The never ending journey from Melbourne to Barcelona seemed to be worth the long wait and restlessness, as I woke up to the sight of turquoise blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. A faint view of La Sagrada Familia added up to the sleep killing. Barcelona from a bird’s eye view was enticing to me. I couldn’t wait to set foot on land to explore and live the myriad visuals of this lively city. The warm, Catalonian summer sun welcomed me with a warm Hola!
When I learnt about the study tour to Barcelona, I started painting vivid images of sangria and siesta in my mind. I’ve always seen these visuals on television when I was growing up in Mumbai, India. I was looking forward to seeing it for myself, to experiencing it, living it. It was always my dream to travel to various places of the world and document those experiences. And here I was at the El Prat Airport in Barcelona, baggage and camera in tow, a step closer to living it, but surprisingly nervous to the core! My Catalan was as good as nothing. Hola! and Gracias were the only words that would be my lifesavers. But would I survive all alone with these 2 phrases? That was something I was about to discover in the next two weeks of my Catalan adventure.
I grew up with a strong belief that if I could survive the madness of Mumbai, I could make it anywhere. This belief began to fade away once I boarded the taxi to my venue of accommodation – Residencia Onix. The taxi driver started speaking to me in Spanish/Catalan – I was clueless. He was asking me for the precise address of the location. I had no working internet connection on my phone and hence could’t trace it. I felt helpless and flustered. The taxi driver caught my nervousness and tried to calm me down with his not – so – bad English and welcomed me to his city. He was delighted to learn about India. We exchanged a few cultural talks about our countries, and before I knew it I was home!
We spent our first day in Barcelona, in getting to know the place and more importantly each other, as we were going to explore the place, it’s people and the culture as a group for our documentary films. Even after moving to Melbourne from Mumbai, I was still within my comfort zone as my friend circle included students from India, predominantly. A bit apprehensive at first, I wondered if my trip mates would get along with me, let alone understand me, as I had a distinct accent. My preconceived notions slowly got tossed out of the window as the trip progressed. Bonding over tapas and sangria were a great ice breaker, as we got to know each other better.
After the fun and frolic, it was time for serious business. Jonathan and myself had researched about our project theme – “smart city” prior to our arrival in Barcelona. On Day 1 of our arrival, we had a new member in our group – Cici. We welcomed her in our group, as I was under the impression ‘the more the merrier.’ Our journey had just begun.
The Hidden City Tour guided by Jose, an enterprising, former homeless person; was an eye opener to me as a researcher. While Jose took us to various pockets of la Barri Gothic, le Reval he explained to us about the prevailing homelessness and unemployment and the government’s meagre involvement to change the situation. I asked him about the ‘smart city’ project of the former Barcelona city council and was amazed by the prompt reply of ‘Barcelona is a ‘stupid city.’ This statement made me take a closer look at the situation in Barcelona. Where was the smart city that I had read up and seen on the internet? Did it even exist? These questions boggled my mind.
I was delighted to meet Cecelia, our prime support person who had arranged and scheduled interviews with key persons pertaining to our project themes. Another learning for me was that local contacts and networks always yield results. After arriving in Barcelona, I did try writing to a few organizations whom we desired to interview, however, expecting a reply from them was like spotting a shooting star on a cloudy night! Cecelia was a lifesaver for our smart city project group because even though we had done our ground research, we were unsuccessful in lining up interviews for our documentary. Either it was too late that I had tried to get in touch with the organizations or maybe because I communicated in English, I didn’t receive a reply. The Spanish appreciate outsiders who speak their language, even if it’s just the basics. My English writing skills were of no importance in this country at least to contact officials or people who were associated with the Smart City project.
Panic attack struck me when I learnt that the Smart City project has been suspended by the new Mayor Ada Colao, as she wanted to focus more on serious issues such as the high unemployment rate and homelessness. We were afraid that our project is going to fall flat. The various articles that we had read up on before coming to Barcelona, did not reveal the slightest of hints that the ‘smart city’ was an alien concept to the citizens of Barcelona.
