Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
IF AN actor cannot go on location for a movie, then the location has to come to them.
In the normal course of things, a movie production team goes to a predetermined spot, moving people and equipment to the perfect setting for the scenes that they are about to commit to posterity. However, for the short film that was shown at the South Camp Road Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday afternoon, the locations had to come to the production team.
Transformation and Rehabilitation to Life was the closing presentation and highlight of the 2005 Students Expressing Truth (SET) Expo at the Rehabilitation Centre. The theme of the expo, 'An Information Technology Approach To Rehabilitation', was carried through from the opening demonstration of using Print Shop by the inmates through to the closing demonstration of Adobe Premiere, which was used to do the short film.
High rise office buildings, street-side domino games and landscaped vegetation, all pictures given to the inmates and manipulated in Adobe Premiere, formed the backdrop for the re-entry of the main character, 'Dollarman', into society from prison.
The music was as current as the topic and many voices sang along as Ini Kamoze chanted the refrain that opens Junior Gong's 'Jamrock'.
With teams of inmates showing their capabilities with various software, one person narrating while the other used the computer and the members of the audience following on big screen, music was also a part of the afternoon with a demonstration of Pro Tracks Plus. Starting with a basic drum track and showing how a reggae beat can be changed to calypso with a simple shift in one part, the team of inmates then presented a finished version of Jah A Go Come One Day.
It was not all music and film, though, as team members demonstrated Print Shop, Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, with an inmate commenting that the last was used by The Gleaner and The Star. The members of the audience sat through a mock-up of a business inventory, as well as the magic of a picture from a presentation inside the prison being merged with a picture from the 'First Sunday's Unchained' concert series, which supports the SET programme.
