Today we set out for Tembisa, a very large socio-economically depressed township. Here we are visiting the township center for a meet and greet and to show the first viewing of the Documentaries Trailer to the people of Tembisa and to the kids that are in the film. We did a little shooting of the event but the main shooting is to begin tomorrow.

Stu and Josh set out to explore their neighborhood of Westdene. It’s a small area just outside Jo-burg. The downtown of Westdene is small but equipped with a small grocery store, internet cafe, doctors office, hair solon, wood working shop, and a gas station. Oh and a exotic pet shop with poisonous snakes run by a nice lady named Cindy.

We finally figured out how to get our videos up on the site. We’ve already cut together a few videos and we are uploading them all at once to catch up. Due to some technical restraints and lack of time, we will be uploading videos probably every other day to three days at a time. But here are a few to get you guys semi caught up.

This entry shows our travel time from Chicago to Washington to Senegal to Johannesburg South Africa. In all it was  about a 24 hour journey. We were exhausted by the time we got to Jo-Burg but we were welcomed with warm weather and a good meal. On top of that our lodging turned out to be a pretty large house fully equipped with a sparkling pool.

The one thing that struck us right off was the security systems set up in just about every house and every home is guarded by a wall or iron gate to prevent break-ins. Apparently there are a lot of thieves in this city.

Rest assure we are safe and sound and Stu stays up at night to keep watch while I sleep comfortably in my very large bed. :)

Other than that, my only complaints have been the loud dogs and very very loud birds that wake us up every morning at like 4 am.

Hello everyone! We’ve finally been able to get Internet access! Sorry for the delay. I know we promised constant Vlog updates, but to our surprise there was no Internet where we are staying and all Internet communication must be done at a local Internet cafe that’s from the 80′s I think. Regardless we think we’ve figured out a way to upload our videos here and at least get some content up on the site. We’ve also been struggling with power conversion and adapters and my computer just can’t seem to handle the video compressions as well as it needs to in order to quickly turn around the videos. So for now, here are a few pics to get you guys excited. I can’t promise anything from here on out as things work very slowly in this country. We will do our best to keep you updated!

The above pic is of two boys that live in the township Tembisa. They were attending the Trailer screening event last night and were very interested in the camera so  I taught them how to use it.

I’ll say this right off, this Vlog entry is horrible. Horribly shot, horribly edited, and horribly last minute. Sorry. I promise a kick-ass entry come Africa time.

Popcorn Island’s, Josh Tallo and Stuart Marsh, begin to prepare for their upcoming trip to South Africa to finish Iris Dawn Parker’s “Portraits From South Africa” documentary. Information on the doc and a trailer for the film can be found in the blog under the South Africa Doc Category. Look to the site from March 7th to March 28th for regular Blog updates and videos from Josh and Stu as they bring you their journey as it unfolds. It’s sure to be at the very least educational. Mostly though it will be Josh making fun of Stu.

This first Vlog (Yes VLOG, it’ s a “V” for Video Log)  entry is our preliminary test of video blogging and highlights our trip to the Passport Health Center to receive our immunization shots. Little did we know we would be spending lots of money for someone to stick us with sharp needles 5-6 times!! And if anything, maybe we can shed some light on just what needs to be done to travel a crew to a foreign country safely and efficiently. Prob not efficiently though… enjoy!

Popcorn Island would like to THANK Bitter Jester Creative for their guidance and valuable information in helping us get this far in our preparation process. They too had to take a trip to Africa for a Documentary which they are currently in production on. Info on their Doc can be found at their website. Thank you as well for letting us borrow one of your Flip Cameras to take with us to use for our blog. Much appreciated guys! Only the “Rhicters” could have done a better job!

And our sincere apologies for the length of this entry.. the next videos will be limited to 2 minutes at maximum! :)