Progress on Jalaris Kids Garden movie 2010!

At the start of April we left Derby, and our friends at Jalaris to begin work on post- production and editing of the garden footage. Here is a short interim progress report in the form of a movie … just click on the attached link!

http://www.communityprojects.com.au/2010/04/progress-kids-garden-movie/

Tech Troubles

Whilst everyone at Jalaris was excited to see storm clouds gathering after a hot week of high humidity, the storms also brought an unexpected tech glitch. Apparently lightning caused a power surge, which unfortunately fried our main battery charger. Of course this is the only way to power up the camera and sound recording gear. Luckily a trip to Broome was scheduled for the next day and after a 500km round-trip to Dick Smith’s we seem to back up and running!

What to do when it’s 42!?

The big news this week is that Jasmine and the crew at Jalaris have decided to wait another month before planting. This week we had most days above 40 celsius, and attendance by the kids has been very low. On Thursday only 4 kids turned up. If this happens again Travis and I will take the cameras down to the local swimming pool to see where they’re all hiding!

This was always a risk coming up to Derby in March/April as we did.  We are now faced with the prospect of having to leave Derby in a week,  before the 2010 Kids Garden has even started for 2010.

My first response is to try and tell the story with last year’s garden footage and the interviews and other footage we’ve gained in the past few weeks. Alternatively, I could try to push strongly this week to develop a narrative with Travis and Jasmine and leave Travis to document the process over the next 4-6 weeks, and try to incorporate this footage. I am sure we have learnt enough in the past few weeks that Travis would have no problem with the task, but it pushes out all the post production tasks to well into May.

I hope to speak with my supervisor George about this when we get to Perth next week.  In the meantime,  I will review footage, try and organize a final shooting list with Travis on Monday (yes we are working over the Easter weekend!) and get his and Jasmine’s perspective on the options. I will also check in with Jasmine on her revised planting schedule.

Thanks for the support!

James Pillsbury, a member of the Jalaris team,  is kindly supporting our video/evaluation work at Jalaris with his in-kind contribution, by housing us in his marsh-side bungalow for the month we are here. This is invaluable support, as the logistics of finding rental accommodation in Derby for the month were daunting to say the least. Derby is currently experiencing record rentals and house prices are through the roof as the resource boom and related construction brings newcomers to town. We are grateful for the support, and the views of the storms rolling across the marsh have been a highlight!

Getting the kids perspective

Whilst interviewing the Kids involved with the kids garden has proven to be a lot of fun,  it has also been quite challenging. Some interviews with the kids I grabbed inside whilst the kids were mostly involved in their play, some Katlyn did at her own initiative, and some Travis picked up whilst tailing kids around the playground.

Working with Travis has been a great learning experience for us both, and after a week he will now set-up the mic, headphones, camera and go out and take his own footage. He has also got a lot better at positioning the mic for good sound, and is also using the tripod for his shots after reviewing some footage of early shaky hand-held footage

One thing we have both come up against is the sound of airconditioners. Jalaris has four airconditioners on the western side of the complex to keep the office and the kids play room cool. These monsters are very loud whether you are filming inside or outside the building, so we are constantly walking around switching air-cons off to capture sound, and then back on before the crowds get restless inside the building! We have been averaging 42 degrees here in the Kimberley!

Travis has also proven a great collaborator by suggesting and organizing interviews. This week he even managed to organize an interview with his grandfather, the co-founder and CEO of Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation, Brett Morris. Whilst an amazing communicator with a sharp insight into the needs of the Derby community, Brett is notoriously camera shy. He has rarely been interviewed and even turned up to our interview in dark glasses! A researcher who has been working with Jalaris for 8 years informed us she had never gained permission to use more than a few lines from Brett, and was amazed we got a full half hour interview for the record. This was a real coup to hear the amazing story of how Jalaris started from the horse’s mouth, thanks Travis for the good work in getting the scoop, and thanks Brett for your time on what was one of the hottest days this week!

Interview – Jasmine Francis

So over the past few weeks we’ve tried to get interviews with the key players involved in the Kids Garden. Despite a busy schedule with the day to day running of the kids club, Education Co-ordinator Jasmine Francis agreed to give us her take on the kids club and we talked about the process of creating the Kids Garden, getting the Kids involved, and plans for 2010

Here you can read a selected transcript of the interview      Jesse transcript

starting a collaboration …

As we start filming around the Jalaris Kids center, it becomes clear some of the kids have plenty of experience with cameras, both in-front of and behind the lens. They need little  encouragement  to use the cameras to interview each other about their thoughts of the Kids Garden experience, and many are keen documenters,  amazingly tech savvy …

Below you can see Travis Ryder who has experience in sound recording and is keen to get behind the camera;  Katlyn Yeeda is a natural and open interviewer/presenter, and these two have agreed to work on the film over the next weeks

The Proposal

Click on the link below to open a pdf outline of the project proposal.

I’ve included a schedule of works, a review of some similar projects operating locally and around the world, and also a short discussion of some of the fields that inform work of this nature …

Assessment 1 pdf

Some Background on the Kids Garden

During the dry season 2009, the Kids not only made their first plantings and prepared the beds, but also began the process of documenting their work by taking pictures and video.

Below you can click to see some of the comic stories the kids made about the experience …

Gardening Mob ... click to see!

The Jalaris Kids Garden Project

In early 2009 Jalaris Aboriginal Corporation, as part of their Kids Future Club project, began a kids food garden at their centre in Derby, WA. The aim of the project is to teach the kids who come to the club about the process of growing fruit and vegetables, provide them more opportunities to interact with fresh veggies and foods, and to support literacy, numeracy and nutrition education by involving the kids in the planning, documentation, planting, care and harvest of the garden. A reward system has been developed to support ongoing participation in the program by the kids.

It is hoped the Garden Project will continue and expand in 2010.

To this end, Jalaris has engaged me as a volunteer collaborative film-maker to produce a short documentary film about the project for use both in their project evaluation and to communicate to the wider Derby audience in a format more accessible than a written report.