Border Stories

“Was everything in black and white when you were young?”

We are still trying to work out if this wide-eyed 9-year-old genuinely believed that we came from such a different world - one that they had only ever seen represented in black and white – the 1970s! This was one of the many laugh-out-loud memorable moments we enjoyed during our time training children  from Donegal, Derry and Tyrone in early 2020.

Our task was to train the children in documentary film-making skills using mobile devices, filming equipment and a mobile editing app. The purpose of the training was to give the children an insight into the process of making a documentary in preparation for their involvement in Keith O’Grady’s documentary, Border Stories Tales of the Troubles.

In this film the children would explore “The Troubles” by interviewing an older relative about their experience of living around the border in 1970's Ireland. During the training, the children filmed and edited interviews using tablets and smartphones.

Of all the roles the children experienced during the training by far the most popular was sound-operator. This was probably because they got the opportunity to work with the headphones and a boom mic. which were adapted for recording on mobile devices.

Border Stories is due for release in 2021.

https://www.derryjournal.com/education/local-schoolchildren-tell-north-west-border-stories-tales-troubles-3090262