Day Two of the OneMinutesJr workshop in Turkmenistan – Story ideas unfolding
It has taken a while, but the participants have finally understood the special OneMinutesJr approach: To tell a story in an abstract, artistic way and still convey a strong message. Azad (20) is the first one to put the focus of his film on the relationship between a boy and a girl. His film is about having protected sex by using a condom. The couple will be filmed from the back, sitting on a bed, moving closer to each other. Then the boy turns off the light and says: “Ok, let's go!” But the girl turns the light on again and says: “Wait!” This scene repeats itself until the girl pulls out a condom and now it is her who says: “Let's go!”. The boy smiles and says: “Wait!” Then he goes to turn off the light and the film ends. Maksat is another participant with a great film idea. He want to show how important information and campaigning is. In his film, a boy finds out about HIV/AIDS from a poster and decides to paint a red ribbon on a wall. He also tells his father about the disease and the father charters a helicopter with a huge banner that says “Stop AIDS” and flies with it over the city. A TV crew arrives on the scene covers the story - and all of a sudden the topic is on national TV. Impossible? No way! Of course, we do not have a helicopter available for the filming, but Maksat will simply draw the whole script on A4 paper, film it, animate it a bit and tell the story in a voice-over.
In the afternoon, the first groups of participants are already out filming. Kakabay for example went to the market to buy a cucumber and to the pharmacy to buy condoms. Then he wants to go to a university campus and ask the students there to demonstrate how a condom is put on properly. Quite a challenging idea in the very traditional Turkmen environment! It will be interesting to hear about his experience when he comes back with his footage at the end of the second day of the workshop – and everybody is even more curious to see how his film will turn out. Chris Schuepp – Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – October 1, 2008
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