Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Photo: Humanitarianbazaar.org.

Documentaries & Emergencies Workshop

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 27 April-3 May 2017

Humanitarian Bazaar (HB) produces creative projects focused on how people survive war and disaster. With Founder Daniel J Gerstle, we have worked with the UN Development Program, US Embassy, Danish Refugee Council, Adeso Africa, Impassion Afghanistan, Oxfam International, and more. We have run humanitarian and/or media projects in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine, the E.U., and the U.S. And we produced Journeys on the Edge (documentary series, 24 minutes x 10 episodes, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine, coming in 2017), Live from Mogadishu (feature documentary, Somalia, 100 minutes, 2017), the Somali Sunrise media campaign (40 videos, Somalia, Kenya, US, UK, 2012-2014), Filming Violence (short doc, Oxfam, US, 2010), and much more. To join, contact us at Humanitarianbazaar@gmail.com.

Schedule & Focus Options

On April 27, 28, 29, and 30th, 2017, Humanitarian Bazaar presents the Media Production & Project Management Workshops, covering a range of topics from producing documentary films to supporting humanitarian aid and refugee assistance as a cross-training available for media gurus looking to learn how emergency response works, and aid workers learning media. Although the full training makes a strong combined package, participants are welcome also to choose any number of individual days, as well. Choose either the whole cross training, a specialty focus, or an individual day. Prices are Bosnian citizens 90 km/day, Internationals €60/day, Full Expert Daily Package €350/day. Here is our menu of options.

Thursday, 27 April 2017, 1000 am-500 pm

Producing Documentary Media 101

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Storytelling, Pre-Production, Know Your Gear/ Cameras/ Lenses, Crew, Logistics.

Friday, 28 April 2017, 930 am-430 pm

Producing Media in Tough Situations 102

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Planning Travel, Safety & Security, Producing on the Move, Character Portrayal, Post-Production, Editing, Color/Audio, Distribution, Festivals.

Saturday, 29 April 2017, 930 am-430 pm

Managing Emergency Response, Refugee, & Peacebuilding Projects

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Emergencies Overview, How to Assessing & Prioritize, Coordination of UN & NGOs. We will run through role play of decision-making in cases including Syria, Somalia, Ukraine, Bosnia’s War, and the Bosnian Floods.

Sunday, 30 April 2017, 930 am-430 pm

Managing Emergency Response: Simulation Game!

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Refugees, Asylum, and Returns, Safety & Security, Evaluating & Prevention of the Next Humanitarian Crisis. We will run a Simulation Game based on real cases in Syria, Bosnia’s War, and the Bosnian Floods. Participants will take turns in roles such as local survivor, local government and forces, humanitarian aid worker, human rights advocate, UN funder, peacekeeper, and journalist to see what YOU would do in the situation and then learn how the PROs attempted to solve the same situation in the real cases.

Monday, 1 May 2017, 930 am-700 pm

Optional Practicum: Mostar & Počitelj

Starting in Sebilj Square Sarajevo to Mostar/ Počitelj and return. We will show trainees how emergency responders attempted to outwit the 1993-1994 wartime siege, then film character interviews.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017, 930 am-700 pm

Optional Practicum: Goražde & Višegrad

Starting in Sebilj Square, Sarajevo, to Goražde and Višegrad and return. We will show trainees how emergency responders attempted to outwit the 1992-1995 wartime siege and 2010 and 2014 floods, then film character interviews.

Wednesday, 3 April 2017, 930 am-700 pm

Optional Practicum: Brčko & Tuzla

Starting in Sebilj Square, Sarajevo, to Brčko and Tuzla and return. We will show trainees how emergency responders attempted to outwit the 1992-1993 Brčko wartime siege and the 2014 flood disaster, then film character interviews.

Detailed Curricula

Thursday, 27 April 2017

Producing Media in Tough Situations 101

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Storytelling, Pre-Production, Know Your Gear/ Cameras/ Lenses, Crew, Logistics. Over six to seven hours, including brief lunch, we will provide a crash course on how to produce video documentary, with a focus on crisis journalists, aid workers, and human rights advocates. We’ll take participants inside and behind the scenes of our new feature documentary, Live from Mogadishu, filmed in Somalia and Kenya under tough security and logistical conditions. We’ll highlight other great works from recent documentary work, review process and equipment, and have participants cut a simple video by the end of the day. If any participants wish to attend the second day workshop on humanitarian response, they are invited to film that event for further practice, if they like.

