Three posters created to encapsulate the theme of the film.
Being white and from the UK there were times I felt very uncomfortable shooting this film - I plagued myself with the term 'white saviour' a lot. But the thing I’m most proud of about this project is that It’s all about Kenyans helping other Kenyans. In 2018 a small group of us went to Nairobi to film a little documentary about a charity that helps return street children to their families. I'm quite sceptical of charities in general but witnessing their work I could tell they really believed in what they were doing. They find out the reason the children are on the street and focusing on that issue so they can tackle the root cause. This isn't the 'official' version of the film but I wanted to challenge myself to an edit.
It was a big project that included camera operating; figuring out a narrative that made sense; making a custom font out of the letters I photographed in Nairobi; editing and colouring the film where three different cameras and w/b were used; and writing+recording the music. Hope it does the charity justice.
The final documentary available to watch here.
A screenshot of the premier pro timeline of this film.
A custom font created from real letter forms I photographed whilst in Kenya for this project.
Having all the visuals in place I has to write and record some audio what I felt would work well.
From the filler drums in between scenes to the background music and credit song, it all had to
be made from scratch. They could have been better but I'm happy with the final result.
Here is a screenshot of one logic project that resulted in all ten tracks used in the film - excluding the credit song.
After making the typeface I decided to hand cut some stamps to experiment with, wondering if they
would bring a more intimacy and rawness to the film. I started with the title 'Tumaini' and then created
more using shots from the film, often ironic in places, to play around with. The stamped version of
'Tumaini' is the one used in the film.
Colouring the film in DaVinci, mostly correcting and matching the different cameras - was a pretty big challenge with some shots.
Some maps I created that show the routes we had taken while shooting. I enjoyed making them and love
their texture but they became less relevant as I began to edit the documentary so I left them out of the film.
Photography by Abii Birkett & Jess Wilmot
