If you live tweet from a bird hide does anyone care? How can you capture nature as and when it’s happening? Can you create a story around something that may or may not even be there?
This Easter I challenged myself to try social reporting from the caperwatch 2013 at RSPB Loch Garten.
Social reporting is about capturing an event from the inside using audio, video and photos.
Caperwatch is about waking up at 4am to see if you can spot a big black turkey like bird dancing, while peering through the window of a little wooden hut on the side of a loch.
The bird I’m talking about is the capercaillie and here’s how I got on: Watch to the video on youtube here
I interviewed Richard Thaxton from the RSPB to ask why we have to get up so early to see the capercaillie dancing, here’s what he said: Watch the video on youtube here
On the way and during the caperwatch I live tweeted some photos, here’s a couple from the car
We watched the sunrise from the hide, wow!:
This is the osprey EJ, taken through a telescope with my phone on the eyepeice:
Can you spot the red squirrel in this shot?:
But the bird didn’t dance. Does that matter? We also went to see golden eagles but they didn’t fly in:
I didn’t mind and the things we did see were beautiful. Getting up at 4am was worth it just to see the sunrise. Eagles would have been a bonus but mountains were enough.
Life can be a bit like that sometimes, you don’t always find what we’re looking for, things don’t always turn out how you planned but if you didn’t look for things in the first place you’d never see the wonderful things there are to see along the way.
Just wanted to point out the kindest way to watch a capercaillie is in the loch garten hide. The capercaillie are critically endangered and when they dance every day they sometimes just drop dead. Bob till they drop. If you go looking for them in the wild and one sees you it will dance to defend itself. The purpose of dancing (or leking) is to attract a mate and you are not that. You will be wasting the poor birds energy and it could be enough to push that bird over the edge. Please let him save the last dance.
At the beginning of 2012 I was feeling a little bit nervous about the year ahead so I wrote my first annual general review. I’d just left the security of a permanent job to become a full-time freelancer and I didn’t know how things would work out. I hoped looking back would give me some confidence.
This year it’s different; I’m beginning the year with warmth. Quite literally – there’s a wood burning stove crackling away beside me. It’s new and I love it. I don’t have central heating so I’ve spent the last five winters feeling a little cold. Now, at last! I can afford to be a bit warmer.
I’m beginning 2013 with an inner warmth too. Perhaps it’s an assurance that things do work out when you step out in faith. Or a warmth that says it’s worth making sacrifices to pursue the things you really feel called to do.
I’m not long back from Kidscreen in New York. It’s a big children’s TV market (I wrote about it here) full of people from all over the world with ideas. They‘re there because they want to make something beautiful and something they believe in. It reminded me that life really is too short not to go for it!
And now to look back over 2012, here are my highlights. Click on the links to read more.
Children’s TV Commissions
Writing 5 new series treatments for CBeebies science show Nina and the Neurons
Greener Leith Zero Waste Podcast series (12 ten minute podcasts to engage people to reduce waste – I finished the last of these in 2012). Funded by the Waste Action Grant.
I was almost physically sick before my first comedy performance. I was so nervous but I actually really enjoyed it once we got started -the audience were fab. Here’s a Chris Scott photo to prove I really did it (thanks Chris). Find previous and upcoming gigs here.
For the Love of It (Voluntary Work)
Commissioned by Artist Alastair Cook as one of twenty poets to write a piece of flash fiction for his PechaKucha film project ‘Twenty Second Film Poem‘
Cycled down Leith Walk with camera attached to my bike basket to make an Indiana Jones style adventure film about the terrible potholes.
Wrote my last blog for Greener Leith in August 2012 after 2 years of volunteering (70 blogs in total!).
Organised some get-togethers for freelancers called Freelance Friday
Wrote my first stop frame animation script as part of a call for submissions on the theme of ‘The Library at Night’. It was selected to be performed at the Portobello Book Festival Opening Event.
Helped to lead a weekly community group in Leith (that’s ongoing)
Continued as trustee of the Speygrian Education Trust (artists, scientist, writers and educators interested in outdoor learning) and helped them to set up twitter and Facebook
I was one of 12 writers to be selected to take part in the CBBC Lab, a competitive entry training course on how to write for CBBC run over 4 days by the Scottish Book Trust and BBC Scotland. It was brilliant.
