The Glass Workshop

Mobile Version

So here it is. The first of our SolarAid videos: the point of this whole project. We’re nervous, of course, about what you’ll think. Inevitably, we wanted to make a good first impression – on donors and everyone else who’s given us their attention – so we spent a little longer on it than we were strictly budgeted. I expect the videos that follow will be a little more raw and direct. They are less likely to have music. They won’t have subtitles unless it’s absolutely necessary. The reason: a simple matter of budgets conforming to the value of the movies. They were intended to be a bit more raw.

We’ll be learning a lot as this project progresses, video by video, and we hope to share what we learn with you.

With this video in particular, I found reconciling the tension between brevity and depth very testing. Bob spoke for about 10 minutes. At this length I found my assumptions were challenged: assumptions about Africa, poverty, peasant farmers, development charities, and so on. For example, I didn’t expect a cogent critique of national energy policy from a ‘peasant farmer’ (or any lay person anywhere).

But the web demands brevity. As I chopped the video toward a more web friendly length (3-5 minutes), I felt it was losing depth. The shorter it became, the more superficial it seemed to become, and the more as a viewer, I found myself relying on the stereotypes I’ve unconsciously gleaned from TV news flashes and disaster appeals to fill in the blanks. The problem is I really need my assumptions challenged. I don’t know anything – and that’s where all my viewing pleasure was coming from.

Of course, the brevity/depth question leads me to question whether a warm audience of donors would be more willing to commit to engage with longer, slower, deeper movies than a cold web audience. If so, to what degree?

At this point, after one video, my gut tells me to work to err on the side of rawness. If a video seems to demand length, perhaps clips can be segmented into a few short movies. The more polished the editing becomes, the more it begins to take on the role of marketing rather than reportage. I want to adopt the values of the internet: democratic, timely, cheap, authentic, unprocessed, transparent, personal, and so on. The internet is not TV.

Please watch Bob Kokonya tell us how solar power transformed his life – and let us know what you think.

Brad Bell, Head of Video, Whitewater

TIP: You can watch the video full screen by clicking the button with 4 arrows in the bottom right corner of the player. There’s also an HD button to switch HD off or on (when you are watching full screen). Also, try clicking the donate button at the end of the movie!