ARGYLL CREATIVE

A film project set between the two winter solstices of 2019 and 2020. A couple of years ago I decided to teach myself filming thinking that, as a photographer, it would be a fairly easy step to go from stills to video. Over those two years, in the brief hours available, I found that my initial assumptions couldn't be further from the truth. My original idea was to make a short film about my local river, the River Add in Mid Argyll, as a structured way of teaching myself the techniques. A lack of time and the complications of the new medium meant that my original idea of a defined timeline for the film had to be shelved. Although far from being where I want to be in terms of technique I have decided to ‘just do it’ and Longer Days will now be filmed between the two solstices starting on the 22 of December 2019. The timeline is not the only constraint imposed. All footage will also have to be shot within the confines of the Add watershed which effectively means the watersheds of the River Add and the Kilmartin Burn. The story is based around the wildlife within these boundaries. As the rivers run from their source, to merge on the Moine Mhor and eventually discharge into the sea at the Add estuary, the wildlife encountered changes dramatically. These changes are also reflected in the seasons, as the day-length increases from the winter to the summer solstice. Winter visitors leave and summer ones arrive. Local wildlife who stay all year round often move from the higher tops to lower down. Although the day-length reduces from the mid-summer peak until the next winter solstice all the filming will be performed between these two shortest days, hence the title, Longer Days.