Olympics related poetry job with West Lothian Council
To get mentoring with The Scottish Book Trust
Internet dating
This is just to point out I’m definitely not successful at everything. There are plenty of things I hope for but I keep learning and trying. I applied for 2 residences before I got the one I’m doing now at the library but this one is just perfect for me so it goes to show things often work out for the best in the end.
People Who Really Inspired Me
Elspeth Murray, a wonderful freelance poet. My poetry mentor and friend.
Peter Hynes, a brilliant screenwriter and creative thinker. My screenwriting mentor
Josh Selig, creative genius and President of Little Airplane Productions. Encourager.
Sara Harkins, Head of BBC Scotland Children’s. Sara is wonderful.
I want to thank the people above as well as everyone I’ve worked with in 2012. Also to my friends and family and to everyone who’s supported me on this journey – you’ve been amazing!
2013: What’s ahead?
The good news is I’m booked up with commissions and projects until early September. So far I’ve completed my tax return, got a stove put in and I’ve been to New York to pitch some kids’ TV shows for Visible Ink Television.
I’m working 2.5 days a week at Leith Library as Reader in Residence. Over the next few months I’ll be writing the Leith Library blog and working with teenagers to make podcasts about young adult fiction. I’ll also be supporting the library staff as they get blogging too.
The library part of my residency finishes in June and then I have three months where I still get paid but I do my own practice. What’s that? Well… I’m considering:
Starting a series of science related young adult novels; I have 13 planned.
Rewriting my first attempt at a sitcom using feedback from the BBC and screenwriter Adrian Mead
Writing picture books. I showed drafts of a science series idea to Agent Lucy Juckes in 2012 so I’ll work on her suggestions.
Cycling around Scottish Libraries on a ‘Banana Me Beautiful on a Bike’ book tour. My paperback should be out by then and I’d like to go on a journey and help to promote positive mental health.
This March (a sample month):
I start working as a digital storyteller with older people in Govan for the Britain from Above Project - can’t wait for that!
I’m writing some episodes on commission for CBeebies (that’s secret – will blog about it when I can).
I’m visiting Flora Stevenson Primary P1 classes for their Book Week – hurrah for children!
I’m working for Third Sector Lab to create audio and video content and run a training session for the 2013 Poverty Assembly. Ross is brilliant, looking forward to working with him again and on something so worthwhile.
I’m working with P6 and P7 in Mid Lothian to help them to create Haikus for their litter bins (for the Scottish Poetry Library).
I’m developing and pitching some ideas to promote fish in nurseries on commission from Seafish (the fishing industry) with writer John Stoddart.
One of my best friends gets married in September, so can’t wait for that (and I need to organise a hen do).
Hopes for 2013
I’m hoping to do the Great North Swim in the Lake District in June with my friend Judith. I hate wearing a swimming costume and I figured training will force me to overcome that fear. Plus I’ve never been to the Lake District and I like Judith. I also ate too much chocolate over Christmas. And exercise helps with creativity. I’m trying to talk myself into this!
I’ve written four children’s TV science shows so I’ll be pitching them to channels and independent production companies in 2013. I’ve especially enjoyed working with puppeteer Josh Elwell (and Bounce) on one of these shows so I do hope we make it!
Hopes for the Future….. I want
to encourage others.
to have an ideas box that I add to throughout the year.
to make one day a week my day for writing.
to write a list of things I’m thankful for every night.
to go walking more.
to start painting again.
I don’t want to EVER stop doing things that scare me.
And One Day..
I’d like to write an episode of Doctor Who and a bunch of books and some screenplays. I’d like to live in an eco home in the mountains with a cat and a man and perhaps some kids.
Finally a few numbers from 2012….
Blog posts on this blog (40), Blog posts produced for Leith Library (30), blog posts produced for Greener Leith(8), Dog Poo and Litter Films made (6), guest blogs I wrote (4), Cocktail naming competitions won (1) and I attended 4 weddings and a funeral.
