This week’s episode of Be On Air delves deep into growing a business with sustainability as a mindset, how to inspire positive change with Venture Philanthropy and equitable practices, as well as some great tech tips for editing a podcast.
We get to go into Ravinol’s two year journey to make this documentary and the unexpected feedback that caused him to take a SECOND trip to India to finish the film. We talk about the use of story-telling for podcasters to help them grow their show, how to use video in your podcast, and the challenges of divisive thinking in society.
Ravinol Chambers is a former monk, the director for the documentary Road to Vrindavan, host of The Evolving Door podcast, and the founder of the award winning creative agency Be Inspired Films.
“Educating girls is not about women versus men it’s about our future versus our past.”
-Ravinol Chambers
Make sure to catch the premier at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival!
Want to talk about your podcast? Connect with K.Lee and Podcast Farm
Book a free strategy session to talk about your podcast:
Join the podcast farmers FB group and grow your show!
[00:30] – Intro
[01:39] – How Ravinol got into filmmaking?
[03:30] – When Be Inspired Films was created?
[07:00] – Funding to Fail and Venture Philanthropy
[10:02] – Growing sustainable businesses
[13:11] – How to involve more storytelling in your video?
[15:38] – Informative Content vs Emotive Storytelling
[19:21] – How the Evolving Door Podcast started?
[23:50] – The Value of Small Format Video Content
[27:56] – Tech Tips for implementing video into your show.
[30:39] – The Making of The Road To Vrindavan.
[38:29] – Developing the Story for Road To Vrindavan.
[40:23] – How to help men and boys change their mental framework?
[47:10] – Trailer for Road to Vrindavan and About Malala
[52:02] – How to get connected with Ravinol Chambers?
[00:00:00] K.Lee Marks: [00:00:00] Don’t compare journeys. Your journey is your specific journey and you will be guided to the best way to catch you where, where you go. I believe that right now is a great opportunity to leverage the power of voice. David Copperfield is a billionaire, not a millionaire. He’s a billionaire. And how did he become this?He tapped into something profound, which is the art of storytelling. Be on air. Powered by podcast farm. Hey everyone! Welcome back to Be On Air I’m K.Lee Marks. And today I have someone very special. I have Ravinol Chambers. He is the founder of the award winning creative agency. Be inspired films based in the UK, and he’s a master storyteller using video using documentary.
He’s also a podcaster to tell. Positive and impactful stories for change makers. I’m really excited to dive into his work with you all. He’s going to be sharing tips about filmmaking, how we can use film and video as podcasters, and he’s also going to be talking about his new documentary that shed some light on the education system and specifically how it impacts young women and girls negatively and their efforts to create some change and impact there. So I’m really excited to talk to him about that. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ravinol Chambers host of the Evolving Door Podcast. Welcome Ravinol. It’s great to have you, man.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:01:32] Yeah, thanks so much k.Lee for having me. It’s great to be here with you today.
K.Lee Marks: [00:01:37] Absolutely. And you know, you have such a unique story and something I didn’t mention in the intro is that you’re actually also a former monk. You, you spent times in the Ashram and you know, it’s as good a place as any to start. Like, how did you get into filmmaking in the first place?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:01:52] Well, it’s interesting, as you say, I’ve spent most of my twenties as a monk and two of those years I spent in East Africa. So Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, we were putting on cultural festivals for the public and I just kinda thought this is some really cool stuff we’re doing.
I’d love to show this to people and maybe if they could see what we were doing. They might be able to help us, you know, so I had so the senior monk that I was with, he was actually quite into technology and stuff. So we had a, a camera, so just, I had no training or anything. I just, you know, took the camera, started filming. And then when we got back to the UK, so the camera was using for any of the oldies out, there was high eight tapes. And then we transferred those to VHS. And then I had two VHS machines, would play on one, and when you’d see a bit that you wanted. You’d press record on the other one, but there was like a three second delay.
So you had to kind of guess when you were gonna cut in. And so I edited a film of the work that we were doing there and we showed it to [00:03:00] people and it was effective. You know, people liked what we were doing and they supported us in those days though, we had to invite them into a room to watch it, or we had to post them a VHS tape. So things have moved on a long way since then.
K.Lee Marks: [00:03:12] That’s incredible. Just the idea of having to time the edit. Like we were so fortunate now with all these, you know, DAWs, audio workstation, frame by frame, we can do it. Yeah. Yeah. The final cut pro premiere, it’s so easy. So that’s incredible. So what, so you were in Africa and you were, and so that got you into film. When did be inspired films come about?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:03:34] Yeah. So the interesting thing about that time in Africa was I never. Considered that filmmaking in the sense that, you know, I would think of filmmaking now. I just thought there’s a job to do. Uh, this is a way to do it. And then I just moved on and I didn’t make another film for like probably eight years after that. And then I was living in the UK. Now I’d moved out of the ashram. I was working as a project manager, helping young people who are at risk of maybe falling out of education to be matched with mentors, you know, positive role models from the community. And again, I made a film because, and it sort of ties in with my work.
I heard this word sustainability for the first time. That was probably 2003. And the reason I heard it was because we’d got this three-year funding to help this community. And then the funding was going to end. And I also heard this term funding to fail. So you go into vulnerable communities along and you’re like, Hey, you guys should all be excited about the way we want to help you. And sometimes they’re not that interested. And maybe then I realized it’s because they’ve seen all this before you come in with some money, you raise their hopes or whatever, and then you disappear. And then a few years later, some more funding comes along, so it’s not sustainable. And so I became quite interested in that idea and, uh, we made a film and it enabled us to get some more funding, but still it was like relying on funding.
