2013 Scholarship – Kyle Jones

Greetings to the MacDougall McCallum Heritage Foundation.

My name is Kyle Jones and I was a recipient of the John S. Carasik Scholarship in 2017.

Despite my surname, I am a proud member of Clan MacDougall. (My late mother was Elsie McDougal of Montevideo, MN.) I serve on the Board of Directors of the Clan MacDougall Society of North America and was recently honored to receive the post of Vice President.

During my time with the Society’s Internet Content Committee, I became aware of concerns over intellectual property issues and felt I was in a position to help. You see, I have been the owner of a multimedia production studio called Firestorm Films for the past twenty years. I knew that if we could build a library of content that we had produced ourselves, the rights issues would simply disappear. I began to plan for what would come to be known as “Project Raven.” Initially, Project Raven was to be completely funded by Firestorm and the output provided to the Clan at no cost. I was glad the Foundation was willing to partner with us to provide this service.

As partners, the understanding reached was Firestorm would produce as much footage as possible during the journey. Then, full, non-exclusive rights to the raw footage would be granted to the parties involved. This includes Firestorm Films, The Clan MacDougall Society of NorthAmerica, The MacDougall McCallum Heritage Foundation and The MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust. Any or all of these organizations is then free to create edited content from the raw library or coordinate with Firestorm to have the creation done.

That’s all background information. Here’s how the project actually went:

Our crew landed in Glasgow on April 8th and though we were there to get work done, it was also a bit of a working vacation and we had planned carefully. We dropped our bags off at our flat and immediately jumped a train for Lanark where we had tickets to take in a Dougie MacLean concert. The performance was wonderful, as you can well imagine, and we even had a chance to meet and visit with the man himself. He found it astounding when I told him we had flown 3600 miles to attend, exclaiming in his wonderful accent, “Ack! Ye never!” Yes. Yes, we had. It was a wonderful start to the adventure.

The staff at Dunollie wasn’t expecting us until the 11th, so we spent the first days gathering shots of more general interest. We toured Glasgow first, making a point to visit the Necropolis and photographing everything of interest along the way. Right from the start it was clear that we had bitten off a great deal. You could spend days in Glasgow alone and not run out of points of interest but we were playing a game of shoot and move.

The next day took us first to Falkirk to shoot the famous boatlift and the Kelpie sculptures and then northwest to Stirling to tour the castle there. By the time we were done we were well tired out but came home with good material. Much of this is less Clan specific and more general interest but we do have people in these places and stories related to them so it seemed appropriate to include in our growing footage library.

We slept another night in Glasgow and then finally headed north. We were excited to get on the train because for us the next destination was the one we dream of... the Isle of Lismore. Many Minnesota MacDougalls can trace their lineage to Lismore and the island continues to call us “home” even from thousands of miles away. Because of this, it was important to us to spend a couple nights on the island as we began our work up at Dunollie.

We had booked our lodgings through AirBnB, with which we have always had good luck. It wasn’t until we arrived that we realized a happy surprise. Our gracious hosts were Donald McCallum, the island maintenance man, and his partner Francis. This was a complete coincidence, though a welcome one. We were treated as warmly as direct cousins throughout our stay, sharing fine meals and many stories. Honestly, I don’t think our kinship made any real difference. I am absolutely certain the hospitality we were shown simply reflects who these wonderful people actually are.

During our Lismore days, we made contact with Liam Griffin who cares for Kilbride graveyard where so many of our honored dead now rest. Liam was kind enough to come gather us from the ferry and give us an extensive tour of his work. His “Friends of Kilbride” organization is growing rapidly and the locals seem quite supportive of the restoration work that is underway. Those who know Liam will know what a wonderful storyteller he is and can understand how joyous we were to have had his full attention for the afternoon.

We moved to Oban proper after two nights on Lismore to reduce the time needed to deal with ferries and spent the remainder of the week continuing the work at Dunollie. The castle staff was fantastic, as usual, pretty much giving us the run of the place and enduring the interruption even though it was obvious that they have many projects underway.

Our main point of contact was Marketing Director, Gillian Campbell. She was able to point us to some topics that staff were interested in getting photographed and introducing us to appropriate staff members as needed. We continue to work with Gillian to design media that will come from all the raw footage collected. When completed, these items will be included in an interpretive kiosk available to guests of the museum. The first of these items tells of the “yett” (Gaelic meaning a wrought iron gate) that has been installed in the curtain wall leading to the courtyard of the Keep. Other items will continue to be produced as staff directs.

We brought five different camera rigs with us to Dunollie. This gave us the ability to create a variety of content including still images, video footage, stereoscopic 3D images, 360o virtual reality images and aerial footage. There will be some challenges ahead deciding how best to deliver this content to our guests/members, especially with the 3D and VR, and there will be a fair bit of editing work to be done as we move forward. We are quite pleased with this first outing. The actual output ended up as:

Still Photography:

15 Images from Trains

90 Images in Stirling

46 Images on Lismore

54 Images from Falkirk

74 Images from Glasgow

218 Images from the Hebrides

50 Images from Kilbride

456 Images from Oban

Motion Pictures

17 Videos from Falkirk

50 Videos from the Hebrides

50 Videos from Oban

Specialty Items:

86 Spherical 360o Images

8 Panoramic Images

82 3D SBS Images

As important as this output is, just as important was the ability to have time to discuss the programming at Dunollie with staff. Great things are happening there in Oban and the variety ofofferings is growing. Our organizations have enjoyed good working relationships over the past years but it is clear that a generational shift is underway. These relationships need to be continually strengthened and renewed. Modern technology allows us much easier communications than before but there is no substitute for sitting across the table and sharing a cup of tea.

A favorite part of the project was the time spent with Robin MacDougall, Younger of Dunollie. Robin shares my love of gadgetry and we were able to spend a good deal of time together playing with all the gear I had brought along. He was also with me when the only negative part of the trip happened.

Mary Freer, Facilities Manager, had asked us to fly above the 1745 House and get some images of the slate roof tiles so staff could determine where repairs were needed. After waiting for a break in the intermittent rain sprinkles, Robin and I grabbed my new drone and headed for the yard. I sent the drone up and started the camera. Robin started his camera, filming me filming the house.

Now, I’m fully aware that the guy next to me is the future Chief but at that moment I was reminded of summers at the lake with my cousins. We were just a couple boys out in the yard playing with our toys.

Everything started out well enough. I had nearly completed my first pass over the east wing. Apparently, my fingers were a little too heavy on the controls. SMACK! The drone smashed against the south wall, disintegrating on impact and down it went. Robin and I gasped simultaneously and stood silently for a moment. Then, looking to each other, we burst into giggles. Two boys at play once more. “Don’t tell your Mother.” I said.

Thinking back, the reality settles in that this incident cost me my new $400 drone but I find it hard to be bothered. That is a small price to pay for a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

Time travels at a different pace at Dunollie. Though it seemed we had just arrived, before we knew it the week was gone. We caught the train down to Glasgow to spend one last evening before flying home.

All week we had been trying to make connections with Catherine Gillies without success. (‘Historical Mentor’ to Dunollie and I’m sure well known to many reading this) It was a great joy that she made the effort to drive all the way from Edinburgh to spend our final evening in country with us. “Going out of her way” seems a basic character trait for Catherine and we love her for it. Her depth of knowledge is astounding and her insight into how best to continue telling our story is invaluable. It is a conversation that continues as will the creative work of the project.

We had a lovely time briefly visiting the Kelvingrove museum, catching dinner, and getting in a good visit. Then it was, sadly, time for goodbyes. “Haste ye back.” They say. We shall indeed.