It took place during the last week of November. It was the first national celebration of reading in Scotland. I had to be in my post as Scottish Book Trust Reader in Residence at Leith Library in time to promote it. It was the wonderful ‘Book Week Scotland’.
This post is about how we planned and delivered Book Week Scotland at Leith Library. We used audio, photos, videos, facebook, twitter, blogging, one on one conversations in the community and events.
Also I should say Rebecca Gordon from STV interviewed me and wrote a lovely feature ‘Leith’s Reader in Residence spreads the word for Book Week’, read it here.
Planning
We wanted to engage with as many new people as possible. We decided the best way to do that was to go to them so we planned visits into the community of Leith every day.
We also planned a week of events to get people into the library, the timetable is here.
In the weeks before Book Week we started telling people about what was coming on the Leith Library blog. I went to the Book Week Scotland press launch and interviewed the head of programme, Sophie Moxon. Here’s the blog. I also had chance to interview some of the league of Extraordinary Book lovers. Find the blog here, it includes a video of the youngest member of the league, 5 year old Edward.
We invited authors who write about Leith to share their work in the library at an event we called Memories of Leith. We featured each of the three writers on the blog ahead of Book Week to engage with people who were interested in the history of Leith as well as people interested in reading. Click on the links below to find out more about the Authors and listen to them sharing their work in audio trailers:
At the end of each of these blogs we invited people to come to our Memories of Leith event.
I ran a workshop on storytelling with audio and video at the Social Media for Social Good Conference in Glasgow on the Friday before Book Week. I was able to tell people about what we were doing and what was coming. The workshop was live streamed too. Read about it and watch a video of the workshop here.
We visited to the Bingo, Sofi’s Bar, The Kirkgate Shoping Centre, Stein’s Garage, The Cats Protection League, Destiny Church, Leith Victoria Primary School, Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre, The Kirkgate Barbers, Alien Rock Climbing Wall, Leith Victoria Gym and The Haven Cafe.
We engaged with people and found out what they loved reading. We gave them free books, we took photos of them with their free books and made videos. We told them about our blog, facebook and twitter. We gave flyers to people to invite them to our Memories of Leith event on the Saturday.
A few of our visit locations were pre planned – we needed permission to be at Ocean Terminal, Alien Rock, Leith Victoria Primary School, Mecca Bingo and the Kirkgate Shopping Centre. The rest of the visits were spontaneous and that was part of the fun of it all. This video was made during a spontaneous visit to Leith Victoria, it was one of my favourite parts of Book Week. Watch the video on youtube.
We challenged the knitting group to knit their own scotland. We asked five year olds what books they liked in our local primary school (after making crocodiles with them). We had a Book Cafe, a Veggie Market and Bookbug’s 6th birthday party at the library.
The Challenge
I had to upload and blog as much content as possible in real time but still needed to head out and about every day to collect and create new content. We had a rota so different library advisors could come with me to help every day, they were brilliant. The library advisors also came up with good ideas for places we could visit to engage with genuine Leithers. It was a challenge but we did it and I got much faster at blogging and editing.
On top of Book Week I somehow ended up with social engagements every night. On the Thursday a wood buring stove unexpectedly got delivered at my house just when I arrived at the library so I had to head straight back home to heave it up the stairs. My Mum arrived later on that day for a long weekend too. I left her some keys in a cafe and met her later that evening, she didn’t mind. Looking back I’m really glad I did go out – it forced me to have a break. I know I would have worked every waking hour if I could, there was so much to cover in a limited time.
The Results
So how did it all go? Well we gave out hundreds of books to people in Leith and talked to each one of them about reading.
We engaged with people online too. We built up a couple of hundred new twitter followers and got loads more people signed up to our blog. We also had more likes for posts on the blog and on facebook compared to usual. The blog had over 500 visitors during book week so we were pleased with that.
The Scottish Book Trust did an amazing job of supporting and sharing all of the events going on throughout book week. I loved being part of something bigger, something national.
It was heartily encouraging to get their tweets and emails along the way too. Especially from Digital Marketing Co-ordinator, Danny. He emailed us to say we were the best social media contributor to Book Week in the whole of Scotland so that was a wonderful news.
