Evaluation

This whole process has been challenging, to say the least, but it has been insightful too.  It started off as something entirely different and changed twice, and both of those projects, especially the first were something that excited me, and enthused me.

Through video edits and strange research about sugar, I have realised that this really is a subject close to my heart.  Hearing people I greatly admire share about their troubles and problems with the illness has made me realise that it does need more awareness.  That it isn’t just a sugar balance, it is a lifestyle balance, and that sometimes can be very difficult to control indeed.

If I could do the project again, I would like to follow my initial idea of superimposing photographs into the video as well, but I am happy with the way this has come out.  Also I would attempt to make it slightly shorter, the problem with this is that there was just simply so much that I thought was truly important and needed to be in there.  The project is one that I am proud of and I am glad that it changed so many times in the beginning, to finally get to this place.

Final Video and Mixed Media piece

This is my final piece, I have also put it on a CD just incase as I was having problems up loading it before hand.

My final piece – Explained

This video is something that is very personal to me, something I am very passionate about.  I wanted the video to be natural to them, like diabetes is, it was important to me that everyone was filmed in their own homes, their own habits, that there was back ground noise, and back ground image.

I gave the choice, if they wanted to be in the video and both the first man Bruce, with Type 1 Diabetes and the nurse, Sue said they didn’t.  So from there I made the executive decision to have no one directly in the video. The extra voice is mine and their spouses also helped, answering questions, guiding the questions so that they understand it easier, as a group it all worked very well. I chose in the end not to include the partners in the video, this was because even though some of their stories are incredible, I wanted this to be a direct message from those with the illness and those that have treated it.

In terms of the actual video footage and the noises in the back ground, these were a conscious choice.  There were a lot of nerves, with Bruce especially as this is such a personal thing. and it was very important to make him feel as comfortable and happy in his own environment as possible.

Notes and scribbles

These pictures are notes, written down by my dad whilst I dictated at which minute what happened throughout the videos and therefore noting what work I needed and where from.  This was so helpful to have him record this for me whilst I dictated.

Essay Video 2 – The truth about sugar

This is the link for the second video in my essay.

The second documentary is by the BBC and is called ‘The Truth about Sugar. It follows four people as they try to understand how much sugar they are consuming and how they can adapt their diets to see if they can help themselves and reduce the amount of sugars they have. The people in this program are pre-diabetic, but are showing signs of diabetes if they continued to consume the amount of food and sugar that they currently are consuming.  It uses the TV celebrity Fiona Phillips who narrates the documentary. The video is more professionally presented in a very advanced video format by obviously very experienced BBC documentary film-makers. Again it uses nationalistic devices ‘We Brits love our sugar’ and the same technique of case studies with four volunteers from Newcastle; they all suspect they eat too much sugar and are ‘everyman’ characters.

Essay Video 1 – Simply Raw: Reversing diabetes in 30 days

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days

This the first video that I have compared in my Essay for Mixed Media, it is the journey taken by 6 candidates that suffer from diabetes.  They are told at the beginning of the process that they will reduce their diabetes by reducing their insulin and dieting.  It is a very dangerous process, and if it was continued by themselves without support it could end very badly.

The video itself is done very well, it is taken at first by private cameras given to the participants, and then when they move to the same house so they can be monitored the filming is taken over by the videographers and camera crew.