Introduction and background information to the programme
I chose a local program for my video programme critique. The programme is Papa Shirandula aired every Thursdays from seven thirty five to eight in the evening on Citizen Television. The programme has also some repeat of best episodes every Sundays after the four o’clock news on citizen television. I have been following the program since then and appreciate the creative minds behind the programme that is gaining more fans who recently crowned it the best in the local productions in the recent Kalasha awards.
Papa Shirandula is a programme highlighting a typical African man earning a low salary while aiming to sustain his polygamous family. The programme highlights issues on poverty, education, economic investments, marriage and family and general working conditions of Africans. In this case, the program focuses on a watchman’s lifestyle in a city struggling to make both ends meet while deceiving his wife and family that he is an information technology manager in Mr. Juma Anderson’s company. This has created more confusion and conflict with Papa Shirandula’s work mates who have to play fowl of hiding Papa’s occupation in the company as a gate keeper. This makes Papa engage in a series of deep thoughts to come up with abrupt solutions to some of his problems and challenges at the work and residential places. The highlights on the size of family of three wives, forces Papa Shirandula to borrow some funds from the company to supplement the family’s income generations. Life is very difficult for Papa shirandula who has to resort to bicycle as the means of transport to his place of work. The location of the programme scenes in rural and urban highlights the struggles and tension in the family in making both ends meet. The shifting of scenes takes place from Kawangware in Nairobi, to Mumias, to Juma Anderson’s company and some at Juma Anderson’s residential area in Runda in Nairobi. This indicates the originality of the idea that makes most Kenyans identify with papa shirandula’s programme.
Programme production
The program highlights that most of the scenes are taken during the day and few at night, indicating the most working conditions of Kenyans who have a twelve hour working condition to make a living. Most of the production is done in-doors and out doors to depict the working environment of a gatekeeper and most Kenyans. The lighting and picture quality is moderate and medium to bring out the real images of Kenyans with different working environments without exaggerating and the western influence. The kind of lighting is natural mainly for the outside production at the gate of the company and reflected for the scenes taken in doors. This helps identify the different environment when there is strong lighting when there is bright sunlight as Papa Shirandula is manning the gate and main entrance to the company. The lighting done is mainly done to bring out the quality of some video actions, although some of the productions done in Mr. Juma Anderson’s office is aimed at manipulating the images to produce video shots that views Mr. Anderson as a wealthy and a higher ranking individual in the society who is out to exploit the lower earning Kenyans Like Papa at his gate. Since most of the production is done during the day, this doesn’t mean that there are no night shots. The lighting is also manipulated to create night shots during Papa’s daughter’s wedding reception. This was achieved in reducing the light intensity being received through the camera by adjusting the armature of the video camera and turning on the night shot button, followed by a white balance to help achieve the best frames and clips.
Camera movements and shots exhibited in this programme are quite a variety. Amongst the camera movements illustrated include tracking or dolly movements. This is highlighting through following Papa Shirandula from his residential place to his place of changing into his working uniform then to his work place. This is aimed at establishing the main working conditions of Africans in their economic contributions to the nation building. Another camera movement in zoom in and out which is achieved by the movements and adjustments made on the camera lens. This movement is seen through out the programme during the discussions by different characters on different issues affecting them at their work and residential places. Another camera movement in this programme is established when the camera is mounted on the stand. This includes the left and right panning in door to establish the different moods at different venues that include papa shirandula’s house and his place of work, Juma Anderson’s office and his residential place in Runda. The panning is also accompanied by tilt movements up and down.
The different camera shots exhibited in the programme include the extreme close up, close up, long shots and crane shots. The long shots in this programme are initiated to explain working environment of Papa Shirandula {gate keeper}, his daily activities and social life. This is used to establish the main idea of each episode that has been touching on matters of family, marriage, education, investments and security. The extreme close up is establishing to explain the life style and struggles that Papa is trying to cope up with. This also helps to explain the sequences in the story as it helps to complement the main idea of each episode.
The extreme close ups used throughout the programme is meant to highlight the mental torture the main character papa Shirandula is going through as a result of what he is going through. This includes the stressful in-laws, Otoyo and Jalang’o who have forced their way into this small family with very little income. This shot is used throughout the programme to highlight the main idea in each episode. This means that as Africans when we are faced by problems, we tend to console ourselves and not like sharing them with our friends or with God. One of the episodes of the programme was staged live during Labour Day celebrated in Kenya at the Nyayo stadium in Nairobi. There were different camera movements and shots for example the boom shots on cranes. This was used to highlight the view by listeners back at home and those who were not present at the venue.
The type of microphones used includes super cardioids and dynamic microphones. The dynamic microphones were basically used during the Labour Day at Nyayo Stadium. These were codeless microphones used by the papa shirandula and his crew to entertain the guests. The kind of lighting was basically natural as most of the light source was from the sun.
In conclusion, I like the programme as it highlights and has set a platform for the local production. The programme highlights the issues that have close relations to our daily lifestyles. We can easily identify with each topics in each episode aired on Citizen. This is because most of the topic ranges from matters of social, economic and even leadership through the world that is continuously being dominated by elites. This makes me be proud of our up-coming local programming on our local television and radio channels. This is reducing the foreign content demands by our local audience.
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