We enjoyed it, we engaged with new people and we raised the profile of the library. We encouraged people to read and that’s what it’s all about. That’s why I’m working as a Reader in Residence
You can see all the pictures we took during Book Week Scotland in our Facebook Album. Read more about Book Week on the Leith Library blog by clicking on the links below:
Here are some quotes about our memories of Leith event:
From Twitter:
Very enjoyable hour – could have run for two, easily. Loved it. Thanks! Vicki Jarrett
Marianne Paget read her v.impressive”Leith,1974″ from “My Favourite Place”. Malcolm Chisholm MSP
Aunty Sue (87) was thrilled to be at the Memories of Leith event. It was the 1st library event she’s been to, she loved it and is looking forward to more. She said “You’re never too old to have new experiences,” Marianne Wheelaghan.
From evaluation forms:
Excellent, thanks so much. Can we have more?
I loved this event – I used to cry when I was little if the library was shut and I could not change my books. I never find time to read much now but I will really try – also I would like to write down memories of my grandparents.
By Email:
I really did enjoy my time at the library…. thank you again for all you did. You are a star. My family love the blog!!! Author Millie Gray
And a more general one from Elspeth Murray that made us smile:
What’s next?
I’ve been in post for 3 months now so it’s time for me to report to the Scottish Book Trust on what I’ve been doing. I record all of my hours and work in a spreadsheet so I’ll send that.
I’ve 6 months to go at the library and I’m excited about what’s coming up. We’ve got a blog about a Leith heron from Author Lari Don. Our library advisor, Linda is going to be reviewing baking books. We’ve got a three part blog special on the history of Leith with Millie Gray. Our book group are going to start blogging book reviews next year and I’ll be working with teenagers to make podcasts about young adult fiction.
On Christmas eve we judge our Festive Furballs competion. If you’ve not heard about it do check it out. We’ve had photos sent in of a gerbil, a pony, a rare amphibian and even a deceased badger all in Christmas gear. It makes me smile on a daily basis! Find the photos on facebook here or read about it on the blog here.
Lastly I’ve been asked to lead the reader development session at the CILIPS (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Conference in June 2013. I’m totally honoured and a little nervous but really looking forward to it.
Leith has a litter and dog poo problem but these films don’t focus on the problem. Behaviour change research shows rewarding people for good behaviour is more effective than fining people for bad so we’re celebrating the positive here in Leith and focusing on the solution.
Watch the local Environmental Wardens present prizes to people who pick up after their dogs and put litter in the bin below. Find out more about the making of after that.
Love Leith 1: Dog owners rewarded for picking up poo on Leith Links (watch it on youtube here):
Love Leith 2: Janet wins a cream tea in the Kirkgate for binning her litter (watch it on youtube here)
Love Leith 3 (Mary picks up after aero the dog and gets a rewardwatch it on youtube here)
Love Leith 4: Shore smoker gets a reward from Mimis for binning litter (watch it on youtube here)
Love Leith Extra: Megan from Little Remis cafe sings praises of pocket ashtrays (watch it on youtube here)
Planning
The idea for the project came from Greener Leith’s Ally Tibbitt, his idea was to reward good behaviour with prizes from local businesses. The idea was so good it won funding from L£ith Decides.
After we secured the funding I approached local businesses to ask them to donate prizes. Mimi’s Bakehouse, A1 Pets and the Haven Cafe were all delighted to take part. We already had tickets coming from the Royal Yatch Britania thanks to Ally so I just needed to pick those up.
I filmed quick thank you clips with each of the local businesses while I was collecting prizes. I also bought some sparkly envelopes to put the prizes in too, to make it like the oscars.
Filming
I spent an afternoon filming with local Environmental Wardens Paul and Kevin. We met up and headed to the litter and dog poo hot spots of Leith. We needed to catch the action when it happened.
We had a problem, what if the dogs we saw just didn’t poo on camera? We kept seeing guide dogs and unfortunately for us guide dog owners don’t have to pick up.
