1. What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait? In other words, what is the most interesting thing about your participant/interviewee that you want to communicate? The most interesting thing about my interviewee that I want to communicate to my audience is that she is a newly mum to a current 3 year old baby. The controlling idea of this film talks about how from day 1 the child needs to be supervised and cared for 24/7 and the things that people don’t tell you about the first weeks which are the hardest. I want to communicate from example by showing particularly what her child (Liam) does in order for people to see from the shoes of a mother how it is a full time job that you cant quit.

2.  How is your portrait film structured?  (Remember there might be multiple forms of structure employed)  E.g. Discussion and depiction of an event or process? A Journey? Use of voiceover narration? Other? I have used a lot of voiceover narration because I feel like it was the easier way to film because Liam is still so young and cries a lot when his mother or father don’t give him attention. This also enabled me to take footage of him in his routine- specifically when I got to spend time with him we were overseas in Fiji so I got a lot of footage of him in a happy situation but also showing the huge about of care a baby takes from day one. The narration at the beginning of my documentary film is more of a journey through Liam’s routine and how it has changed in order to satisfy his feeding/sleeping.

3. What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? (e.g. What are you saying through them and/or human nature, human folly, or noble human inspiration?) I want my audience to understand how this is a casual interviewee of a newly tried mum, the film is not so much constructed to the point of what it is like to be a mother, but all the new things that my sister has learnt with having a child. I want it to be a light documentary so I have a lot of in action footage.

4. How is your portrait being narrated? Why? How does it affect the structure? The easiest way to get this film done was for my sister to just talk about how she is feeling and what she is going through with Liam. For a mother so early on in her child’s life it is harder to do a more structured sit down interview, and also that does not contrast to her life as she has so much going on, so many emotions and learning how to raise a baby herself. This is what I think needs to be shown in this documentary film.

5. What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait? For example, reinforcement? Ironic counterpoint? Contrast? Comparison? Other? The found footage shows more about the interaction about the baby and mother in times of need e.g trying to get them to sleep and nurturing them. I wasn’t able to film this myself because Liam really didn’t like the camera when he was trying to get to sleep. I feel like this reinforces to the audience about how gentle you need to be with a baby, supervising it 24/7 and needing to be more gentle. This contrasts to my film because my sister talks about how she has to have a routine, needs to walk around the house in order to get him to sleep which is what is going on in this film. Also I have footage of a baby girl because I feel like I need to cover in general what it is like raising a child rather then just raising a baby boy.

6. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point? No it doesn’t- I don’t think this was necessary in the film because it is already dramatic enough having a new born baby and finding out the truths about the first weeks, and the harsh realities of what people don’t tell you about what you are getting yourself into when having a child.

7. When does this turning point  in your portrait and why? At the beginning? At the end? Two-thirds through? I don’t have a dramatic turning point but there is a point where it turns from my sister talking about the routine that Liam has to get into in order to grow into a healthy baby, to the point where she talks about how no one tells you how difficult it really is. This is about two-thirds of the way through where you can even see the tone in her voice change from dictating his routine to just realising all that she has had to go through when raising a child for the first time

8. How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum? My portrait maintains momentum because my sister talks about Liam from day one to how he is now, this shows the development of him and also what she has learnt from being a mother. It also maintains a relaxed momentum as through the sound recording you can tell she is very tired and the small amount of time he is asleep she just wants to relax and also look after herself.

9. Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from? The gradual exposition of an overall situation? A volcanic, climactic moment? An impending change or crisis? The contrast between what the interviewee talks about and the found footage? The dramatic tension is at the beginning of the film where the found footage of a ultra sound and the sound of a crying baby links to the first viewing of Liam at 3 months. This is a climactic moment because the birth of a child is very intense and involves a lot of tears- compared to later down the track when the baby starts to learn they don’t need to cry about everything that is going on around them

10. Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution? Outline them. The resolution is small to see at the end of the documentary film where my sister talks a moment to reflect and appreicate all that mothers out there do for their children, where she realises and doesn’t understand how people continue to have more and more children. I feel like this is a nice end to the film because even though it shows she wasn’t aware about how hard it was to raise a child it has made her appreciate her mother and all that she has done for her.