By Gaël Thomas
Whenever you begin something new, it is always important to note that you have to come up with several ways to complete it before finding one that works. My partner, Alina, and I were given the topics Agriculture and Food and Water Security for the Carisealand project. I decided to separate my project concepts into five sections; Farming, Livestock and Fishing under the broad topic of Agriculture, Food Security and Water Security. For each of these, a video will be produced taking a humanistic approach into issues(s) or questions to be addressed.
We were called upon to be first-time directors, script-writers and even on-screen reporters which seemed like a daunting task. However, there is truth in the saying ‘Don’t knock it unless you try it’ as my partner and I, along with our other colleagues, have begun testing out our skills in these areas.
At Create Caribbean, creative liberty plays a big part in the development process of our content. This means that I could direct a video about anything related to my topics. Given the broad nature of these topics, I didn’t know how to begin. Brainstorming and idea mapping were my best friends for zooming in on the project focus. With a little nudge in the right direction from our director, Dr. Schuyler Esprit, I was able to produce a script centred on the next generation of farmers versus the current slowly-decreasing, older farmer population. From this angle, the video will highlight the trends in the population of farmer (past, present and future), review reasons (historical and cultural) for the decline in the farmer population as well as the gender and age disparity and discuss methods of increasing and pulling more persons in the younger generations towards the farming industry.
Thus far, two interviews have been conducted with students at the Dominica State College who major in agricultural science. These initial interviews prompted a series of other questions which further proved the point that ‘You can never know what you’re making until it’s complete’ in the field of Digital Humanities. It is safe to say that many of the aforementioned ideas and video projections are subject to change as the project takes its own shape.
My partner and I are looking forward to following the self-steered path of the video and will not resist any changes that need to be made to ensure the project reaches its full potential. Interviews are already scheduled with an agricultural officer and a historian which will seek to further unravel the mystery that is the decrease in farmer populations as well as produce meaningful solutions to address the issue(s).
This video in particular will feature a local farmer and his success this far. A specific focus will be placed on the opinions and worries faced by the current farmers and the effects on Dominica’s economy if farming were to die down.
All in all, by trusting this process, I hope to make some remarkable progress and deliver the first video of the series that will be meaningful and informative and perhaps even set a standard for those to follow.