Cameras and Curry

Rajasthan

2006-08-14T20:49:00.000+05:30

DSC02286.JPG, originally uploaded by staticrooster.

Camels!

2006-07-21T21:59:00.000+05:30

Mumbai Mumbai Mumbai

Churchgate station. Mumbai local trains, peak hours.

Munnar

2006-07-14T20:56:00.000+05:30

Photos from our recent trip to beautiful Munnar, Kerala.

A typical goods carrier

2006-07-14T20:54:00.000+05:30

100, originally uploaded by staticrooster.

Taken on the road from Trichy to Pondi

My neighborhood

2006-07-14T20:53:00.000+05:30

110, originally uploaded by staticrooster.

vaithikuppam, Pappamal Koil st

Photos From Dharwad and Pune

2006-07-01T15:47:00.000+05:30

Here are photos from our most recent village trip to showcase, reseach, and promote PlanetRead. Results coming soon.

2006-07-01T15:17:00.000+05:30

A view of the street in Bangalore, near the bus stall and train station.

More streets in bangalore. Beep beep.

Pune at night.

Hot Chips. Here, a flickering sign advertises sweet and spicy bananna and potato chips. Rotate head counter-clockwise to view.
Sorry this last one isn't rotated. Google video won't play nice.

2006-06-16T19:28:00.000+05:30

Expedition No. 1

On Monday, Nikhil, Kate, Pappu, and I leave for our first trip to rural villages outside of Tamil Nadu. We go by plane, bus, train, and automobile to shop around same language subtitling and hear what people have to say about it. The itinerary, in red, is as follows: Pondicherry to Bangalore, Bangalore to Dharwad villages, Dharwad to Pune villages, then back to Pondi. Needless to say, the batteries are charging.

Field Production

2006-06-13T21:51:00.000+05:30

Click the above photo for some pictures of our first trips to a Village and a school for the hearing impared. We're trying to discover what unique application Same Language subitles might have for the deaf and hearing impaired. Heat and language are the biggest challanges, but thankfully one is solved by people, and the other by Fanta.

Stills: South India

2006-06-11T16:36:00.000+05:30

Click the above photo for some general shots from my experience so far. What a place this is. What people! These pictures don't do it any justice, but they're a start.

2006-06-08T20:32:00.000+05:30

Motorcycle Video:

The streets of Pondicherry at night taken from the back of a motorcycle.

Rue Saint Louis, by cycle.

Parking Lot

Props

2006-06-08T20:03:00.000+05:30

Just overhauled blogger's template. Thanks a million to the tasteful and talented Luke Harris for giving me the html and css for his Spellcheck Generation podcast page. I highly recommend you subscribe. Thanks also to Kate Tsunoda, a fellow PlanetReader, for taking the header photo of me with the little bright girl.

Anyway, hope you dig the posts and let me know if there's anything you want me to check out while I'm here.

2006-06-06T19:08:00.000+05:30

I cannot begin to describe the radical sensory differences between India and the United States using words. Hopefully the photographs and videos I post will provide some glimpse as to what existence is like here. Here are a few short videos to introduce.

This is a market in which vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat are sold. Big bunches of coriander, huge wheels of tamarind, and mounds of curries are sold in booths flanking a long alleyway.

The next is a man preparing typical South Indian coffee at a roadside stand. The coffee is incredible, like every other food and beverage. Delicious coconut cookies can be purchased for 1 Rupee, which is about two cents.

As Pondicherry sits on the water, the road along the beach is a popular gathering spot.

The Sunday market is a sight to behold. Shopkeepers set up on Mahatma Gandhi Road, peddling everything from stainless steel pots, to ancient coins. You can find any movie you want in the many heaps of pirated dvds for about 60 cents each. Booksellers offer pirated titles such as "Winning" by Jack Welch, "The New New Thing," "Built to Last," "The World is Flat," and a bevy of other business and engineering titles. I bought two new Harvard Business Review books for a dollar each. Below is one of the more industrial displays: rusty metal tools and computer circuitry.

2006-06-06T19:06:00.000+05:30

My contact information is as follows:

Mail:
Scott Norton
c/o PlanetRead
No. 3 Saint Louis St.
Pondicherry, 605001
Tamil Nadu, India

Phone:
India Mobile: +91 999 4655 806
Skype: SWHNorton

Email:
Scott@PlanetRead.org

Where I am.

2006-06-06T18:58:00.000+05:30

I'm currently in Pondicherry, India. A city colonized by the French that sits on the Bay of Bengal in the state of Tamil Nadu. The photo below is the view from the deck outside my editing room.

IMG_0303.JPG, originally uploaded by staticrooster.

I am working with an organization called PlanetRead. Dedicated to improving literacy worldwide, PlanetRead produced same language subtitling for Bollywood songs broadcast on Indian national television. My task here is fourfold. I am to:

1. Visit villages all over india and conduct field research regarding how our subtitled programs are watched, how they are received, how they can be made better, and in what ways do they impact the lives of villagers who may have no other means to literacy. This includes documenting and analyzing the classical education system in rural areas regarding attendance and effectiveness. Essentially, my fieldwork asks from where does the literacy problem stem, how is PlanetRead ameliorating it, and how can we more effectivly do so.

2. Produce a documentary on PlanetRead's impact to date through same language subtitling across india. It will both document reactions, exitement, and usage by villagers, but will also capture the reactions of government officials, broadcast executives, information technology luminaries, and Bollywood stars.

3. Create four televison show pilots as a way to broadcast animated stores, created by BookBox, a subsidiary (of sorts), that also include same language subtitling. The four pilots will each be in a different language, and will showcase exitements of village life to go along with literacy promoting content. This footage will be gathered alongside the field research and focus on an entertaining and localized frame for educational content.

4. Enable PlanetRead to continue the above tasks after I depart. This includes familiarizing two long term employees, Nikhil and Pappu with inside out knowledge of production. This includes everything from camera operation, translational audio techniques, visual storytelling, and editing with Final Cut Pro. The last of these is quite inticing, as the Mac I have brought from the west is a rare and unique peice of technology.