Jenni in the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle

Hello and welcome back to the next installment of my Ecuador adventures! Ecuador has seen its fair share of unrest, but depending on where you go, it may be one of the best countries for solo female travellers in South America. With a lot packed into one little country, including a plethora of environments and things to do, it truly is an adventurers’ paradise. Of course, with every South American country, you’ll need to keep your wits about you, especially in the big cities, but if you’re looking to get off the beaten path in South America, this is the place to go. I already can’t wait to head back!

My time living in the Amazon rainforest was something I will never forget. I hadn’t truly given it much thought (apart from the bucket toileting situation, which originally I was supposed to be emptying, but mercifully ended up being too busy to do, so other volunteers had to do it!) I also hadn’t done any preparation whatsoever for my 2 weeks of adopting a raw vegan diet. I have copious amounts of notes from my travel diary (both on my iPad and phone, whichever was to hand), so bear with me as I forage through them and try to sum up my experiences!

Upon arriving at the land of Terra Frutis, I dropped my copious amounts of luggage off at ‘The Cabin’, an ominously named structure located truly off the beaten track in the middle of the rainforest. This is where I would be staying with my friend, Charlotte, and another staff member. I then magically managed to hitch a ride up to the community area with some of the staff. Of all the times and places that Terra Frutis pick-up truck could have been driving, I was happy it appeared just as I emerged from the jungle.

• 

• 

• 

• 

First things first, after greeting my old school friend in the midst of her jungle home, we took a tour so I could see the main parts of the property. We discovered a snake in the swimming hole (no swimming for me then!), checked out the newly dug swimming pool (I can’t wait to see how that progresses!) and the bungalow buildings, where the full time members and visiting volunteers usually stay, but which had now been turned over to the paying guests. According to my notes we also had watermelon juice ‘at some point’, which I apparently found noteworthy.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

That first night after dinner was… interesting to say the least. I was by now worrying about the effects that eating purely vegan would have on my totally unprepared body (remember my McDonalds and Pad Thai previously?). I am happy to tell you that the evening I am describing was the only issue I had, which happened to be nothing more than a bit of, ahem, wind. Overall, I coped surprisingly well with the subsequent raw vegan cuisine, though I did actually get bored of all the eating I had to do to stay full and fit. I lost a lot of weight rather quickly, which also had to do with the active lifestyle I was participating in.

I stayed at Terra Frutis for two full weeks. It seems longer due to the amount of work I had to pack in, the newness of the experience and the major raging tech issues I stressed about for my entire stay there (and still am!)

But anyway, onwards and upwards!

Filming an Event Solo – A Summary of Technical Issues

The first few days consisted of me setting up and testing my kit, which takes longer than you probably expect it to, as with all filming tasks. I had a few issues working out the sound, since I am least experienced in this area, and m not really as interested in it as I am with the visual side of things.

• 

• 

What I’ve always said I love about filming is the problem-solving. I was wrong. What I actually love is the relief after you fix something. I’ve always preferred working in a filming team (although that can bring it’s own issues), and realised that when it’s just me trying to work something out, it can be frustrating and tiring, since all the pressure is solely on my shoulders.

By no means am I a well-seasoned event filmmaker. I had done some event filming previously at Greenwich during my 1^st year of university, using proper broadcast cameras and in a team of 3 people, one for each camera. I also edited it, which was super easy with the proper university equipment.

You would think that my rainforest shoot would be nice and easy. I had spent the best part of a year preparing (I’ve got articles coming about that), but it turns out an iPad is not conducive to smooth editing and subsequent file-sorting. WiFi connection in the rainforest is also not strong enough to support my huge files and 4K B-roll (extra shots), especially when the clouds roll in and it stops altogether!

My main issue was storage, something that I had planned for, but for which nothing went according to plan. It may be a rookie mistake to not have back-ups for back-ups, but for once I placed my faith too much on technology.

