Writing for non-fiction Documentary

For my Year 2 module 'Writing for Non-Fiction Television', we had to ideate and come up with a documentary. Along with my friend, we decided to do a documentary to shed light on people with the condition of cerebral palsy. Since, I knew someone with that condition, I thought it would be interesting to interview him and get to know his story and life. After several interviews and script revisions. We decided to focus on our case study, Jonathan's, positivity in life. We wanted to let people hear Jonathan's life story and still see how positive he is even with this condition. We wanted to spread his positivity and mindset to inspire more people.

However, one challenge we had was that Jonathan's parents was not comfortable in showing past pictures of him nor letting him be interviewed at his house, thus, we had to find an alternative way to express his words into visuals. thus, we went with the more abstract approach of shooting visuals that were more indirect, but still meaningful. Through the making of this documentary. I learned about how to properly listen first, instead of forcing out a story before even getting to know our case study. I also got to have a deeper understanding on how documentaries really work.