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.

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.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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! :)