Factual Filmmaking: 'Living with Dementia' - Documentary

 Pre-Production

Wednesday 9th September 2020

After a long time away from college, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we were now finally back in the classroom, with our teacher James, and ready to start one of our first projects which was factual filmmaking/documentary. 

When we were told we would be creating documentaries, I wasn't the most excited about the project as I am not a big lover or enthusiast of documentaries. I have only watched a handful of documentaries that I have enjoyed or I am truly interested in, such as:

• 'Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts' (2019) - A look into the highs and lows of one of the craziest years for drag queen, and RuPaul Drag Race winner, Trixie Mattel. 
• 'The Beatles: Eight Days a Week' (2016) - Discussing the early years of one of the most successful rock bands in the history of music, 'The Beatles'. 
• 'Howard' (2018) - Focusing on the life and career of the late lyricist and playwright, Howard Ashman (1950-1991).
• 'Three Identical Strangers' (2018) - The unbelievable story of how three identical triplets reunited nineteen years after they were separated at birth and adopted into different families.

I have also watched many documentaries, and docuseries, focusing on true crime stories (which is a particular genre I am interested in), such as 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness' (2020), 'Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes' (2019) and 'I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter' (2019). Now and again I will watch a documentary or docuseries that catches my attention, however, this is very rare as documentary films are not particularly my favourite. So, being told one of our first projects back would be documentary wasn't something I was too excited about, due to my lack of interest, as well as knowledge, of documentaries.

As it was our first lesson back, and for many of us not understanding or having the knowledge of creating and developing a successful documentary, our teacher, James, then gave us a presentation that introduced us to what documentaries are and what factual filmmaking entails.

James first discussed how there are different documentary styles, including:

• Observational documentaries - Attempt to provide a faithful record of a subject's life, as a fly-on-the-wall, with little or no music or narration.
• Participatory documentaries - The filmmaker appears as an active participant in the film, appearing on camera and interacting with subject's and the subject matter. For example, filmmakers such as Louis Theroux, 'The Most Hated Family in America' (2007), and Michael Moore, 'Bowling for Columbine' (2002).
• Expository documentaries - Features an omnipresent, omniscient and/or objective presence, usually expressed as narration to organise and present the content.
• Dramatisation documentaries - Recreation of an event or person, using actors, to allow audiences to understand and see historical events or people firsthand. 

After learning about different documentary styles, we also learnt that every documentary should have a narrative structure (a beginning, a middle and an end), as well as what they should include, such as:

• Story - Depending on what your subject matter is, there should be a story told throughout the film that allows the audience to understand the subject matter, as well as allowing you, as the filmmaker, to find the best narrative structure.
• Conflict - Again, depending on your documentaries subject matter, there must be a conflict presented throughout the film. This is typically what stands between the character(s)/subject(s) and their goal(s).
• Character - No matter what your documentary is about the the subject it is bringing light to, there must be a character, or characters, involved who take us on a journey. 

The structure of a documentary is the exact same for any style of filmmaking, whether fact or fiction, which is created using the three-act structure:

• Act One - Sets up the premise. What is the documentary going to be about? Who are the main characters and what problems do they face? What is in between them and their goal?
• Act Two - Character(s) fights to achieve their goal, however it isn't smooth sailing as complications and conflicts start to arise. This causes the character(s) to have to face many problems thrown their way and puts them under an immense amount of pressure.
• Act Three - Resolution. The character(s) either achieve their goal or they fail what they were set out to do. Hopefully, the journey has resulted in a change or transformation for the character(s).

Although I now had a better understanding in factual filmmaking, learning that it was, somewhat, similar to creating a fictional film, in terms of creating a story and presenting characters and conflicts through a narrative structure. However, the toughest thing to wrap my head around, and something I knew I was definitely going to struggle in, is that once we have filmed the whole documentary, it is only during the edit that we can then find a story and develop and create the structure around it. Writing and creating stories is one of my favourite aspects of filmmaking, and to learn I wouldn't be able to achieve that before filming my documentary was difficult for me to hear. For me, this was definitely going to be a huge challenge for me to overcome, as not having an exact basis or outline beforehand is something I have never done before.

