Life During Lockdown
All human life is still going on during the lockdown.
However unless you are on the social media feeds of those living it, it is invisible to the wider world.
Mostly our experience for the past few weeks has been limited to our homes and our immediate family.
Behind those closed doors everything from the mundane moments of the daily routine, on through to births and deaths, was being lived out and lived through.
Now, as we are cautiously and slowly emerging from the lockdown era, it seems many of those stories and events will be lost forever.
One way into this lost world is being forged by The People’s News, a new series on 麻豆社 Northern Ireland, which has found ways to get into the grain of our lives and record them.
Brendan Hughes, head of Tern TV, which is making the series, said the whole process had taken the production team and the contributors into unchartered territory.
Under social distancing rules no one can film on location, so contributors have to interview themselves on phones and then send in the results.
“It is a reflection of people’s lives as they are, telling their own stories and reacting to stories in the news.
“We have one contributor who gave birth at the start of lockdown, we have several birthdays and one wedding anniversary.
“Just today I was talking to a farmer who is having a problem with the sheep – all the vets are closed so how do you get the medicine?”.
Brendan said some of those taking part have had to quickly reinvent their livelihoods, where possible, to stay in business.
“We have a fisherman who has an interesting story to tell about how his livelihood has changed. We also have a butcher on the Antrim coast who has had to reorganise his whole business and a family of four on the outskirts of Belfast, where the father runs a gym.”
The format of the show allows viewers to see emotional moments, such as when Gemma is preparing to go for a walk with her mum for the first time since March.
Finding contributors during the lockdown was not as difficult as you might think.
Brendan said they used Twitter, Facebook, local papers and word of mouth to find people, as well as organisations such as the Ulster Farmers Union and the Belfast Health Trust (which helped find a midwife).
This resulted in a database of more than 300 names, of which half are being actively considered to take part in the series.
Each person was sent a brief asking them:
• About who they are and their family and people who matter to them
• What life was like before the lockdown
• What life is like now
Contributors were then asked to shoot specific stories on mobile phones about their lives. They were also asked to react to a story in the news, by showing them a film clip and getting their reaction.
Subjects in the first episode include Dominic Cummings, how a social distancing date would work and what to do when you cannot see a hairdresser.
The material was then sent in and put on a central server, from which the production team can access it remotely and edit it into the final programme, without anyone having to be in the same room as another member of the team.
Amongst those taking part is Becky, a hairdresser from County Fermanagh. She said she ended up in the programme after being recommended as a contributor by one of her clients.
She posts films on her Instagram feed and has been much more active online since lockdown started.
Filming herself proved a challenge initially, as she had to work on the framing of her footage to ensure she was always visible.
“I was really shocked to hear from them. I do a lot of stories on Instagram of me running about.
"I have done a couple of bits for it and I am a bit more aware of what I am doing now, as half the country could be watching it instead of my 1,500 Instagram followers!”.
• The People’s News is on 麻豆社 One NI on Thursday, May 28, at 7.30pm and then on the 麻豆社 iPlayer