The Busking Project is in Jakarta, Indonesia – two months, nine destinations, many hours of footage, and a long way from home. If you look on our website, at the performer profiles from Lisbon, and compare them to the latest videos from Athens and Istanbul, I hope you will agree that we have learned a lot. Many years ago my driving instructor told me that practice does not make perfect – corrective practice makes perfect, and this is as true for filming as it is for three point turns. We review our footage, criticise each other’s work, and suggest improvements – much like a creative writing workshop.
Our latest experience in the small village of Gaskara, four hours from Calcutta, showed that we could operate as a team. A mass of locals followed us through the streets as we filmed three Bahurupia (people dressed as gods and goddesses who walk the streets asking for alms). Nick found his way onto a rooftop to take aerial shots, Belle darted around with the zoom lens: money shot, face shot, feet shot, capturing the details. I was operating the wide angle B-cam – standing back with a tripod, filming the master shot through a haze of Indians, motorbikes, cows, and taxis. A few steady pans to show the general mania.
It’s exhilarating to be in this position – ten times better than being a tourist. This project is a backstage pass to the people and the culture of the places we are visiting. There is an insider intimacy I feel as cameramen, like being a ghost. I’m not an outsider looking in, but I’m not an insider either; in a sense I don’t even exist.