Medase, Ghana.

It has been three weeks. At the beginning, time seemed to pass rather slowly. Adapting to the environment, the people and their lifestyle and getting acquainted with the new flavors of the local food...It was a learning process that required time and energy. And yet, now that we have to pack our suitcases, we look back on the 20 days with some regret. At least, I do.

The experience has been enriching and fulfilling. Yesterday, as Cilia, Sam and myself took a cab to do one last city tour (at night!), the streets flew past us through the windows and it finally dawned on me that I wouldn't be seeing that red soil again, or any of the little sweets/phone cards/coconuts/peeled oranges stands on the border of the sidewalk. Yes, it will probably be refreshing to breathe in some clean air (gas and pollution fragrances not being the most appealing of scents). But the whole immersion into this world was definitely one of a kind.

The festival is drawing to a close. We had the opportunity to meet several interesting people from different corners of the planet. It felt strange but somehow familiar to be around them. Animation was the reason everybody came together and it was a refreshing feeling.

From left to right: Richard, Ralitsa, myself and Mirto

Once we step on the tarmac that will lead us home, I'm sure a rush of memories will take over before flying above the red and green land we’ve got to visit. There are so many things we haven’t been able to see, but for the things we did see, it was all worth it.

Medase, Ghana. Thank you for all the discoveries.

Now, I only wait for the moment where I can read these words : Welcome to Montreal.

Akwaaba!

Sunday, the excitement of Bojo Beach

Francis, Marie-An George Sam and myself went to Bojo Beach, an hour out of Accra. A new guest has arrived for the festival, Mirto Laclé from Aruba.

He joined us for this great out door activity.

Francis worked again with passion on his stop motion short.

Saturday

After the big relief of finishing all films that were in the run, we spent a quiet Saturday.



Saturday was a day of partial rest and partial work. Francis worked mainly on his puppet film. This project promises to become a very original piece. After purchasing motorcycles that were created in the junk art fashion, he build himself his little character that would ride the motorcylces. Like usually, he was very innovative. He went to shoot in several remote areas in town, choosing his locations carefully.



I worked a bit on the student films, preparing visuals and downloading sound effects and sounds from the internet.

Malari-An

We are starting to worry about Marie-An,

it seem she has side effects that might be related to malaria...

Have a look

Dont worry, she is very well!

;)

Camera, lights, action!

Today was a very busy day for me.

Since I finished building my characters yesterday night, I was able to continue my animatic and start the shooting of my film!

Fortunately, I had the help of the generous Georges and of Ralitsa and we completed quite a few shots. I cant wait to see how it will come up on screen, I will capture it later today.

We finished the day in beauty and had pizza with Cilia and Marie-An. Hooray.

Its getting exciting.

:)

last day of workshop : THANK YOU ALL

Friday was our last workshop day. To my amazement, all projects came to and end. We managed to finalize all 8 animated shorts.

The films were transferred onto the computer of Francis for post production. We also met with a musician who will compose music for all of them during the week end.

Marie An was looking for free sounds on the internet.

Frank George and Edward had been recording original sounds with and for participants as the films came in one by one.

Sam himself started sound work with Michel, breaking away from his busy schedule as a festival director

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP, SUPPORT AND INPUT.

( Sam and Yuri)

SPECIAL TRIPUTE TO FRANCIS

BUT THE ONE WHO IS MOST TO THANK is FRANCIS who worked thirelessly with all productions during the last few days, making sure that each film was transferred, revised, reformatted and edited properly.

His technical and artistic input was and is priceless. His dedication to all projects was unlimited!!!! THANK YOU.

MERCI FRANCIS POUR TON IMPLICATION SANS RESERVE ET TA SUPER BONNE HUMEUR.

Back in time: my visit of Elmina castle

Picture of Elmina castle from where more then 14 million people were deported as slaves or were killed, by the Portuguese, then the Dutch.

Every three months, about 1000 cslaves were kept in totally unthinkable conditions in small, dark rooms before they were shipped to Europe and America. Visiting this place made my heart break at every step. I could almost hear the screams all of these people who are only recently mentionned in some history books.

Room for female slaves, they were about 400 at a time in this space. No light, no windows...no air

Governors balcony from where he would select the female claves to keep him company at night.

The children born out of these relationships would be kept as salves by the masters in Elmina.

