Closer To...Good.

A bit hectic...

It's now Tuesday, and in one week, ready or not...I'll be gone.

I'm feeling more "not" than "ready" about now. But, I did finish the promo video (and the frustrating process reminds me why I am not a full time editor!)

It's posted on the NotFar.org site as well as, well...right here!

 

Things really are going well...but I'll feel better when I get all the camera and tech gear packed. Not long now!

The Real World always wins.

Three weeks from today, I'll be on the plane heading to India. The email I received today reminds me why I'm going there. 

This Good Media School is fairly simple in concept: rather than make videos for our clients, we'll teach them to make their own videos, so they can do much more good than we could for them. But, the devil really is in the details. I sent a simple equipment list to our client. But it seems that renting Macs is a difficult thing to do in Delhi (and without trying it myself, I'm thinking that could very well be true.) But, without Macs, it's going to be hard to do the editing part of our training.

A request has been made to use Windows-based PCs. I am no Mac snob (you''ll have to trust me on that.) For our purposes, we've chosen Macs because we believe they are easier to use to make videos, especially for people who are not planning to be full time video professionals. The doctors and nurses we're training certainly fit that profile.

So, my plan of having one Mac per student group may not be possible. I'll plan to let them use mine whenever possible, but we're still two Macs short. This will put a serious crimp in my lesson plans. Ah well. I've been to India several times before, and have done video projects there twice already. This little issue is reminding me..there's the Plan...and then there's The Real World. The Real World always, always wins.

Like I said, there's a reason we're doing this Pilot. You can bet your life, there will be many more adjustments!

Pilot test is successful

Just got back from our first test of the training. I did two half day seminars, where I covered all the important content from the Good Media School. The two classes consisted of about fifteen people each.

Bottom line, they loved it! They walked out of the classrooms tired but thrilled at what they learned. For me, this is exactly what I needed to do and hear: to actually get up in front of a class and test out the content, and to get the positive feedback.

That was the last content barrier to overcome. Now that I know the scope of what I’ll be teaching, I’m free to continue developing the actual teaching process.

A big thanks to the folks who gave up their Saturday, and I trust the class content will be of good use. All systems go for Delhi!

 

Visa - Woohoo!

My passport just came back in the mail, with my one year business visa attached. What a relief! This was the final obstacle I had to overcome to make sure I could go to India. Now, with passport and visa in hand, I can get back to work on the curriculum and preparation. It also means that I am able to easily go back to India again without a lot of red tape. It’s a great thing to have a one year business visa.

And it really was pretty painless. It was all done through the web and even though there were forms to fill out, the process overall was a good one.

Enough dancing Homer; back to work.