you bring. If you want to bring a laptop in your bag, you should take a taxi, and avoid any longer walking distance, even daytime. Same with camera and everything valuable.

For a person whose office is the laptop, hrm, quite annoying.

Raising funds for the short film

They say the most difficult part about filmmaking is raising the funds. Probably true. We are right now in that phase and we are trying to raise $3.200 - a drop in the ocean in the film industry, but quite a challenge for a group of independents. The basic idea with the film is to do an artistic work, but we also want to distribute it, hopefully recouping some of the money invested.

Our plan is very simple - to invite 30 persons to invest $100. If we are able to sell the film later (tv stations buy short films), we will return this investment, with a return of 15%. If you are interested in investing, let me know.

Building the dolly

Today we continued with building our dolly. And yes, I have to confess that we do it after one of those tutorials on YouTube. Anyway, it was great to feel the smoothness of those wheels.

On the search to build a dolly

Something good about Medellin (among many) is that many stores are clustered together if they sell the same thing. For example, if you want to buy tires, you will find like fifteen tire shops next to each other.

Today we went looking for parts to build a dolly. A dolly is a moving "cart" or "waggon" for a film camera. So we went to the "woodshop" area of Medellin. Lots of stores selling wood. Perfect. It wasn't hard to find what we were looking for.

Dollies are great for enhancing a film. The camera moves slowly to the side or forwards. It creates that "film" feel. Wanna see what our dolly looks like? Hang on.

Preproduction for our short film

"Preproduction" is a term used a lot in movie production. It means to prepare the production, to schedule, to plan what will be needed. Things and people, locations, clothes etc. Because on those days of rolling cameras everything needs to be in place.

Yesterday we went to scout one of our main locations for our short film "At your side", a luxurious apartment. Later we will visit a location that is totally the opposite.

We also sat down to schedule the shoot, with our producer, production designer and assistant art director...

Avid

Today we went to an AVID seminar. Avid is the world-leading software for editing film and television. It was held in a television studio at one of the universities here in Medellin.

One helpful feature that they showed us was how you can search for a word or a phrase - spoken - in your footage. Pretty cool. Imagine you have a long interview and need to find a specific phrase. You do a search and you instantly know where it is. Not bad.

I used to edit in Final Cut Pro but I have recently switched to Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere offers better real-time capabilities. Apple, you guys need to realize your'e not the only ones out there.

Flowers with a purpose

Today me and a couple friends went to "do good", we went to a prison here in Medellin, where we gave flowers and sweets to the wives who are waiting in line outside to get in to meet their spouses. The line was about five hundred meters long (at seven in the morning) so there were plenty of people. Most women brought food with them, that I suppose they later share with their loved ones. We told the women that we appreciate their faithfulness and perseverance in meeting their spouses. Needless to say, our visit had no political purpose whatsoever, but only to show the love we believe God has for people in need.

Short film "At your side"

In March, we are shooting a shortfilm here in Medellin! "At Your Side". It's a film about hope, and about the differences between rich and poor. The basic premise is,

"Pedro is a street bum. During a specially rough day, he finds the wallet of Sofia. Will this change his life for ever?"

The film will be directed by a friend of ours from Medellin, who is very experienced in short film and television directing. Myself, I will be a DP (Director of Photography). Very exciting!

We are looking for $3,200 to complete the film with the lights and equipment that will add that "extra" feeling. If you feel drawn to it, welcome to contact me.

Medellin Malls

If you walk in the center of Medellin, Colombia, you will see many people who live in the streets, others who go searching in trash bags, and yet others who just go around begging.
The contrast is pretty big if you enter one of the fancy malls in Medellin. Especially in Poblado, which is the richest and fanciest area.
Entering one of these malls, is like entering Paris or New York. Everything is clean, modern and fancy. It's all glass, metal and fountains. Here you will find brand stores such as Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Zara etc.