• Part 1 |  Pre-Production
  • Introduction: Video samples from feature documentaries: Live from Mogadishu (produced by Humanitarian Bazaar), To Hell and Back (Danfung Dennis), Virunga (Orlando von Einsedel), Beats of the Antonovs (Hajooj Kuka), and shorts from Hetherington, Vice, The Guardian, and Vox.
  • Pitching concepts, story, and script.
  • Client production, grants, fundraising.
  • Building Core Team & Crew.
• Part 2 |  Considering Your Gear
  • Budget: Super cheap vs increasing cost to benefit choices.
  • Camera: DSLRs vs Cinema cameras, manual vs auto options, focus, Aperture, Shutter Speed, Film Speed/ISO, 720/1080/4k/5k, fps, bit rate, pro-res, full frame vs cropped.
  • Camera: Rebel, 70D, 7D, 6D, 5Dm3, C100m2, C300, GH3, GH4, EX1, HVX, A7s, Black Magic, Red, Alexa, Epic, Scarlet, Dragon, Weapon, Raven, Gopro.
  • Lenses: Prime, zoom, wide angle, close up, 14mm<300mm, f/1.8<20.
  • Filters: Neutral density, colors.
  • Audio: Mounted mics, boom, lapels, mixers, H1/ H2/ H4, etc.
  • Computer: Desk vs laptop, Ram 6gb/ 8gb/ 16gb.
  • Data Storage: SD card, hard drive options.
  • Software: Creative Cloud, Premiere, Final Cut, Avid, Powerdirector, codecs.
  • Additional options: LED lights, three point light kit, reflector, gels, HDMI, monitor, tripod options, dollies, shoulder, monitor, Histogram, Zebra, comprehension.

Friday, 28 April 2017

Producing Media in Tough Situations 102

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Planning Travel, Safety & Security, Producing on the Move, Character Portrayal, Post-Production, Editing, Color/Audio, Distribution, Festivals.

• Part 3 |  Production
  • Locations, security and access in tough areas and for local crew and characters.
  • Storytelling with audience in-mind versus with editor in-mind.
  • Action, Practicum
• Part 4 |  Post-Production
  • Video editing, color correction, soundtrack.
  • Director’s cut versus final cut.
  • Festival submissions.
  • Theatrical versus digital distribution.
  • Corporate versus independent distribution.
• Part 5 |  Practical Application
  • With 5D or 70D, practice establishing location and context.
  • Practice filming an interview (single, double, group).
  • Practice filming a walk and talk (pov, single, double).
  • Transfer video to laptop software timeline.
  • Cut samples together into simple short video.

Saturday, 29 April 2017

Emergency Response & Refugee Assistance 101

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Emergencies Overview, How to Assessing & Prioritize, Coordination of UN & NGOs. Over six to seven hours, including brief lunch, we will provide a crash course on how humanitarian response works, specifically for crisis journalists or people looking to get into aid work, but open to anyone. We will have interactive discussion and “what would you do?” scenarios on emergency response in war and disaster, refugee assistance, recovery aid, peacebuilding, and related security and coordination. We’ll take participants inside and behind the scenes of emergency response in Somalia, Afghanistan, and eastern Ukraine, with some highlights from Syria. By the end, participants will role play in a simulation game which demonstrates how responders must make tough choices in no-win scenarios.