Once James finished his presentation, he then gave us some homework to do. We were tasked with finding a documentary (particularly one we had never seen before), watching it and then creating a presentation, of our own, that discussed everything we had learnt in our lesson. We had to explain what the documentary was about, the story, conflict, characters, the narrative structure, as well as speaking about what we learnt from it and our own personal opinion on our chosen documentary. 

Thursday 10th - Monday 14th September 2020

The documentary I chose to create my presentation on was the documentary 'Blackfish' (2013). The documentary is an exposé about the mistreatment of marine life, particularly that of orca whales, held in captivity at various SeaWorld parks. Director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, focuses her attention on SeaWorld's biggest attraction, the infamous, Tilikum (1981-2017). 

It is a very disturbing and shocking documentary that details and displays the dangers of keeping orca whales in captivity, as well as how it takes a toll on their health and life expectancy. I wouldn't say I enjoyed the documentary, as it was very upsetting to watch and there were certain points I had to look away, due to how disturbing and graphic some of the images and footage were. However, I did find it interesting and surprising how many scandals and secrets were uncovered throughout the documentary. I didn't have any prior knowledge of the biology of orca whales and the history of the SeaWorld franchise, so going into the documentary blind was quite distressing as I wasn't expecting what was going to be thrown at me throughout the film, and it was a very eye-opening experience. 

Whilst I was watching, I then made a few notes afterwards, and watching it through again to make sure I didn't miss out any information, and then created my PowerPoint presentation over the next few days.

*WARNING: There are some graphic and upsetting images and descriptions*

Saturday 19th September 2020

As our teacher James was unable to come into college, he instead created a video of our lesson for us to watch at home, along with a PowerPoint. In James' video, he spoke about how we should start thinking about what we would each like to do for our documentaries. James advised that we should try and pick topics that aren't widely known and are worth shedding a light on.

I struggled to figure out what topic I am the most interested in, as well as being something I am very passionate about sharing, and it took me quite some time to think about any subject matter that was worth being told or being made aware to audiences. Although, soon enough, I then though about making a documentary that is an awareness of dementia.

Dementia is a disease that is well-known, however, not many people have a great deal of knowledge about the disease and how it can affect, not only, the person living with dementia but also the people around them. I am very passionate about making people aware of the devastating impact of dementia and helping to fund for more research into the development of medications and, possibly, a cure, as I have witnessed the hardship of dementia, personally. 

Both my Gran and Grandma had dementia. My Gran was diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia later on in life and passed away in 2011 because of it. As for my Grandma, she had early-onset Alzheimer's, being roughly around 59 or 60-years-old when she was diagnosed with the disease and passed away in 2015 due to it. Although I lived abroad and rarely saw my Grandma, whenever I came back to England and visited her, I saw the dramatic decline in her health, and as I was so young, I didn't understand why she was acting the way she was, and further down the line, I couldn't understand why she didn't remember who I was. It wasn't until I was around 11 or 12-years-old that I became aware she had an incurable disease that was going to gradually get worse and, eventually, take her life. 

Although I knew a lot about my Grandma's experience, as well as my family's experience with looking after her and, eventually, making the decision to place her in a care home, I didn't realise how many more people, throughout the UK, have been diagnosed with dementia and how much of an impact that has caused on, not only, themselves, but their families. Once I decided that I wanted to do my documentary about dementia, I then did a little bit of research, looking through the Alzheimer's Society website and, learning about the different types of dementia. What I was more concerned and shocked by was an article I found on the website, stating how much of an impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the dementia community. This is due to the lack of funding and resources from the government, based on their lack of knowledge and care for the disease, as well as their fears of spreading the virus and infecting people living with dementia. The pandemic has also seen many people with dementia die due to being infected by someone with coronavirus, this being a huge impact across care homes throughout the UK.

After I read more about the devastation corona has had on the dementia community, I knew that I needed to make my documentary about the subject matter, as well as making sure audiences were being made aware of the disease and the impact it has had on many people's lives.

