How our clips can be used by
diverse users world wide
How our footage is and can be used
now and in the future
How our clips are used today and how future
generations will also use them
Our Clips already have social status
Our clips presently are used in education, research, family heritage, ancestral tourism, media, archive houses, dementia health care. When I started filming in 1989 I had no idea that our clips would be so widely used today. and enjoy national and international distribution. So to project how they will be used in the future is almost impossible. However we know that through time our archive will gain significance for many aspects of world societies because our archive cannot be replicated by any other company. What we have captured is a time window which has passed. That time window will act as a moment in and of history which has been recorded by us and no other organisation.Our unique vision
Our camera has captured a story worth telling and sharing with YOU
Our unique vision in recording our ancestors story is a leading example of contemporary heritage management best practice. It will be a blueprint for others to replicate within their time window. We can identify the start of our projects social significance but cannot see an end to its social significance. Peoples desire for education, research ,tourism, collectables, health care are social norms which have existed for time immoral. Our archive will serve communities for decades to come there is no question about that. Quite a boast but you cannot challenge that boast.Bring the dynamic of authentic history storytelling into education
How our clips can be used by diverse users world wide. Our digital heritage clips are already providing a validated input which is available to all Scottish schools through Historic Environment Scotland’s digital educational portal. Your own school can also source material directly from us to supplement your educational resources.
The past has always featured in education. Our school clips have been validated as resources which are made available to every Scottish schools
Our clips show;
Technology developments from the 1900s through to today.
Feature different aspects of the Scottish society from Fishing, Farming, Domestic technologies and Transport.
The power of steam within our industrialisation process.
Animal and stock husbandry before intensive farming
How Victorian Scotland articulated.
The Doric dialect and the Scots language
Sustainability and environmental lesson learning from our ancestors way of life.
Aspects of contemporary Scotland are also featured
The history of religion in Scotland
All vital components of modern history.
Being able to hear and see how our past was lived through the words and life style of our recent ancestors will help all learners to appreciate that they are also creating and a legacy for future generations. Todays learners have an obligation to develop our society in a manner which is respectful to others and to the environment in which we live. Drop into our shop and Browse our clip collectionApply to us to get a licence to show our digital downloads in public. If this is not done you will be in breach of our copyright conditions.
This is the profile of our archive to date
Our Scottish heritage archive started in 1989 because I am proud of my rural ancestors and what they did. I was born on and brought up on our family farm called Drumnaheath Kintore in Aberdeenshire. It was there where 300 years of my ancestors had also been born in and brought up. So my cultural identity and my family history was right on my doorstep. I wanted to celebrate that achievements by allowing the older ordinary people within my community to tell their story, which is the story of Scottish people everywhere. Many had also families who had been on the same farms for hundreds of years. I wanted to get their story captured by allowing them to tell their story their way.
Speaking to my neighbours
The first thing that I did was to go round my neighbours and speak to them about their past and that of their ancestors. This was like turning on a memory tap as I walked down memory lane with them. Nobody had ever asked about their ancestral past before. At that point in this heritage journey for me I had decided to write their story down and capture some photos they had and ones I would take. After this was completed I realised that what I had committed to paper was just scratching the surface of my ancestral past. That written narrative with its many photos is called “Aberdeenshire farming life during the transition from the Clydesdale horse to the tractor” is available to purchase digitally SHOP LINKHERE
My heritage filming started
So in absolute ignorance of filming my heritage filming started. I decided to hire a video camera and go back to them and get them to tell and more importantly show me aspects of their past cultural way of life. What they told me was a fantastic story and I feel so privileged to have been able to listen to and capture that story on the most dynamic format available to us ie digital film. I did not allow the camera to dominate what I did. The key criteria were the lovely and remarkable people I have recoded. We did not do any rehearsals. Everything was done in a spontaneous way and done in a one take.
We do not let the camera dictate what we do our key focus is that of our fantastic contributors
Farming was our first filming project
Being a farmer’s son we concentrated on capturing rural agricultural work. We soon realised that no community lives in a society with only one element that shapes them. So ,we started to record the past education, religion, trades and skills, retail, entertainment and leisure etc. This resulted in our archive having 14 different categories of interaction and was therefore more representative of life and work of the ordinary person.
From the late 1800s to today
The Clydesdale horses have served agriculture for longer than the tractors have
Todays tractors are examples of the present agricultural revolution
Todays tractors are examples of the present agricultural revolutionOur filming records the period of time from the late 1800s to the present day. People challenge me on how can I record aspects of life from the late 1800s. The old people I was recording where people as youngsters who lived as part of an extended family where grandparents and even great grandparents lived very close by. So, the people I was recording could also relate first hand and be the authentic storytellers about how their ancestors lived and worked.
