ND Creative Media Production YR 1 2018
Unit 2: Communication Skills for Creative Media Production
Searching for Columba – Client Brief
Columba Heritage Trail- Derry
Project Team ‘Searching for Columba’
Faye Thompson, Jack Coyle, Josh Kuzma, Katie McKeever, Lennon
Boyd, Megan Brown, Niall Doherty, Shane Doherty, Shea Kealey,
Alexia Moccia
Contents
1.0Introduction – Background
2.0Stops on the Columba Heritage Trail – Research
3.0Other Sites of Interest – Research
4.0 Research Planner
5.0 Residential
6.0Walking Tour
7.0Film Shoot – Individual Sections
8.0 Screenings – Individual Films (1/2mins) – Review/ Update
Report
9.0Full Film Edit – Team work (Groups of 2/3 persons)
10.0 Full Film Review & Evaluation – Review / Update
Report
11.0Legacy & Recommendations
12.0Bibliography
1.0 Introduction
The objective of this report is to provide a detailed media
production report on the Experiential Project Learning experience
of ‘Searching for Columba’. This was a joint endeavour by North
West Regional College Media and ‘The Churches Trust’. The project
was launched on the 19th January and ran for 12 college calendar
weeks. It involved primary and secondary Research; Training in
Media Skills workshops; A Team Building Residential; a Film
Production Schedule & Screening. The timetable of events is
documented at
http://faustinastarrett.weebly.com/just-us-project.html .
This report will document the full story, including research
challenges, training, pre-production and production challenges
related to the Saint Columba heritage trail and the making of the
short film of the project experience.
The research involved detailed investigations and location recce
and multiple visits to the different stops on the Columba Heritage
trail in Derry. It also investigated some points of interest and
locations along the heritage trail.
2.0 Stops on the Columba Heritage Trail - Research Sources
For this Chapter of the report I will summarise the stops along
the heritage trail as well as locations of interest relevant to the
trail. [footnoteRef:1] [1:
http://faustinastarrett.weebly.com/just-us-project.html - Research
paper produced by Derry City Council]
2.1St. Brackens church (Niall)
St Bracken’s church is the first stop on the Columba heritage
trail. It used to be the sight of a monastery. The monastery was
founded by St. Bracken who also set up other monastic settlements.
It is thought that he followed Colmcille`s example when he set up
his monasteries. The original church was set up by St. Bracken in
1192 but Bishop O Gallah had the church rebuilt in 1585.
The church located on upper Magazine Street is Derry`s first
Presbyterian church. Presbyterianism started being practised in
Derry during the 1600s. The church itself was built in 1690 when
Queen Mary gave a large sum of money to the Presbyterians living in
the city for their role in defending the city during a siege in
1689. The building that is present today on the street was built in
1780. Behind the church there is a blue coat visitor centre. The
building is open to visitors and people of the church`s
religion.
2.2St. Augustine’s Church (Megan)
St. Augustine’s Church is located along the Derry walls near
where the Walker memorial used to be. There is a story that St.
Columba built his first fortified monastic settlement here. The
church was apparently built in a clearing in surrounded by oak
trees. The Augustine church is unique in its positioning. This is
because instead of facing east to west like most other Anglican
churches it faces north east to south west.
The original church was destroyed and the stones were used to
make the city walls. The church that is there today was built in
1872 under Bishop William Alexander. The church architecture makes
use of symbols that were associated with the church at the time
such as the dove and the oak leaf.
2.3Long Tower Church (Lennon)
The long tower church is claimed to be the original site of St.
Columba`s monastery. Although it cannot be proven that the site was
originally the site of Columba’s monastery the artwork in and
surrounding the church has a lot of material based around St.
Columba. The original church was built in 1783. Before it was built
mass was said near a hawthorn tree. Father John Lynch raised the
funds to have the original church to be built in the early 1800s
AND IN 1810 the construction of the church began. There is a series
of ceramic reliefs that show stories of Columba’s life beside the
church.
2.4Carlisle Road Methodist Church (Shea)
The building of this church began in 1901 and finished in 1903.
The church was opened by the by the Duchess of Abercorn. The
congregation of the church got considerably smaller during the
troubles due to the families living near the church moving away for
their families’ safety. The church itself remained open during the
troubles even though many other churches around the city
closed.