Two days down, and I felt like a local. Barcelona reminded me a lot of Goa, a seaside holiday destination in India that emanated the same laid back energy in the way of life. While my trip mates felt that they’d love to live in Barcelona, I was of the opposite opinion that I wouldn’t survive this slow pace of life. Quite a few locals in public places mistook me as a member of their society and would often break into Catalan while i would stand there puzzled and speechless. Again, I’m not too sure if it was the Spanish colour of my skin or since there a lot of immigrants who can now speak the local language, I was categorised as one of them. It was interesting to observe that even though the locals are unemployed, every supermarket was owned and run by immigrants. It was fun to be recognised by the Pakistanis/Indians as their own when they would break into a word or two in Hindi, at the same time it was fun but embarrassing to not be able to reply to a local in Catalan when spoken to.
The Smart City Tour on the Passeig de Gracia was an interesting venture where we saw the jazzy side of Barcelona. Cristina from the Smart City project explained and showed us the various hi tech innovations incorporated to promote smart living. The interesting part was that it was just her who knew about these smart city features. Being our first interview, we were nervous and excited at the same time. While I interviewed Cristina asking her about the various innovations, Jonathan took to the lens to film the conversation. I did find it a bit difficult to follow the strong Spanish accent while she spoke in English, but then I realised that she could be facing the same with me. The best part was that the longer we were into the conversation, the more she kept revealing about the current council’s decision to suspend the Smart City project. One of the great learnings as a reality television producer in India, was to get your subject comfortable so that he/she opens up to reveal the real story. An and Cici swapped places at intervals on the second camera where they focused on close up shots. We decided to maintain this order/ distribution of roles within the group. While we were amazed to finally see the ‘smart city’ projects, our next interviewee was going to draw us the real picture.
Professor Ramon explained to us that the smart city image was a facade built by the government to portray to the outside world, in order to attract foreign investors, as Spain’s economy was going through a rough patch during the financial crisis. He brought to light that the citizens weren’t against the smart city project, they just didn’t understand the need or meaning of the project. They believed that technology wasn’t the answer to their problems of unemployment and homelessness. This gave us a better understanding of the current scenario in Barcelona.
Drawing an inference from this learning, I’d like to put forth the socio – economic realities of Spain by referring to Professor Geert Hofstede’s Model of National Culture which is indicated by 6 dimensions and corresponding scores to note the value in each of the dimensions:-
1) Power Development Index (PDI) – 57
This dimension expresses the attitude of the culture towards the inequalities amongst societies. Spain is a hierarchical society wherein people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place. This was observed in the change in government period that we were in where the mayor – Ada Colao was the face of change and people were accepting of it.
2) Individualism (IDV) – 51
This dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.Spain is a collectivist society when compared to the rest of European society. However, when compared to other countries of the world, it is individualistic. Teamwork is considered as natural ordeal. This observation was made when we interviewed Horacio – a vital member of the Neighbours movement who gave us a view into the collective movement against the house evictions and noise caused by tourists in Barcelona.
3) Masculinity (MAS) – 42
This dimension expresses what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine). Spain is a consensus favouring country. Dissipation is not well considered neither is cut throat competitiveness appreciated. Managers like to consult their subordinates to know their opinions in order to make decisions pertaining to the growth of the company. The Cronnections team – a start up company dealing in bartering of goods sported this team play. Spain is the complete opposite of ‘the winner takes it all.’
4) Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) – 86
This dimension expresses the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known. Spain is the second noisiest country in the world in terms of having rules for everything. Confrontation is avoided.
5) Long Term Orientation (LTO) – 48
This dimension expresses how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future. Spain is a normative country. People like to live in the moment without great concern for the future. This is clearly reflected in their laid back, siesta, take it easy lifestyle and approach to things and situations in everyday life. They desire quick results without delay.
6) Indulgence – 44
This dimension expresses the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses. Spain is not an indulgent society. They have a perception that their actions are restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is wrong.
All work and no play, would’ve made us dull. And so, living up to the Barcelona spirit, we set off every night to explore the exciting flavours of Barcelona. Researchers by day and locals by night, we sampled tapas, sangria, cerveza and paella.
