Faeries of Green Lochan started out as poem. I wrote it in early 1985.
It was inspired by the story of the faeries that are said to live near Lochan Uaine, a small body of water in a remote part of the Cairngorms mountain range in Scotland.
The legend speaks to the particularly vibrant green colour of the lochan's water. It is said the faeries wash their clothes in the lochan, and the dye runs causing the water to have a particularly vibrant green hue.
Of course, faeries being faeries, they are particularly good at vanishing from view whenever anyone comes near. So no one can be sure of their existence, save for the mysterious green colour of the lochan.
The poem appeared in the young writers' collection Inspired, published in 1987.
By 2003 I had turned the poem into a song, and expanded it into a short, two-person screenplay that was performed that year at the Bournemouth Centre for Community Arts, in Boscombe, England. The roles were played by myself and my amateur drama colleague Yvonne.
The screenplay was subsequently included in the book Eating Clouds.
In 2010 I set to work creating a short film version of the screenplay, using a mixture of animation and live action. The live action was filmed by Jon Nichols, assisted by sound recordist Maggie Musial.
The animation I undertook using a software program called Poser (version 8) and a variety of add-ons. The music featured was a track called Invocation, by Gary Stadler and Wendy Rule, who gave permission for the song to be used. Final post-production adjustments were done by Larry Bucher.
I reprised my role as the man with the guitar, while the woman in the cloak was played by Heather Brain.
At the end of the film there is a dedication to Stephanie Penrose. Stephanie was a talented photographer and videographer from Poole, England, who was originally lined up to do the live filming. But realising the cancer she was battling would prevent her from fulfilling the project, she invited her colleague Jon to step in as the cameraman. Stephanie died the day before filming took place. She was a good friend and is greatly missed.
Faeries of Green Lochan was the opening film at the First Bakatown Film Festival, in Bermuda, in January 2012. It was included in a review of the event by the Bermuda Sun newspaper.
It was subsequently uploaded to YouTube where it has been viewed more than 1,000 times.