The iPad is not a machine built for proper filming. I bought it since the adobe programmes, which I pay a lot of money for, were available on it (silly me, thinking they’d be available on any tablet). The editing works well enough – a highly stripped-down version for a machine that doesn’t have the processing capabilities of a laptop – but the storage capacity was not enough. I clearly hadn’t realised just how much footage I would be shooting, how big the file sizes would be, and just how useless the Apple systems would be for storage. Every option I tried, I hit a dead end.

I always assumed that cloud storage systems would allow you to delete the files locally, but alas not. Trying to upload to the Terra Frutis cloud storage was painful and downright impossible, since the connection was too slow for my massive files and I had to babysit the iPad while it struggled on. No leaving it as an open tab, like on laptops, and carrying on with something else – oh no!

Eventually I left early to try and get a hard drive in Cuenca, but hard drives AREN’T COMPATIBLE WITH iPADS!!! Le sigh. Took me a week of technical Spanish explaining to work that out.

In the future I plan to purchase something like a LaCie hard drive, which is rugged, rainforest-proof and industry-approved. Back up systems, however, are expensive and these are no exception. With all the money I spent on my kit and saving for travelling, I overlooked this, since I thought the iPad would do the trick. Did it ever *rolls eyes heavenwards and emits a deep sigh* I am also planning on getting a lightweight laptop that I can take with me for editing purposes, since I plan to spend a career in the field (try and stop me!)

As for the actual filming itself, it was easy enough. I would set up my kit at the beginning of the day after breakfast. Preparing for each separate event meant setting up meant framing, focusing and sorting the sound (switching it on!). I had to babysit during the filming itself, to check on the sound, and because, due to some obscure EU import law, DSLRs are only permitted to film continuously for 30 minutes before they cut out. So every 30 minutes I had to press record again. *Sigh tres*

• 

• 

• 

When I wasn’t babysitting, I was lurking around with my GoPro capturing B-roll, which is essentially just extra footage. I found it tricky to film non-stop throughout the day, as it meant I was always tired at the end of the day and didn’t have the time or energy to get to know the attendees of the festival. As a staff member (I had the t-shirt to prove it), and the fact that I was constantly busy, I felt cut off from the attendees. As time went on, I got to know the festival staff – permanent members living at Terra Frutis and Fruit Haven, and volunteers who had been living at Terra Frutis for some months before the festival. I always had the unpleasant feeling of lurking in the background however, and found that to begin with, some people were wary of the camera being there, and by extension, me.

Another major hurdle was that I couldn’t be my true self there. I was a fake vegan. These people were committed vegans and participants in the festival activities while I was only watching from the sidelines. It’s weird to feel you don’t belong and not a welcome feeling at that. I was always on edge, because I understand that people have strong feelings on this topic, which made me uncomfortable. I learnt a lot about a completely different way of life to the one I lead, and have definitely taken certain aspects on board (though they’re difficult to implement when you’re back living with your parents and broke beyond belief!)

These feelings combined to make me feel uncomfortable and cut off, particularly to begin with, until I began to feel more like a human, and less like an extension of my kit.

I did get to know people better by the end of my time there, this isn’t just one big moan, don’t worry! I simply wish to highlight the tricky parts as well as the good bits. The people I met there were beautiful souls, each and every one of them, and I do wish I had had the chance and the time to get to know them better. The worldwide vegan community is a relatively small one, and some people knew each other already from other vegan festivals. I highly respect the way of life these people have chosen to lead and getting to be a part of such a unique event was truly special. I think if it weren’t for my high stress levels most of the time due to the issues I’ve mentioned above, I would have been able to relax into the experience more.

It’s a lot to film an entire event non-stop and I learnt some useful lessons. It clarified for me, what I don’t want my career to be, while my subsequent Galapagos adventure clarified what I do want to do.

That’s it for now, getting the negatives out the way first! Next time I’ll be talking about how I coped with the raw vegan diet and a bit more about The Cabin!

See you next time!

From me to you,

Jenni

👣