Ever wondered how the real ‘makoya’ hip hop dancers shook their tale feather? Well wonder no-more..I decided to take it back to the streets where I am managed to spot our very own local talent that was kind enough to teach us how ‘to roll with the big dawgs’…CHECK THIS OUT…AND IT GOES A LIL SUMDANG LIKE THIS….
Archive for the ‘Asides’ Category
How to impress your girlfriend
On May - 12 - 2009
Need to know how to get back into the lovers good books or even just what women want from their men? Watch this instructive video for an easy step by step guide on how to get yourself out of trouble and capture your girlfriends heart.
Outcome based education- “fuzzy” outcomes?
On April - 2 - 2009
If you were in high school less than four years ago I am sure you still remember the feeling of being a learner. Sitting behind the desk and regurgitating what the teacher is feeding you. But things have changed now, the matriculants of 2008 wrote their first examination under the Outcome Based Education system (OBE). The system encourages them to apply what their have learnt in the class room in real life situations and think critically. Despite the change in the education system I still felt like I could relate to the learners on a very personal level. I also went to a high school in a previously disadvantaged community like T.E.M Mrwetyana Senior Secondary School-Grahamstown. The teacher we interviewed mentioned that one of the reasons why they could not successfully implement the OBE curricular is because they school does not have enough resources
Listen to the podcast to hear more about what the OBE teacher had to say about the system:[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/teachermp3.mp3[/podcast]
How we followed the story: – “If it bleeds, it leads”
After brainstorming all possible angles we were going to follow to put together the story. We just noted down possible sources, location for filming and the research. One of the sources we were going to use is Prof. Chrissie Boughey; she is the Rhodes University Dean of learning and teaching. Prof Boughey was quoted in an article published in the previous edition of the Financial Mail. We could not meet with her for an interview so we were going to use her picture as a graphic cutaway in our package and also use her quote. We could not do that because we had to make the package as short as possible. Check out the full article about OBE:
“The Benchmark Tests assess students against a set of ‘benchmark competencies’ — skills experienced academics have identified as necessary if students are to be able to engage with first-year work”.
-Prof Boughey
Its not only teachers from previously disadvantaged communities who are having problems with the OBE system. One of our interviwees Viwe Dweba from East London also expressed some of the difficulties her matric educators come across. This shows that successful implementation of the system does not only depend on the resources of the school, educators also play an emportant role.
The Story behind the Story: The Death of SASCO?
On March - 31 - 2009
This story focuses on the creation of COPE and its impact on the South African Students Congress at Rhodes University. COPE formed in December 2008, which was, for all intensive purposes, a break-away party from the ANC, caused a lot of unrest within the ruling party but also within Unions and societies which were historically aligned with the ANC.
One of these unions was the South African Students Union (SASCO). SASCO now had a decision to make, they could either support their members who had defected to the new party COPE, or they could root them out and maintain their alliance to ANC ideology.
To “preserve” their organisation and prevent a split within SASCO, rather than have their organisation split by COPE like the ANC had been, they took the decision, says Xanti Njozela (President of Rhodes SASCO) not to tolerate people who openly supported and campaigned for COPE.
This took place after SASCO’s National Secretary –General Magasela Mzobe (see related links) called for the rejection of COPE on University campuses. Whether or not he was talking about active rejection or not, his words sparked violence amongst SASCO members on many campuses in South Africa where SASCO members and COPE supporters clashes at rallies and other political events, like Butterworth University.
Shortly after it became known to us that there was a pending investigation against COPE supporters within SASCO at Rhodes, we thought that it was worth investigating. It was then revealed that there were almost 50* COPE members within SASCO. While the SASCO president tried to tell us that they were not unwelcome in SASCO he eventually admitted that people who were doing COPE work would in fact not be tolerated and would be subject to disciplinary hearing and possible suspension.
At the same time, COPE at Rhodes is trying to set up their Youth League. However, after missing the SRC deadline for registration of societies, many of their members joined SASCO out of old allegiances and lack of their own society. But they say that once the COPE Youth League is formed on campus there will be a mass extradition from SASCO to the COPE Youth League which would eventually spell the “death” of SASCO according to COPE sources.
*according to COPE representative on Rhodes campus, Loyiso Phantshwa at kazinoekstra kazino igri rotativki plodove.
Related Articles:
Sasco’s no to Party
Cope supporter shot during riot
IFP Calls on Unisa Students to Reject Sasco Strike
Pirates Pizza gets stuck in…to the community!
On March - 30 - 2009
The Pirate Ducky
You may have watched the vlog on Pirates Pizza’s effort to create employment. Although this was an exciting and interesting piece of soft news, the package was harder than first thought.
Getting the story
Pirates Pizza is a student-owned business which opened in late 2007. There have been rumours of its expansion/move for a while but the owners don’t want to confirm the rumours or speak about the new launch.
But RUTV reporter Grethe Koen knows the owners and was able to persuade them to allow RUTV to shoot the story as a human interest piece.
Narrowing down the Angle
After we got the story, the next issue was tightening up the focus behind the story. We wanted to include more on the credit crunch, unemployment and the informal sector. We even got some great shots of a vendor on the main street. But, because of the limited time of the package we weren’t able to include the information.
Surprising content
After clearing up our idea for the story we then went on to shoot the interviews. Grethe and I were both surprised by the content and information that came from the interviews.
One of the things that struck me is the amount of community engagement the business is planning to get involved in. As a semi-new student business, you don’t expect Pirates Pizza to be worried about developing the community. But according to the General Manager, Jonathan Inngs, Pirates Pizza is going to introduce a number of plans and programs to help feed, clothe and employ people from the township.
Inngs says Pirates wants to create a business mandate which focuses on giving to the community because they feel as a business “that its vital that we get involved” .
For those of you who are interested in how Pirates Pizza plans to get involved in the community listen to the audio clip, featuring General Manager Jonathan Inngs, as he talks about their future projects. [podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/audio-clip-for-pirates-pizza.mp3[/podcast]
We are suffering from technical difficulties
On the technical side, this story turned out to be a nightmare. Between the black walls in the Pirates building which caused serious lighting issues, to reshooting sign offs and faulty equipment nothing went as planned.
The one lesson that came from this package is that you can never have enough shots. As a cameraperson, you always have to make sure that you have a variety of shots as well as enough action shots to fill the story. And even when you think you have enough, shoot some more!
For instance, in the Pirates Pizza story one problem was that our shots didn’t match our light content. Producer Paddy Donnelly even critisized the visuals as “unexciting and dull”.
But it wasn’t because we didn’t have interesting shots; instead we made the mistake of ‘not writing to visuals’. We should have instead included shots like this action shot which would have given the story more of a feel good effect.
Inspite of all the challenges and things we wish we had done better, we are still proud of our FIRST NEWS STORY. It was a fantastic learning experience on how to produce news and we made great contacts for news and pizza!