Wednesday 30th September 2020

In this lesson, we finally presented our PowerPoints about the documentaries we watched and recognising whether it was successful or not. After we did our presentations, James then showed us how we should create a pitch for each of our documentary ideas. This wasn't too difficult as it was similar in the way we would pitch our film ideas. With pitching a documentary, we had to make sure we had a brief and clear outline of what our documentary was going to be about, as we don't know how the documentary is going to turn out, but with the right amount of research and planning of filming and interviews, we could at least convey a rough idea of what our documentary would be about.

We were also told we must include a proposal, as a summary of our documentary and giving further information for anything we weren't able to get across in our pitches. 

After James told us what was necessary to include in our pitches and how to present them successfully, we then told him our ideas and why we would like to tell them. Luckily, James really liked my idea and said that there isn't a lot of information and documentaries about this certain subject matter, as well as expressing it is a very important time to make people aware of dementia. However, he did say to also have a contingency documentary idea in case corona became an issue again, as the rise in infections were getting worse and we were all unsure whether we would be put into another lockdown or not.

When I arrived home, I started to have a think about what could be a possible backup plan and I was able to come up with another idea. I thought about making a documentary about my best friend, Eve Bond. We both met and grew up together in Dubai until we both moved back to our home towns, in England, a few years ago. 

The reason why I thought about doing a documentary about Eve is because she is an aspiring singer and musician and decided to take a year off, helping at her college, before making the decision on what university she would like to go to carry on her music career journey. She is also an interesting character as she has had her fair share of troubles in the past, a lot of these troubles being the cause of her anxiety and impact on her mental health. This was something I was also very interested to learn more about and, hopefully, present in the documentary is because we are now more aware of how a person's mental health can impact their lives. However, I still think it can be quite hard for someone to speak about their mental health in such a personal and intimate way, especially younger people who feel they can't express their feelings, and to bring that across in a documentary could help someone recognise they are not alone and understand it is okay to not be okay all the time. 

I then got in touch with Eve, once I had her in mind for the documentary, and she came back to me pretty quickly, saying that she would like to share her story and be in the documentary. So, over the weekend, when we were both free, we had a few Zoom calls and spoke about Eve's life, where she found her passion for music and also learning about how her anxiety has had an impact on her life. There was a lot of interesting information I didn't even know about my friend and I thought it would be great to share her story with others.

Friday 16th - Wednesday 21st October 2020

Over the next few days, I then started to work on my pitch for my documentary, as well as including my contingency idea and a couple of mood boards I had made previously.

Before I started to work on my pitch, I then got in touch with a close family friend of mine called Tina Pickering. Tina is a Dementia Care Coordinator for Stockton-on-Tees and is part of the Alzheimer's Society programme called Dementia Friends, this is a programme to help people understand and be made aware of dementia and its effects on people. Tina's passion to help people living with dementia, as well as helping their carers and families to cope with their effects of dementia, and making people more aware, was provoked after the death of her father, Brian, who has early-onset Alzheimer's and passed away in 2015. 

Once I got in touch with Tina, she was more than happier to be part of the documentary, as well as being able to get contacts with people she works with, as well as carers and people living with dementia. Tina also invited me to attend one of her Dementia Voices group meetings to speak to other people attending, as well as to take pictures and film the events of the day and also sitting in on a support group session they provide for people, to help speak about their experiences and how to cope with taking care of their loved ones who are living with dementia. I thought this was a great opportunity for me to get involved, as well as helping out and understanding dementia from many different perspectives. 

Friday 27th November 2020

On this day, I went to the Dementia Voices group that Tina had invited me to the previous month. I was very aware, we are still in a pandemic, and as a younger person who hadn't be tested and could, potentially, have coronavirus from being at college, I made sure to stay distanced from everyone and wore my mask the whole time I was there. It was important, not only to keep myself safe but also, to keep everyone else safe as they were much older than me and are known to be more susceptible to catching the virus. I also knew that many of the deaths around the UK caused by corona were those of people who had dementia, so I definitely didn't want to cause a risk to their health. 

