Caught On Camera
Another day and another two schools as I joined Deirdre Leitch for more radio-skills workshops. This morning, at Inverness Royal Academy, we arrived in plenty of time to set up all our equipment in a classroom located in one of the school's outbuildings. We even had time for a cup of team in the Staff Base where the teachers were working out the Secret Santa draw for their Christmas lunch. It was all very relaxed.
Until, that is, the phone rang and we discovered that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news reporter Craig Anderson had arrived at reception with cameraman Brian Ashman. They wanted to record a piece about the Highland Promise workshops for .
We zipped back to the classroom to discover our eight would-be reporters waiting patiently alongside Craig, Brian and Fiona Hampton, the Director of . We tried as best we could to stick to our schedule while Brian circled us with the camera and Craig with myself, Fiona and a couple of the pupils.
Inevitably we found ourselves pushed for time and as the workshop ended we made a mad dash across town to Charleston Academy were another eight pupils were lined up for an afternoon workshop.
It's a pity I wont have time to join Deirdre at all the other worshops she's involved in throughout the Highlands. She'll have recruited about 200 young roving reporters by the end of January. I think what impressed me about all the teenagers we've met this week has been their refreshing lack of cynicism and positive aproach to the project. They seem really excited about next year's festival of culture and the thought that they might be able to record interviews and take photographs at many of the shows and exhibitions.
If only we could bottle that kind of enthusiasm and send it out to those people who spend their time telling us what's wrong with Scotland.
Mind you, I'm not sure we'd have enough bottles to go around.
