Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Throughout the past 13 weeks, I have researched into my chosen topic and its aspects, I’ve
planned out everything I needed to do, I filmed every piece of footage I needed, I edited my
production to the best standard I could and presented my work for my class and teachers.
I plan to enter The UK Film Festival in the category for Best Documentary. The rules for
Henley College are no nudity, no necessary swearing and no drug use, I didn’t break any of
these rules.
I also wanted to learn how my sister was thinking and how she copes so that I could help
her and understand to a point what she is feeling. Just watching how she acts every day and
when she has an episode is very upsetting for me and my family because we don’t know
what’s going on in her head. So, when it came to writing the script I was more educated
with the issue and I was able to come up with the questions and information that was
displayed on screen.
In a survey I asked if they’d heard of this topic.
70% knew of it and seeing that 30% hadn’t I knew
that they should know what it is. By showing this
30% about mental health, then they’d become
aware of the issues that others face.
Informing more people about a serious matter
that needs resolving is the main aim in this
production, more people need to know about
these serious issues in mental health. Not just in the UK but around the world.
In my brief I set out to make a documentary about mental health (BPD). I think I managed to
follow through with it, I had all the information up on the screen, proper interviews that
were relevant and in all it was what I planned out to be.
I chose expository documentary because it was the best suited type to show my production.
I could’ve chosen Interactive instead, but I think expository really fit having a voice over (an
invisible person) asking the questions and taking to the audience.
There are quite a few expository documentaries out there, but they don’t all have the ‘voice
of god’ over it, mostly titles or the interviewees speech has been cut a certain way as to
introduce the film. Most of the expository won’t be about mental health, there are a lot of
them that are the Performative or Interactive type. You need to decide on the type of
documentary you’re putting out there and work around how you will address the
public/audience.
Each documentary has a purpose and like mine, I hope to impact people hugely with this
piece. I don’t want to upset people I want to teach people, and this is my opportunity to do
that.
Mental health is a serious subject to talk about and I was very wary when it came to writing
all the dialogue or information. Coming from someone who’s been through the mental
health unit of the NHS, it’s very easy to upset someone and I knew that every bit of
research, study, infographic I saw was a question mark as it might not be genuine. Many
mental health documentaries have been made and I suppose mine will be like theirs, in the
way it’s made and produced to the world.
Mental health can be anything from stress to
anorexia, you can’t put a label on mental health
because it’s so many things.
I chose BPD, and in that came Bulimia,
Depersonalization Disorder and Self-Harm. These
were the main aspects of mental health that was
mentioned in the documentary, between
different people, Natalie and Esther suffer on the
same level. It also adds a personal touch to the
production and I made this video my own.
The narrative for this documentary are the lives of the affected
people of mental health. Through the struggles of everyday life
and the demons they face all the time.
This comes from the college councillor who deals with troubled
teens every day, listening to hundreds of different stories every
month. They listen to the struggles of these young adults and they
help them through this and often refer them to the national
health service.
There are last of all those that suffer with these mental
health issues. They are the ones most important to this
documentary, I want these people to look for the help they need and deserve. They are
affected more than anymore knows, they keep to themselves for a while until most
commonly they confide in someone they trust.
Having a voice-over is
calming and by having it in
the production it gives it a
dramatic effect, the ‘voice
of god’ is very effective as
they are the real
storytellers. It can explore
the topic with the audience
whether the topic is happy
or sad.
100% of people agreed that
the voice-over told its story.
Having people saying that it was important is good because I then could script every bit of
dialogue I saw fit to the documentary.
My specialism was camerawork and I used a few different techniques. When I was setting
up my interviews, I wanted the subjects to be lit with more natural light than artificial light.
In the final product I tried to make it more colourful and appealing to all ages, I didn’t want
it to be an ordinary documentary, I want people to remember it. So, when I added the
graphics, I needed a colourful background
The brightness of the
background really
makes the
information/history
section interesting and
gets people’s attention.
I wanted to make the documentary as ‘bright’ as possible, I want it to be colourful and
memorable.
I wanted my interviews to have a more neutral look, so that
there weren’t any overpowering colours or if it was too
bright.
Tracy’s office was very bright and there were white walls
with a small light in the corner, so I set her there and having
that white background really worked out. It wasn’t a potent
white so having it for the background made it very neutral.
For Brian & Jo’s interview, they were in the same as Esther
when she was interviewed. It has the same calming
background and they were also lit with natural light. I was
originally going to interview them in the conservatory
where it was a lighter, but I think it would’ve been too
bright and seeing this footage in the production stage, I can
see that it’s better this way.
ß I asked people if they thought that the
interviews were in a relevant order, 78.95%
said yes.
à I also asked them if they were all
necessary.
From the feedback, I can say that the order
and necessity were relevant, and I wouldn’t
change the order.
What I will try to improve for next time will defiantly be with the cameras, I was working
with three different cameras. One of them didn’t work properly and the other one I didn’t
use before, so I didn’t’ know that it had changed to the infrared setting.
Next time I will be familiar with all the equipment I will be using, this is mainly about the
camera. I will also try not to ask too many questions because I think that having too many
of them and it make the production quite long and also if the answers are really good, it’s
hard to cut them.
There were a couple of videos I found that I talked about in my research that I drew
inspiration from.
I didn’t really get a lot from these videos, I had already decided what my documentary
would be and being a fan of documentaries, I had seen a lot over the years, so I have a
common knowledge.
One was a short film about BPD and the other was a documentary about mental health.
I AM BORDERLINE
A short film based off a campaign to raise
awareness for Borderline Personality
Disorder. In this short film, there is voice-
over recorded by a female, this is where I
had the idea of having a female in for my
documentary. I feel that having a female
voice is gentler and more caring for this type
of documentary. Overall, it worked and from
feedback people preferred having a female
voice-over.
The other video I drew from was - "Back from the Edge" - Borderline Personality Disorder
Overall, I thought the whole unit went well and I’m pleased with all my work that I’ve
presented. There’s nothing that I would change in any planning or even my production. I’m
very happy with how it turned out and how
many people have been made aware of the
complications of mental health. I missed a
few problems in the filming stage and a bit in
the editing, but I think I’ve overcame these
problems and make improvements.