Enhancing Nigeria’s Response to HIV and Aids (ENR) is a new Pan-Nigerian, DFID-funded project which will focus on lowering the prevalence of HIV in the country.
An aspect of this, which the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) is a part of, is to help capacity building at national and state TV stations. This involves creating a TV training team which will then go out and provide training at local stations, including training on HIV reporting and co-producing with the station for several weeks.
Ambika Samarthya, an international trainer based in Abuja reports on the first stages of the three year project.
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I first saw Devaan on her reel which I watched at my desk in the WST Abuja offices. She is a very articulate presenter at the Nigerian Television Authority, but her show lacked production quality, creativity, and preparation.
As an international trainer on the ENR project, my task is quite a big one. My main goal is to build a training team that will go on to train and co-produce with stations around Nigeria. First I have to take current TV employees like Deevan, and ‘unteach’ them everything they think they know and inspire them to adopt new methods of conceptualization and production techniques
When I met Deevan, she told me she had never worked with a camera or used a Mac and had edited only on a PC using Adobe. I asked her about her script writing skills and she laughed – “I take notes and present from them but there’s no script.”
My challenge was to take this beautiful, stylish lady and turn her into a rugged cameraman, editor, and scriptwriter.
Over the course of four weeks we worked together on camera exercises, transferring editing skills for the Mac using Final Cut Pro, as well as reiterating the merits of shot breakdowns, storyboarding, and scripts. Initially, she was so tired after shooting hand-held with the camera for just 10 minutes that she would pass out when she got home. But within a few weeks it was exciting when she was asking to shoot our workshops and sessions on her own.
Devaan during her camera training in Abuja
I drilled into her the importance of preparation, and especially being able to complete a project so the end has a pay-off. For someone who had never even written a shot list before, she threw herself into the experience. After a month she completed a video of the training team (using the concept of Mission Impossible!) that had layers of audio, video and graphics – and a pay-off.
But the real hard work was yet to come. The ENR project is a pan-Nigerian initiative, focusing on capacity building initially in four states: Cross River in the south, Kaduna towards the north, Nasarawa in the centre and Benue in the south east. The true test was when we arrived at the local TV stations to start implementation. Our first state session visit was to Calabar, the capital of Cross River.
Devaan looked at the editing station and large studio and assessed that the editing facilities at the station were weak and that the stations needed smaller and more versatile cameras which would be better in the field. She was able to fully assess their needs.
When we reconvened as a team, I encouraged her to create a 30 minute show without using any editing so that stations like the one we visited could use it as a template. She immediately began planning shots and focusing on camera rehearsals!
While Devaan’s old station was well-resourced and technically sound, she has now learned about concepts and techniques that have taken her to a whole new level. The exciting part will be watching her take the partner TV stations with her.
