I have always been drawn to watching impact documentaries; I like their factual nature and how engaging and creative they can be. I didn’t, however, realise the intricacies and layers that join together in order to make an ethical and balanced product, with the added intention of driving change. Jay Ruby presents the questions, “Is it acceptable to use someone’s life to illustrate a thesis? Are the considerations different when you are seeking to aid someone you regard as a victim by using that person in your film, as opposed to using a subject in order to expose him as a villain?”. It was interesting reflecting on these points and being made aware of the ethical dilemmas that filmmakers face.

 

There is so much that needs to be considered, so I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to join this studio and learn far more than I would have ever anticipated. Bill Nichols aptly states, “The filmmaker represents others. The sense of speaking about a topic or issue, or a people or individual lends an air of civic importance to the effort.” This quote truly underscored the responsibility and impact of documentary filmmaking. 

 

I had the role of collating research for our project during our pre-production stage. I don’t naturally spend as much time by the water due to living in the inner north of the city, so I was initially concerned that I would head into this project feeling as though I may know less/be slightly disconnected to the topic compared to my team members. Being in charge of research however, helped me gain the confidence that I needed to be able to talk freely and engage in discourse about what happens on our beaches. It’s pretty common knowledge for many people that there is an ocean rubbish problem globally, but this was the first time I was able to really get stuck into the many statistics and really comprehend how many groups out there are passionately fighting to reverse the dire situation that the world has found itself in because of humans. Learning that “By 2050, it’s forecasted that the weight of plastic in the oceans will surpass that of fish” (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) and that it is approximated that “130,000 tonnes of plastic infiltrate Australia’s marine environment” each year, was a huge wake up call. 

 

Very early on in the planning process, the group agreed that the main modes we wanted to focus on were ‘poetic’ & ‘participatory’. We wanted to evoke emotion from our audiences from the editing style, playing with the calm and beauty of the ocean alongside the urgency of the cause. 

 

Our work was not only centered around the discussion of rubbish in the ocean from the perspective of a free diver, but also the consequences of plastic (more specifically, single use plastic), the effects on marine wildlife and the communities that participate in cleaning up our oceans and beaches in an attempt to conserve/improve the situation.  Because of this, there are many places I could see this work be developed and broadcasted/published to. To list a few:

 

• Coastal schools
• Free diving clubs in Australia
• Other water based sport clubs (surfing, ocean swimmers, etc) 
• Ocean clean up organisations (e.g Sea Shepard) 
• Campaigns that work toward reducing plastic pollution 

 

 

If we were to keep working on the documentary with the intention of screening it somewhere like a festival or develop it into a different kind of work, I would definitely consider the following:

 

Getting more voices/players in the game involved

 

• Fashion brands that create products using rubbish/plastic sourced from beaches: What was their personal connection to the ocean that made them feel compelled enough to start making products out of the materials that people like Naryana would collect and sort at beach clean ups

 

• A fisherman’s perspective: The ocean supports the livelihoods of many – how is the state of the ocean impacting their means of survival?

 

• The perspective of an elderly local: Someone that has lived a coastal life and is able to recount the change in beach quality throughout the decades

 

• The perspective of a senior/ex free diver or water athlete: It would be great to have the perspective of someone that was privileged enough to enjoy the water in a purer form, recounting the days of hardly any rubbish in the environment compared to 2024

 

 

A “good documentary film idea” may be one that “argues powerfully” and “makes an audience think, reconsider, or even be angry” (Bowden, 2006).  If we were to do this again, I think this would be something quite beneficial to reflect on. I think our proof of concept evoked a sense of urgency but I think we needed more of an argument present to further amplify the message. 

 

I would also consider obtaining footage of Naryana in action with Ocean Clean ups some extra B-Roll of Naryana interacting his local communities. Getting footage of Naryana involved with a  Sea Shepard clean up day would be a great opportunity for us to casually interview willing participants and capture the scope of the demographic that gets involved. 

 

For this project, I had the pleasure of working with Jessie, Grace and Alice! At the very early stages, our ideas meshed together to create a very cohesive vision. This assignment initially proposed that each member of the group had a different role; editor, cinematographer, etc. Very early in the process, the group decided to blur the lines of these respective roles to work in a more collaborative manner which is a testament to the interest and team spirit that was shared collectively. I do however think that this may not have been the best option for this type of assignment however we tried to share the load as best as we could – splitting up editing tasks amongst each other to then collate in the main edit. Despite a culmination of mismatched availabilities here and there amongst the team, we all showed a great effort in trying to play a part or extending support at all times.

 

Grace did a fabulous job at sourcing our interviewee Naryana Quartermaine, conducting and recording the interview, as well as recording any missing bits of powerful/punchy dialogue that Jessie and I noticed were missing in post-production. The proof of concept edit would have also been nothing without her archival footage that she took whilst freediving and participating in ocean clean ups herself! It was really great having her as part of the group as she was able to provide more of an ‘insider’ lens as a freediver and passionate ocean clean up participant. Jessie was a gun in the editing process, she took the reins on handling the main edit and I would join her each week after-hours in the editing suites to bounce ideas and assist with any other editing tasks to then be inserted into the main edit. 

 

Overall, this experience has only made me more interested in the art of impact documentaries and I feel far more equipped to tackle future projects in this category. 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

Bowden, D. (2006). The fact film: Documentaries—Form and format. Routledge.

 

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. (n.d.). Plastics in our oceans and waterways. Retrieved from https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/plastics-and-packaging/national-plastics-plan/plastics-oceans-waterways#:~:text=It%20can%20take%20just%20a,our%20oceans%20will%20outweigh%20fish

 

Nichols, Bill (2017). Introduction to Documentary, Third Edition, Indiana University Press

 

Ruby, J. (2005). ‘The Ethics of Image Making‘. In: A. Rosenthal and J. Corner, ed., New Challenges for Documentary. Manchester: Manchester University Press