So, September the 16th is the day. Probably leaving around 10.30am. It should take roughly 1.5 hrs to row to Eilean Nan Ron.
I have recruited a full crew from the local community of Skerray:
Camera people: Dave Illingworth, Billy Campbell and Celia.
Safety boat: Billie Macintosh
Nighttime documentation of the lights: Photographer, Mike Roper
Providing boat: Brian Macleod
So far I also have the use of six lamps: two from Celia, two from Billie Macintosh, who is also lending me a tent, and two from Billy Campbell. Ideally I would like a few more but six is a good start.
As well as practicing on Modsary Lochen, I will be taking to the sea in a test run early next week with Brian. Understandably he sounds a little worried about his boat, but hopefully by that time I will have the technique down and will be able to put his mind at rest. Jon Hollingdale would have liked to have volunteered for filming but can’t make it, so has offered me the use of his professional rowing machine, complete with mirror, (so I can practice my brave, young thing faces for the camera) any time I like.
Thank you to all these people for volunteering their help, hopefully the weather won’t let us down and it all goes to plan.
In between preparing for the expedition, I have been leading Stop Motion Animation workshops with local Primary School children, the last of which will be tomorrow and Thursday with Altnaharra Primary School.
I have already led the workshop with the four Primary Four pupils at Tongue and the six Primary Seven pupils from Farr. The workshops have produced great results. Stop animation is a very time consuming method of animation but the results are fascinating and really caught the imagination of all the pupils involved. Despite the relatively short time of two days in which to develop a story from beginning to end, we achieved a lot. The students were extremely enthusiastic and responsive, this is reflected in the scope and imagination of the work, all of which was their own. The pupils began by choosing together, a story from the local area, and then transferred the story onto storyboards. The next step was to design and make a stage set for the story as well as choosing appropriate objects and props to aid us in the following day’s filming. The small groups allowed each pupil a chance to have a go at both animating and operating the equipment used in recording, and over the course of the two days, the pupils naturally assumed their preferred roles within the process, in what were two wholly collaborative works. The soundtrack for the Farr animation was provided by one of the Primary Seven girls, who is a very accomplished young bag- pipe player. The entire school provided the soundtrack for the Tongue animation as they performed the Gaelic song, Gleann –Gollaidh, written by Rob Donn. The final, edited version of the animations will be presented to each school and I intend to show the animations at my end of residency exhibition in October.