So, making sure I kept my distance, as well as keeping my mask on, I was still able to learn about what goes on at a dementia group (of course, it wasn't the same as it usually would have been as social distancing rules were set in place). I learnt that Dementia Voices not only provides a safe environment for people living with dementia and their carers or family members to enjoy a few hours out of the house, but that they also have a support group that helps carers and family members be able to understand and cope with their loved one who is living with dementia. They are given advice and resources to learn about their loved one's gradual decline in their health, as well as preparing them for when they, eventually, pass away due to the type of dementia they have been diagnosed with. Of course, anyone who is living with dementia will have a different effect and experience, but something that stays the same is the impact and effect their illness has in their loved one. I had never been to a dementia group before and I didn't know what they provided for any of the attendees, so to learn that they hold support groups and listen to what a person is going through and helping them how to cope with watching someone they love slowly lose who they are is a tough job to do but is also amazing that they are able to help someone who really needs it. Especially during the pandemic, which has been the toughest time for anyone who has had to care for a person with dementia all on their own.

After learning about the support the group give, I then headed over to the main room and saw the main service the group provides. On this particular day, the group had brought in a live singer to perform and entertain the attendees. They also did a quiz and handed out a few treats and drinks to everyone. 

It was a very lovely day and it was amazing to see how music effects a person living with dementia, as the singer was performing more popular songs from the '50s and '60s. One of the symptoms of dementia is gradually losing your memory, and to see many of these people remembering every lyric to a song and seeing them get up and dance (in their bubbles) was really emotional and moving to watch. Whilst I was sat, taking pictures and observing the room, I realised how important it is for everyone in the room to at least have a few hours out of the house, to have a sense of normality, socialise and have some fun. It has been really hard, throughout the pandemic, for anyone to leave their home for fears of catching coronavirus, especially those among the elderly and who, possibly, have dementia. So, for Dementia Voices to provide this service and allow everyone to have a few hours of fun and be in a safe environment is an amazing achievement and it was a really great experience for me. 

LOCKDOWN

Thursday 7th January 2021

This was our first virtual documentary lesson once we, virtually, got back to college. Our teacher, Kane, told us what was going to be happening with documentaries, telling us we would have to find some way of doing it all from the comfort of our own home. He also told us the best way we can film all of our documentaries is doing interviews over Zoom, and, possibly, having to change our subject matters if we are now unable to film what we originally intended and wanted to do. Although, I did have Eve as my contingency plan for the documentary, I did stick to the dementia idea I had before, as well as telling Kane this during our lesson. Kane thought I had a good idea and simply told me to start getting contacts and preparing questions for Zoom interviews. We were also told we would have until the beginning of March to get all of our interviews done, get all of our footage and images, for our documentaries and be ready to edit them once we get back to college, as we didn't have the Premiere Pro software at home. 

Wednesday 13th January 2021

Kane checked in on us and was wondering how we were getting on with gathering contacts or, even, starting to film our documentaries. I still needed to get in touch with Tina, which I did later that day. We were also told to start. thinking of our main goals for the documentary and how we were going to present that through the story and narrative structure of the documentary. 

Later on, I then got in touch with Tina and we arranged to have a Zoom meeting a few days later, where I would talk to her about what would be the best way to make people aware of dementia and speak about it as realistically as possible.

Friday 15th January 2021

Early in the morning, I had a Zoom meeting with Tina about the documentary. Again, she said she was very happy to be a part of it and to find others who would also like to be part of the documentary. Just before lockdown, she had spoken to a few people at the Dementia Voices group, including Lucy McCormack, who is a Dementia Care Coordinator alongside Tina, and couple Brian and Liz O'Connor, attendees of the Dementia Voices group as Brian has mixed dementia and Liz, his wife, cares for him. After learning a bit more about dementia and getting some research from Tina to be able to understand how to present my documentary, as well as being able to form questions for everyone, I then got a few more contacts that I made on my own. The contacts I got included my mum, Anne, having experienced my Grandma's dementia, as well as our family friend, Michelle Lewellyn, whose father is currently living with Alzheimer's and Vascular dementia. 

Once I had all my contacts, our teacher, Kelly, asked us to create a proposal for her to look at and understand what we were going to make our documentaries about. 