This just made me realize two things. Firat. To maintain a shop with something of value in Medellin, you need to put it inside a secure system, like a mall. Just having it in the street would make the risk of robbery just too big. Second. There is money in Colombia. It's just not distributed.

"TV Anywhere" and continued iPhone craze

Some media news.

Video consumption on small screens is growing and growing. Producers and manufacturers want the "TV anywhere" to become a reality as soon as possible, where we watch a tv show at home, continue watching it walking, then in the bus, in the train etc.

Keep in mind as well:

Apple sold about 16 millions of iPhones and 7 millions of iPads in 2010.
Video consumption accounts for half of all Internet traffic currently.

Read more here.

Riding bus in Colombia, part II.

Riding a small city bus can be quite fun too. First, you enter by going through a narrow passing wheel, a kind that reminds me of exiting the public swimming pool as a kid. Nobody is allowed in if they don't pay first. Even if you feel like a pig entering to be killed, it's quite handy for the driver!

Second, the ceiling is so low that a normally tall person like me (he he), 1.97 meters, needs to bend down. Better to sit down. But then, the space in front of the seats is so small, it's impossible to sit straight. The knees need to be in the isle. Hmm, patience. But, I was relieved as even my Colombian friend, very much shorter, complained as well.

Third, when you ride a bus in Colombia, you don't only pay for the ride. You also pay for the music. Because once you are in the bus, you'll notice that the driver plays the music he likes in all the speakers in the bus. The level? Just about as loud as in an average bar in Europe at Friday night. Kind of music? Well, here in Colombia in 90% percent of the cases, it's local music. Traditional vallenatos, salsa or merenge. But today the driver played house music. You know, the kind of music in rave parties. I couldn't avoid smiling. Bar level, completely filling the passenger area. Old people, kids, families, everybody riding to loud electronic music. Their faces as if nothing unnormal is going on. Nobody reacts. In Sweden, people would look at each other and wonder what lunetic is driving the bus. He is on drugs. Somebody would finally approach the driver, tell him and then later call the bus company and report the incident. The driver would receive a reprimand and if it happened again he would get fired or replaced.

Well, lucky me, I happen to like both the local music and electronic music. No reason to complain.

Riding bus in Colombia.

Participating in the traffic in Colombia is quite fun. People drive like crazy. What surprises me though, is that I see so few accidents. Today as I was riding a bus on a highway, people came running to sell things on the street. They wore yellow vests as if they were police guards. Well, it makes it easier to see them. In Colombia it's common with people selling things literally ON the street, as buses stop at lights or in a traffic jam. They approach your vehicle carrying a variety of cookies, peanuts, soft drinks and so on (by the way, drinks are sold in plastic bags, not in bottles!) Money is exchanged on the spot. Quite handy. It also seems quite dangerous. Well here we go again, the brain of a Northern Europe guy. We think and breathe traffic safety. Here, motor cycles are riding in curves as to avoid the vendors. No irritation, It all runs very smooth. Many times the bus driver was driving in the left lane. Double lines on the middle? Who cares. Instead, the bus driver honks the horn repeatedly. To warn anybody else.

Well, maybe there are many accidents in Colombia, I don't know. Judging the way they drive, with a Northern Europe mind, it seems there should be. But my theory is that everybody here is prepared as they drive. Prepared that everybody else is driving like crazy as well. Everybody knows the rules.

Anyway, just an observation.

Medellín, Colombia

My friends, it's been a long long time. I know, I have been absent. I am sorry. No excuses. Let's move on.

The time in Hawaii was great. I was there about a year. Let me tell you more about what we are doing there later. It is indeed interesting. A new big film about King David. A new exciting news station. And more.

I am now in Medellín, Colombia. I am here to work with projects and teaching in the area of video and film production.

Medellin is a beautiful and quite big city in the middle of Colombia. It is known as the city of Eternal Spring, due to its climate. I hope to tell you more about Medellin and Colombia very soon. This was just an introduction.

Entonces, vamos!