Week 6’s workshop was an interesting one. After receiving our marks (something I want to improve for this second project, yet something I am starting to worry could be tricky) — we were asked to fill out a set of ten questions while Brian, our tutor, discussed with various members of the class how their projects were tracking. Unfortunately, as the lesson dragged on, it became more and more apparent to me that it was unlikely I was going to be able to get a good chat in with Brian, so I had to settle for spending three hours answering ten questions (only five of which I could answer having not yet filmed my interview) and then beginning to source CC clips.

The questions I could answer are as follows, yet with some more consideration of the task today — as well as reviewing past students work, I am ready to re-answer these questions — with how I hope to present my final piece of work.

  1. What is the ‘controlling idea’ of your portrait?
    I want to communicate the idea that everyday people can have extraordinary stories – and these stories differ from person-to-person. For my particular example – I want to convey the story of how my mother resuscitated her father after his stroke, and also some stories from her childhood. I want to focus on my mother’s time as a district nurse and stories from nursing school, home visits and other times she has needed to use her medical training — such as the time she resuscitated her father after he suffered a stroke.

 

  1.  How is your portrait film structured?
    I want to use some shots of my mother talking to the camera, but interspersed throughout the piece I want to include found footage from Youtube to either compliment or contrast what she is talking about. I aim to show these clips in black-and-white — using “old-style” clips as much as possible — to show that a lot of her time nursing came before the emergence of the technology used by nurses today.

 

  1. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee?
    I want them to see that nurses are often the unsung heroes of medicine — while doctors have the task of making patients feel better, it is the nurse’s responsibility to maintain the quality of life for patients while in hospice and aftercare.  even though people may seem like “just another person” – we all have interesting stories to tell and unique experiences that shape who we are.

 

  1. How is your portrait being narrated?
    The only narration will be from my mother. This is a stylistic choice – it is her story to tell, and not mine. I am to achieve this via careful editing and phrasing the question in her answer.

 

  1. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait?
    I want to use found footage in several ways. The Project Brief discusses the idea of using 30-70 or 70-30 ration of found footage to shot footage — and I am to go for the latter, using as much as possible. This is because Christine is no longer a nurse, so while I will still shoot footage of Christine in her day to day life, I don’t want to confuse my viewer with having footage irrelevant to the interview narration.

 

 

EDIT — My angle for this piece aims to highlight the caring personality of my mum by showing how fondly she recalls certain patients and how she has aimed to care for them beyond a simply professional level. I will also include stories from her other occupations in aged care and volunteer work.