b) Shooting

You've got to pull people in and engage them to convince them. What must be emphasised are the images _ images pull people in.

Idrissa Ouédraogo, Burkina Faso, celebrated film director, member of the Scenarios from the Sahel final jury, director of the first three films of the project

For the highly technical shooting phase, there are a certain number of things that you might want to bear in mind for a Scenarios-type project:
Timing
Try to push forward hard, of course with great caution on a substantive level, in order to maintain the tremendous momentum and visibility the project has generated to date.
When putting together your shooting schedule, do not forget to take account of periods of harsh weather (seasons marked by extreme heat or cold, abundant rain or dust_) and to respect religious traditions.
Involvement of the greater Scenarios team during this phase
The young author
The author of the original scenario can be invited on-set to serve as an advisor to the director. This is not only an exciting, validating experience for the young person, but also a big help to a director eager to be true to the wishes and intentions of the author.
The broader project team: advisors to the director
On set, it is possible that the director will have questions about the relationship between particular elements of his or her interpretation and the imperatives of HIV prevention. It could also be that some of the director's ideas about images, non-text sounds, etc., might convey unintended harmful messages in a non-verbal manner (and were, in all likelihood, not detectable during pre-testing). For both of these reasons, it is essential that the project team maintain a continuous, though generally reserved and discrete, presence during shooting.
In your on-set dialogue with the director, remember that you can refer to the input of jurors as well as detailed pre-testing results wherever appropriate.

The broader project team: sensitizing the film production crew and onlookers
During the shooting of the first films of Scenarios from the Sahel, we came to the realization that that event was a great opportunity to reach out to and raise awareness among two highly receptive groups of people, namely the production crew (technicians, actors and actresses, assistants) and onlookers, who numbered on occasion well over a hundred people.
Members of the broader project team _ why not young people who helped out with the contest, or even some of the contest winners _ could engage the production crew (during breaks) and onlookers (in pauses between shooting) in discussions about the project and its objectives, as well as about HIV/AIDS in general. Toward this end, you might draft a half-page flier about the film being shot, make a bunch of copies, and distribute them at the shooting site.
You could take advantage of this opportunity to explain to onlookers the importance of being absolutely silent when the camera rolls (be quite sure, for example, the fliers won_t be rustled). We observed that one of the big challenges facing the directors was maintaining order and silence among passers-by and onlookers when the camera was rolling.
The media
Shooting can be a superb opportunity to re-mobilize your partners in the media with a view to focusing the region's attention on HIV, preparing opinion leaders and the public at large for the films to come, increasing the visibility of local project partners, and expressing gratitude to funders and sponsors.
Be sure to hire a professional photographer to take plenty of photos on set (and not just of the set), that is to say, stills. Those photos would serve as visual complements to press reports on the project, or the basis of posters and other advertizing materials in the future. You might also want to use them as a way to thank project partners. In addition, the photos might be indispensable in the course of your evaluation of the impact of the films _ they could be used to prompt recall of a given film in the context of surveys.

c) Post-production

Editing: dialogue between HIV specialists and filmmakers
For the same reasons as those cited above (in the sub-section on "Methodologies/shooting"), it is essential that there be an ongoing, open dialogue between HIV specialists and filmmakers during the editing phase. Unintentional harmful messages must be avoided at all costs.

During the editing process, you might want to re-emphasize the concept that the director enjoys great freedom on purely artistic elements and is subject to rigorous oversight and approval with regard to HIV-related substance.
The director should be encouraged to bear in mind relevant recommendations of the jurors and pre-testing findings while editing.
Products
Ensure that the project team has everything it needs to distribute the films effectively in accordance with your distribution plan. Be sure to verify the technical quality of each individual product in detail before making copies.
Dubbing into additional languages should be preceded by exhaustive linguistic research to ensure that the proposed text is in the most widely understood dialect, is drafted in clear, simple language, and is devoid of regional colloquialisms. Pre-test that text exhaustively.
Titles and credits
Be sure to have good legal advice as you draft the opening titles and credits for each film.
Everything possible should be done to ensure that viewers understand clearly that the origin of the films is in the ideas and creativity of young people. The author's name must figure prominently in the film's opening titles.
In addition, the opening titles and credits should make it clear to viewers that the director is native to the project zone.
In short, it must be immediately evident to viewers that these films, to a remarkable extent, are local creations.
It may be that some television stations will not want to broadcast the full opening titles and credits, citing the fact that they take up too much airtime. For such _ hopefully exceptional _ circumstances, you might want to consider special versions that include the names of the young author and the director as sub-titles at the beginning of each film.