Hey everyone! Well we are heading home today and get back into Chicago around 9am on Monday morning. Unfortunately, we havn’t had the time or energy to post the last few days worth of Vlogs. We had enough content to make probably 5 more Vlogs but just ran out of gas. WE were shooting all the way up to our last day here and we are just plain exhausted.
Thanks to all our viewers out there who sent their comments our way. It was fun to know that people were actually watching them. Maybe when we get back we’ll edit the last few and throw them up for the heck of it. But, in the meantime I want to make sure that we say “hi” to a few people that were going to get a hello in the next few VLogs to make up for forgetting them earlier. SO a big HELLO TO ERICA GERBASI!!! and VLADY OZSKIEL! and A HUGE HELLO AND THANK YOU to MICHELLE HENNIGES!!!!! SWEETUMS!!!! You are the reason I am here so you deserve the biggest thanks there is!!!!
In all the experience of South Africa has been amazing, unforgettable, and eye openning. We only scratched the surface of what it has to offer. 3 weeks just isn’t enouhg time. So I guess we’ll just have to come back!
See you all soon!

This Blog lacks a lot of things… but what it has is a cool hail storm and Stu talking to strangers. So…I think that makes up for it. Basically Stu is lacking on the “Flip” coverage and I’ve had to step in and get us back up to speed.

We ventured out to Melville after I decided our friday night in South Africa shouldn’t be spent at the house writing scripts for animated shorts. It proved to be a good idea as we met the town’s mafia boss named Bruce. He was nice enough to wave us into his bar but then proceeded to hound us for being “American Pussies” for not wanting to get high and do coke with him. He was also drinking straight Whiskey back to back and getting way to close to us when he talked.

The only real valuable information we got out of his delirium was that he owned like all the restraints on the main street in Melville and he’s a giant douche bag! Oh and he said that they were more free in South Africa than we ever could be in America. This was because he can just pay the police off and do whatever he wants. Oh and a direct quote from him was this.. ” for instance I could have you killed if I wanted to. (Stumble stumble almost spilling his drink) …I never would, but that’s my point.”  I simply shook my head and didn’t say anything.

So we learned that South African can be a very liberal place if you own a lot of crap and have a lot of money. Not sure how different that is from America, but you can have people killed very easily. Prob for less than 1000 Rand. BUT… I found his philosophies very skewed, seeing as it’s such a great place, so much better than America, yet, there are thousands and thousands of people living is shacks and struggling everyday to survive. Little children are running around on red rocky dirt with no shoes on and he’s living the good life getting drunk and bragging to a couple of Americans how great his life is. My guess is, he’s never stepped foot in Tembisa. And if he has, he’s all the more terrible of a person for the way he is.  So here is to you Mr. Bruce from the “Loft”. Go *%$K yourself please!

The Black Cat is back! And this time he wants in!  I told Stu not to let the cat in. I told him the cat wanted to eat our souls. But Stu didn’t listen and now you get to see fear itself manifest in the person who is responsible.  This Vlog is just a little pay back for Stu’s actions. The moral of the story is this: Do Not Feed Stray Black Cats Sandwiches and invite them into your home. Or else this will happen to you….

This blog entry is a little longer than the others, but we’ve been slacking a bit and needed to get a bunch of content in to get everyone caught up.

Over the last few days we’ve been steadily moving forward on catching up with all 10 kids. It’s a little unclear if we will actually catch up with all of them due to schedules and time constraints on our end. However our heros have been filmed and the focus of the film is shifting into gathering more political and educational interviews with local teachers and educational leaders.

We’ve also been finding that some of the kids stories are really starting to get very interesting. Due to the restrictions and confidentiality of the film I can’t share too much. But their stories are developing and are bringing a level of seriousness to the film that we all weren’t expecting.

We also took the time in this particular entry to say hello to some of our friends and family back home.  To top it off  Stu made a special new friend by the name of “Admiral Fussyboots!”

We got stuck in a heap of traffic on our way into to Tembisa. Apparently another Taxi Van accident. One thing we’ve learned here is that while the van taxi’s ( Matatu’s ) only cost 6.5 Rand and they will take you anywhere you want, they are also the most dangerous forms of transportation here. We’ve already heard of multiple accidents involving Matatu’s and fatalities. Needless to say, we will not be taking one of those anywhere.

