The premise is simple – if you are going to learn / master something, you must push yourself into making it a daily habit. If you call yourself a writer, write every day. If you’re a painter, paint every day. And if you are a filmmaker, shoot every day.

Here’s an excerpt from the post:
I want you to pick one longish-term goal and commit to it right now. Make a conscious decision to actively pursue what used to be an “I want…” or “I should…” like improving your writing, speaking a new language or finally learning CSS (you know who you are).

You’re going to accomplish this goal by limiting the time you spend on it to no more than 30 minutes a day. You’re going to learn more by working with your long-term memory rather than against it. If you can’t carve out a half hour each day, cut it to 15 minutes. Find a time span that makes it insanely hard for you to not do it every day. Keep doing it and over time, you’ll be surprised at how much you’re able to accomplish.

In response to this post, I’ve decided to make a conscious decision to shoot every day, right within my own home. My aim is to become technically proficient in the art of shooting HDSLR video. My experiments will be posted online.

I home school daughter and what my kids have taught me is that creativity is in the process, not the product. For them, its not important what the final painting or other work looks like, rather its the joy of experimenting with new stuff and having fun along the way. Taking a leaf from their book, 30 Minutes is not a product oriented exercise, rather its “process-driven”. The individual films each day matter less, compared to the process of shooting, having fun and the long-term aim of achieving proficiency in cinematography.

I’m reminded of a quote by Ira Glass:
"If you are just starting out, you gotta know that the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline. It only by going through a volume of work that you will close the gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions."

Here is my first creation:

For daily updates, see my Vimeo stream: http://www.vimeo.com/gasperd

Trailer of the interview with Rico Rod, well-known star of yesteryears on Goa’s tiatr stage.

This interview is produced for the Tiatr Academy of Goa and is part of a series of interviews with famous tiatrists of yesteryears on the Goan stage.

We are all in search of the meaning of life…

Shot on the Canon 7d with 105mm 2.8 Sigma and indiSlider

Music: In the Beginning performed by Beautiful World

A film by Alexander Henn (Arizona State University/Heidelberg University), in colaboration with Alito Siqueira (Goa University). Camera and editing by S Gasper D’Souza.

An introduction to the Jagor in Goa. Jagor, meaning to be awake, are all-night ritual performances in various villages in Goa, once a year.

One person chooses to end his life every 5 minutes in India. That person could be anyone. Even you.

Shot on the Canon 7D

Siblings and their interactions…

A 1 minute short, shot as a single sequence. Shot with the Canon 7D, my first foray into DSLR filmmaking tools.

On a warm and sunny Saturday evening, 200 odd little kids, 3 to 5 years old, parents in tow, assembled at the St Marys pre-primary school in Mapusa, Goa. As one parent put it, they were not used to being there in the afternoon. It was an unusual event for the little ones, one for which they’d been practising for weeks. The excitment was running high by the time the curtains went up for the pre-primary annual day event.

As the little ones trouped on stage for each of their performances, there was not a moment without excitement. The teachers and older students ensured continuous performances, as each troupe took a bow and walked off stage, the next ensemble was ready to get into the limelight.

The talent, the colours and the innocence were certainly not lost on the receptive audience. As the chief guest put it, parents need be proud of the alma mater, the school that encourages not just literacy but allround citizens. If this is a taste of future education at St Marys, the future is bright indeed!

The traditional Poubha art still breathes at a small double-storied old house amidst the crowded streets of Patan Doka. And Lok Chitrakar’s hands are those that keep the dying art alive.

The Poubha paintings date back to the 4 th century but were faced with a threat during the 17 th century towards the end of Malla’s era with the drying up patronage and consequent weakening of community structures in the valleys.

Meanwhile, the art form was carried to Tibet. It was there the Thangka took birth from the Poubha style.

The Thangka has gained immense popularity worldwide with its linkage to Buddhism but today’s generation mostly unaware of Poubha paintings, said Lok Chitrakar.

The Poubha genre developed as a unique heritage of the Newars and is a visual interpretation of the Buddhist and Hindu philosophies as practiced in the Vajrayan tradition.

As per the ritual for painting, the artist must seclude himself from the materialistic world and must be pious and holy. The Poubha is created on a cotton cloth across a wooden frame. Water based colors grounded by hand from stones from the Himalayas, sable-hair brushes; gold and silver dusts are some of the tools used in the paintings.

Text by: Kuenzang Choden, (Journalist: Buthan) | Made for the Panos South Asia Multimedia Local Content Development Training Workshop 2008, Kathmandu. View the full multimedia presentation
To learn more: Panos Multimedia

Artists Milan Khanolkar and Priya Kamat spent 6 days working on the walls of a day-care center at the Goa University. The duo worked their way up, from ground to the ceiling, bringing the blank concrete to life with colour and facinating characters. This, they tell me, was a labour of love.

The friends work together on murals, pottery and various art forms. “We get along well together as friends and that shows in our joint work.”

Find out how this two women worked together to transform the walls of this center, ready to excite and inspire the little ones who’s little feet will patter about in its halls.

Music by panu moon (http://ccmixter.org/people/panumoon). And, for background info on this post, visit my blog: http://dabblinginmultimedia.blogspot.com

On a bright September day, a group of students and university professors from Nara, Japan got together with a group of students from Goa University, Goa, India for a one day cross-cultural interaction. And a fine day it was!

Featuring interviews of professor Kyoko Matsukawa of Nara University, Japan and professor Alito Siqueira of Goa University, India.

For more information on the Goa-Nara project, visit the GoCreat website

And to read more about the making of this production, check out my blog: Dabbling in Multimedia