Digital Filmmaking

Concept of a Film – Through the Eyes of the Filmmaker

March 3, 2009 March 3, 2009 To make a documentary film, whether it’s a few minutes or much longer, is an involved process. Even though I knew I wanted to make a film about childbirth, it still took me time to decide exactly what slant or approach would be best in order to tell my story. Jean-Paul Ouellette’s pre-production and post-production classes were key for me. J P provided lots of guidance, information, assistance and feedback. His classes are amazing and extremely important when making a film. While in J P’s pre-production class, it took me lots of time to decide what slant I wanted for my film. This time was necessary for me to develop the synopsis. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not for me. I realized I didn’t know if I wanted to make an expose and emphasize all the negative aspects of the maternity system today—how it was a big business for profit at the expense of women and their babies—or to focus on birth as a natural event. However, I know of a lot of women who are fearful about childbirth. Their answer is to have the drugs and medical intervention without questioning anything. I’ve heard women say that they aren’t brave enough to have a natural birth—a birth without drugs.  In reality, it probably takes a braver person to go into today’s maternity system, especially if the women and their families do not know the facts about drugs and common medical practices. I knew then that I had to include specific information about the maternity system—the inductions, epidurals and high rate of cesareans. All of these can contribute to complications and negative results for both mothers and babies. My main mission is to empower women. I want to give them the confidence to birth their babies, remind them that childbirth is a natural event, that they were designed to give birth without medical intervention/drugs, and to provide accurate, unbiased information. Education empowers people. I not only want to educate women, but also young girls and boys, young men and young women, grandparents, aunts and uncles—everyone. Some of these young boys and girls will be tomorrow’s doctors, nurses, doulas and midwives. Women will learn that when they prepare mentally and physically for the birth of their baby, just as an athlete prepares for his or her event, there is a chance for a more positive outcome. It’s a lot like when I spend the necessary time in pre-production; the potential to have a more positive outcome is much greater. In order to create the necessary foundation for my documentary, I learned that I must build a solid foundation. To write my synopsis I needed to take the time to decide what my film was about. The same was true for my Statement of and Purpose—why did I choose to make this film. The Abstract (a summary or statement of context) helped me to decide specifically what to put in the film in order to tell my story.  And, lastly, the Pre-production Approach assisted me in selecting the right people and footage to best tell my story.