Suddenly I saw a dog squatting in the distance. When the owner went towards it to pick it up I sprinted across Leith links with my camera shouting triumphantly “he’s picking it up!”. That’s him in the first video above. After that they just kept on pooing.
I had some disguises for the wardens to wear and some christmas gear for the Christmas special (see love leith 4 above).
Editing
I loved editing the films – especially timing it so a dog’s mouth opened in time with the woofs in the music composed by Sam Gallagher. The Warden’s had a good senses of humour, it really was a pleasure to work with them.
Afterwards
Since that first afternoon the Wardens have given out a prize every day and they’ve been sending me highly entertaining emails documenting people’s reactions when they’re given a prize.
I’m delighted to be part of this innovative project. You can read more about it on the Greener Leith website here.
I’m excited to be running a ‘Social Reporting: Storytelling with Audio and Video’ workshop at Scotland’s third sector social media conference, Social Media for Social Good.
Social Media for Social Good is a day of expert talks and workshops to help charities, community groups and social enterprises get the most out of social media.
The conference takes place on 22nd November in Glasgow and it’s being run by Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector (GCVS) in partnership with Third Sector Lab and Be Good Be Social.
It looks great! I’m looking forward to finding out more about Martha Payne’s Mary’s Meals blog and getting top tips from the tweeting Policeman. I’ve posted the programme below.
Bookings can be made for via the Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector (GCVS) website.
Last night we ran the second community media workshop at Stockbridge Library, hosted by the North Edinburgh News (NEN). I’m delivering the project in partnership with Broadcaster and Journalist Tom Allan. The project is called NENgage.
We’re working with active citizens and community groups in the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership (see the map here). We’re training participants to blog, to make videos, to collect and share statistics, to build an online community and to raise funds online. We’re running six workshops essentially helping people to become digital storytellers in North Edinburgh. The whole project is funded by the Neighbourhood Partnership Grants.
How did it go?
We had a full house with eighteen in total including representatives from Jack and Jill Market, Edinburgh Women’s Aid, Inverleith Youth Forum, The Scottish Peer Education Network, Blackhall Nursery, The City of Edinburgh Council, LGBT Youth Scotland and Warriston Residents Association. The second session included the Botanic Gardens, Broughton High School and Oaklands Special School. Active citizens came along to both workshops. I enjoyed seeing so many different types of people working together to learn to share stories online.
We used feedback from the first session to improve things for the second session. Here’s it is:
We made sure we had more time for the practical blogging exercise for the second workshop.
North Edinburgh News board member Thomas Brown wrote a post about the first session from his perspective here and Tom Allan wrote a more detailed blog post about it here. Since it’s already been covered so well I’ll try and write a bit about the background to the project, how you go about creating digital storytelling workshops, how you get people to come along and how I got involved in the first place.
Planning
Initially I met with Tom and we had fun coming up with ideas for each of the sessions from scratch, we gave them interesting titles and thought of engaging and memorable ways to deliver the practical skills and information. For example for the video blogging workshop we decided to send out a video flash mob.
Storytelling
When I run storytelling training I include exercises to give people confidence and highlight the skills they already have, with this in mind, we asked people to bring an image of something that matters to them in their community for the first workshop. I asked a couple of people to talk about their image and others contributed comments and questions. Here’s Ellie talking about Little Blue Bike at the first session:
It very naturally turned into a discussion and I stepped back. Afterwards I explained they had been blogging, they were telling a story with an image and responding to feedback. The exercise demonstrated they already had the skills to blog. Then I handed over to Tom who ran an excellent presentation on the practicalities of blogging. After that there was a practical exercise where participants wrote their first blog using an image. Tom set up a training blog especially for this and then we gave feedback on their work.
Getting People Signed Up
Tom was working hard for the BBC over the festival period so I did a lot of the initial phoning and emailing of community groups to invite them along. Most groups took a couple of follow ups before they got signed up.
I created an eventbrite page for each workshop. Eventbrite is a brilliant tool for hosting events, it allows you to put in information, create a guest list, email attendees and generate a report of useful information. It’s free to use if your event is free and when guests arrive you can click to check them in (which I think is a fab feature!)