To date we have the largest modern day heritage archive of any community with over 530 hours recorded. We are continually adding unique and authentic content to our archive.
State of the art technology
We use state of the art technology to create and manage our archive. Our footage has been made into 2570 individual digital clips linked to a searchable computer database. This future proofs our archive and no other cultural film archive has its entire collection digitised. This achievement has been done by myself as a one man business with no budget.
So if you want to find out about how YOUR Scottish ancestors lived and worked our digital downloads will provide you with many authentic examples of your past cultural identity. Our clips will help you to connect to your ancestors and allow you to walk in their footsteps. If you want to suggest any future topics that we might be able to produce just let us know.
Contact us for more information and we will get back to you with an immediate response.
Bring your exhibit to life
How visitor attractions museums libraries, education, and academic research can utilise our archive footage offers them many us yet unforeseen opportunities. Our digital heritage clips as content for your visitor attraction and museum can help you develop your offer. It is always a challenge to keep your visitor offer fresh, new and exciting. Our unique digital clips can supplement your present offer in many ways. They can bring your static exhibits to life through featuring our heritage inputs related to that exhibit. We use digital 21 century technology to capture, edit and deliver our heritage clips. As our clips are all digital they are an ideal authentic way to enable you to provide hand held devoices for your visitor.
Bring that static exhibit to life with dynamic digital film clips featuring any language of the world
Vast choice of topics
Our wide range of topics within our award winning 530 hours of new authentic heritage film materials offers you and your visitor a vast choice. Each visitor comes to your attraction with different expectations. These expectations must be recognised and provided for. Todays visitor no longer is happy with a ” one size fits all” approach to visitor management. Having either hand held personal devices or screens with menu choice options to view different aspects about your exhibit satisfies this tech savvy visitor.Motivational tasters to visit
Our clips can be used as marketing tasters for present and new visitors to experience your offer and in so doing motivate the viewer to come and visit. Our clips can also integrate with your present offer to make it more interactive and relevant. Visitors can also be sold our digital clips which would be integrated with your present offer as mementos of their visit to show to others. All these benefits and more can help you to sustain and increase your sales and visitor numbers.
Traditional tastes of rural home baking
Our archive can supply different clips to meet your requirements
Our digital downloads are not available for download for any commercial organisation at the moment. If you would like to show any of our digital downloads in your establishment you need to contact us to get a licence to show them in public. If this is not done you will be in breach of our copyright conditions. Contact usIf you want to find out about the scope of our archive and how material can be of value for you please go to our clip database and thumbnails We also have our YouTube channel .How academic researchers can use our footage
The way past societies have evolved in recent times is a valuable insight for the future
By looking back at how previous societies lived and worked within their local society can provide valuable insights and opportunities to critically evaluate that process. Our footage allows for contrasts and comparisons of different world societies to be evaluated in a new and exciting manner. Lesson learning for the present and future societies can be drawn from the content within our archive footage in many traditional research ways. More importantly having such a diverse source of new old material will stimulate new and exciting research questions to be asked.Our heritage clips to date have enjoyed world distribution, contributed to PhD research and features in media inputs in new and dynamic ways. There is no other resource available which is on digital film covering in a comprehensive and authentic way how our recent past articulated. This has been achieved through the storytelling of the ordinary people who were part of our inheritance.Surprising to us is how successfully we have transitioned into Dementia and Alzheimer’s health care featuring our clips as customised, validated reminiscence therapy. DEMENTIA SITE LINK With the contribution of AI we do not see an end point to possibilities for our archive footage to develop in the future. We live in a digital world and since we have embraced 21 century technologies to date this makes our archive future proofed. Allowing the next generation of researchers will have our resource available for them to take their disruptive new and essential influence for social change to fruition.
The local blacksmith of the 1940s was a man who had a passion for tradition but also had a vision for future change
Our social and academic future will feature disruption in positive ways to change todays status quo
Our resources can be utilised in many dynamic ways in the future. When we started this project in 1989 all the so called “experts” told us that nobody would be interested in the story of the ordinary rural person and in what we had started. We started this project purely to celebrate our ancestors inheritance to us and we just wanted to capture their story. Even we at that time would never have anticipated national and international distribution, making validated educational resources for every Scottish school. To now featuring our ancestral past as endorsed reminiscence film therapy for dementia and alzheimer’s health care.An exciting future- as yet not identified
So what the future holds for our archive when contemporary dynamic disruptive academic researchers feature our ancestral footprint within their blue sky thinking is so exciting. We can easily identify the starting point of this archive in 1989 but we see no end point for its contribution in diverse new ways for future generations. Such is the power of the ordinary persons backstory, significance and influence.