So I got very interested in the idea of social enterprise and business as a force for good, because it’s not about waiting for the next grant. It’s actually creating income, generating income. Um, but also trying to have positive impact. And that was super exciting to me because. As a teenager actually want it to be a stockbroker. So I was like in, I grew up in the eighties, I was proper. Uh, some of your listeners might understand the word, like a yuppie. It was like this kind of a generation of people. They were like, yeah, we want to get rich and fam- and not so much famous, but rich and fancy cars and all that. That was success. It was very materialistic.
Um, but then, you know, I spent my twenties as a monk, so I’d always had these two components to my personality if you like. So yeah. And the world was very much separate, you know, business. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the term, you know, people would say if someone’s really ruthless in business, It’s just business and it’s almost like anything, any kind of bad behavior can go in business because it’s [00:06:00] business. And then if you want it to do something good, all you would do is maybe write a check and give something to charity. So I became super excited about, uh, around the time I went back to university and did my MBA, which is like a master’s in business. And I became, I did my research on a thing called venture philanthropy, which was like, how do you use business methodologies, business thinking, investment thinking.
To affect positive change. And so these two worlds were coming together and it was very exciting for me. And when I finish that, if I’m very honest, I was a bit unsure of what was going to do next at first. But then I kind of, sort of started to retrace my steps and I saw, Hey, yeah, I ,I’ve used film before and I really enjoyed it. And I saw it was very effective and, you know, maybe I could use film. To try and help affect positive change. And that was kind of the birth of the company that I run now be inspired films. And that was like sort of around about 12 years ago now. Wow. Yeah.
K.Lee Marks: [00:06:59] So, okay. Funding to fail. You said so much in there that is sparking so many things for me. I don’t even know where to begin, but I’m going to do my best here. Um, I’m curious for the listeners, if you’re hearing this, if you heard. Funding to fail. Have you heard of venture philanthropy? If you have, um, hit me up and let’s talk about it some more, because this is something that is super interesting to me. I think I’ve stumbled upon it a little bit like, unaware of the term and kind of like found it out there and you just put words to it, which is really exciting because I get this image of like teaching someone to fish rather than just giving them fish. Right. And I’m curious, like, with the funding to fail that you saw and the venture philanthropy that you’re talking about, what are some things that actually work for these communities that are in need? What are some, some examples that you’ve seen that are actually creating that lasting sustainable change?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:07:58] Yeah. Well some of the, if you look on the sort of still within the philanthropy frame on my research, I find like if they, instead of funding for one to three years, Looking at least five-year funding. So it enables like it’s a bit like the government system, isn’t it? I don’t know if it’s the same in America, but every four years, like potentially it changes. So you don’t get this continuity, you know, it stops and it starts, Oh, we started this scheme, well we don’t like that cause that was the last guys scheme. So we’ll change this scheme. And so you don’t really get follow through and support for people so longer term funding. And also not just, it’s not just about the money. Like what partners can you bring? What networks can you bring? How can you help these organizations to be more effective? And a very interesting one was not just funding the programs like as in the giving out the free meals or whatever.
What about funding the boring stuff. Like the offices, the staff, like the stuff that, Oh, that’s kind of almost unnecessary because we just [00:09:00] want to do the good stuff. But realizing that the good stuff doesn’t happen unless the foundation is strong and, you know, people are there, good people are there to help do it. So it’s kind of like, just like a business. If someone was investing in a business, they wouldn’t just say just sell the products. No, you’ve got to get a good team. You’ve got to have good marketing. You’ve got to have all these components. You know, um, and so it’s just bringing sort of that fresh thinking, but that’s on the philanthropy side, then there’s a whole interesting part. They call it blended capital or blended investments, or sometimes it’s called impact investing or social investment. So it’s where you have investors who are coming and saying no, we’ll actually put money into good ideas, but we do want a return. Or maybe we want a slightly less return than we will get. Normally if we were just looking for money because we’re happy to see a bit of social impact, or maybe we want to see really good social impact and we want to return, but our intention is to support good stuff, not just to make money.
K.Lee Marks: [00:10:02] Wow. Wow. This is, this is exciting. That’s so clear. So blended capital or the impact investment is like I can contribute some network, some resources, some services, products, whatever, or just money to help up an organization or some initiative and, or a business, a business that’s doing good social impact and actually still see a return on that, which seems like it would make it more of a sustainable system anyway, there’s this thing where it’s like, if you just get handouts, you don’t value it. It’s there, there is an evaluation. I think we see this in the, in the coaching world, right. Is like, if we really want to have a productive transformation with a coach, right. We have to pay so that we take that time seriously and transform. I’m not saying people can’t do it without money involved, but it does seem like there needs to be some sort of resource exchange.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:10:53] What’s also fascinating is there’s a lot of thinking in the sort of business world, if you like that. If you. Extract or if you like try and suck all the value out for you know, profit maximization, it’s just not sustainable. You know, the resources like the planet can’t resource that eternally, or, you know, unlimitedly, you can’t just suck people and communities dry and pay them minimum wage and expect people to flourish and expect not to have social problems.
So actually, doing business in a more, responsible, sustainable, fair, more equitable manner in the long run is better for everybody because your supply chain, everybody, is sort of being sustained by it. Not just that some people are being sustained by it and everyone else is kind of getting. You know, rung out if you like
K.Lee Marks: [00:11:49] That makes total sense. And it sounds like, uh, Be Inspired would go in and tell the story of these venture, [00:12:00] what’s it called venture philanthropic organizations or businesses. Is that right?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:12:04] Yeah I don’t like to labels, you know, we like labels, don’t we in buckets, you know, we like to put people in a bucket. I kind of, the way I look at this is we’re sector agnostic. I don’t mind if the organization we work with is a business, a government organization, a charity or whatever. But the point is that we will want to help them tell their story if the story and what they’re doing is trying to affect positive change.