After the traffic cleared we headed in to town to shoot another interview. On the way we encountered a musical street festival happening along our route. So we did what any documentary crew would have done. We got out and started shooting it. It was a combination of luck and a beautiful sunset that were both in our favor for getting some great content. I ran right up into the mix and started shooting as if I was apart of the dancing. It was a lot of fun and intense! Stu managed the flip and got some cute kids getting their pictures taken by Pucks.

We also saw some goats eating some trash. This is one of the ways the trash disappears. Not by fancy Trash truck, not by people hauling it away, sometimes by fire, but also by GOATS! Insane, sad, and fascinating all at the same time.

After the festival cleared we kept moving and caught up with Tumelo, another one of our subjects and shot an interview with him in his very small living space. There was enough room for a bed, a TV, and a small closet for his clothes. That was his house. Smaller than any studio apartment back home in chicago. No kitchen, no bathroom (that was outside), no living room, no garage, no rumpus room. It was a bedroom. Plain and simple. I managed to light this interview with a 500w tota light with a chimera, and a battery powered camera light sitting on his TV off screen for an edge. When I asked him about his space he didn’t seem upset by it all. His space was nicer and cleaner than most we’ve seen so far.

Stu and Josh headed out to explore Johannesburg on their first day off. The destination of choice was the Market Theater. The Market Theater is host to various vendors from craft making to produce to used books. Stu needed a few new things and we thought the Market Theater would offer him the best possible options at the best prices. Stu stopped at the very first table of clothing and purchased a new shirt immediately. That’s right, no wheeling and dealing, he just bought the first shirt he liked.

It was at this point that Josh broke out the camera and began to chronicle Stu’s shopping techniques and turn it into a “Travel Channel” worthy episode. If anything, we will learn how “NOT” to shop at local markets. I call this episode, “Stupping”. That’s “Shopping and Stu” combined!

Enjoy!

Over the last few days Stu and I learned a little more about Tembisa. Apparently the township is broken up into sections. The area where the arts center is located is called Oakmoor, Extension 7. That is where we first began shooting. These last few days we’ve been spending time with Portia, who lives in Ivory Park. Ivory Park was little more rough around the edges and night life definitely seemed to be more intense. Our days have been ending early so we haven’t been able to actually experience shooting at night. Hopefully we will get to do that before we leave.

In all I have to say we are having an incredible time so far and the content we have filmed so far is pretty amazing. I personally am having a blast shooting and I know Stu is enjoying carrying all my stuff for me.

This afternoon we actually had to leave the township early due to a bad storm that was heading in fast and kicking up a load of dirt. I stayed as long as I could to shoot the incoming storm before the dust became too much to deal with. Right now we are back in Jo-burg watching the thunderstorm roll through. Apparently when it does storm here it’s pretty intense. The lightening has been pretty neat. So I’m gonna go make Stu stand on the roof with a metal rod to reign some in for some epic 5D footage.

We had a few power conversion issues since getting here. Now I knew we would need to convert the power here from 220v to 110v in order to use our electronics, but, it seems as though if you are not careful you can buy converters to adapt the crazy 3 prong African Plug, to a 2 or 3 Prong American plug, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have converted the power from 220 to 110. Most electronics actually can handle the 220v current and are set up to do so as long as you have the adapter to plug it in. HOWEVER,  and this is a big however, you can not plug it in if it can’t handle the 220v. That will result in explosions. Hence, the misunderstanding between Iris and myself regarding the correct adapters.

We apparently did not have the step down converters and I plugged in an Arri 300    watt light in the 220v circuit resulting in a burnt bulb. Then, to test that this was in fact the case I tested it on our Tota light because we knew that at the very least we could buy new bulbs for that light at the hardware store in town. My prediction was correct and that bulb exploded instantly. So… after feeling like a complete moron and royally confused, I realized we were using the wrong items to power anything needing a 110v current. Blah! So we have yet to find a converter suitable to do the job and have since purchased a new 240v bulb for the Tota light. It remains to be our only useable light at this point. :(

Today marks the first actually day of shooting. We visited with Moses, one of the 10 kids from the workshop in 1998. Today we definitley got a more intimate view of Tembisa and what life in the township is really like. We were greeted with wide eyes by the township children who were very interested in the cameras. They all wanted their pictures taken and would basically stare at you until you took their picture.

Tembisa as a whole is mostly a shanty town. Most of the homes are made from scrap metal and various materials sort of thrown together to create shelter. Some nicer brick houses were being built in areas but for the most part things seemed to be in disrepair. There was a large sense of community and we were warmly greeted by a majority of the people everywhere we went.