That’s Life acts to serve as a depiction of the life of my Nonna (Maria Martin).

That’s Life – the media portrait of Maria Martin proved to be a successful attempt at capturing the short, but highly important, part of my Nonna’s life spent inside the Consentration Camps of Nazi Germany.

The first and most successful aspect of That’s Life would have to be the interview process itself. Managing to get Maria to sit down and categorically dissect (probably) the most horrific part of her life, and doing so without taking a break or needing any time to process the vivid imagery was a feat in itself. Having captured nearly 2 hours of footage spanning from her early childhood through to her young adult life, this meant that a lot of editing would be required. The second successful aspect of the portrait came from the successful editing of the original footage to get a media piece worthy of her life.

Contrary to all the positive aspects of That’s Life were, obviously, the negative components. Having come from an audio background, I thought it would be a good idea to cut, edit and mix the audio tracks before touching on the video. This proved highly problematic, as I then had to sync all the video back to the audio to create continuity. An error that I will not likely reproduce in the future.

The practices and procedures that will resonate the most in future media compositions will be proper prior planning, efficient editing skills and a repertoire of poignant questions for the subject of the portrait.