Representing The Real – Progress Update
Representing The RealAfter deciding three potential subjects for our documentary ‘portrait’ film, we ended up with the following results.
Iain Smith – Public Defendant and Criminal Lawyer
Duncan contacted Iain Smith, and whilst he was happy to do an interview, there wasn’t much leeway for anything else to be filmed due to legal restrictions. This obviously limits the scope for our documentary and would mean we’d be limited to an interview format with b-roll to supplement it – which isn’t ideal. Personally I think interview-based documentaries are perfectly acceptable, but they don’t necessarily provide the basis for a ‘portrait’ of someone, as they’re typically rather formal and impersonal.
As a group, we still find Iain Smith’s legal career and work a point of interest, but aren’t sure how we could realistically explore his personality and life through an interview. Nevertheless, Iain agreed to the documentary and is one of three options.
David Mundell – Music Producer
David Mundell is a music producer local to Kinross and an involved member of the community, running a music venue for a variety of musical acts for decades. David has worked with bands like Led Zeppelin during his career, and is still working within the music industry. Duncan has reached out to David about the documentary to gauge his interest, and seemed willing to be the subject of the documentary.
David would be a person of interest due to his experience within the music industry, his background, and the effect the pandemic has had on his line of work. He is our second potential documentary subject.
Julie Macleod – Buddhist and Community Member at Samye Ling
Julie Macleod is a Buddhist and long-term member of the Samye Ling community. Julie has lived in Eskdalemuir for three decades and is often an advocate and spokesperson for the monastery, notably on the issue of firearms range proposals as seen on ITV.
I have been in correspondence with Julie, who seems happy to be the subject of our documentary film. We’re interested in uncovering what led Julie to move to the community and convert to Buddhism, who she is as a person, and the challenges the firearms ranges present to her and her practice.
As Julie acts as a link between Samye Ling and the wider community, we think she is the most interesting subject for the documentary film out of our three aforementioned options.
Development Phase 4 – Conclusion + Contact
After emailing Julie, I am in the process of arranging a call with her to further discuss the documentary film and what she is comfortable with sharing and showing us. Should Julie remain willing to feature in our documentary film, she will be our chosen subject.
After we’ve got complete confirmation of availability, we hope to arrange to visit Samye Ling and Julie to film. I have also been in contact with the chair of the Eskdalemuir community council, Nicholas Jennings, who referred me to Julie and told me about Ani Sonam, a Buddhist nun at the monastery, who has asked the monks about us filming them and at the monastery. We are awaiting an email to notify us of the outcome of this.