Tuesday 19th January 2021

As I finally had all of my contacts, and I was getting ready to record my interviews soon, I then decided to think about the questions I would like to ask everyone, as well as how I was going to form my narrative structure through the questions. I decided my narrative structure would be:

• Act One - Introducing audiences to what the documentary is about and learning about what dementia is. I felt this was very important to tell right at the beginning as many people have misconceptions about dementia, only thinking dementia impacts your loss of memory and that you can only get it at an older age, when actually dementia is much more than that.
• Act Two - Introduction to the participants, learning why they are involved in the documentary, of course having some sort of involvement or experience with dementia, as well as learning about their personal stories of dementia. This gives the audience more insight to the impact dementia has on a person, whether they have the disease or they cared for someone who passed away from it.
• Act Three - Learning about the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the dementia community, and hearing everyone's hopes for the future of dementia. I also wanted to end the documentary with where to find resources to help and donate to dementia organisations.

So, with that narrative structure in mind, I was then able to form and write questions for everyone.

After writing all my questions, I then needed to know how I could record my Zoom interview successfully. I had done a Zoom recording once before, however, it showed both me and the person I was speaking with in the same frame and this was something I didn't want for my documentary. So, I went onto YouTube and I was able to find this very helpful tutorial of how to change the settings on Zoom for recording an interview. I was able to find out how it would record only one person in the frame, as well as how to get separate audio files and being able to mute and unmute yourself very quickly, so I was still able to ask everyone their questions.

After watching the tutorial, I then emailed the questions to all of my contacts, to allow them to see the questions beforehand and make sure if they were appropriate for me to ask.

Production

Friday 5th February 2021

This was my first day of filming each and every one of my interviews. I was able to interview three different people which were, Tina, Pauline and Lucy. Everyone's interviews went really well, there was a lot for me to work with as each interview was roughly around ten-twenty minutes long, although this did mean I was going to have quite a tough time cutting them all down, this was a challenge I was going to have to face once I got back to college and started editing the documentary. I also was able to learn a lot that I didn't previously know about dementia, particularly learning about everyone's own experiences with knowing a loved one with dementia and the hardships of taking care of them. All the interviews, visually, looked really great as well, there were a few issues with Pauline's lighting as the at some points it was very bright and then would randomly go very dark, this was obviously an issue with the weather outside and it was something that didn't take too much away from what Pauline was actually speaking about, which was very emotional and eye-opening. 

Tuesday 9th February 2021

This was my final day of filming interviews with all of my contacts. The previous day, I made sure Tina was still okay to be able to conduct the interview with Brian and Liz, as Brian has mixed dementia and I was unsure of what to ask him and whether or not the same questions I asked everyone before would be appropriate for him to answer. Luckily, Tina was fine to do the interview and she did a fantastic job. Brian and Liz were very lovely people and it was very hard to hear their story and what they have been going through, and it was a huge honour that they were telling their story for me to share to audiences and make them aware of how dementia effects a person. I knew this was probably going to be the toughest interview to edit as the length of the interview was just over thirty minutes, and due to Brian's dementia, at some points it was quite hard to understand what he was trying to say. However, there were many brilliant moments to have in the documentary and show examples of how Brian's condition affects him in certain ways.

After Brian and Liz's interviews, I then recorded Michelle's interview, which was in person, using my phone and some camera equipment I had for my phone, including a microphone, a phone rig and a tripod. Michelle's interview was quite quick, roughly being just under ten minutes.

After Michelle's interview, I then interviewed my mum, Anne, also using my phone and equipment I used for Michelle's interview. This was also a very quick interview and was roughly around the same time length as Michelle's interview.

Now that I had all of my interviews done, I was very happy with what I had and I was now quite excited to see how it would all come together once I got back to college and was able to edit it all. I did also make sure I checked through each and every interview for any technical problems whilst filming over Zoom, but, luckily, there were none and all of the footage was easily usable for the documentary.

Once I finished all of my interviews, I then emailed everyone asking for their permission to be able to send over images they have to put in the documentary, as well as asking Tina if she had any pictures of diagrams or information, from Dementia Friends, to put in the documentary. Luckily, Dementia Friends gave me permission to use some of their research and information Tina provided me to put in the documentary, as they knew this was a documentary about the awareness of dementia.

