Today was another day of intensity: intense highs and lows with our group. We woke up early and started plowing through the incredible list of preparation we needed to do now we were together.
We spent the morning and well into the afternoon wildly sorting gear, and having group discussions about our itinerary. Then our 4am departure to Kolkata, originally scheduled for tomorrow, was postponed for two days due to strikes there. The sudden and unexpected relief of having extra breathing room in our schedule had a dramatic effect on the thunder clouds of urgent productivity we were brewing. Our moods brightened like a photo negative exposed, and we were laughing and planning what we wanted to do for fun for the evening.
We piled into bright green and yellow rikshaws and went to Lodhi Gardens. The garden was such a welcome change from the rest of Delhi in its green grandeur. The rows of palm trees and wide lawns and fragrant flowers gave us a chance to shoot some photos and rest together: our first site seeing experience here.
From there we headed to a swimming pool where the idea was to be to swim laps. The pool was the size of the Olympic pool in my hometown, only sans lane lines… People swam, obliviously and with furious splashing strokes, along BOTH long and short directions, criss-crossing like weavers trying to weave a frothy shawl. I gave up on lap swimming after getting cracked in the head by a backstroker who was zig-zagging speedily on a diagonal. Like Delhi’s traffic patterns, if there is a way to move in chaos, this city will find it.
Tomorrow the plan is to do a practice run of an interview situation (by interviewing a low-pressure subject such as the wall or a backpack) so we can try efficiently pulling the equipment out of bags and cases, assume roles (interviewer, boom mic holder, light reflector placer, camera person, etc.) and see how it feels to do this together. We’ll also design a shot wishlist, to think about who we want to interview, about what, and where. This project is becoming more real with every detail of shooting that gets brought to light and then filed effectively away.