Torch demonstration (Thursday evening)

A few hours before the banquet in honour of the Nobel Laureate a demonstration was taken place. This ritual consists of walking from the Market square to the Grand Hotel - where the laureate spends his or her time in Oslo- with torches in order to say hello to him or her. This year the expectation was massive, there were approximately 1000 people and all of them had the same goal: see the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 2009: Mr Obama. It was really difficult for us to film properly because everyone was pushing us, the place was totally full.
There we met a spanish journalist who was in Oslo just for holidays. She talked with us about the managing of the Nobel Foundation and she complained that with Obama as the 2009 Laureate the Foundation wasn't ready to manage the big amount of journalists who asked for an application.
The feeling outside of the Grand Hotel was amazing, people were very excited. Suddenly, everyone started to shout because Obama was appearing on the balcony, after that everyone started to leave except a few activists and curious people. This was a good opportunity for us to film them and also we talked with a german activist woman. She supports the Women International League for Freedom and Peace and she told us very interesting things, for example she suggested that Obama should send someone from the american peace movement in order to show that the engagement for peace is from America as a whole.
It was a hardworking day and we grabbed to improve our english. Back to the hostel we got really beautiful images of Oslo at Christmas.

Getting in touch with Norwegian people (10th December)

We organized ourselves in groups of two people in order to get more successful results. Thus, Lorena and me were supposed to be in touch with people on the street, analyzing what was going on in the area around the City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony was taking place. At 11.00 am, we arrived to the harbour in where was placed a huge screen broadcasting the ceremony live. From there, people were able to watch the preparations of the Nobel Ceremony. Guests started to arrive to the City Hall about noon and from our position we could see celebrities such as Will Smith with his family or the Royal Norwegian family.
Close to the starting time, about 500 people had gathered at the meeting point. Many curious people approached because of the media and security deployment. The expected event started just after Obama's and his wife's arrival. During the ceremony, we interviewed people of different ages and genders. Most of them agreed with what media has argued during the last weeks, that is to say, it is still early to be awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. Soon, we realised that people didn't remember who was rewarded last year with this Nobel, so we started to raise the possibility of Obama's Nobel as a marketing product. In general, people agreed with that but most of them considered themselves Obama's supporters.
A few minutes before the end of the event, people moved to the main door of the City Hall expecting to see the departure of the US President. It was really funny to fight with journalists and security guards in order to get closer to the first raw. Once the guests left the area, we met our mates and decided to take a break for a coffee. It was a long morning and we were really frozen.

Images from the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony 2009

From the Press Centre (Oslo)

Yesterday we left Kingston at 1am. Our trip to the airport was quickly and lucky. We arrived to Stansted about 4.30 am and started getting frames of some of the airport zones (such as the panel of deartures and “Welcome to Stansted Airport”. Then we had problems with the luggage, so we had to pay 35 pounds per person. We got very angry but the situation got better when we arrived to Oslo at 10 am.

While We were going out from the bus station, we saw a group of people who were hanging a banner in a bridge. We started speaking to them. They were against Obama's price and wanted a meeting with the press. Where? In the same hostel which we were staying in!

Afterwards, we came to the Press Center, which is in an elegant hotel besidethe Royal Palace. We came in very nervous, but we easily got our accreditations!

Now, we are seating down with many hard worker journalists as us. After lunch, we will go to our hostel to meet anti-war people and interview them.


Finally, we have decided not to go to all the institutional gatherings (such as Obama's and Prime Minister meeting) and focus on alternative demonstrations, especially the one which takes place on 10 th December at 6 pm and which will conclude with an alternative Peace concert to celebrate Carolina's birthday.

Second meeting (23rd November)

Last Monday, we met to discuss the information we had searched during the week and to agree on how we are going to focus each topic. In addition, we decided to search information about Obama’s action on Iran, environment and Afghanistan troops.
Cristina will have to contact any International Law teacher for an interview about the legal problems of closing Guantanamo Bay.
Next weekend, we expect to be able to film interviews with people who will be asked about this year Nobel Peace Price winner and last year award. That is to investigate if the Nobel Price Committee’s decision was marketing or not, depending on people’s answers.
On Friday, we will download any material we need (such as videos and audios) to start editing and also we will sketch the script.