Geeking Out
Every time a new person registered it sent me an email with their details. I got a little obsessive with colour coding a spreadsheet and having a mini celebration every time a group I was chasing signed up. One good thing about working with someone else is they can tell you to chill out if you’re concerned that parts of your spreadsheet are still amber and you haven’t called every group three times! I needed that (thanks Tom).
I added events to the Greer Leith Social too, Tom blogged about the sessions. We invited personal contacts and they passed it on. We had a lot of social media support to share the session, thanks to everyone who helped and wrote about it online including Milo McLaughlin, The Edinburgh Reporter and the Broughton Spurtle.
Challenge of No Shows
The introduction to blogging session filled up so quickly we decided to run it again the following week. On the day of the first session five people got in touch to say they couldn’t make it. We had a waiting list for that day so we still filled up a few spaces last-minute but we learnt a valuable lesson: for various reasons people won’t show up at the last-minute. We decided to try to get five extra people in next time because of the inevitable last-minute drop-outs.
Volunteers
Three volunteers help at each sessions. We’ve specifically invited people who have the relevant skills so for the video blogging session on the 13th September our volunteers are professional video bloggers Clear Minded Creative‘s Milo McLaughlin, former Guardian Beat Blogger Michael MacLeod and Edinburgh International Festival’s Al Innes.
For the first introduction to blogging workshop we had crime writer Marianne Wheelaghan (who is soon to publish a new book), club night organiser and founder of the Mondo Loco project Paul Glynn, and photographer Ros Gasson. The second blogging workshop our expert volunteers were Clear Minded Creative’s Milo McLaughlin and the team behind Lunch Quest and literary journal The Istanbul Review - the brilliant Blythe Robertson and Miriam Johnson.
The Pub
I told the Antiquary Bar about the project and explained we would like to come for a beer after each workshop. They agreed to provide a free buffet, hurrah! It’s good to be able to thank our volunteers with a drink and continue conversations with the course participants over a pint.
Guest Speakers
We’ve been inviting guest speakers along too. We’re delighted the Broughton Spurtle and The Edinburgh Reporter have agreed to share their expertise at the building an online community session.
On Tuesday I visited Maggie’s Centre to meet the famous Run With Mark. It’s a centre where people with cancer can come and take part in workshops or just have a cuppa and a chat. Here’s a picture of the kitchen table, it’s overly large because they want it to be the place where people connect and conversations can happen.
They have an open day every Thursday if you would like to find out more.
Mark decided to stop smoking and start running and his journey included raising thousands of pounds for charity. He now has his dream job as a community fundraiser with Maggie’s and he’ll be sharing his story at our online fundraising session along with Peggy Hughes. You may know Peggy from Edinburgh City of Literature but she’ll be talking about the wonderful West Port Book Festival. West Port is a festival run entirely through donations and the support of volunteers. Peggy is brilliant – she makes things happen and gets people inspired. She’s also an expert at sharing via social media. We’re looking forward to learning loads from both of them.
Video Trailers
We’ve been making comedy video trailers for each session. We had lots of fun filming all around Inverleith. Volunteer Milo McLaughlin joined us for that day and he edited the second film below. Tom edited the first film. One thing I’ve loved about this project is working with passionate and committed volunteers like Milo, people who want to give something back to the community and have fun in the process.
If you wondering how all of this started, I first met Tom a couple of years ago as part of the Edinbuzz Social Media Surgeries. Tom was leading a team of volunteers (or social media surgeons) and I was one of them. We worked helping community groups to work across digital platforms such as twitter, facebook and wordpress. I wrote about it here.
After that Pilton Community Health Project wanted to pay someone to deliver social media training to help with their facebook page. Tom put out a tender to the social media surgeons. I came up with a programme of interactive exercises, things like playing facebook bingo as an ice breaker (find someone who has uploaded a photo, find someone who has created an event) again to show the group that collectively they had lots of skills between them, to give them confidence and to make the training more interesting. Tom was impressed by my ideas and I got the job. You can see the Pilton Community Health Project Facebook page here.