So the exact nature of what they’re doing. Uh, could, could fall into different things, but if we, if we like it and we feel it’s positive, then we’ll help them with this.
K.Lee Marks: [00:12:39] Yeah, absolutely. And your work is absolutely stunning. I mean, just checking into a little bit of, of your previous work. Maybe you could share some tips for storytelling, for visual storytelling, and especially as podcasters, we may be coming from an audio in the background. So if you’re listening to this on audio, there’s also a video version that is on YouTube and you can go see, but that you know, th there’s not much of a, of a story happening on video. And so I’m wondering if you have any thoughts for how a podcaster could, could involve a little bit more storytelling in their video?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:13:12] Yeah, I mean, well, for, for the actual podcast itself, um, it’s a little more limited because it’s a format, isn’t it, there’s usually quite a format, but if you look at some of the podcasters who have, maybe someone helping them with video. Um, it’s sometimes it’s down to resources as well, you know, but it could just be you’re a little brother. It doesn’t have to be someone you’re paying necessarily, or, yeah,
K.Lee Marks: [00:13:36] my little brother’s literally helping me with my podcast episode right now, actually.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:13:40] Fantastic. So, um, especially it’s a bit different in the COVID times because obviously we’re not meeting in person, but if you look at Rich Roll, for example, or some of these guys, they always do like a photo session they have like. A little bit of them hanging out, it’s kind of talking and sort of showing the off-camera side of things. And I think that that sort of feeds into this kind of principle of storytelling, which is people connect with people on a human level. They don’t connect with brands or organizations or sort of messages in the same way.
Do you know what I mean? Like, so. We always, because we work with a lot of organizations, we really sort of tell them like, don’t make your, or don’t try to make your organization the hero of the story. Do you know what I mean? So try and find. The human interest within it. And then if you’re the, so I sometimes give the example, if you’re the postman and you deliver good news or, you know, a good letter or whatever, they will be really happy for receiving the news. And then they’ll look at you and smile at you and be happy to see you too. So it’s kind of like that. Whereas if you kind of turn up and you’re like, you know, I’m the postman, you know, I, I, this is how many letters I deliver a day or whatever, they’re like listen mate get out of the way, give me the letter, [00:15:00] you know?
And so I think sometimes, unfortunately we have to really, um, help organizations understand that point because they’re like, no no we’ve got to start talking about ourselves earlier than that. We’ve got to sort of name, drop this, and we’ve got to have the logo and all of that. And, um, So I think with storytelling it’s really works well when it’s character led, you know? And when it’s story first and not, not a video is very good at a motive, uh, content. And I think sometimes people use it too much for information. Hmm. Rather than emotive storytelling,
K.Lee Marks: [00:15:38] Would you’ve give an example of, of what that might, would that be like a video of someone experiencing emotion versus this is how you cap a pen, or this is how you like,
Ravinol Chambers: [00:15:49] it’s that thing, isn’t it of show, not tell. You know, so sometimes, uh, like they might say, Oh, well, we work with, you know, vulnerable young people to help them to whatever. Why don’t you start hearing from the young person about the challenges that have overcome themselves in their own words and see their journey unfold and how that organization helps them.
So they tell their own story in it. You see it on screen and you, you just understand then that that’s the kind of work the organization does rather than them telling you as a cerebral thing. It’s more here
K.Lee Marks: [00:16:23] Yeah. That makes so much sense. It’s almost a drawing, a parallel between like in copywriting, you have features and benefits and features are like the very analytical thing. Like this pen is made out of aluminum and you know, it writes for a year. I don’t know what’s up with me in pen references. It has a nice rubber grip. Those are all features that doesn’t sell this pen, but this pen, this pen, if you use this pen, you will write the best book of your life.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:16:48] Well, you can change the world without pain. You know what I mean? And you can change someone’s life with that pen.
K.Lee Marks: [00:16:54] Exactly. Exactly. So that’s the feature vs benefit in the writing and language world, but it sounds like in the visual world, there’s a similar thing going on where you could, you can overexplain informative or you can show. And that’s what, you’re what you’re describing I believe is that right?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:17:11] Yeah, definitely. And I also often, um, sort of talk to organizations about if you imagine the, the customer journey or the donor journey or whatever the journey is of the people that you’re trying to reach, understanding, where does this piece of content fit within that? Don’t try and make it, do everything, you know, less is more, you know, and often think of a piece of video content as a match.
You know, so it’s the thing that you want to ignite people’s interest peak, their interest, pique, their curiosity, get them inspired and just move them to the next thing, which could be just simply yeah. To go, Hey. Wow. That was really cool. And then the next time they see something, they go, yeah. I want to check that out again because I saw that thing before.
It doesn’t mean that they have to know the full picture straight away. [00:18:00] Do you know what I mean? And so I used to do a lot of talks on, you know, cause we used to teach people how to create their own video content. They used to talk about the idea of a showcase content and then relationship content and relationship content is literally just like having a coffee with someone on a regular basis.
You don’t need to really have too much of an agenda, but over time you really get close. You know, um, whereas, you know, showcase content is maybe for the front page of your website, it kind of needs to really. Yeah. You know, pack a punch, but you know, and so it’s social media video content is more like relationship content. And we see that with stories. That’s why stories are so popular. They’re a bit more throw away, but over a period of time, if you keep seeing the same people’s stories, It’s really weird, but you, you actually start to develop a relationship with that person, even though you may have never met them and anyone who’s ever done any video editing knows this.
If you’ve had to video edit someone’s interview, by the time you’re done with it, you feel like you’ve spent a whole bunch of time with that person, but you’ve never actually met them. Yeah. You know, so it’s, it’s interesting. So I think, yeah. Um, I, I almost like don’t try too hard with it. Like let you know. Let, uh, the. The sort of humanity try and come through because that’s how people will always connect.
