Talking to experts

I was delighted to re-make contact with several 'experts' who helped
us in our first expedition. People like Janet Topp-Fargion, curator at
the British Library National Sound Archive, Radek Boschetty at the BBC
and Keith Howard, ethnomusicologist at SOAS. I phoned these folk out
of the blue and they were immediately ready to provide advice and
further contacts. To make our recording and filming as accessible as
possible to future scholars we will use guidelines provided by the BL.

I've just spent the last hour sketching out an application for a grant
- The Neville Shulman Challenge award - administered by the Royal
Geographic Society. It specifies that I should be over 25, so I meet
at least one criteria. This application begins - Aim: To
be the first to film the Altaian epic, Maadai-kara, in its entirety.
I also list the team: Mark Raeburn - producer, first
cameraman, Cris Parau - sound-recordist and Yevgenia Aildasheva -
translator and fixer. I will be carrying the bags.

I also had to state a proposed budget and was rather alarmed when it
came out rather to close to my second mortgage guestimate of £20,000.