Duara is the pilot production of
TeleDrum. Find out about Duara here.

 

TeleDrum: Producing informational/promotional videos for aid organizations in Africa while teaching filmmaking to African and American students and professionals.

THE NEED
A good story can only be so if it is told.

Scores of aid organizations perform incredible work continually throughout Africa. Often, the most productive have the least time for sounding their own drum, informing and promoting their achievements to the outside world. They are too busy doing it. From the general public to affiliated supporters back home, good works need proper exposure to maintain or increase support. The motion picture can capture and condense the essence of an operation in an efficient and entertaining way.

The quickest way to solve the mystery of the hunt is to hand the man a spear.

Formal media production education and technical resources are limited in much of Africa. As we have seen through its relatively short history, the motion picture is arguably the most powerful medium for disseminating information and/or facilitating change. As a collaborative art, combining the arts and sciences and investigative skills needed to analyze a ‘need’ and design a product to address it, the educated filmmaker is a well-rounded thinker and a productive agent for social change. Recent technological advances now make quality video production affordable to organizations with even the most modest budgets.

Storytelling is at the heart of African culture. The filmmaker is merely a storyteller with a louder drum. A good film beats like a thousand drums.

THE METHOD
Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.

TeleDrum proposes to partner with existing educational programs such as the Film Studies program at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania (and/or NAFTI, Ghana). This will attract quality students with basic skills, while utilizing and supplementing existing human and technical infrastructure.

While creating a needed product for the client organizations, selected advanced students and regional professionals will “learn by doing” while interning with a small core of professionals on TeleDrum productions.  With each production, the intern progresses to a higher degree of responsibility, ultimately heading their chosen production track (writer/producer/director, camera/sound production, or editing).

THE MODEL
Enjoy the beauty of the home without foundation only until the long rains come.

Created by filmmaker-professor Daniel Boyd in 1994, the Paradise Film Institute at West Virginia State University was established to support regional filmmaking through resource services, continuing education and foreign exchanges. The production arm of the organization, PFI Productions, produces promotional videos for select non-profit, goodwill organizations that will allow significant student participation in the production process. Students gain valuable, “real world” experience by being placed in key production roles, under the supervision of a professional in each production area.

In every case the client has received a quality production at a fraction of the market cost, while contributing to the education of motivated future film professionals. The inherent nature of goodwill subjects accelerates the learning process by inviting ‘heart’ into the filmmaking process. Scores of PFI participants are now productive members of the professional production world. If ever the cliché, “win-win,” were appropriate, it is here.
During the 1998-99 academic year, Boyd served as a Fulbright Scholar to the Department of Fine and Performing Arts newly
created film studies program at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The PFI model was used in teaching the programs first advanced filmmaking and screenwriting courses. By the end of the term, the students produced quality programming for receptive organizations, springboarding themselves into the local professional arena while providing valuable public service to their clients.
Simply and plainly, it works.

THE SCOPE
How long is a piece of string?

Contingent upon the agenda and level of support of the adoptive parent(s), TeleDrum can be introduced as a pilot project in one region or introduced simultaneously in various areas.

THE COST
The cattle are as good as the pasture in which it grazes.

Again, dependent upon the agenda and level of support of the adoptive parent(s). A single production unit can be equipped for as little as $15,000. A three-person team supervising production and teaching in each production area is recommended.

THE REQUEST
Through others I am somebody.

Similar to the philosophy of the Carter Institute, TeleDrum does not wish to replicate existing programs, or for that matter, create a new agency. TeleDrum wishes to join with an established entity with common interests, already experienced and involved in the market that we wish to serve.

THE BEGINNING
No journey ends without taking the first step.
 

 

Contact: Daniel Boyd
WV State University
(304) 766-3379
dboyd@wvstateu.edu