K.Lee Marks: [00:19:21] I definitely, I am hearing that loud and clear this idea of humanizing. And I think that is where podcasting, um, just really it shines, right, because we’re in, we’re in our audience’s ears. And so, um, you know, Be Inspired Films, you guys are, you’re working on this amazing documentary. And so I encourage all the listeners to stick around a little bit more because we’re going to get into that. Um, you went to India multiple times and uncovered some amazing information about the culture and the community there, especially education. And so we’re going to talk about that, but you are hosts of the Evolving Door Podcast. You’ve interviewed people like Jay Shetty, Matt Wakeham who was a part of the design creative team behind the gorillas band. Really cool people on your show, talking about spirituality, talking about creativity, so many things, social impact.
How did, how did you start the podcast? And I kind of try to bridge this showcase content, relationship, content, and storytelling, and understand how you are using that in your podcast platform. And maybe people in the listeners can kind of pick up some tips for how you’re implementing these video things into your podcasts.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:20:31] Sure. So the podcast, sort of, it was something that I had had an idea for a long, long time to do. I didn’t know exactly what the name was. I had some ideas about doing an over forties dad podcast, but,
K.Lee Marks: [00:20:45] Alternate.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:20:47] yeah, I settled on this idea of Evolving Door because it was kind of like sometimes in life we’re it’s stuck in a revolving door right? But the Evolving door is the moments when you have those shifts in your understanding or [00:21:00] your sort of awareness or sort of understanding about life. And I was fascinated to kind of like dive deep into that with different people. And, I got some help from a guy called Mark Larousse who, and I was with a group of others who went through a kind of a little program
to do it, you know, to get it off the ground, I guess, is a bit similar to some of the ways you help people. And, um, it was just during lockdown, so I kind of went for it and, um, and got it out. So it would have been nearly a year ago now. And it was great. It was a great feeling and you know, it’s like anything and a lot of people say this, you know, as well.
Uh, I know it’s easy for them to say it when they’re very successful, but they say like, Your first kind of, um, I guess customer in a way is you, you know, so I was kind of doing it because I wanted to really learn and have these great conversations with people. And I thought, you know, then maybe, hopefully other people will also be interested in tune in.
And, um, we did our first one with, a girl called, Jahnavi Harrison, who is a great sort of singer performer artist. And she’s sings. This type of music was actually really on the rise. Now it’s kind of like world music, kirtan, devotional chants, you know, really beautiful music, but also with ancient mantras and stuff, and really great sort of vibe to it. And then as you said, we had a bunch of other guests. I decided being in running a film company, that i should film it as well. So it’s kind of like, I definitely recommend it, but it is a lot of work. There’s no getting around that, you know? Um, so I, I filmed, uh, I think I had initially two cameras.
Um, my second series, I’m doing it with three cameras, but the way I’ve used it most effectively. Um, if I’m honest is I’ve taken out like lots of short clips. So when I’m promoting an episode, I release it. I use anchor.fm myself, but there’s loads of different platforms that then pushes it out to, you know, Apple podcast, Spotify and all the rest.
But then what I’m encouraging people like little adverts, I guess. Is I just, um, I just do these like maybe 30 to two or three minute little clips. Um, I guess a little bit like you sorta see Joe Rogan type clips Russell Brand does it as well. Um, and then people get a little taster in the clip in and of itself.
It has a little bit of you know something to it, but then the idea is, is, you know, please go and listen to the full podcast. So I find that quite effective. I’ll be like full transparency, you know, the full videos. I still kind of, haven’t really kind of put enough energy into putting them out on YouTube. I need to do that more, but I’ve used the shorter clips, like quite effectively, I think.
K.Lee Marks: [00:23:50] And that I appreciate that too, because I think that’s actually important for people to understand I’m in a similar place. I put out my full interview on YouTube, but I’m not putting the [00:24:00] clips yet. And I do like five to 10 minute clips.
And, and so I think for the listeners here, um, It’s not such a fat, it’s not like you’re you’re you have to have everything perfect on day one. It’s it’s this evolving process of, of gradually, you know, building your platform and, you know, YouTube is its own world. It has its whole own thing. And, you know, I feel like just the fact that you’re recording those clips, it’s almost like just recording video for the short clips is worth it. Even if you never use the video, would you say that’s correct?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:24:31] I would say that’s definitely correct. I mean, I certainly have the hope to also. You know, put out the longer videos so that because people have asked like people that said, Oh, can I watch it on YouTube or whatever, but I, as I get a little older, I’m a bit more forgiving of myself, you know?
Like there’s so many things to do. There’s a certain amount of time in the day. Um, and you know, when I was younger, you know, maybe I would have stayed up all night to kill myself to get that out by that thing or whatever. Now I’m not, I don’t push myself. I still push myself incredibly hard. Anybody knows me, knows I worked really, really hard, but.
Now I’m just trying to get more of a balance, you know, and sometimes I’ll go, you know, I’ll do what I can. And then tomorrow I’ll do a bit more. I’m hearing sustainability. That’s sustainability word again. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah,
K.Lee Marks: [00:25:18] That’s amazing. That’s amazing. So you have you found success with the short clips? Your you’re sitting on an awesome. Like vault of content to release, which honestly that’s probably a good strategy. Anyway, just for marketing purposes, you get to focus on just distributing and drumming up, you know, promoting the full clips and stuff. So, I mean, I feel like that’s a, that’s a really good way to go about this. You’re doing three cameras and you’re doing everything on StreamYard, right? Via StreamYard.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:25:48] Yeah. So I’m doing the actual conversation via StreamYard. Um, so we’re recording, um, audio for both of us in StreamYard. And, uh, I also record my own audio separate. Um, I did try to ask guests to do their own audio as well and have varied success with that.
