Strictly speaking, this has nothing to do with Comrie Workspace … but in a way, it does.
My name is Elaine Catton, as well as being the owner of Comrie Workspace, I’m also a writer, journalist and translator specialising in the automotive industry. In order to develop my skills (perhaps a bit late for that, but hey-ho), I am currently studying for a Masters in International Journalism at Edinburgh Napier University. One of the modules on the course is documentary film production – a field about which I confess to knowing precious little.
I embarked upon it with great trepidation and with the notion that I should stick to what I know best and seek out a story relating to transportation and mobility. The timing of it also coincided with the Covid-19 lockdown, which, of course, presented me with all sorts of restrictions. I decided the best bet was to keep it local and began researching a story about transportation within Comrie, with the idea of speaking to one or two of the village’s older residents about the Comrie Community Bus (CoCo Bus), the Cycling Without Age trishaw and the number 15 bus service.
One of my first ports of call was local oracle and community councillor, Gillian Brock, who suggested I speak to an amazing lady called Veronica Doyle. Thanks to Gillian, my story took a whole new direction. As soon as I met and spoke to Veronica directly, all my ideas about buses and transportation flew out the window. Veronica’s vibrancy and colourful tales of her life as a nanny won me over immediately. It was a no-brainer.
But rather than take my rambling words for it, why don’t you see for yourself …
The making of Nanny Noodles
Although I am confident in my abilities as a storyteller in the written word, as a first-time film maker, I appreciate my technical skills do not do proper justice to this story. Nevertheless, for anybody interested in how this was done, I shot all the footage on my iPhone 7 and edited it on Adobe Premiere Rush, which is a dumbed-down version of Premiere Pro designed for newbies like me and, as the name suggests, for quickly editing social-media videos.
I did attempt to shoot our first interview using my Canon EOS 300D. However, I messed up the exposure settings to the point of making them completely unusable. Thankfully, I had setup my iPhone to record the audio using an IK Multimedia iRig lav mic as well as a secondary profile angle, so all was not completely lost.
I recorded my voiceover in my spare room using a Shure MV88 iPhone mic. I also used this mic for the final scene involving the trishaw.
What I think is important to note is that none of this kit is expensive. It’s amazing what an amateur can do these days without breaking the bank.
Comrie Workspace 