As the days progressed, I realised that the sharing economy group required a videographer to film their videos, as they weren’t too comfortable operating the equipment and trusted us, media students to do a better job. I volunteered to help them out as I took it as a learning opportunity and believed that I would be doing something that I am passionate about. I wouldn’t get the chance in my group to film interviews as each of us possessed camera skills, I jumped onto their team too to help them.While my priority was the Smart City project, I made sure that interviews for both the teams did not clash.
One of the most memorable experiences for me in Barcelona was the ‘Eat With’ dinner organized by Zoe. I was looking forward to this ‘shared dining’ experience wherein a budding chef serves restaurant style meals at a fixed pricing per person in their house. Prior to the dinner, I wanted to know more about this entity and hence visited the ‘Eat With’ website to learn more about the platform and it’s offering. The website didn’t explain much apart from the menu on offer and a brief introduction to the hosts who were having us over for dinner. I enjoyed the experience and realized that a lot of us do not know about such an amazing platform that promotes budding chefs to start an entity or for foodies who are interested in meeting new people over great food.
Picking up from this experience; I chalked down a plan to re-invent the existing EatWith website for my project in the Digital Narratives course, in order to garner more interest and familiarity with the shared dining concept. The proposal included an introductory video for shared dining and an overall engaging website with video interaction and sharing plug-ins. I wish to pitch this proposal someday to EatWith and if they reject it, I shall turn to it’s competitors.
FILMING INTERNATIONALLY :-
Some of the few things that I learnt on ground while filming internationally were –
Be infinitely flexible – Interviewees may schedule an appointment, cancel it when you reach the location after travelling with the not so light filming equipment on public transport, and reschedule it after you reach back home!
Be respectful of local cultures – you can mix work with leisure! A picnic in the park with an interview in progress. Could it get any better?
Respect their rules and customs – you cannot look away/feel shy when you meet your interviewees for the first and probably last time but are greeted with kisses on your cheeks.
Be on time – even though your interviewee may take his/ her own sweet time to show up, you have to respect their time and show up before the scheduled time.
Have an in – country insider who can help you navigate – Cecelia was our lifesaver when it came to taking the metro/ walking around Barcelona.
Become a local – Greet everyone with a Hola and Gracias, ask for agua, bebida, cafe con leche when at the cafe
Do your homework – Read up on the place, the people you are going to interview, the organisation they work for.
Beware of pickpockets! – Keep an eye, ear, nose out for them. They can strike anywhere, at any time!
With the filming done, the next task was to weave the footage together so that it formed a narrative. While An and Cici weren’t too proactive on location, it was decided that they would lend their skills to the post production of the documentary film.
Back in Melbourne, we scheduled a meeting, so that everyone had a job assigned to them to make the editing process easy. While we all agreed that Jonathan would take on the prime role of editing the footage, we decided to contribute in the tasks that would make his life easier. Cici took on the responsibility to create the graphics for the project; while An and myself were to transcribe the interviews with time codes for editing purposes.
When I was in Fiji for another learning stint, I completed my work and touched base with the team as the deadline for the first cut was approaching. Since I had taken on the role of Producer, it was my responsibility that the team was working as a unit.
After receiving constructive feedback on the first cut, we provided the finishing touches to the documentary such as adding subtitles (which was a very painful task), adding slates with facts and trivia. While the rest of the team worked, it was disappointing that one of our team mates An, didn’t contribute towards the post production of the documentary film. I thought she could lend her editing skills to the post production of the sharing economy documentary; only to be turned down.
I extended my support to the sharing economy team to help them in whatever way I could, though I am no ace at editing. I helped in rearranging the interviews and added a few finishing touches to their first cut. The moral of the story is – where there is a will, there is a way!
The Barcelona Study Tour has been an experience that shall never fade from my mind. Four months down the line, and I still remember each day vividly. I played good cop, bad cop, researcher, co ordinator, camera operator and editor (for the sharing economy team)
and many other roles that have made me a better media producer.
Hasta la vista Barcelona!
¡Con mucho amor!
lalowe11 