Spike Media won the job of filming behind the scenes of this years Royal National Mod in Oban (9th to 17th October) through DaDa Events for An Comunn Gaidhealach. Our remit was to make short video clips of the event and put them up onto the Internet as quickly as possible during the week and to produce a promotional video, which Chris is now editing.
We had the most fantastic week, although the working day was very long, the weather was superb. ( it only drizzled with rain on Wednesday late afternoon / evening.) We met lots of warm, friendly people, and Oban not being too large a town, we met the same people over again. Donnie "Large" and his Californian troop must have been really tired of seeing us round every corner!
We heard beautiful Gaelic music and singing during the daytime competitions, and again in the evenings and also whilst walking along the streets. What a wonderful sound, and rather haunting at times.
Our over all impression of the what the MOD is all about is basically meeting people, partying and enjoying each others company for a week. The competitions are important, but by the evening the pressure is off and people relax and enjoy themselves by entertaining or being entertained by singers and musicians. Lots of dancing too.
Each day, Chris and I made time for an ice cream!
I enjoyed the Children's Mod, held at the beginning of the week. The talent of these young people is just amazing, whether they were singing, playing an instrument, or reciting poetry, the standard was so high.
One o'clock on Friday night or should I say Saturday morning, we were given permission to film Skerryvore at Skipinnish. I wished I wasn't working as I love dancing, but to honest, it was so late, well past my bedtime that I did have a bit of a sense of humour failure...oops. But the music these guys make it just brilliant and I am glad I heard some of their set.
The choirs gathering at the Corran Halls on Saturday morning made my spine tingle when they all started to sing, and I noticed a journalist standing next to me was unable to take any pictures as she was reduced to tears with the sheer emotion of the sound they were making. Honestly, it was extremely emotional.
We both had a great week and the help and support given by both An Comunn Gaidealach & BBC Alba staff was really appreciated. Thank you.
Thanks also to Angus at Skipinnish and to Daniel, Martin and the boys of Skerryvore for problem free filming and their patience.
