Documentary Unit: Idea Pitch

The Day that Changed my Life – Will I ever walk again?

A moving documentary about a modern day family, where both parents are wheelchair bound.

We experience first hand accounts from a husband and wife, whose lives have both been changed by events they never thought possible. Annette suffers with MS, and has witnessed the difficulties and pressures of bringing up a family when both parents consider if they will ever walk again?

Ady, Annette’s husband, was a forklift truck instructor who was involved in a serious accident in 2010 that left his life hanging in the balance. Over the course of 12 months, he had to undergo surgery and physiotherapy to give him any possibility of ever walking again. His struggle of rehabilitation and his wife’s battle with MS is a truly heart-warming tale of courage and adversity.

How can it be, that in a society of high unemployment and discrimination against the disabled that these two remarkable individuals still have the strength and willpower to carry on?

Narrative Devices

I will be presenting and introducing the documentary and it’s story and characters, and the fact that I have experienced disability from birth.

I will use interviews to create empathy with both characters, while getting to know their story.

I will include archive photographs of the characters.

I will hold discussions around support networks and discrimination towards disabled people, looking at legislation concerning them, such as the Disability Discrimination act 1995.

Direction Unit: Reflection on finished piece

Well, now that I've finished my piece for the direction unit, I can see there are a few things I would have done differently, as follows:
Make sure the lens on the camera is clean before filming.
Make sure I get lots of coverage on everything I shoot so that I have lots of shots to choose from in the edit.
Use professional actors or at least someone who has an interest in it rather than family members (however willing they are!)
Make sure that I have a clear idea in my head for the shoot day and don't have the need to rely on others to prompt me.

However, these are all negatives, here are the positives.
The weather was good, so I only had to shoot once.
My editing skills have improved while working on this piece.
I have found through doing this unit that I would not want to be a director for a job.

Overall, I have enjoyed doing this unit but I don't think directing is for me!

Direction Unit: Final submission

This is my final piece for my direction unit, below is a link to it on youtube:

Episode 5 - Separation