WHO?

Since the concept is positioned around my mum, there will be scenes including her. However, due to ethical reasons I am not wanting to expose her too much and make her uncomfortable. I also don’t think it would be nice to expose her at her worst. I do want to reveal the struggles, however filming her having an exacerbation/attack would be quite unethical.

Therefore, I will only get a few shots of her. Some visuals I am thinking of are: her lying/sitting down on the sofa after a tough day (this is because the lounge is where she is most and will be an environmental shot), I may get some visuals of me and her shopping as I help her at the shop weekly due to the experience being too tough for her to do by herself. I would most probably like to get some shots of her tattoos, since this makes up the person that she is today, potentially her in her room, using her nebulizer, struggling to walk etc.

When getting some shots of her using her nebulizer or struggling to walk, I’m going to exclude her face as I feel like this may make her uncomfortable and may be over-exposing her which is what I don’t want since I want this to be a respectful and thoughtful piece of work. Thus, I will use medium/close up shots of her lower body that includes crucial subjects like the nebulizer for example.

I may also want to get some shots of my 14 year old sister, Mary doing some chores around the house. This is to show that my mum does need that extra help around the house as she struggles to do it by herself.

Additionally, referring to the prompt question below “What do you remember about being young?” I may want to include some archive images of my mum of when she was younger. This would add strong contrast within my film, showing what she looked and lived like before and what she looks and lives like now.

VOICEOVER

For my audio I’d like to insert an audio of my mum speaking about her illness. Therefore, I need to create a list of prompt questions in order to get the audio that I would like. I feel as though her telling her own story will add the hard-hitting aspect of my film.

The questions will be:

• What do you remember about being young? (Health wise)
• When did you begin to notice feeling unwell?
• How would you describe the feeling of your illness?
• What’s your worst memory about being ill?
• Are there any side effects to your illness?
• What do you struggle with the most?
• What is your biggest regret?
• What is the next step for you?
• What are some things you wish you were able to do?

This will most likely provide me with a lengthy audio to play with and edit and include upsetting but factual elements that happen in her life.

In addition to the voice over I’d also like to include some background noise just to fill in the gaps in the audio that may be apparent and to make the film also pleasant to listen to and not just to watch. I’m thinking that a slow heart beat sound may be a good background sound to represent hospitals, illness, getting through life etc and again to make the film more hard hitting.

WHAT?

Aside from clips of my mum I also want to include clips of my home and other elements that surround my mum and her illness.

I most definitely want to include her wide range of medications. This will provide me with a number of clips since she has too many to even count. I feel as though that this as well will be very striking to the viewers at how much medication she has to consume in order to keep her going. I would like to include clips of her bedroom as that is her place of rest and belongs to her and therefore connotes to her. I want to symbolise my mum in various ways as I feel like this adds some ambiguity to my film and allows the audience to think and also allows them to listen to the audio more closely since that is the main focus. Additionally, Id like to include different aesthetic visuals in my film just to add some interesting elements into the footage also. Things like shadows on the walls, windows, sunsets etc.

WHERE?

Most of the footage will take place in my home since my main visuals will be of my mum in the lounger, bedroom etc. This is where all her medication is also. Also because my mum rarely goes out due to the extreme anxiety she experiences when thinking about walking anywhere due to it being so difficult for her. Therefore, in order to keep her comfort and to keep the film as natureal as possible, most of the filming will be done at home.

However, I will also get some footage when at the shop and if we are ever out for a walk, to show how breathless she gets just from walking.

The voice over will also happen at home as this is where I can most likely get the most quiet area and to get a clear and thorough audio of my mum’s experiences. This also will increase my mum’s comfort and hopefully allow her to speak from her heart without any pressure.

HOW?

I will be filming on one of the Canon’s lended by school. In previous films I have made, I used my iPhone. However, due to the topic of this film and how important it is to me, I would like it to be in the best quality possible. But, if we are out and there is a something that strikes me as a quality piece of footage, I won’t hesitate to film it on my phone, making sure that it is in landscape so that it matches the layout of the other pieces of footage.

Before starting to film, I will gain the consent of my mum and my sister. This is because I may film them automatically while they’re doing their every-day things. Therefore, I don’t want to disturb them and then have an artificial piece of footage. I want my footage to be as natural as possible and therefore I will gain their consent and inform them that I may be filming them at various different times due to this photography project.

For my voice over, I will film the ‘interview’ on my camera. Then, I will upload the footage onto Premiere on my laptop, discard the visual footage and keep just the audio.