Professor Fleming

And I don't mean my father, my sister, my brother or any of those other Fleming scholars....

I don't think it is hyperbole for me to say that the last week, spent in Jacmel teaching young Haitians the basics of sound recording, and the potential uses of sound in filmmaking, is perhaps the most fulfilling time I've spent all year. The class was eager to learn and even more eager to get out in the streets and get some videotape moving through the cameras, and the five day stretch of eight-hour seminars flashed by in what now seems like no time at all.

Day one in sound studies at Sine Lekol Jakmel: the class, stunned into silence and rapt attention by the red-faced, corpulent bundle of perspiration who was gesticulating wildly in front of them.

To get some in-the-room practical experience I made the students take turns booming me while listening to the results. Quite a shift from the usual day at the office, which I spend trying to be really quiet, while wandering around holding a stick over other people's heads.

I know, now I look like a cinematographer. I could get kicked out of the sound union for doing that whole "frame" thing with my fingers.

Ebby listens carefully.

Looking at these photos, I get the impression that I must be one of those people who really like to hear themselves talk.

It's a wrap! Heading back to the school HQ, after shooting a scene at the Florita Bar. The oceanside blocks of Jacmel are full of the glorious colonnaded double-height warehouses you see lining this street.

Group One.

and Group Two. The other "blanc" in these pictures is Andrew Bigosinski, who helped immeasurably to make the week a pleasant, smooth and fruitful experience. He will be teaching editing in a subsequent installment of this intensive course.

Au Revoir. Here I'm explaining our project and making farewell remarks to the entire student body, their friends, and families, at our celebratory screening of the week's work, on Friday night. I hope I'll be invited back soon!

The films my two groups of students made will soon be available for online viewing, and I'll post a link then.

Photo credits: most by Silvio Dieudonné, except for the one of the posse walking through the streets of Jacmel, which is by Olivier (Silvio is in that picture, in the bright blue shirt, third from the left).