Course Description

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This intensive course is aimed at students and young professionals interested in spreading scientific and environmental issues through journalism or fiction.

It will provide them tools to create attractive reports and stories and make them available to a mass audience. In addition, this course will allow them to develop their adaptability to the restrictions of working in the field, in the heart of the Amazon jungle.

 

In addition to posing a challenge, the Amazonian context will contribute to the pedagogical process. The practical phase of the course will take advantage of the surroundings of HH-CECCOT to introduce students to local environmental and social issues. Students will interact with this environment and its inhabitants to carry out their journalistic and narrative exercises and prepare the final phase of the course.

 

At the end of the training, participants will undertake a 48-hour Hackathon, during which they will prepare a journalistic or narrative content ready to be broadcasted on social networks, describing part of the reality they have discovered. This will be done with the support of the instructor, as well as local journalist Pavel Martiarena. After this 48-hour challenge, the project that implements what has been learned in the most effective way will be highlighted and the participants will be advised on the paths to follow to use the skills acquired.

 

The course will take place from July 31 to August 8, 2022.

Although the classes will be taught in Spanish, the staff can support students who speak French, English, or Portuguese: the goal is to create an international learning community.

Students must bring a smartphone capable of filming and photography, as well as a laptop. The free software and the necessary bibliography will be sent to you once you are accepted in the course.

The reports prepared by the students of the previous edition of "Reports from the Amazon" will be used as pedagogical tools during the course.

 

How to apply?

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This course will have a limit of 9 participants. To apply for the course, you must fill a form, and you’re a motivation letter and your summarized CV. Applications will be evaluated after one week.

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The registration fee is of $600.

 

Enrolled students will have the option of paying the fee in one or two installments.

If they wish to pay in two installments, students will have to make a preliminary deposit of $300 after being accepted into the course.

The second installment will have to be paid by June 5.

 

The inscription fees cover: instruction, lodging and meals during the 8 days of stay (half day of arrival, 7 days of class, half day of departure) at HH-CECCOT, as well as roundtrip transportation from Puerto Maldonado to HH-CECCOT and back.

 

Methodology

One month before the course, the students of "Reports from the Amazon 2022" will be put in contact with the scientists and students participating in CECCOT's "Birds of the Amazon: Research and Conservation" course to share information and experiences and inspire possible ideas for reports.

The course lasts 7 days. Students will be required to lead a balanced lifestyle in order to be physically ready for the Hackathon this weekend.

 

July 31 and August 8 will be the arrival and departure days for students at Hacienda Herrera-CECCOT.

The first phase, consisting of 5 days (August 1-5), is the Training stage. Each day will consist of theoretical and practical courses from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with a lunch break from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The second phase, consisting of 2 days (August 6 and 7), is dedicated to the 48-hour Hackathon, where what has been learned will be applied.

 

The Training stage is made of 5 sessions dedicated to teach the steps of journalism and fiction production, as well as the methods to share this content to a wide audience.

These lessons will be applied during exercises at the end of each day. These will be done in the cultivated and “wild” areas of HH-CECCOT, confronting students with the surrounding realities and suggesting ways to cover them. These practical phases will allow the consolidation of collaborative skills, which will be essential for the Hackathon phase.

 

The Hackathon phase will last 48 hours: the participants, divided in groups, will use those hours to create a journalistic or narrative content. While these 48 hours can be used in the way that each team deems most efficient; this timespan will be subdivided into stages to follow the progress of each group.

Students will have at access to the advice of the main Instructor and the Guest Instructor: Pavel Martiarena.

Prior to the 48-hour hackathon, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.,  teams will be formed, and they will brainstorm ideas for their projects. The last hour and a half will be dedicated to the presentation of each team’s projects.

The first day of the Hackathon will be dedicated to the pre-production and filming of the content. At the end of this day, at 8:00 p.m., each group will present their progress. All participants are invited to comment

The rest of the time will be dedicated to editing and finalizing the projects. At 2:00 p.m., 6 hours before the end of the Hackathon, each group will present the last challenges that they have to face before finishing their project. All participants are invited to comment and offer solutions.

 

Finally, at 8:00 p.m., the projects will be presented to a jury, which will define a winning project. After the award ceremony, suggestions on skill applications and paths to follow will be offered to the participants.

After the course, the finished products will be published on social networks and showcased to the communities close to HH-CECCOT.

 

Short summary

In the training phase, we will present the stages of development, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution of video, written, photo and radio content.

 

The animation and monitoring of the Hackathon will be ensured by Manuel-Antonio Monteagudo and by the Madre de Dios journalist Pavel Martiarena. They will be available for any questions from the students.

 

All works will be done with low-cost material (smartphones, free editing programs, personal laptops) used to the maximum of their potential, so that attendees learn to produce quality content even in challenging conditions.

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INSTRUCTOR

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Manuel Antonio Monteagudo Gauvrit

 

French-Peruvian filmmaker who specializes in fiction and documentaries.He has carried out projects that have been awarded by the European Commission and by the Ministry of Culture of Peru.
He studied in Peru, France, Brazil and Hong Kong, and lives between France and Peru doing animation and documentary projects. His most recent projects are “El Motor y La Melodía” (2D short film, 2022) and ODDATARA (webdocumentary, 2020). He currently directs the 2D short film “Contacto” (DAFO 2021 animation short project award) and ODDAFIP (web documentary funded by the Mindchangers project of the European Commission). He has ample experienced in video, web, written and radio formats, and fluent in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese

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Guest Instructor, Pavel Martiarena

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Photographer and journalist from Madre de Dios.
Since 2014 he has been involved in different communication initiatives on issues such as sustainable development, indigenous peoples, climate change and cultural management, through Saint Media, an audiovisual creative studio that he started in Puerto Maldonado. As a photojournalist, he occasionally collaborates for the news portal madrededios.com, the French press agency AFP, among other digital media. His best-known photographic project is entitled "Amazonía Profunda", and was presented for the first time in 2018 in the Peruvian Parliament. Since 2019 he is part of the photographer collective that carries out the exhibition "El país que imaginamos", which continues to tour several cities in Peru and abroad. In 2021 he was called as the main photographer for the exhibition "Vida: Nuestro Verdadero Oro", an event held by Puerto Maldonado Special Bicentennial Project.