I had never previously made an ethics charter for any projects I have done previously, but I think it is a necessary tool in ethically conducting a film containing people, especially if it is documentary or interview style. 

There are three main sets of obligations for practitioners to consider when making a documentary: obligations to the participants, the audience, and their own artistic vision. These three things can often conflict with each other (Aufderheide et al 2009).  It is therefore very important to follow an ethics charter to respect the participant as a living, breathing human. Rachel Boynton (2016) makes a wonderful point about “lov[ing] the people that you film”, we discussed this point in class and thought to better word it as respecting, appreciating, or understanding the participant you are filming, as in most cases it is what they are saying that is most important. 

My ethics charter included eight points:

  1. Don’t make the person sign away their life rights (Smith 2023) 
  2. If the person really hates a certain part of the film, strongly consider deleting or refilming it (Smith, 2023) 
  3. Don’t lie about where the film will be shown; if circumstances change, notify them and regain permission (Smith, 2023) 
  4. Turn the camera off at the request of the participant (Boynton, 2016). 
  5. Show the participant the finished film before the public (Boynton, 2016). 
  6. Describe the context of your video to the participant before filming (Jorgensen, 2023) 
  7. In editing, do not change the intention of the speaker. Edit for brevity, but do not alter the meaning (Spong, 2023) 
  8. Avoid pressuring the person into saying anything they may not have said usually (Gould, 2023) 

I believe that I fulfilled all eight of these points and would not adjust them in any way for the next project I work on. Below,  I give justification and examples as to how I achieve each.

  1. I didn’t make Indie sign away her life rights.
  2. There was a recording I had planned to use as my final scene of a close-up of Indie laughing, but she felt uncomfortable and didn’t like any of the shots that were taken, so I respected this and didn’t include it in my final piece.
  3. I was honest with Indie as to where the film would go.
  4. Indie never asked for the camera to be turned off, and if she had, then I would have.
  5. I sent Indie a copy of the finished film on Saturday, December 2nd, before submission and showing it to anyone else. 
  6. I described the context of the video to Indie and explained that I would only be using bits and pieces of the interview. 
  7. Although I did cut together lots of different pieces of audio, I never changed the meaning of Indies remarks.
  8. Indie was very open with me and was comfortable sharing many personal details. I did not pressure her into saying anything; I simply asked the questions and prompted her if needed.