Much of the past two weeks has been spent second guessing the purpose of this documentary: when I started out I had a clear direction in my mind for the project but the distinct angle has always been hard to narrow down.
Gathering the data was, evidently, the most important aspect of getting the ball rolling: after all, without the data there is no story to tell. Increasingly I have found myself getting hung up on the data and forgetting that, actually, statistics can demonstrate points and help build up a picture but they cannot, in themselves, tell the whole picture.
What I've heard from lots of universities is that the rise in students accessing mental health services is a good thing - that it highlights the increased awareness of support services and demonstrates a reduced stigma around accessing support. This came despite the fact students, and staff members, repeatedly told the documentary they weren't always sure what support was available to them and/or how to go about engaging with them.
For some reason I found this particularly disheartening and it caused me to really call into question the purpose of the documentary: does it actually matter? Am I highlighting anything? What change(s) are going to happen as a result of the project?
After some consolidation, I was keen to make sure the documentary could be used to identify key themes and concerns around the provision of mental health support. Whilst I conducted around 12 interviews for the project, I decided to focus on four specific voices - two students and two 'wellbeing directors' - whose quotes could signpost the written content which then explores the issues in more granular detail.
In the composition of the documentary I wanted to ensure that students were the first and last voices heard (aside from my own) to reinforce my belief that it is the students that should be at the centre of shaping conversations around mental health support.
It is this approach that I believe will make sure the documentary is able to go beyond simply presenting numbers and actually start to explore the reasoning behind the data.
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