Francis back to work

An animation tests for an animated film. Francis was more then an actor!!!

It's coming!

Mark your calendar! Today, we have completed the compositing (the last step of a film's image), of our first film!

Kwabena, the youngest of our participants has made a film using claymation. We shot each shot in different layer that we have reassembled in after effects. The result is really cute and I think that he was quite happy and proud of himself. Tomorrow, we attack the sound of his film. The other teams are also working hard, everyone wants to do something nice.

Its very interesting to watch Cilia teach, unfortunately, we only have time for the condensed version of her knowledge.

I wont say it to loud, not to jinx me, but I might be on a lead for a film topic here....

To be continued.

Back in time, about the weekend in Elmina

While Francis was a tourist in Koumassi and visited the University there, Marie-An, George and I were in Elmina that weekend. I was pretty busy since our return on Sunday night and did not have time to update our readers about our escapade.




Most likely, by now, everybody who reads our blog knows that Marie-An was sick during those two day, however despite her illness, she got to see a little bit the coast. George who was with us has helped greatly to take care of Marie An when she was sick.

I went to visit Elmina Castle at the end of the day

Films

Today, we have really started the films!

It's getting exciting, we unfortunately had to reject a few ideas, that were either still incomplete or unfeasible given the time we have.

I try not to stress for them, but some of them dont seem to realise that 5 days to make a film means that you dont have a second to lose!

On the other hand, there are projects that are really promising. Today ,Edward improvised a film with Yuri, the son of one of the participants. Here it is:

The Kwame Nkrumah university:section FINE ART

After our fun weekend as tourists, we are back to work with the participants the ANIMAFRIK.

The monday workshop has pushed everyone to a first set up of their films. Most participants have finished their ideas and have finalized their storybords. Now, the new challenge is to produce the characters and backgrounds. I am stessing that everyone looks around to get inspired by the rich Ghanayan and African culture and aesthetics that serround us.



Some pictures from Koumassi University, The Kwame Nkrumah university of science and technology: SECTION FINE ARTS

I'm a real trooper (I think...)!

Cape Coast. Gorgeous beaches. Awesome resort. And yet, I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to enjoy it fully. After a long day of illness when even a bite of food couldn't get through, I was tired and exhausted physically and mentally. Of course, I knew where I was and I felt I had to try my best to muster up all the courage and energy I had to enjoy everything to the best of my ability. And so that's what I believe I did on the second day.

It is hard to think I succeeded in going up high in the trees of the rainforest and made my way through the many dangling/suspended bridges that connected one tree to the next. The view was beautiful. Of course, climbing up the mountain was slightly tiring for me but I never stopped going up.

I'm slowly returning to a normal state. Everyone is incredibly caring of me; I have to thank them. I wish things would've been better, but I have to get past it!

I had to take a day off from the workshop today to rest. So while I write, I'm listening to music, sorting out my photos, testing out programs and hoping I'll get better soon.

If only I could go back and just rest on these deck chairs and sleep as the waves brush the shore...

end first week of workshop.

Our participants have finished the first week. They will now work on their storyboards and prepare for their films.

Here are a few pictures from them during this first week.

Snapshots

Some photos.

The joys of being a rebel.

A look at Kente and other crafts

At the Ghana Art Center, many little shops had Kente fabrics. Kente is a traditional outfit. The threads are weaved and designs can be very complex. Once strips of fabric are done, they sew them together to make the kente. Colors are very vivid and bright. The pictures don't exactly do them justice, as the shops were devoid of good lighting, but you can still see how it is.

We also got to see where one of the kente weavers was working, and the tools he used. People were friendly and were nice enough to chat with us for a bit.


We went on and walked a bit more and visited some more craft shops. They sell a lot of masks, toys, figurines and many other things that I have yet to discover what they are used for. But the more we walked, the more we were bombarded with greetings and people who wanted us to stop at their place. When you have three shops that sell almost the same thing, there's really no point in going in all of them. And yet they still try to get us, haha.


Here's the kente weaver tool. I think it would take me an extremely long time to even get some threads in. I remember I wasn't especially good in weaving friend bracelets!





Here's some other decorations. All the symbols have a meaning - alas, I haven't been able to ask for them.