People like even though you’ve asked them to, they don’t always get it together to be set up for it. So luckily, so far, we’ve not had any mishaps with, with StreamYard. Um, I tend to, one thing that isn’t ideal is because I’m going to use footage of me mostly from my cameras. So what I tend to do onStreamYard is make them full screen so that if I cut to it, it’s just then the only tricky bit about that is that then they can’t see me.
They can only see themselves. So it feels a little weird for them at first sometimes but yeah, it’s been good. And then I tend to have one camera front on kind of a slightly, you know, with a nice framing, with a nice background, the laptop, the whole thing. Then I have a camera slightly off just there, which is, um, kind of more of a closeup of just me and the, and the laptop and the mic.
Um, and then the third camera that I’ve gone with. [00:27:00] Is kind of behind me over there, zoomed in just on the screen. Oh, nice. So you can kind of see that the laptop is kind of floating on this little stand and you see the screen. So it’s um, yeah, it’s, I haven’t actually put out the second series yet. I’m just sort of starting to do the recordings for it. So I’m kind of experimenting with it, you know, and just sort of seeing what. You know, what, what some different formats are.
K.Lee Marks: [00:27:23] Yeah. It’s like, um, that storytelling coming through the, over the shoulder shot, it’s it definitely starts to bring you into the conversation in a different way than even us. Right now. I just have the two zoom videos. Um, you know, I’m always thinking about the listeners here at various levels. Maybe they’re audio only, maybe they they’re just getting into video or just new to podcasting in general. What would you say is a good first place to start? If they w if someone’s doing audio only and they want to go to start implementing video, like, obviously the computer has a web cam and stuff, but if they want it to go just a little bit above that, what would you recommend? How could they get started?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:27:58] Yeah, I would recommend. So if you look at Russell brand’s content, he only has one camera. So there’s just one camera. It’s just slightly off to the side. It’s sort of zoomed in, so you can kind of mainly see him, but you you’re very, it’s very clear and evident that he’s looking at the screen.
So he’s not looking at the camera it’s just slightly off. And, and then, you know, the, the main trick then is just being able to find a sync point, you know, to sync up your main clip with that other camera. So some people will know of this, but if people don’t it’s just before you start, like, once you’re recording is just to do a nice big clap where you’re, your clap is visible on both cameras and obviously it creates a spike in the audio.
So then when you bring it into the editing program, you can kind of match it up. And then the two clips should be in sync. One thing I will say is if it’s a long interview sometimes with. Zoom or StreamYard because it’s sometimes they’re variable frame rates because it’s adapting for people’s internet speeds and whatever else.
Sometimes over a long time, it can drift out a little bit the audio and the picture. So. Not to get too technical, but if you click on the clip and you unlink the, um, video and audio, you can just nudge the audio a little bit to get it back in sync and then relink it. Um, so that’s a little tip.
K.Lee Marks: [00:29:21] I love the technical tips. We are all about technical tips here because at the end of the day, many podcasters are doing their own editing and, you know, at least at some point in their journey. And it’s really good to know this stuff that the, the frame rate time drift thing has. Been a challenge to say the least but I’m looking for two in-person interviews.
It’s actually, I have experienced interviewing people, but not as a podcast, more as a documentary. And I’m looking forward to getting more of that. Does Evolving Door plan to do in person as well?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:29:54] Oh, definitely. Yeah. I I’d always initially hoped to be able to do it like that, but, um, [00:30:00] but not, you know, it’s been joined lockdown, although I will say one thing and you know, maybe listeners can kind of, uh, send in their thoughts if they are doing it. Like, especially if you’re trying to get, um, more well-known guests, um, you know, in an ideal world, like as far as I understand what say someone like Joe Rogan, he just sends him a plane ticket or sends them a car or whatever, and he has the budget to be able to bring them to him. But it’s, so I live in the Midlands of England.
Um, you know, so I don’t think I’m going to get people driving like two hours up from London to come and do it. So I’m going to have to be prepared to perhaps travel with a mobile kit and go and see them. So it’ll be interesting.
K.Lee Marks: [00:30:39] Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And I’m excited to see what season two holds. So I know you’ve been really working on this documentary and it’s coming out really soon and I would love to learn a little bit more. And for the listeners who, uh, you know, aren’t familiar with you or, or your work with be inspired films, um, could you just give us a little backstory about how the film started and then what, what is the documentary about and what what’s its goal?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:31:03] Definitely. And, you know, I know you’re in America. And so for the, for the U S listeners, uh, please stay tuned. I’m gonna, I’m gonna let you in on a date, which is coming up very soon, which is a us premiere for the film. So you’re only, you’ll be the first to be able to see it. So the film, I got a phone call basically about four years ago from a friend. And he said to me, Would you like to come on an 1800 kilometer, tuk tuk trip down the West coast of India? And I was like, yeah, that sounds fun. That sounds good. So it Tuk Tuk’s for anyone who doesn’t know where like these three wheel kind of rickshaws and motorized. And also if anybody doesn’t know the roads of India, man, like when we were doing the training for the, the driving of these TukTuk’s, the guy said to us, We don’t drive on the left-hand side of the road.
We drive on what’s left of the road and it’s so true. Like you have cows in the road dogs, you’ve got, um, tractors, you’ve got like trucks on the wrong side of the road. You know, coming up almost within meters of view and then swerving back in beeping the horns, it’s really chaotic and kind of crazy. Um, but I’ve been to India before. I kinda knew what I was letting myself in for. And I just, I was really excited about it. And, but then he said to me, you know, but we’re also doing it for like a cause where we’re trying to raise awareness and money for the school, which is in a small, rural village, four hours outside of Delhi called Vrindavan.