3.0 Other Sites of Interest
As well as all these stops along the heritage trail, we also
visited Gartan, the place where Saint Columba is thought to have
been born, we had our teambuilding residential there, it helped the
crew get closer and also allowed us to feel more in touch with our
own history, and ended up strengthening friendships while educating
us.
3.1St. Columbs`s Cathedral (Shane)
St. Colm`s Cathedral was built in 1633 and was the first
protestant cathedral built in the UK after the Reformation. The
building is the oldest surviving structure in Derry. There are
stained glass windows inside the church that depict three different
parts of the saint’s life. There is also a statue of Saint Columba
in the Pulpit and a mosaic of him at the back of the altar.
3.2St. Columbs Park House (Faye)
This building used to be a manor house in the centre of St.
Colm`s Park. The house was used to house British soldiers during
the Second World War because of its proximity to Ebrington Barracks
and Clooney Base.
The house was renovated in 1993 so it could be used as a venue
for cross-community programs. The house also got an extension in
2010. The house contains facilities such as a café, rooms to host
different programs as well as rooms available to groups doing
residential. This was my stop along the heritage trail, and I had a
very fun time going about filming it, Josh and Niall helped me
gather footage, and the staff were very accommodating for us in our
endeavour to get the needed footage that would represent and
showcase the house and its facilities well. In my opinion it’s a
very important stop, as it’s a building and community dedicated to
Saint Columba himself, and is a tribute to his life and all he
stood for. The concept I had for my segment of the film, was to
focus more on the beauty surrounding the building, as it’s set in
such a beautiful and scenic part of Derry, and I believe that will
seem very poignant when edited together.
Below I’ll put the unedited version of my segment of the
heritage trail, featuring my stop, in editing I’m going to put a
soundtrack on top of my segment, as well as complete my own full
edit of every stop put together as well as mine to tell the full
story of what this experience was like for all the students
involved. I aim to have it be so that my short film is more focused
on each individual experience of the students, rather than the same
run of the mill story of Saint Columba’s history, I want to really
personalise it, and allow it to engage the audience, and get them
involved in learning the history of saint Columba as if they were
alongside us throughout the whole project.
3.3Peace Bridge (Sorcha)
The Peace Bridge was opened in June 25th 2011. It was funded by
an EU program called the Peace III program. The bridge cost 14.5
million and is constantly used on a daily basis. It was opened by
the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hann as well as
Martin Mc. Guinness the Peace Bridge is a monument to the work that
has gone into the Peace Process.
3.4The City Walls (Jack)
The Derry Walls were built from 1613 to 1618. They were built by
the honourable, The Irish Society. The walls are about 1.5km long
and surround the inner city. There were originally four city gates
in the walls and three more were added. The walls holds a
collection of 24 cannons. In 2005 the cannons were restored.
Research Film Sources
The Cholmchille Centre - Research for Documentary and Full
Interview with Ivor Doherty by Jonny Fulton
https://youtu.be/GJmxvAXyIa4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl8q8fHriMw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_i6zX9QXM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl56NTLliQ
4.0 Research Pre-Production Plan
'Searching for Columba' Induction Waterside Park House -
Week.1
On the introduction week of the Just Us Project, we went to
Saint Columb’s Park House for an induction and to meet the other
participants who we were going to be seeing over the duration of
the project, there, we played a few ice breaker games to help us
get to know each other and get acquainted.
Team Building Day with Churches Trust Participants
'NWRC Media Skills Training Day - Week 2
On our second week, we were teaching the members of Churches
Trust how to properly operate camera equipment among other critical
skills that you’d need in the creative media industry, I myself,
taught them all how to create their own website on weebly that they
could use to document the entire Just Us project in their own
words.
5.0 ‘Residential’ Teambuilding - PART 1 - Beginnings – Gartan
Donegal Week 2
Gartan was where we went for our teambuilding residential, it
was a very educational trip, (albeit very cold), however it brought
all the classmates and participants closer. There, we had various
classes of sorts on different important issues, and spent a lot of
time together as a group. It was a very enlightening and enjoyable
trip.
6.0 'Walking Tour’ - History Trail around the City - Filming on
Location -Week 3
We went on a walking tour around the saint Columba heritage
trail around Derry, we started in Saint Columb’s Park House, and
then moved around the city to see and learn about various locations
and buildings that have tributes and stories detailing Saint
Columba’s achievements and life that would be useful in our
film.
