I'm roughly at the halfway point in terms of the deadline I have set myself to have the bulk of the documentary complete. The cut-off point for data to be received is November 20th with the deadline for interviews being November 27th: I have opted for this timeframe in order to give me a weeks worth of solid editing time prior to the last feedback session with Duncan.
I have found it difficult to strike the right balance between being driven by the data and being guided by case studies but I think the interviews I've selected have all been powerful in their own right. Thus far I have interviewed three students (from University of Reading, Arts University Bournemouth, University of Portsmouth) and need to finalise a date for a fourth student from Nottingham. Two of my interviewees have had negative experiences with support services - yet reflect on them constructively - whilst one has had a positive experience and the other was fairly neutral on the matter. I had feared to be stuck in an echo chamber of negativity - after all people are always more likely to want to share their frustration - but am really pleased I've managed to source someone with good things to say about their experiences.
I'm still whittling down which universities I want to showcase in the documentary. Obviously those named by the students will have a right to reply however, actually, I'm finding that is making them less likely to agree to be interviewed. I've interviewed the Director of Wellbeing at the University of Portsmouth, and at the School of African and Oriental Studies.
These are two good interviews to get the ball rolling; the University of Portsmouth has overseen the largest increase in demand between 2015/16 and 2020/21 whilst SOAS is one of just three universities to report a decrease in demand. Quite contrasting circumstances and yet I found there was an awful lot of agreement from the interviewees about what needs to be done better.
At this stage the script of my documentary is starting to take place having already written and structured the opening two minutes. I have also started to begin trimming and editing the audio in Adobe Audition but will look to do the bulk of this on Monday (November 22nd) and I am hoping that will reduce a large amount of the stress I'm currently facing.
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