For residents on the Hebridean islands of Mull, Ulva, Iona and Gometra, life has slowed down dramatically during the Covid-19 outbreak with lockdown ensuring minimal movement to and from the mainland, and none of the usual influx of visitors.
However, there are certainly worse places to sit out a global pandemic, and one couple are asking their neighbours to collaborate on a film that will mark this time in history to show that life continued in rural communities.
Alasdair and Georgia Satchel, filmmakers and artists who live on Mull, are inviting residents of the archipelago to contribute short film clips of their everyday life during a week in lockdown to document their experiences in a video postcard.
Mr Satchel said: "It just struck me that it's maybe a nice thing to capture the world as it goes by and how the reality of the situation affects people in our communities."
The couple, who host and run podcast What We Do In the Winter talking to locals about their lives, see themselves as "cultural crofters".
"The podcast came from how so many people see rural communities as bubbles not in the real world. It got really frustrating. We aim to give a voice and a presence to the reality of life on the islands – it's a testimony of real life."
They have received submissions from people documenting their morning routines, a wildlife camera showing otter footage, the crossing of an empty ferry and others sharing their work and families in the footage.
The slice of life is an attempt to convey how people are dealing with life under lockdown, and each is different.
"Everyone's experience is entirely subjective and what's different with this is that there's a mental pressure that many people haven't found before. For many people, this is what they've always been preparing for [the quiet and isolation] and it's being welcomed but for others it's very tricky."
As a theatre and filmmaker, Mr Satchel's previously full calender is now empty for the rest of the year. Friends who run boat tours, tourist attractions and accommodation are facing hard times and months of uncertainty.
It's difficult, he says, but many are managing to cherish moments of tranquility amid the uncertainty.
"You can see that in some of the footage that's coming through. There's a kind of meditative quality to some of it."
Locally, management of coronavirus information and resources has been excellent, says Mr Satchel, with the community and the council stepping up to ensure people losing income are furnished with food, and finance if eligible.
He himself has been awarded a bridging loan by Screen Scotland ensuring that he can continue working on creative projects.
Because the island is "hermetically sealed", food costs have risen as islanders can't access the supermarkets on the mainland and there are concerns about easing of lockdown and the possibility of a second peak, with only three hospital beds on the island.
The film will be around 45 minutes long, depending on how much footage is filmed. And the final edit will submitted to Mull Museum, Ross of Mull Historical Centre and the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive.
Mr Satchel said: "What we need to do throughout the editing process is as look at any common threads that run through it and see what narrative we can build visually from that. What's the logic that imposes itself through our creative interpretation."
With more than 600 hits on the website calling for submissions, the Satchels are hopeful they will end up with a breadth of different perspectives on island life from some of the around 3,200 residents of the four islands.
With public gatherings not likely to return for some time, screenings of the film will more than likely be online, via YouTube and Twitter. Because some islanders have poor or no internet services, streaming is not an option but a viewing party hosted on social media with interactive comments should allow maximum exposure until official screenings can be held.
Having worked closely with Screen Machine, Scotland's mobile cinema funded by Creative Scotland and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, in the past, Mr Satchel is hopeful they can show the film with them "when things get back to normal."
"It's important [that people take part and see the film] because its just capturing a moment in people's lives at this point in time, whether that's different from their day to day reality or a heightened version of that because of the situation or whether it's entirely different.
"The thing it offers is connection. This human connection that you can make, and to give people enough space to interpret things their own way. These human connections to place, and space and time are really, really special."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here