And I was like, yeah, I know when, when I was a monk, I actually lived there for a year. And he was like, wow. And so I was thinking, I haven’t been back there for 20 years. That would be awesome as well. Um, and he said, it’s for this, it’s actually for a girls school. And it’s because in India, many times girls don’t get the opportunity to go to school or to stay in school as much as boys. And there’s very sort of, um, strong gender stereotypes. And I thought, well, wow, I’ve always wanted to make, like most of our films [00:33:00] for clients are sort of short films and stuff. I’ve always wanted to make like a proper feature film, like a feature documentary. So this could be a really interesting topic.
So I took two, two camera guys with me, and my idea was, you know, instead of just being in a far away country and reading the headlines about this. I want to talk to people on the grounds that we meet on the way and ask them, what do they think about this? So, anyway, we headed off and we did the trip and it was awesome.
We were, it was such an adventure. And we went to the school in Vrindavan at the end, and we met these girls who were like super bright, you know, full of potential. You know, I remember sitting there with four of them. And one of them was saying, I want to be a police officer because I want to stop those people who force girls, uh, underage girls, like were 14 and 15 to get married, you know, and it cuts their, you know, their whole education and everything short.
And the other one said, I want to be an astronaut. I want to touch the sky. A girl can touch the sky, you know, things like this, and they’re just amazing. Um, and so I came back and I put together a trailer and, you know, lots of people were very sort of encouraging, but I had someone criticize me and they said, why would you be doing this as a man?
And I was like, a little taken aback at first, to be honest. Cause I hadn’t even really thought, like what difference would it make? If I’m a man, or I’m not, you know, I’m just interested in the study. So then I, but I really sort of, um, you know, started to think about it more deeply. And I started to reach out to people around the world who are working in this field.
And I said, I have a feeling that this kind of divisive thinking. Is part of the problem in the first place. And that actually, if we make, Oh, it’s only a women’s issue, that’s only, you know, um, I don’t know, uh, a person of color’s issue or whatever the thing is. Then in a way you sort of sideline it and you, you know, it’s actually a societal issue because society like groups within society, don’t operate in isolation, right?
We’re all interconnected. And especially men and women, you know, we live in families and communities and all the rest of it. So I thought, you know what? I want to go back to India again. And this time I don’t want to be stuck on like a, kind of a third, 300 miles a day routes. I want to go, you know, and visit like rural areas. I want to hang out and spend time with communities. I want to speak to fathers, brothers, mothers, you know, and hear from people about their stories. And I also want it to look at projects that we’re working with men and boys. Because if you think about it, if there’s a world where one particular group, whoever it is is feeling, um, suppressed or whatever it might be, then there’s obviously a mindset in place.
That thinks that that’s okay. You know? And so unless you can also dismantle or help people, you know, to evolve, I suppose their thinking on certain things, then it won’t really change. And I had a chat with a lady called, in New York. I was there on some work and I met her and she said this far out thing that just blew my mind.
She [00:36:00] said, sometimes you can empower someone into isolation. I was like, what do you mean? And she said, well, think about it. A rural village, you educate a girl. Now she has all these ideas about what’s possible for her life. She sees the world in a new way, but if you haven’t helped the community around her and her father and her brothers and stuff, to change their mindset in a way she’s almost worse off. Hmm. You know, and so I was like, wow. So then I really felt like, uh, so the film just naturally took its own course where, you know, it’s still very much about supporting, uh, girls. Um, but also acknowledging that part of that picture that we need to look at is how do we work with men and boys as well, and bring them into the conversation to try and effect again, it’s that sustainable change thing.
And so now it’s finished and it’s been nearly four years work. Um, COVID last year, it kind of knocked, uh, at the whole film festival circuit off a bit, but now it’s kind of back on track. We’ve got a whole bunch of partnerships screenings lined up for this year, but we’re really super over the moon to be selected by the San Louis Obispo International Film Festival, which is in California.
K.Lee Marks: [00:37:13] Wow. Congrats for that.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:37:15] Yeah, it was great. It was, it was great to see. And, so that’s one of the considered to be like, what are the top 50 festivals? So we were really proud of that and it’s the American Premiere. Um, and it’s people could watch it between March 9th and 14th. And I’m going to just quickly read out the,I mean, I know you can put it in the show notes, but if people-
K.Lee Marks: [00:37:38] Let’s read it out yeah.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:37:42] So www.SLOfilmfest.org. And the film is called Road to Vrindavan. And I would love for listeners to check it out.You know, I hope you, you know, enjoy it. I think what’s exciting for me is that, when I was making the film, it changed my life as well.
It’s actually helped me to be. Much more appreciative of, you know, the women in general, the women in my life it’s helped my life. My marriage it’s helps. It’s just been like a really kind of deeply nourishing experience for me. And, um, yeah, I hope I hope people will like it and I hope it will have some positive impact in the world.
K.Lee Marks: [00:38:29] I love this so much. And I mean, Vrindavan is an extraordinary place. India is an extraordinary place Vrindavan is an intense, extraordinary, magical place. And what it sounds like what you found. You know, you went there with one idea and then there’s an evolution that happened. So did the, did the story change, like when you went out to, to film this, did you have one thing in your mind? And then when, when it was done, it was like a different story or did you feel like you kind of had the story [00:39:00] from the beginning?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:39:01] I had the intention from the beginning, but the story evolved because in a way, the story of making the film became. Part of the story, if you know what I mean? So it’s about like, because I’m kind of in the film, so it’s like, you know, I’m going to India, I’m doing this thing. I want to understand this better. I’m speaking to people. I come back to the UK, I get this curve ball thrown at me and I go, you know what, like, am I going to give up or am I going to go no, you know what? Let’s go deeper. Let’s try and look at this from a new perspective. And that’s, that’s what I did, you know, thankfully for the story, I think it made it a better story.
