Scholastic Project

I know I haven't said too much about this project that I'm working on for Scholastic. I haven't really said anything because it has been a little all over the place and to be honest I wasn't sure if it was really going to be completed. I still don't know how the whole thing is really going to come together.  I'm part of a team of three people that helped write the curriculum for a new ambitious program that Scholastic wants to put in second tier cities throughout China. It seemed like a monstrous program from day one, and it is getting bigger and bigger each day.  Scholastic Asia wants to put a self sufficient, interactive, English teaching program into schools outside of Shanghai. We are working with a company that supplies white boards with similar technologies to a Smart Board. If you are unfamiliar, a board like this allows people to interact with and broadcast video images via touch. They have special markers that you can use to write over pictures and then erase it, as well as play games on the board that involve using your hands to move objects around and into other objects. The board is about the size of a normal classroom whiteboard. That part of the program is still in the works. So, along with helping with ideas for this project I have also been chosen as the actor on the program, leading the activities and modeling words and such for the kids. I wish I had some video to put up here so you could get an idea of what I'm talking about, because it is so much more than me speaking into a camera. The post production of the project is going to be huge. Everything is done in front of the green screen. So many editors are going to be so tired of looking at my face! This past week we shot ten hours a day, five days a week. I don't know if you know what kind of hours those are to be in makeup in an a studio with no ventilation and high powered lights streaming in on you, but it hurts by the end of the day. Literally. We are still not done either.  Unfortunately, as things seem to go in China, the production company that we are working with is not the most professional. There have been a lot of bumps along the way, and filming for this next week has been postponed. We need to look at videos, make sure we like what we see and then take it from there. Deadlines have to be rescheduled as well. With all that said, I am having a great time doing this. It is such a cool and unique situation to be in. I'm back acting which I really missed, and since there is not one TRUE director of this project I have a ton of creative control over the project. My ideas are heard and I get to influence the final product. I'm going to try to get my hands on some footage this week, which might be a little difficult. If your interested, leave a comment with your email address and I'll try to send out a mass email with some footage. 

P.S. It hit 100 degrees today. 

P.P.S. Check out this blog. My friend Kate is teaching in India and it looks amazing!

http://mookambigaienclave.blogspot.com/