We have wound up the the shooting part of the Shared Footage Group in Gujarat and are now looking for a lot of help to speed up the process of transfers,logging and transcriptions.

A brief reminder... the footage will be made available,free, to all those who may put it to some good use. Some of it is shot keeping in mind certain stories, illustrative of important aspects of the violence and carnage. Some of it is more general. A few of the specific stories will be ready to be edited, begining mid-March. Before that we need help....mostly in Delhi and in Mumbai.

The material is close to 250 hours, shot between May 2002 to February 2003,mostly on DV and Hi-8. Much of it still needs to be transferred to VHS...from that we burn the cds(with time code). Once all of it is logged (with keywords and linkages)...it will be ready to be distributed to all those wanting to make something of it.

The process is underway, at Goregaon East, Mumbai and will continue for a while. Hassath will soon be moving to Delhi(as soon as it can be arranged)....that will be base number two for SFG and the work will be distributed. What we need in Delhi is as follows:

-- Place for SFG to operate from, where volunteers can come and pitch in(and where Hassath can also stay with her daughter)....if it is to be rented, we would look for something around 2000-3000 rupees per month (and the work is likely to go on till June). If we can get one with a phone, nothing like it.

-- Computer, or acess to a computer, on which the logging can be entered.

-- Cupboard/Shelves for storing tapes etc.

-- VCR

(In Mumbai we require a TV Monitor and VCR.)

HELP IS SOLICITED IN BOTH CITIES FOR:

1. Transfers (from Mini DV to VHS and Hi-8 to VHS)
2. Conversion (Mini DV... NTSC to Pal...roughly 30 hours)
3. Burning of CDs from the VHS copies
4. Logging of tapes (you could do this after you get a brief from Hassath in Delhi or Neeraj in Bombay)
5. Transcriptions (this could be done from VHS or CD or audio tape)..for this you could be anywhere, not necessarily Delhi or Mumbai.

As you would realise, the task is quite huge and we are lagging behind (ideally many films should already have been coming out of this material by now)....so all kinds of help is welcome. Needless to say, we would still require more resources. As mentioned earlier, we are not depending on any institutional funding. Tapes, cds and studio time/editing setups/transfer facilities would be most welcome.

Warm Regards
Gurpal