Uh, it uncovered a new part of the story that the global story, if you’d like, that was brilliant, but it also meant that I, um, um, it became a really rich and rewarding experience for me rather than kind of, I could have got really discouraged and just stopped at that point.
K.Lee Marks: [00:39:56] Yeah.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:39:57] So I think, uh, and it kind of like the film. Follows that sort of,
K.Lee Marks: [00:40:02] it’s very hero’s journey. It’s very the abyss, right. Or the underworld of where we have to go through that challenge and hurdle to get to the, and that was that’s what makes a great story in the first place. So, so th th when you said empower someone into isolation, that felt really powerful, and I don’t want you to like, give away any spoilers or anything, but, um, I am curious about what you found could be done to help the men and boys understand. Uh, a different way of looking at things because you know, that their culture is one way. And then here’s this new idea that’s kind of coming out in all of India and the world, but, but now kind of making its way into rural villages and so I’m wondering like what, what, maybe you could talk a little bit about that.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:40:47] Yeah, I visited this amazing organization called ECF Equal Community Foundation, and they are one of the very few organizations that are working with boys. Um, and basically they, they said a couple of really powerful things. They said with boys, we’re not coloring them as the perpetrators, like the bad guys. And we’re also not positioning them as heroes, if they do, you know, do something great. We’re just trying to encourage this, uh, seeing them as equal partners so that when we, and they have courses and community programs, or they, they bring boys in and they do like awareness and, you know, sort of sensitization and then ultimately they kind of become ambassadors. And one boy that’s in the film, Shivraj. He was, you know, he’s not like a bad guy, but he was just like any young kid and not in that very kind of poor neighborhood of Pune. Um, and he would like hang out with his mates and sort of, you know, Eve tease, they call it there, but it’s kind of like, you know, sort of harass calling catcalling kind of, uh, girls, but you see for us in the West, we have to try and understand if that happened in the West.
You would just think it was unpleasant. In India from a cultural [00:42:00] perspective. If those girls are seen talking to those boys from a community perspective, it’s almost like those girls have done something terribly wrong and the girl will get the blame, even though there’s nothing to it. And then perhaps for the fear that she might get involved with some boys, whatever, the simple thing is, they just go, well, you’re not going out.
You, you stay in. And you can’t continue your education, you can’t do these things you want to do because in the house you’re safe. Right. You know, so, so you can see how, unfortunately the brunt of it often falls on the girl, even though, so they help these boys, like Shivraj to understand the implications of their behavior.
And that actually it’s not really, you know, kind or it’s having a much, they just think it’s fun. Right. But that there’s a bigger implication to it. And this, this, this chap Shivraj I actually just found out the other day that he’s now actually gone through his training and his school and everything. And now he’s actually working with ECF, which is so cool.
So he’s become like a, sort of a role model in the community. Um, but like it’s very deeply ingrained. Like if a boy tries to help out at home, his mother will tell him no, put that brush down. You don’t, the boys should never have to do any house work. You know, it’s just not the roles, you know? It’s just, I mean, it’s and the funny thing is, is, you know, these things are there in the West too.
Maybe not as sort of extreme. But the, the gender stereotypes are there. And it’s funny in the film, like my wife also talks and she sort of talks about the irony of a lot of this is that actually, we had very gender stereotype roles in our own marriage and making this film has been a journey for us to wow.
And how kind of we’ve like sat down and. I I’ve kind of, we’ve had to address the fact that I’m like always working and it’s like, you know, that the house and the kids and everything, that’s your thing. And, you know, maybe she hasn’t felt appreciated or supported and, you know, it’s, we’re all dealing with these things in one way or another.
And something that I’m hopeful for, with the film is that people don’t externalize the issues. As in, Oh, isn’t it really bad that in that far away third world place, that these terrible things happen. But, you know, like where people can sometimes do that. Right. And it’s more like, no wow isn’t it really interesting that how these things are playing out, I wonder how that might be relevant in my life. You know what I mean? Even if it’s different. So like what’s different, what’s the same.
K.Lee Marks: [00:44:34] It’s just, I’m hearing, it’s a story for everyone, even though it’s about a remote village, what you found is in your own marriage, there is so many gems that you took away from that whole journey, uh, that, that enriched your own partnership and help give you a new awareness or perspective on things.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:44:49] A hundred percent. Yeah. A hundred percent,
K.Lee Marks: [00:44:51] but an incredible project. And so when, when is that premiering?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:44:56] So in America, it’s premiering March 9th at [00:45:00] the SLO Film Fest and it goes through the 14th. So for four or five days people can watch it. It’s obviously an online festival in the times that we’re in.
So I really encouraged, especially in American audience to try and catch it then if you’re listening to this podcast later than that, if you go to Roadtovrindavan.com. Throughout this this year, 2021 we’re going to be doing various screenings and you’ll be able to catch the links there. Anyone who is listening as well. If they have like an organization or a community or a network, and they’d like to organize a partnership screening for the film so they could share it with their network. Um, then we have this cool platform we’re using where we can like literally set that up in minutes and then they can share it with the network and their whole network gets to watch it on their own kind of like micro-site.
Sometimes people have a panel discussion and a Q&A afterwards, like we’ve found two types of people like to do it. One is a kind of a community where they work in and in some of the issues related to the phone or the other type of person is just someone who thinks, you know, I think my audience would really like this.
And, you know, they, they put it on and they let them know about it. And then people can watch the film in a kind of a community kind of vibe. So yeah, if anyone, um, feels like they’d like to do that, then definitely reach out to me through the Roadtovrindavan.com website it’d be awesome. Then it sounds like a watch party, right?
K.Lee Marks: [00:46:28] It’s like a watch party.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:46:29] Yeah. For your kind of your gang, your crew, and, um, It’s a, it’s a sort of a way to reach lots of a big audience by lots of smaller audiences, if you like.
