Filming in rural Samoa. children who never speak English, who rarely see a Palagi, let alone a video camera!
Applications are now open for a two month contract as videographer & post-production with the SWAP Foundation. This is a voluntary position based in SWAP HQ, Samoa, open immediately.
The SWAP Foundation assists volunteers to visit Samoa and help with Internet Marketing, raising the profile of Samoa online.
THE JOB
The role with SWAP in Samoa involves filming everyday life in Samoa (e.g. the markets in the city Apia, rural villages, special events) and then compiling video for use on YouTube and TV working in partnership with TV3 (a privately owned Samoan station ).
The two objectives are:
- To capture the people and stories of Samoa in Samoan and English for posterity
- To give exposure and insight into Samoa as a tourist destination on the Internet
You will be involved in all aspects of the production including creating storylines, developing the SAMOA STORY™ brand digitally, liaising with interviewees to determine the best angle for the story, taking and processing video, working with our Media partner (TV3 Samoa), and completing all post-production work. This is a very hands-on role, with a high degree of autonomy, working with a flexible hands-off management team, who will resource, guide and assist without micro-managing your work.
NOTE: We do NOT provide product training and you must be competent to complete the work without basic training! While excellence is desired, we do not require Hollywood quality output. The intended audience is local TV, NZ TV, and YouTube viewing.
As this position is currently vacant, the successful applicant can start immediately.
AN ADVANTAGE
It is an advantage to:
- Be able to speak or at least understand Samoan
- Have had experience with the Samoan culture (either by nationality, marriage or through Samoan business or social involvement), or want to.
- Have worked in the film/TV industry or in a job that has had a hands-on practical role with video production.
- Be able to bring your own camera(s), although we do have our own backup equipment available.
- Bring your own notebook, although we do have PCs with CS4 in-house.
- Show evidence of your film-making prowess on YouTube.
REQUIREMENTS
Applicants (you) must be able to speak and write English. You must have a good understanding of Adobe CS4 (or greater) and be a competent videographer.
You will have created your own storylines and have produced YouTube clips containing a combination of computer generated graphics, voice overs, background music and video cuts.
You will have a proven capacity to be flexible, show initiative in your job and to complete tasks on-time, sometimes in a difficult work environment (Samoa can do that to you!) Villages may cancel a visit because of a funeral, or call on you at the drop of a hat to pop on out to do something unexpected and so on.
WE OFFER
SWAP provides basic food, accommodation, airport transfers as well as all SWAP related expenses such as transport to/onsite, gifts/payments to the villages/ Volunteers however are expected to pay for their travel to and from Samoa as well as cover their own personal items such as alcoholic or special drinks, restaurant meals, touristy purchases, medications etc.
We offer the infrastructure and support for you to have an opportunity of a lifetime. An experience that is unique – and very “real”!
YOU CAN EXPECT
SWAP volunteer hut - clean, dry, cool and outdoors living at its best. Just imagine permanent camping in the height of NZ summer.
You can expect to
- Live in a basic open-walled “hut” in the bush (photo). You will share your life with 100million mosquitos, ants, cats, dogs, rats, mice and birds. However your mosquito net will work well and the cats dogs, rats, mice and spiders will all run away in fear when you variously turn on your light, stomp your feet, throw stones at them and.or shout at them! When it rains everything around you gets wet. When it rains and blows, then everything gets wet! Fortunately it is the middle of the dry season and it only really rains enough to bother you once in a fortnight, for 12 hours!
- Drink heaps of water. You will grab a beer as often as you can but orange juice, coke and booze will always fall into second place behind water, and lots of it!
- Go to places and see things that many tourists never do. These experiences are usually always exciting and tiring, but are usually always exhilarating and fun!
- Meet and mix with leaders and see inside the inner workings of an amazing South Pacific Island country. Again, this is a two-edged sword but an extremely valuable experience.
- Be on local TV, radio and/or in the newspaper with your work, so that you will be known by many in Samoa, even you will only get to know a few yourself!
- Be treated as an honoured guest wherever you go, and to experience the real Samoan hospitality from people who will give you anything you want, and yet who have so little themselves.
- Be challenged personally, and you could easily have experiences that may change your view of life, maybe testing you to the limit of your patience – perhaps beyond!
- Be on average 10 hours per week in the field filming, interviewing and meeting people, and 30 hours per week behind a computer, although this can change at the drop of a hat!
- Learn to slow down. Samoans drive at the speed that the people, dogs, pigs and chickens get off the road in front of them – between 25kmh and 40kmh depending on the road and the village. You will learn to walk at their speed in town. If you walk any slower you will fall over. If you walk any faster you will bump into us all and cause us a nuisance!
- Look back on your experience after it all and appreciate your own life so, so, so, very much more!
ADDITIONAL NOTES
A SWAP VOLUNTEER?
This position is a fixed-term, short-term volunteer role living with and working for the SWAP Foundation in Samoa. You will be a SWAP Ambassador, dressed in full SWAP uniform when in public, and fulfilling the stated goals of the SWAP Foundation, in this case developing a series of 6 minute film/video clips about Samoa in partnership with TV3 (Samoa). Visits to private family and for personal reasons are possible but very limited.
PARTNERS?
If you wish to bring a partner (sorry, SWAP HQ is not suitable for children yet – construction of our swimming pool has yet to start) please indicate this in your application and this may be possible.
EMPLOYED?
If you are currently employed and would like to apply for two months fun-in-the-sun with SWAP but have concerns over your availability, we have ways (“Ve haff vays, u kno!”) to assist employers to help you take a well deserved break and join us! Feel free to contact us privately if you think your boss can be “encouraged” to help you come.
CHALLENGES?
Most SWAP Volunteers (as do all Peace Corp and other Western world volunteers entering third world countries) are deeply challenged with cross-cultural issues. Coming from a first-world into a third (developing) world like rural Samoa causes enormous stress for many, both Palagi or Samoans travelling back for the first time. Well traveled people find it easier, however it is always difficult when somebody begs from you in the street, and another lies to you or steals from you when you want to try to help them, and many other challenges.
It is often hard for people to see their own culture’s vulnerability when they see another culture’s strength. Likewise it can also be stressful to have to hold back the desire to change another country when you can see their weaknesses. Sometimes it can be hard to see the “other side” of a country and culture that is presented in a certain way. There are a myriad of issues that can challenge you when travelling to Samoa as a SWAP Ambassador. SWAP provides Ambassadors with a real, natural, raw experience that goes much deeper than just sitting on a white sandy beach and drinking a beer! We also provide the necessary support structures so that if you are committed, honest, patient and flexible, you will not only survive, you will thrive in Paradise!
More information about SWAP and stories from our past Ambassadors are available at www.swapsamoa.com.
We look forward to hearing from you or maybe someone you know who is “perfect” for the job, but be quick, before we close off applications.
Applications online here.
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