the audio/visual summer camp, attested once again to young people's ever-increasing interest in the audio visual industry.
Organised by Open Channel and the National Youth Council of Ireland, Teic Eile 97 was the second in what the organisers hope will be an on-going annual event, offering week-long residential workshops in a/v production to young people aged 18-22 yrs. This year's twenty-five participants were recruited from all over both rural and urban Ireland, both north and south of the border. Teic Eile 97 took place with the help of Cooperation North in a spirit of Peace and Reconciliation.
Building on the success of last year's event in Dublin's Temple Bar,
it was decided to extend the summer camp to a week, and to relocate to
Kilcar in order to enhance the residential aspect of the project.
This proved a very popular move, particularly with those participants
who came from built-up city areas. The sheer beauty of the location,
combined with the freedom to get out and socialise with each other and
with the local people, means that the trainees have had the benefit of
positive experiences to add to their newly acquired expertise.
The eagerness of representatives of all communities to learn from each other was reflected in many of the finished programmes,with the tensions between not only north and south, catholic and protestant receiving a thorough-going exposition, but also those between east,west, urban and rural! Most notable in this respect was Sticks and Stones, which dealt with the energetic art of name-calling. Out of Joint expressed anxiety on the part of city-dwellers about how they are perceived by country folk, while On gCathair go dti an Tuaidh investigated the fortunes of two Dublin families who had moved to Kilcar several years ago. Kilcarwatch was a decidedly more humourous take on the life of the sea-side village, while Stumble and Fall takes an irreverent look at the moral demise of a Catholic priest who falls under the spell of a local lovely.
While it was the job of the facilitator to guide the participants through the script to screen process, there was a strictly
"hands-off" policy as regards the content of the finished work.A key element of Teic Eile 97 was to provide the young people
with the opportunity of communicating creatively and meaningfully, through the medium of video, on issues that concern
them. All of the completed video programmes were of a remarkably high quality, displaying a most impressive level of professionalism and friendly cooperation. Each participant quickly found her or his own area of interest and worked diligently to produce a programme that they could all be proud of.
By the end of the week, everyone had acquired hands-on experience of
scriptwriting, storyboarding, camera and lighting, sound recording and
even acting! When all the required footage had been shot, it was edited
(under the guidance of Open Channel director, Seamus McGrenery) on state
of the art non-linear digital editing equipment, kindly supplied by Ron
Elliot of Panasonic. Each member of the five groups was directly
involved in all editing decisions on their short.
All five programmes were then screened publicly in Aislann Kilcar,
the local cultural centre, for an audience of the townspeople, many of
whom had featured in the programmes, either in amusing cameos or as interviewees.
The screenings were particularly enjoyable, generating a great pride on
the part of the programme-makers in their work, and on the part of the
locals in their community.
Teic Eile 98, is planned to be a the next stage in the development of a long term project to celebrate our cultural diversity through the talent of our up-and-coming young programme-makers. It will take place later in the year with new partners and a new name .