Contextualizing Statement
For my first documentary video, I wanted to create something heartfelt. To achieve this I thought about stories that were personal to me. My nephews are incredibly important to my life, so shortly after the brief was given, my sister told me about Thomas’ eye condition and that he would have to wear an eye patch, I needed to tell his story. This was the perfect story for me to start the module with because it was close to me personally, I had the resources and the motivation to try incredibly hard for my family.
The biggest issue I encountered was the camera exposure, I can admit that I am learning with the camera, and learning from mistakes. I filmed my indoor interviews, and then without adjusting the ISO or aperture, I took the camera outside for the beach shots. This proved a big mistake as the shots were too bright and over exposed, I could not redeem them in post and could not afford to travel home again to recapture shots. I used the shots as they were, and used more footage from my other locations to cover it. However I take it all as a learning curve, and in my next two projects I took more care in the camera settings when shooting.
I chose video as the media to showcase this project as I felt the visual aid of seeing the afflicted child playing and laughing would tug at the heart strings of audiences, and buy more attention. Then on a personal level I wanted this footage of my family for us all to enjoy as a family together. I knew not to ask Thomas any negative questions about the eye patch in case it upset him or put him off using it entirely, that would not have been ethical of me.
I targeted the older demographic, the parents. I filmed it more from the mothers perspective than the child’s, and captured how the situation effected her, hopefully other parents with children with issues will take comfort knowing they are not alone and there are things that can be done to help.
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This is a short documentary about my nephew and his eye condition, leaving him needing to wear an eye patch, directed and edited by myself! 🙂 https://t.co/ML4myAPma1
— George Walker (@GeorgieboyGW) May 7, 2019