After that Tom had been wanting to work with me for a while (I didn’t know this!) so I was delighted when he asked me to partner with him for this project. I had relevant experience having been a community group volunteer (writing a blog for Greener Leith for 2 years) and with me being a workshop facilitator and storyteller.
Tom is brilliant fun and has so much experience and technical expertise, it’s great to get the chance to work with him on a project that combines community engagement, social media and storytelling.
Come Along to NENgage?
If you live or work in Inverleith you’re most welcome, find details and book a place on the eventbrite pages here.
The last day of August marks the end of my two years volunteering for local community website Greener Leith. One of the last things I did as a volunteer was to make a two-minute film pitch for an application to Nesta’s Destination Local. Here’s the film:
Here’s a bit more about the project:
Local Edge will allow users to receive and post geographically relevant news and information on their mobile phones. It will develop a loyalty card system working with local shops and service providers. Users who participate in civic activities will also be rewarded with vouchers to spend at local stores.
The good news is the application received a whopping £45,000 of funding from Nesta. There were 10 winners out of 165 organisations who applied so we did really well. You can read about the winners on the Nesta website here.
The brilliant idea for the project came from Greener Leith’s Ally Tibbitt. He submitted the application in partnership with the Broughton Spurtle and ap makers Tigatag. I can’t take any credit for the project idea. I just helped by filming and editing the pitch.
Planning the FIlm
The application was for mobile technology so I wanted to use mobile technology to film and edit the pitch. I wanted to show the genuine nature of the people behind the project and share a sense of place too. Editing 10 minutes of footage down to 2 minutes of story was a real challenge. I also nearly missed the application deadline because it took ages to find the perfect sound track to capture the essence Alan McIntosh. Thankfully I think I found the right intro music eventually (if you’re curious about his essence there’s an interview with him here).
I know the film is a bit rough and ready but it was supposed to be. I’ve enjoyed producing films, podcasts and blogs for Greener Leith over the last two years and I’m glad to be leaving on a positive. You can see all the blog posts I’ve written for Greener Leith here. There are 70 so I don’t expect you to read them all (:
I was one of twenty writers commissioned by Alastair Cook to write a flash fiction response to a film poem created for PechaKucha on 29th June. This was a new challenge for me, here’s how it went.
I received a link with a password for my film, it was number twenty (password twenty). The film was 1960s found footage and it was beautiful. Alastair had edited it to tell a 1 minute story.
I watched a woman in a white dress on her wedding day. She kept looking at the Best Man. I wrote my initial thoughts down and came back to watch it again, two days later.
My brief was to respond with a piece of flash fiction that could be read aloud within 10 seconds. Alastair wanted it to be short, two or three lines maximum, he said just a haiku in length.
I decided to use a haiku format (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables).
I put ‘love’ in the centre of ‘forever’ to represent marriage and put a question on either side, ‘is this really me?’. In just a few words I wanted to show her questioning if she could truly love someone forever.
I was tentative in my submission, here’s what I wrote:
OK, I have a haiku:
Is this really me? Forever. Love. Forever. Is this really me?
But could also do a longer one – have got more. Do you want more? Emsx
PS Do you want it to be in the third person?
When I was first commissioned I’d thought along the same lines as the bride… is this really me?
What if I watch the film and have no emotional response?
What if I can’t do flash fiction?
What if my piece ruins the whole presentation?
And all of this ran through my head while waiting for a response from Alastair.
Thankfully, I had this reply within a couple of minutes: No it’s bloody perfect x Baci x
To which I responded: YAAAAY! Hurrah, so pleased. (:
The next day I had another message and it pretty much made my day: I’ve just read through all 20. Yours is the perfect ending. I cannae thank you enough x
Here is the film, I’ve listed the writers below. It’s fascinating to watch and hear all the responses. I’m most grateful to Alastair for commissioning me and delighted to be part of the Twenty Second Film Poem project. I hope you respond and enjoy it too:
Number seventeen of twenty, Robert Peake blogged about the project here. David Bonta blogged about the project and featured this blog on Moving Poems (thanks David!).