OUT OF LOCKDOWN

Post Production

Tuesday 16th March 2021

We were finally able to go back to college on the 16th March, and this meant we were finally able to start editing our documentaries. However, I did run into a few problems with the Premiere Pro software, due to the application not being updated to the latest version of Premiere Pro, as well as the license not being renewed to use the software. I was able to add all my footage onto the software before it stopped working.

After I found that the software wasn't working anyone, and we needed someone from the college I.T. department to come and sort it out, I then started to watch through my footage and made notes/timestamps where everyone answers, to the questions I asked, stop and start. I also noted a few key quotes that I thought would be good to have in the documentary.

Wednesday 17th March 2021

Now that the Premiere Pro application was up and running again, I was able to get started on my editing. I did face some difficulty with cutting down clips and arranging them into a narrative structure, as I already had a set narrative structure before I started filming the documentary but I had to understand that documentaries are not the same as your typical fictional film. It is only within the editing you can then create a story around your characters and the subject matter you are getting across to then be able to form a narrative structure. This was something I was struggling with as I felt there wasn't an exact story, and instead it was a documentary about the awareness of dementia (which I originally intended the documentary to be), as well as listening to different people's personal experiences with dementia. So, this was something I needed to think about a lot and very quickly as I didn't have a lot of time to edit the documentary.

Another problem I faced whilst editing was, I had a problem adding my mum and Michelle's footage onto Premiere Pro. For some odd reason, when I added the footage filmed on my iPhone onto Premiere Pro, along with the footage filmed over Zoom, the iPhone footage would lose quality and become pixelated and fuzzy. I think this may have been caused by the different video formats they were filmed on and converted by, and because of this, I then tried to render the iPhone footage. However, it was still very fuzzy and didn't have the same clear quality as the Zoom interviews. So, this was something I was going to have to deal with and in the meantime, focus on structuring my documentary and then adjusting the quality of different shots.

As I continued to struggle cutting down clips, as the documentary was much longer than I intended it to be, with all the footage cut into parts it was roughly just over an hour long, as well as struggling to rearrange all the clips to create a clear, narrative structure, I then got in touch with my teacher, Kelly, to help me figure out a way around this.

Thursday 18th March 2021

When I came into college in the morning, Kelly was then able to give me guidance and some help on how to break all of my footage down and be able to create a narrative structure. Kelly watched a few interviews of mine and did say it was going to be quite difficult to chop down, this being because there was a lot of really great information and stories told, as well as Brian's interview being the most difficult due to his condition. 

So, the best way to break it all down and rearrange my narrative structure was by making notes, on pieces on paper, and noting down all of the information, said by each participant, into three different sections. Kelly said to colour code them with key moments being pink, interesting moments being yellow, and okay moments (more like filler) being green. This was really helpful and after I spoke with Kelly, I then started to go through all of the footage and note down everything that was said by each participant.

Friday 19th - Sunday 21st March 2021

Over the weekend, I continued working through my notes for the narrative structure. It did take me quite a while going through all of the footage and making sure I noted every single thing down. Once I finished all of the notes, I then tried to rearrange all the notes and create a clear narrative structure, however, this was still very difficult as there was a lot to try and keep in the documentary, as well as me struggling to out certain parts out of the documentary.

I did then make the decision to narrow the documentary down by only including three of the six interviews that I filmed, keeping Tina, Pauline and Brian and Liz's interviews and then taking out Lucy, Michelle and my mum's interviews. I felt, the interviews that I kept, were much more engaging, due to all of their characters and how they speak and present themselves, and I felt the audience would be very interested to hear what they all have to say. This was also much easier for me to be able to create a narrative structure.

