Before beginning the semester documentaries to me were long form content about history, politics, sports. Films focussed on past events telling the story of how they happened. A documentary is essentially a “fact” film; that is, it is a film made about a person, place, event, phenomenon, or experience that exists or has existed (Bowden 2006:204). However, after studying this subject for the past semester I learnt that documentaries can do so much more then just inform. I learnt documentaries can be used for pushing social change informing the audience of an existing social issue and providing a platform for these issues to get the awareness they need.
I learnt that in social impact documentary making and documentary making in general that just because it is not a work of fiction it still needs a narrative the audience can follow and feel connected to. I was always under the assumption that documentaries had no narrative but the teacher constantly reminded us that our films needed a narrative in order for the film to work. In future I would have taken this more into account before the filming process as I do feel our group had a lot of good quality footage but no structure or narrative for it to follow.
I hope that our film “Roofless Realities” is able to employ this narrative we tried to shape within our film so that the audience is able to connect easier with our social issue. Our main aim of our film was to provide awareness of the issues international students face when studying abroad, especially during a cost of living crisis. ‘Research shows that approximately one in five prospective international students reported very low life satisfaction, which is indicative of depression’ (Tomyn 2019). We wanted those who were not international students or currently studying to be able to still understand the world which international face themselves. We intended to achieve this through our student interview and social service interview, focusing on their story and the stories of others. Bill Nichols says it is best if ‘a film can… tap into the emotions we already feel toward certain values and beliefs, it can enhance their affective power’ (2017:72).
I feel our work would best be shared/published/shown in more place where the right people would see. Realistically policy makers, university administration and future international students are unlikely to be at a film festival watching our film if it was to show there. However I feel our documentary would work best on Free-to-Air TV channels such as channel 7 or channel 9. Running alongside a news special that you often see on the news would provide a better reach to our intended audience I believe. This would enable it to ‘deepen understanding & empathy, sparks new connections and brings energy to an issue’ (Driver 2019). I also believe housing the film on the correct websites such as social service websites would provide a greater reach and housing it on the RUSU website would help RUSU spread the message of the services they provide. Orygen’s 2020 report stated ‘while international students experience many of the same barriers to accessing mental health supports and services as domestic students, these barriers can be compounded by stigma, a lack of culturally appropriate services and cost’ (8).
The core things I would like to see improved and or extended in our film if given the opportunity would be to re-shoot our student interview, include an interview with another professional (as well as Jenna) who focuses on statistics, to include more statistics and to focus more on the specific B-roll we capture. Our student interview although usable lacked the answers we were really looking for, the interviewee often drifted and we found it hard to find usable footage within the hour of footage recorded. We though that our interview with Jenna worked much better and we had comments from other classmates who recommended we include more statistics so perhaps by interviewing a licensed psychologist or mental health expert who works in research would provide these statistics. However when undertaking new interviews we would have to reconsider (especially with the student) how we are undertake the interview in an ethical matter as some student may not wish to share their private living situations. Jay Ruby describes this as ‘is it justifiable to try to avoid explaining your motivation and point of view’ (2005) when hiding your motivation may create a more authentic interview. Lastly I would also make sure our group had more specific b-roll which related to what Jenna was saying. We had plenty of b-roll focusing on what the student said however we lacked b-roll for Jenna’s interview and had to resort to stock footage which often looked out of place in the film. This would be alleviated with more time and resources to film these specific scenes/shots (i.e. house inspections, signing of a lease agreement, the insides of student housing).
Out of all my previous studios over the last two and half years the final work would always face difficulties with group members commitment to the group with members missing weeks worth of work or not replying to communication. However my group this semester was exceptional. I found we communicated easily and well in advance of when specific tasks were needed. Mason and Jeffrey always made sure we had times planned in advance for filming when we would all be available and we were constantly meeting outside of class to discuss ideas and what had to be completed next in the film. Although no group is perfect, I believe our groups commitment to our project and ensuring we always gave our all can be seen in the high quality of production within the film.
Overall I believe our semester spent making ‘Roofless Realities’ was very successful. We had high quality communication and team work, bouncing ideas off each other constantly. Me and Mason have discussed about working on other films and creative content outside of uni.
Reference List:
Bowden D (2006), Writing for Film: The Basics of Screenwriting, Routledge, New York.
Gross L, Stuart Katz J, Ruby J and Rosenthal A (1989), Image Ethics: The Moral Rights of Subjects in Photographs, Film, and Television, Journal of Film and Video, 41(4)
Nichols B (2017), Introduction to Documentary, 3rd edn, Indiana University Press, Indianapolis.
Orygen (2020), INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND THEIR MENTAL HEALTH AND PHYSICAL SAFETY, Department of Education, Skills and Employment, Australian Government, accessed 12th May 2024, https://internationaleducation.gov.au/International-network/Australia/InternationalStrategy/EGIProjects/Documents/ORYGEN%20-%20International%20Student%20Mental%20Health%20and%20Physical%20Safety%20June%202020.pdf
The Doc Society (2024), The Impact Field Guide and Toolkit, ImpactGuide website, accessed 16th May, https://impactguide.org/
Tomyn A (2019), New research sheds light on international students’ mental health, Bupa website, accessed 14th May 2024, https://media.bupa.com.au/new-research-sheds-light-on-international-students-mental-health/