Writers involved in order:
Andrew McCallum Crawford, Mary McDonough Clark, Al Innes, Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown, Elspeth Murray, Janette Ayachi, Jane McCance, Donna Campbell, Ewan Morrison, Angela Readman, Gérard Rudolf, Zoe Venditozzi, Jo Bell, Sally Evans, Pippa Little, Tony Williams, Robert Peake, Stevie Ronnie, Sheree Mack and Emily Dodd.
Social Reporting is about capturing an event from the inside, using audio, video and photographs. It’s about creating and sharing content during an event and content that others will want to share. It’s a brilliant technique for pupils to use, they can make short films at school events with minimal editing and using mobile phone technology. Films can be up on the school website within minutes.
I ran social reporter workshops for the day with Edinburgh Secondary School pupils as part of the Changeworks Make Waste History Summit last month.
We explored social reporting and discussed examples of different styles of social reporting from Documentally and others. We talked about Primary School Social Reporter Martha Payne, who took a photo of her lunch every day and wrote about it on her blog ‘Never Seconds‘. She had over 6 million blog visitors and raised over £100,000 for charity. Finally the pupils put theory into practice and made films.
How did they get on? There was some fantastic discussion about the differences between social reporting and traditional TV news. The pupils observed social reporting as more genuine, less rehearsed and more about real people’s opinions instead of only talking to experts or celebrities.
They didn’t have to storyboard shots, write scripts or edit but they did have to consider:
What would another pupil want to know about the event?
How could they share genuinely and keep it interesting and engaging?
How could they be themselves and bring their own personalities and opinions to the film?
How could they get others to think about the environmental issues covered during the day but keep it fun?
Technically they needed to consider light, sound and framing. They also tried advanced techniques like walking while filming yourself and flipping the camera around while filming. I edited together a montage of their clips and we watched it at the end of the event. Here it is on YouTube:
I think they did a wonderful job at capturing the feel of the event and trying out different styles of social reporting. We used Iphones, flip cams and Kodak Ki8 blogger cameras. This montage was edited using the Imovie App.
The workshops were 45 minute introductions to being a social reporter. I hope the pupils will go on to practice the techniques and produce brilliant content at school and at home. You can read more about the Make Waste History Summit on the Edinburgh Reporter or in the Kitchen Canny Blog.
This August Arthur’s Seat will be ablaze with the lights of hundreds of choreographed runners in light suits. It’s NVA’s Speed of Light. You can buy a ticket but just to warn you, I’m one of those runners. I ran about in a light tunnel at The Edinburgh Camera Obscurer to create this artists impression of what we might look like.
Actually I’m slightly concerned that you’ll be ooo-ing and ahh-ing at the fusion of public art and sporting endeavours when somebody will shout “What’s that?”. You spot a lone set of lights on the edge of the crags, hurrying to catch up with the others. Perhaps it’s a gymnast about to do something spectacular? No, on closer inspection the lone light appears to be slowing down. It’s ruining the display completely, why is it there? Now the renegade light is lying on the ground, it’s stopped… That will be me if I don’t get fit.
For over a month now I’ve been running every other day. Well almost. I substituted a few of my runs for Zumba and a couple of long bike rides but I’ve still run more than I’ve ever run before. I’m not at the speed of light (or even 10k fit) but I’ve got a few weeks to go.
I persuaded a few bright sparks to sign up to run in Speed of Light including Peggy Hughes, Anna Beswick and Al Innes. Leah Lockhart and Marianne Paget signed up voluntarily!
How’s the training going? Well I’ve got a little bit thinner and I’ve started to almost enjoy running. If I run in the rain people say things like “rather you then me” or “well done!”, I quite like that. Animals do funny things too. I saw a crow sit down on the grass like a duck, crows never sit down. I also often race a vole that pops out of a hole in the wall. He sees me and runs as fast as he can along the bottom of the wall until he gets to the next hole where he disappears.
Now I’m wondering, what will it really look like? There are photos on the NVA website but I’ve found something even better. Hurrah for Wales – they’ve done something similar, light suits and everything. I imagine we’ll all look something like these sheep:
Live tweeting of teddy bears at @LeithLibrary starts when the library closes at 8pm. Follow #leithbears hashtag! Just now they're sleeping.. 10 hours ago