After finishing my narrative structure, I then moved onto looking at information to place in my documentary, mainly to go between certain interview clips and to also allow the audience to learn more about dementia. I looked on various websites, such as Alzheimer's Society, Alzheimer's Research UK, the NHS and many more. I also decided to use information cards to fill gaps rather than involving voiceovers as I felt this was going to be an emotional and serious documentary, and to have an ominous voice throughout would ruin the atmosphere. I then had a look at what music I could, that was copyright free and also would fit with the tone of the documentary. I was able to find a few subtle piano pieces, however, I felt they wouldn't fit with the documentary, again, as it is a very serious piece and placing music over everyone's interviews would sort of ruin the tone and the information brought across. Instead, I decided on only having music during the credits, at the end of the film. The piece of music I found that was perfect for the ending was an improvised piano piece by a man named Paul Harvey. I came across this a few months ago when I saw it on the news and instantly, I was moved by Harvey's performance as he has dementia. I thought this would be quite sentimental to have music by someone who has dementia at the end of the documentary as I thought this would be emotive and also show the power that music has, specifically for someone living with dementia.

Monday 22nd - Thursday 25th March 2021

Now that I had everything sorted out, I was then able to edit all of my documentary throughout the week. I will say, my style of editing was very simple as I didn't want to complicate the serious tone of the documentary with loads of pictures and effects, making it more intimate and personal with each participant in the documentary.

First, I pieced all of my footage together to create the narrative structure of the film, allowing the audience to clearly learn about dementia, as well as meet and understand all of the characters and their own personal stories and experiences. I made sure when editing them together, I left gaps between a few clips, where necessary, to be able to add images and different information cards.

Once the interviews clips were all placed in the appropriate and correct places, I then started to add images between some of the interview clips, matching them up with the information spoken about. These images included mainly diagrams and personal pictures of loved ones and group meetings.

Once all the images were placed in the correct parts of the documentary, I then started to add information cards and other text and title cards necessary, including the title of the documentary, 'Living with Dementia', and a disclaimer at the beginning, showing that I followed the safety guidelines whilst filming during the pandemic.

After placing all of the text throughout the documentary, I then started working on the credits at the end of the documentary. I made sure to put a special thank you to the participants in the documentary, as well as the resources I used for information and images. Once that I was done, I decided to also put a tribute to my Grandma at the end credits, as she is the reason why I wanted to create this documentary and she is the reason why I want people to be made much more aware of dementia. 

Once I checked through everything again, I then placed the music, the piano piece by Paul Harvey, at the end of the documentary. It was quite loud when I put placed it onto the software, so I decided to turn down the audio by -6, using the audio gain.

After checking through documentary through a couple of times, which took quite some time as the documentary's time length came to around thirty-eight minutes, I then exported it, which didn't take long at all, and then uploaded it to YouTube.

Evaluation

The feedback I got on the documentary was really good, I got a lot of positive messages saying that I had done a really great job on making people aware of dementia, as well as helping people understand more about the disease. This was my main goal and it was everything I wanted from the documentary. I did also get a few messages telling me how emotional it was and that some people did have a few tears whilst watching it. So, after hearing the great feedback and knowing that I had done my job well of tackling a serious issue was a great success for me, and made me proud and honoured I was able to share many people's stories and experiences thoroughly and as accurately as possible.

Initially, I didn't think the documentary would turn out very well due to my lack of knowledge in documentaries, as well as struggling to edit the documentary and worrying about not making a successful film due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, I did shock myself at how well I did with it, even with so many obstacles and challenges along the way.

What I am most proud of with the documentary is the help I got from Tina and the great interviews she was able to get for my documentary. Everyone who was part of the documentary were brilliant and were really brave to be talking about such a serious subject and being able to share their personal experiences and journeys with dementia. Especially the interviews with Pauline, Brian and Liz, they were really tough to sit through and were very emotional and heart breaking, which then made me consider whether I should add some of the upsetting descriptions into the documentary or not. Although, they have spoken about their experiences a lot with many people and did reassure me that they wanted to get their stories and messages across and wanted people to learn more about dementia. I was really happy that I was able to do all of the participants proud, and that I was able to connect with them, as well as learn more about dementia. It was definitely a big learning experience for me and it is one that I will think back to a lot. 

Although the visual quality of the documentary itself wasn't the best, I think I did very well to work around the circumstances of that time, only relying on Zoom to be able to conduct and record interviews over a laptop, I was still really proud that I was able to get everyone's stories across and allow audiences to learn about the hardships of each and every person's experience.

'Living with Dementia' - Documentary