And here's some nice jewelry. A tad too expensive for what it is, but it was nice to know they were making it right there and with not much! I noticed when you went into a shop without being invited or dragged along, the sellers are usually a lot more enthusiastic and involved in talking with you and sharing their part of the story. But that's just me!

Surprises in the market!

Ready to spend a lot? Grocery stores have very expensive prices for certain products. It's pretty shocking. Of course, local food is much more cheaper. But it's interesting to see the difference! 22.55 GHS is around 16$ CAD!

In for adventures!

My first post here (a tad late, but finally posted!).

As the previous days were brought up to you by Cilia and Francis, I will put some snapshots I took since our arrival here in Ghana. People here are incredibly friendly and the weather is rather warm and easy to bear.

We've been around a lot with the amazing help of George and Sam. It's wonderful to see how people live here with so little, yet we can't always imagine ourselves doing the same! It's a definite eye-opener.

The workshop participants are all very eager to learn and to animate. It will only be a matter of time before they get their hands on their own film! We are currently in the storyboarding stage, but projects seem to progress. Very soon, we will all be working on our films.

The walk cycle.

Our Animation day was really good. Our participants had a good time I think since they were animated -Pixilated. They very fast understood the basic walk cycle.

Botanical Garden ( la suite)

On our way back, we stopped by Rita Marleys stodio. Rita Marley is Bob Marleys mother. She was not in, but we got a look at her cool music studio in the mountains over Accra.

Standing in a giant tree.

Giant Palm trees.

Again a few more pictures from our exucursion yesterday to Aburi. I really had a great time.

Jungle de campagne, jungle de ville.

Hier, après la journée de cours, nous sommes allés au jardin botanique d'Aburi (à 20 km d'Accra).

La ballade en auto nous a pris 1h20 pour se rendre!

Le parc est magnifique, des plantes exotiques géantes et un hélicoptère anglais (de la 2e guerre?) écrasé en plain milieu. En voulant prendre de l'avance, j'ai un peu perdu notre groupe (les autres animateurs canadiens et nôtre hôte ghanéen). Ça m'a permis de découvrir quelques endroits étranges un peu à l'écart des sentiers et je me suis fait ami avec un petit lézard. J'ai pris une termitière en photo pour mes garçons.

Rita Marley, la maman de Bob a un studio à Aburi, j'ai constaté en arrivant sur les lieux, qu'il avait été ravagé par le feu...

Nous avons soupé à l'Alliance Française, là où les cours se donnent, vers 20hrs, donc j'étais dans ma chambre d'hotel vers 22hrs.

Je suis allé courir dans les rues d'Accra pendant environ une heure, ça m'a vraiment donné la piqure de l'endroit, même à cette heure , il ya des gens qui vendent des trucs (ils ont tous leur petit kiosque), qui déambules, des clubs avec de la bonne musique (Hilife et Hiplife, j'y reviendrai)... Je me sentais comme à 19 ans, quand je passais des nuits dehors au centro à passer des flyers à la sortie des clubs avec Tristan.

_

Aujourd'hui en classe, nous avons fait des cycles de marche. C'est toujours cool à reviser et Cilia a donné des trucs que je ne connaissais pas. Les élèves ont ensuite animé en stop motion des personnages en pâte à modeler. En suivant les même instructions, ils ont tous fait qqch. de différent!

Après les classes, Cilia et Marie-An devaient aller au "Ghanna Art Center", un marché d'artisans. Je l'y ai ai accompagnés. Il y a vraiment de belles choses là bas, masques, meubles,

bijoux etc. Par contre, j'étais enseveli sous une jungle de vendeurs, "comme here my friend", "come see my shop", etc Je n'en pouvais plus, impossible de faire deux pas sans que qqn. te prenne la main ou t'accoste.

Ce soir nous logeons pour le première fois à l'Alliance Française, nous avons une belle chambre avec... tenez vous bien... de l'eau chaude! Ou enfin, tiède disons. À date, c'était les douches frettes à tout coup. On a aussi un frigo et un poêle. Yé! Mais surtout, on a l'internet!

Demain, les étudiants doivent proposer des idées de storyboard, ils n'auront ensuite plus qu'une semaine pour faire leur film. Après les cours, je quitte la ville en solo, destination Kumasi, la seconde villes du pays, à quatre heures d'Acrra. J'ai hâte de voir, il parait que c'est très différent d'ici..

À suivre.

:)