Crowdfunder launched to bring Fife’s stories to life.

Hey, I’m Lewis. I’m an audio producer and have a wee business called Time Capsule Productions where I make life story recordings and podcasts for groups like Abbotsoford Care. I believe that everyone has a story to tell and I wanted to help preserve those stories rather than only the famous ones you usually hear. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlvmq6l60Qo

I am launching a project called Life in Fife, takes on all of that with the aim to record more everyday stories, preserve, and share them.

I want to record the aural histories of local community groups, charities, businesses and people of Fife. This project will help to prevent the loss of local knowledge and aim to highlight groups that people can get involved with and connect local communities. 

These will be kept in an online archive for anyone to access, listen and learn all about Fife’s people. 

On top of this there will be an accompanying podcast to spread the word of Fife, past and present. The podcast will contain archive content that has been edited into shorter, easy to listen to episodes.

This is a great way to connect different generations of people to local stories. 

Groups and people that I’d like to record include Methil Heritage Centre, capturing volunteers knowledge that might not be written down. I’d love to record with The Hive and have their story told for others to learn from. I’d record local anniversaries, talk to people involved in past industries, local artists and even the other people pitching tonight. Everyone has stories and unique skills that are valuable to share. And I’d love to make that happen. 

This is for people who have an interest in Fife and Scotland’s history, people who are interested in hearing people’s stories and those who want to learn more about our wee Kingdom. This will help museums and cultural archives build their catalogue of oral histories. Schools can access these recordings and learn from people in their own words. The elderly and people in care can also listen and reminisce or find out what’s new in their community. 

How it works! I’d use my portable recording set-up to go out to participants and record them in a space they feel comfortable. They tell their story and I ask additional questions to round out the interview. Then I edit and publish it to the online archive. 

I’d love to host an event as part of the archive launch where those involved come together and take part in a stories/skill share, like a human library. People can ‘loan’ select people for a limited time at the event to chat to and learn from. (don’t take the person home). It would also include a listen along of the first podcast episode and stations where people can listen to snippets of the archive recordings. 

The funding from here would be essential for getting this project started, covering any marketing, podcast hosting, web design, branding, travel, and the launch event. To keep Life in Fife going, people will be able to donate when they access the archive. There will also be sponsorship opportunities for the podcast, archive and website.  You have until Wednesday 22nd July to donate to the project. There are also rewards you can claim when you donate, like art prints by ‘Fife Painter’ Kerry Hogg, reduced price audio guestbook hire and sponsorship opportunities for businesses and organisations. 

You can donate online at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/life-in-fife-archive-podcast or search “Life in Fife” on the Crowfunder website. Crowdfunder match funding for Life in Fife is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.