Acorn Shed Music - Stories & Songs
“Thank you to Emma and David from Wandern Media who have followed the process from the initial workshops, all the way to the recording studio and have done a fantastic job in treating the information they witnessed sensitively and professionally” - Acorn Shed Music.
Working with Acorn Shed Music was a truly fulfilling and moving experience, we’re grateful to have been a part of this wonderful organisation’s first project Stories & Songs.
Acorn Shed Music take real-life stories and turn them into songs, with the ultimate goal of providing cathartic relief via storytelling and songwriting for the people who are sharing their stories. Founders Carol & Pauline asked us to create a documentary to show the process of their workshops from storytelling to songwriting, to recording the songs with a focus on the people who are taking part in the workshops. We created a 7+ minute film for them and we’re delighted with the outcome and how well it has been received.
For this first project, Acorn Shed Music made contact with Alzheimer Scotland & Carers Link East Dunbartonshire. After pitching their idea to them, they were able to work directly with the carers of people living with dementia. The project made it possible for these carers who work so hard to look after their loved ones to open up in a safe space and be honest with how hard it is to be in their position.
Our first day of filming was in Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Resource Centre at one of Acorn Shed Music’s storytelling workshops, where we learned how these carers’ worlds have been turned upside down since the diagnosis and how little help they get to cope with the responsibility of being a carer. Our next filming date was the songwriting workshop where Carol & Pauline showed the carers the beginnings of the songs they had been working on, based on the stories the carers had shared and asked for input from the carers who sang, laughed and cried (as did we!) while we heard these truly moving songs.
Our final filming date was at Chem 19 Studio where the carers were asked to come along to join in with the recording of the songs by doing backing vocals. This was a really fun day and something the carers all said they never imagined doing! The songs are now available online and have been presented in a beautiful CD filled with photographs and lyrics which these carers can treasure forever, and will also be made available to other carers who will hopefully find comfort in these songs too.
We were delighted to be invited to the Acorn Shed Music launch day at Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Resource Centre where they premiered our documentary and played a gig of the songs they had created. It was really special to see our film played in front of the people who were involved and to see their reactions - a very emotional and moving day! Needless to say, we’re extremely proud of this documentary and we hope it helps Acorn Shed Music in their mission to help people.
A huge thank you to Pauline and Carol for asking us to be involved. Fun fact - our director Emma met Pauline at a Songwriting workshop back in 2018 so Pauline knew Emma would understand the process!