K.Lee Marks: [00:46:40] Yeah. Okay. I love this. I love this. This is sort of that like splinter cell, uh, having different, uh, non-centralized people, guerrilla marketing. It’s awesome. This is great though. And that, and I think this is how we create massive impact is we have to build communities that are sustained and can spread messages and communicate with each other. And, yeah. Wonderful. That’s so cool. Thanks for inviting the audience to that.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:47:03] No worries man
K.Lee Marks: [00:47:04] and I’ll put all those links in the show notes as well. Uh, and right now there is there a trailer out that people can, can view publicly?
Ravinol Chambers: [00:47:10] Yeah. So if you go to Roadtovrindavan.com, there’s a trailer there there’s some great reviews. Also, I should mention some of your listeners might have heard of Malala. So Malala was the girl that got shot by the Taliban in Pakistan for standing up for her right to, to pursue education.
And she, of course, nearly died. She ended up living in Birmingham, which is near where I live. And when I was looking at this whole thing of how, you know, the importance of men in, in this conversation, I thought of her father and I reached out to him and he’s in the film, actually, he speaks. Um, and, and I’ve since become friends with them and, and they’ve been around their house quite a lot, and you know, it’s an amazing story. You know, he tells how he grew up in Pakistan. He had six sisters. He and his [00:48:00] brother were educated and given all facility and his sisters got no education and he made a vow at that time. If I ever become a father to a daughter, I am not going to be like that.
I’m going to be different. Wow. And he did. And he obviously created an environment where Malala. Malala is brilliant. I mean, she’s truly brilliant, but he created an environment where she believed that anything was possible for her and that she could, you know, speak out and fulfill her potential. And, you know, she’s now probably the most famous person on the whole planet for standing up for girls, uh, education.
So. What a, what an awesome combination. The two of them,
Oh my goodness. I feel inspired. And I feel like your agency’s really well-named Be Inspired, you know? And, uh, this documentary sounds extraordinary. I’m definitely going to catch it. I encourage all of my listeners to go check out the trailer. And if it’s a, if it’s premiering, catch it online again, those links will be in the show notes.
K.Lee Marks: [00:49:03] Um, Ravinol, as we’re winding down, I want to just, you know, Open it up. If there’s anything else that you would like to offer my audience or a final closing thought, anything. I’d love to hear that. Hm.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:49:17] I think especially in the times that we’re in right now, Um, you know, where it can be quite, um, confusing, you know, we’re in the era of fake news and sort of, it seems like a lot of the fear based thinking is kind of creeping back in and people are kind of dividing themselves into camps and, you know, it’s quite a divisive times.
I think the kind of closing message of the film is like really, really important that. I think we need to reach across the kind of apparent, divides and differences between us and try to, you know, we’re not all the same, but connect on the essential, you know, uh, things that bring us together, like the, the humanity, and also to seek to understand those who are different from you because, we are kind of stuck here together, all of us.
So, um, you know, if we really do want to try to create a better world that we can all share, then I think we need to kind of seek to understand those who are different from us and, and try, and sort of look at things in a collective manner as best we can. No as best we can.
K.Lee Marks: [00:50:36] Yeah. Beautiful. Beautifully said beautifully said, I, I feel that so strongly in my heart and I feel a lot of inspiration hearing about, uh, your journey of discovery doing the documentary and how it affected your own family. And especially as a male in this society. I know I have a lot to look at and a lot to learn and a lot of things that I’m not able to even [00:51:00] perceive, uh, from the viewpoints of others.
And so I feel like documentaries, like this are so important messages like that are so important to reach across the divide. I mean, I think we’re seeing in the U.S. Politically, like, honestly, I’m just being upfront here. I’m like, I vote, I voted Democrat often. Um, but I’m not very happy about the emails I get from them.
Kratz from Nancy Pelosi saying stuff like we got to stop the Republicans and it’s, so it’s like talk about storytelling. The story they’re telling is of a, of a bad guy villain, and it’s like, we are all humans and yes, there’s psychopaths. There’s broken people. There’s hurt people, but we are all souls.
We’re all human beings, living beings. And, um, I personally feel your message of. Connecting with people who might think differently than us, who might view differently and see what’s what’s available. So Ravinol from my heart to yours, it has been absolutely wonderful to speak with you and learn a bit about your documentary and, uh, if people would want to work with you, what’s the best way that they could get in touch with you.
Ravinol Chambers: [00:52:02] Yeah, I guess, um, people can definitely reach out and catch me on all the social media platforms. Personally, it’s @Ravinol for businesses at Be Inspired films for the film it’s Roadtovrindavan.com. But if you go to the beinspiredfilms.co.uk website, you can ping me an email there. And I’m always, uh, very, excited to speak to people.
Who’ve got, you know, important and positive messages to share and if we can help, uh, that would be great. And even if people just want to reach out to me on a personal level, um, I always try to, you know, make time to connect with people. I think it’s, um, it’s kind of important. We, we can always be too busy, right.
But if I can always try and, you know, make time to, for people to reach out.
K.Lee Marks: [00:52:48] Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that to you. Uh, you gave me that timer, uh, last time we spoke and that set us up for this wonderful interview. So again, thank you so much for your time. That was so awesome. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of beyond air.
I hope you enjoyed it and are now one step closer to turning on your mic and broadcasting your message to the world. Are you ready to start your own podcast and amplify your brand? Or are you struggling to get your show in front of engaged audiences? I can help you on your broadcasting journey. Get in touch with me and apply for a strategy session.
If you want to discuss your podcast idea, you can reach www.Podcast-farm.com and then all the social media until next time, my friends I’m K.Lee Marks. Thanks for tuning in to Be On Air.
