For my pitch in university, I presented my TV documentary, ‘Exercise Saved My Life’. The aim of my project was to explore how physical exercise could decrease male suicide rates in the UK. The title is a quote said by my case study, David Baum, when talking about his story and my documentary idea in September. It's short and powerful making it the perfect title for my project.

 

Mental health is a topic that has risen in the media spotlight, but still needs more recognition. Suicide is the single biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the UK and in 2015, 75% of all UK suicides were male (CALM, 2015). That’s why I pitched my documentary for BBC 1, more specifically ‘The One Show’, who’ve produced content like the two-part series ‘Mind Over Marathon’ in 2017. The series received praise from UK viewers for highlighting the struggles of mental health, something that my documentary also aims to do.

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I knew that covering the sensitive subject of suicide on camera was going to be challenging, but through my own experiences of poor mental health, and my role and passion as a journalist I wanted to give a voice to the voiceless (Norris, 2004).

 

In every episode of ‘The One Show’, a topical news or personal story is shown to help raise the awareness of an issue and/or how someone has overcome a problem. David's story would inform viewers of the current crisis of male suicides in the UK, as well as showing a way this could be prevented, through exercise. As a result, I wanted to tell the story through David, without any PTC’s or my own voiceovers, to make it more personal. I knew this would be difficult, but if I could create a documentary that flows with David’s voice, then it would have a more powerful impact to viewers.

 

Following my pitch, my lecturers suggested interviewing another participant of The 365 Challenge to highlight how exercise has helped others. This proved difficult as many participants lived far from David and couldn’t find the time to meet for shots. However I found a young man in Bournemouth who started the challenge after seeing a banner in the gym. Unfortunately, I could not get shots of Lukas and David together, so connected them through voiceover.

 

As David’s trauma’s happened in the past, I was also advised to think of ways to make the story more visual, ensuring evocative storytelling. Therefore, I met with David and his wife Mel for a coffee to build rapport before filming took place. As sufferers of Post-Traumatic stress disorder, David and I connected through our personal experiences which reassured me that I could still capture the past emotions that he once felt. I then spent 2 weekends with the family at their home in Watford filming interviews, voiceovers and sessions of The 365 Challenge. I also spent an afternoon with David and Mel, looking through wedding and family photo albums for pictures I could include throughout the documentary to bring David’s past story to life.

 

As I'm targeting my documentary for ‘The One Show’, I studied the BBC Editorial Guidelines around suicide, specifically Section 5: Harm and Offence. As I had to stay ethically sound throughout the project, I also studied the Samaritans’ Media Guidelines for Reporting Suicide which advised me on how to inform and educate the audience correctly. Since suicide was decriminalised in 1961 (Suicide Act, 1961), the term "commit suicide" can be considered offensive. The BBC guidelines suggest using an alternative like "take one's life" so I applied this to my learning experience.

 

To make my doc more credible I also interviewed a psychiatrist about the benefits and hormones released when exercising. Through this interview, I also spoke to an exercise trainer in the NHS which was great for added value on my blog.

 

Following our ethics unit with Dr Ann Luce last year, I learnt that as my journalistic duty of care, I needed to respect and be patient by allowing as much time needed when interviewing David. The interview lasted over an hour and was emotionally exhausting, but I tried to remain as professional as possible. It was difficult for me to stay detached as I could relate to David’s story through the symptoms of our mental illness. However, I used my emotions to my advantage through empathy and by getting the most powerful shots on camera. Furthermore, before the interview I emotionally prepared myself by visiting the Dart Center website, to read about the impact of covering trauma on journalists.

 

I also was cautious that people watching my documentary may feel upset by what they see, so I included a 'Support' page on my website, to signpost viewers to help if needed.

 

Looking back at the unit helped me understand how to get emotion from interviews, whilst ensuring I didn't harm my interviewees the process. I wanted David and his family to feel comfortable when talking about such a sensitive time in their lives, so I interviewed them in the comfort of their own home, where they felt relaxed and at ease to talk to me. As a lot of footage was recorded inside, I wanted to ensure a variety of shots, including pull-focus and time lapse. This is why I filmed the intro of the Baum family in the park, which also lightened the mood of a serious topic.

 

I had to think carefully about what can and cannot be shown on screen. I had to take care to avoid showing David's suicidal thoughts in explicit detail, whilst ensuring emotional storytelling. Furthermore, I worked closely with David to make sure he was happy with how I was presenting his story, showing him edits of the development of the doc. When recording voiceover clips, David and I also worked together to construct linking sentences to use in the documentary.

 

Later in the production process I was also advised that writing graphics would be a good way to tell the story, aside from voiceovers. This helped the structure and fluidity of my doc and is a typical style across BBC’s short documentaries.

 

I think a mobile application would be a good platform to build my documentary on. A safe place where people can support and encourage one another to participate in exercise by posting their own 365 Challenge videos and mental health stories.

 

Overall, this project and experience has been an intense journey, but incredibly rewarding. I am very proud of my documentary and how I’ve developed as a journalist covering such a sensitive topic. Hopefully, by talking more about suicide, I can encourage a better understanding of the issue and inspire others to never give up on themselves.

 

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Bibliography:

 

BBC., Editorial Guidelines. [online]. Bbc.co.uk. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines

 

CALM., 2015. Suicide - Campaign Against Living Miserably [online]. Available from: https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/get-help/suicide/ 

 

Center, D., 2018. PTSD & Mental Health [online]. Dart Center. Available from: https://dartcenter.org/topic/ptsd-mental-health

 

Norris, P., 2004. Giving voice to the voiceless: Good governance, human development and mass communications.

 

The Samaritans., 2017. Samaritans Media Guidelines for reporting suicide UK [online]. Available from: https://www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/files/Samaritans%20Media%20Guidelines%20UK%20Apr17_Final%20web%281%29.pdf

 

The Samaritans., 2017. Suicide statistics report [online]. Samaritans.org. Available from: https://www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/files/Suicide_statistics_report_2017_Final.pdf

 

UK Legislation., 1961. Suicide Act [online]. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/9-10/60/data.pdf