NWRC FILM SHOOT - Individual site shoot & edit - Week 5
Script:
I made my script as simplistic as I possibly could. This is
because my stop is the introduction of the full film, as such, I
introduced the project.
“This is a legacy story told by the young people from Derry and
Donegal who went on a journey to find Columba. We are going to show
what his story means to young people of today, and what better
place to start this story than saint Columb’s Park House where our
journey to find Columba started.”
7.0 PLAYBACK & REVIEW - Week 7 Final cut (Individual) due -
Week 8
Segment drafts:
8.0 Full Film Edit – Team work (Groups of 2/3 persons)
The Columba Heritage Trail is a very interesting and accessible
walk to do in the city. It is very informative and provides a lot
of insight into the legend and legacy of St. Colmcille.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y1X6ZZgKPM)
This is the first draft of the full version of my Just Us
submission, after showing it to the class as well as others and
getting feedback on what improvements I could make, I got a lot of
helpful feedback that I can take in and implement in order to make
my finished version as good as I possibly can.
Some feedback I got was the likes of:
- Putting the peace bridge segment at the end of the video
- Stabilizing the St Augustine's Church segment
- Fixing audio levels and cancelling out static
These are all very valid points that I will take on board and
improve on. However some positive feedback I got was the likes
of:
- My soundtrack was very well picked and fitting to the
project
- The pacing was effective
After having the whole class show their edits, it's been decided
that Megan's edit best encapsulated what our client was trying to
convey with the project. (https://meganbrownmia.weebly.com/) so
instead of working on more full edits of the film, I have decided
instead to focus on remaking my segment to better it for the full
finished product. After getting feedback, I have decided on things
I am going to change about my segment. I am going to:
- Redo the audio, as I feel like I stumble over my words in the
original drafts
- Cancel out any static in my audio
- Originally, in my first edit, I mostly centered around taking
shots of the house, and while that is my stop and it's important to
Columba, I am also opening the film and introducing the project,
because of this I am going to split my focus points in my segment
to focus on the house, but also the 'Journey' to find Columba that
I introduce. To best convey this, I'm going to make use of the
different stops along the heritage trail that we all visited
together on the third week of our project, and visibly show the
start of a journey through my segment in order to engage the
audience and let them know that they are coming on this journey
with us throughout the film.
9.0 Final Cut – 10 minute short Film - Week 12 - 27th April
2018
Full Film Edit – Team work (Groups of 2/3 persons)
Review and Evaluation by Client:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=Z8vs-X8Mrc4
Here is the full film edit for the project, edited by Megan as
she was the designated editor. In order to edit it together
successfully we decided on a set order to edit the clips in.
- St. Columb’s Park House
- St. Columba Statue
- St. Bracen’s Church
- First Derry Presbyterian Church
- St. Augustine’s Church
- St. Columb’s Cathedral
- Long Town Church
- Methodist Church
- The City Walls
- Hands Across the Divide
- Peace Bridge
The reason that we structured it the way we did, was due to
wanting to engage and show the audience the ‘journey’ that they
could go along with us on. As well as this, to transition between
the different segments, we decided to use the imagery of a flying
dove, this is due to the significance and symbolism of a dove in
regards to Saint Columba.
Bibliography
Derry and Raphoe Diocese Website-
https://www.derryandraphoe.org/st-augustine-s
The Walls-
https://discovernorthernireland.com/17th-Century-City-Walls-Londonderry-Derry-P7097/
The Derry Walls Website-
https://thederrywalls.com/explore-the-walls/
St. Columba’s Park House Website-
http://www.stcolumbsparkhouse.org/
Flickr-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjg182/with/4383398431/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/earlychurch/features_earlychurch_iona.shtml
http://www.colmcille.org/colmcille/history-in-stone
http://www.colmcille.org/colmcille/history-in-stone
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/saint-columba
Soundtrack for film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifQ3JRS4gqc
Peace Walls Tourism Project Website-
http://www.visitbishopstreetandthefountain.com/portfolio-item/carlisle-methodist-church/
Film Archive Research
Research Film Sources
The Cholmchille Centre - Research for Documentary and Full
Interview with Ivor Doherty by Jonny Fulton
https://youtu.be/GJmxvAXyIa4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl8q8fHriMw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_i6zX9QXM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl56NTLliQ
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-st-columba-1963-online
The Columba Heritage Trail