From the start of this visual project, I had my professor’s words of advice and instruction at the forefront of my mind… What do I need to make a film about? What is important to me? What story am I compelled to tell? Using Rabiger’s (2004) guide, I dug deep and completed a ‘self-inventory’ of formative or significant experiences without censoring my answers so as to find my most valuable motivations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks before I had been walking along a Cornish beach with my mum, brother and his girlfriend when we witnessed a small but moving event. A little boy was riding his scooter along the path nearby and then fell and was crying and holding his knee. His even littler sister was about 30 feet away, and as soon as she saw made a beeline for him, toddling at top speed with her arms wide open. She threw her arms around him and gave him a hug. All four of us were touched by the event, but I found myself particularly choked up.

 

 

Thinking about brothers’ and sisters’ relations has always been a sensitive theme for me. As I carried out Rabiger’s exercises for finding filmmaking inspiration this theme kept recurring. This was how I knew what I needed to make a film about. I knew that I would follow through to the end with passion and emotion and that it would be as reflexive as possible as I would inevitably have to acknowledge myself throughout. So, I felt that this would translate into my film and communicate strongly to an audience no matter their age or interpretation, as relationships affect us all.

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References

Rabiger, M. (2004). Directing the documentary. Amsterdam: Focal Press.