The L.A.B on tour to Tiree
Post categories: Audio and video clips
| 10:49 UK time, Monday, 2 August 2010
While I'm stuck in the office, enjoying the so-called summer, some of my lucky colleagues have been working out and about. Here's some Hebridean highlights from Johanna Hall, Project Leader of the L.A.B.
A first, travelling to the and not being sea sick! According to the ship's officer it wasn't too windy really... hey, call me a land lover but gale force 5 seemed windy enough to be filming in, from where I was blowing about. So it was with hoods up and being wind beaten we first caught a glimpse of this island gem on camera. I have to confess to being a bit biased here as I have roots on this small island. I played on the sandy beaches on holiday as a small child... oh yes and was seasick on a regular basis on the boat journey.
The L.A.B, which runs digital media workshops with all kinds of groups, was reaching out further than we have ever done. Tiree was just underway with their when we joined them. The Feis movement celebrates Gaelic culture and music, the island of Tiree has both in abundance. The local doctor, , who organises the event in Tiree had found us some wonderful people to work with including the tireless Iain MacKinnon.
LJ and I were going to spend two days working with young people to make their own short films. The mission was to make two films, one in Gaelic and one in English. Then edit the films so they could be shown at the island's new cinema... more of which later.
The young people, a mixture of locals and visitors, were all happy to be both in front of and behind the camera. Several of the young folk were bilingual so we had a fairly easy task when it came to finding presenters. The person who always had the most difficult task was the person who was holding the boom... Tiree when windy is a sound recorder's nightmare (no surprise it has few trees). The wind also meant I looked like Worzel Gummidge on the hair front for most of our trip!
The film the group chose to make was 'What is there to do on Tiree for young people?'... and there's more than you might think. We had a great couple of days, which saw us working with horses on the beach (the filming schedule went a bit to pot at this point because filming with animals always takes longer than you think... but for your information filming with hedgehogs takes longer than filming with horses!) Filming some dance sequences needed a bit more time, I mean you couldn't predict being whisked off for an Canadian Barn dance just before you press the record button... well it would have been rude to refuse, wouldn't it? Also having to be reminded to "watch the time" (again) as you have just been 'forced' to stop and film yet another glorious beach ("You get used to looking at beaches like this every day" I'm told... I don't believe a word of it).
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Our crew worked very hard to create their films, which were favourably received by the islanders at their new cinema. Our new films played along side archive footage, of Tiree. The new cinema, which is just about to officially open, also functions as the cattle auction ring. I gave a short speech from the side of the cattle weighbridge (too close for comfort there). Tiree should be very proud to have so many young potential film makers in their midst... hopefully the films the young people made won't be the last they share with their local audience.
The L.A.B team also spent two days working with an adult group on the island on a longer project called Seaside Stories. In that film the group looked at the landscape of the island past, present and future. The film the adults made deals with the changes which they see in their island... but that's a whole other story which will be revealed later in the month.
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