• Part 1 |  Overview: When Crisis Turns to Emergency
  • Political, economic, and social indicators that crisis is coming.
  • How war, political violence, economic collapse, and natural disasters transform communities differently, and why prevention is so tough.
  • How economic collapse accelerates some to make more money or hoard while others lose purchasing power- the universal problem of distribution in every crisis.
  • Emergency actors: Governments, United Nations, international non-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, militaries, health orgs, donors.
  • Example organizations we’ll look at: UNICEF, UNHCR, the International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps, Adeso Africa, People in Need, and more.
• Part 2 |  How to Assess Communities at War
  • Authorities: Who controls armed forces, roads, ports, and public resources?
  • Population: What social factors stand in the way of survival and recovery?
  • Emergency sectors / Sphere minimum standards: Food security & livelihoods, nutrition, water & sanitation, infectious disease control, health, shelter and household items, gender, education, protection from violence.
  • The toughest infectious diseases to be addressed: hand/water-borne (dysentery, amoeba, cholera, etc), mucus-borne (flu, tuberculosis, etc), mosquito-borne (malaria, encephalitis, etc), skin-to-skin (measles, scabies, etc), sexually-transmitted (HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, herpes) and so on.
  • Donors & Coordination.
• Part 3 |  Emergency Response Logistics on the Front Line
  • Security, threats, deterrence.
  • Population, migration, and evacuations.
  • Gaining access lanes for procuring, storing, and shipping aid, maintaining “cold chain.”
  • Crossing fighting lines.
• Part 4 |  Coordination
  • Governments, the United Nations, INGOs, and NGOs.
  • Non-government authorities and fighting groups.
  • No-win scenarios, contradictions, and how agencies sometimes allow bad things to happen so that other good things can happen.
• Part 5 |  Refugees, Asylum, and Resettlement
  • How refugee camps are created.
  • Refugee statelessness, trafficking, and black market.
  • Why some refugees get asylum in a second country, others resettlement to a third country, and still others denied and trapped in limbo.

Sunday, 30 April 2017

Emergency Response & Refugee Assistance 102

Café Lalo, Kovaći Walkway, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Refugees, Asylum, and Returns, Safety & Security, Evaluating & Prevention of the Next Humanitarian Crisis.

• Part 6 |  Security
  • Acceptance: Building trust in the local community and with authorities.
  • Defense: Choosing whether to fortress or simply have effective practices.
  • Deterrence: Choosing whether to have arms, guards, no arms, or only rely on local police for response to threats.
  • Landmines and unexploded ordinance avoidance. And much more.
• Part 7 |  Practical Simulation: Triage & Consequences
  • Syria/ Yemen scenario, Bosnia siege scenario, and Bosnia flood scenario
  • Choosing roles: UN & donors, government and armed forces, INGOs, NGOs, local population.
  • Battling to prioritize humanitarian response sectors as security threats, attacks, theft, fire, and donor politics force your budget to get smaller and smaller.

Monday, 1 May 2017

Optional Practicum: Mostar & Počitelj

Starting in Sebilj Square Sarajevo to Mostar/ Počitelj and return. We will show trainees how emergency responders attempted to outwit the 1993-1994 wartime siege, then film character interviews.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Optional Practicum: Goražde & Višegrad

Starting in Sebilj Square, Sarajevo, to Goražde and Višegrad and return. We will show trainees how emergency responders attempted to outwit the 1992-1995 wartime siege and 2010 and 2014 floods, then film character interviews.

Wednesday, 3 April 2017

Optional Practicum: Brčko & Tuzla

Starting in Sebilj Square, Sarajevo, to Brčko and Tuzla and return. We will show trainees how emergency responders attempted to outwit the 1992-1993 Brčko wartime siege and the 2014 flood disaster, then film character interviews.

Trainers & Speakers

Daniel J Gerstle is a writer, filmmaker, and emergency response manager whose work has been covered by BBC World News, BBC News Hour, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The New Yorker,The Guardian, CNN, Euronews, LA Times, VICE, WNYC Soundcheck, Novo Vrijeme Sarajevo, Somali National TV, and Somali Horn Cable TV. He runs Humanitarian Bazaar, producing media and arts projects focused on how people survive war and disaster. Daniel directed the feature documentaries Live from Mogadishu (Somalia/ Kenya/ USA, 100 min) and Thunder Spiral (Bosnia/ Afghanistan/ Somalia/ Netherlands/ USA, 90 min), and overseen projects and trainings in Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia. Beyond Humanitarian Bazaar, Daniel has also worked as a humanitarian aid manager in Somalia, Kenya, Eastern Ukraine, Chechnya & Ingushetia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, and Bosnia, and on shorter assignments in Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, and Palestine. Contact him at Humanitarianbazaar@gmail.com.

Other Speakers to be Confirmed

We will have guest speakers from the Sarajevo Film Festival, the local response during the 2014 flood disaster, and the 1992-5 siege of Sarajevo, as well as those met in field trips to Mostar, Gorazde, and Brcko.

Contact: Daniel J Gerstle, Executive Director / Founder, Humanitarian Bazaar

Humanitarianbazaar.org  |  Skype: Daniel.j.gerstle

Humanitarianbazaar@gmail.com  |  Djgerstle@yahoo.com