Extended Research.

Over the month of April, I went vegetarian myself, to see what the life of a vegetarian would be like, the food challenges they face and the questions they were asked. Because I was only doing it over a month, I probably got more questions than your average vegetarian who had been doing it for quite a while, would get within one month.

My family questioned it and asked me why and when I explained my reasoning behind it, they were considered that I would have even less to eat because of the amount of foods I already have to take out of my diet because I have to live a gluten-free lifestyle (which I have talked about briefly before).

I got a lot of questions from my friends in class, and some weren't so much questions, more questioning why I was doing it. A lot of it was joking and usual class antics which I didn't mind; if I said something was wrong with me like I was tired or something along those lines, someone would say "well that's what happens when you're a vegetarian". Of course I know these were all jokes and I'm totally fine with that, I didn't get offended, this was part of the process that I wanted to explore while going vegetarian. I got told a few times that "we all need meat, it's essential" and because I wasn't 100% on the nutritional benefits on eating meat and not eating it, I couldn't exactly agree my point to its full potential. However, I did have my producer on my side the entire time, chiming in and defending vegetarianism whenever she could. Even though she wasn't doing the vegetarian month with me, she also feels quite passionate about defending vegetarianism because we feel that it is criticized too much and for no good reason.

With coursework and filming giving us hardly any time to do anything else, I didn't feel I had the time to fully prepare for my vegetarian month, which is a shame, because if I had've prepared, I think I could have made some really nice recipes throughout the month. I had beans on toast at least every other night, which could really boring, really quickly. I still ate my salads with either pasta and quinoa, I just didn't have meat in them. I never ate a heavy meat lead diet so nothing changed dramatically, but when I was missing meat from my plate, I just added more vegetables or side salad. Most of the food I ate regularly like fruit, vegetables, porridge, milk, beans, bread, muesli and smoothies were already vegetarian, so as I said before, I didn't have to change anything too dramatically.

It was quite an eye opening experience; with the comments from family and friends, combined with looking at the back of foods (more than I already have to) I was surprised to see what foods were and weren't vegetarian. I did slip up a few times during the month but with the same food; I had a milkshake a few times during the month with mini marshmallows and all three times, I ordered it, drank it and only after I had drunk it that I realized that I shouldn't have had the marshmallows. Normally I would have given up at that point but I wanted to stick with it because it wasn't a huge slip up, and it was a learning curve for me too.

I'm really happy that I went vegetarian for the month. I learnt a lot more doing it in actuality then just reading about it online, I was able to experience first hand some of the questions Richard had been asked before too, and I was able to discover foods that I thought were vegetarian but weren't, and vice versa. It really helped me understand my subject more and I wouldn't rule out being vegetarian in the future either.

Day One: Lindsey's interview.

Filming day had arrived (Saturday 5th April) and both myself and Caoimhe were really excited. I picked them both up from Belfast and brought them up to my house.

It didn't take us too long to set up, and it was a really nice day outside so the sun was coming through the window nicely. Caoimhe was on sound, while I was on camera as well as asking the questions. We had originally planned to stop at every fourth question and change camera angles, and had fully intended to do this but we were too interested in her answers and it was just flowing like a real conversation, that we completely forgot to do so.

We then got her to cut up some buns that were vegan as well as gluten free, and I wanted these to be cutaways for when we were taking about desserts and buying food in general.

Caoimhe and I were really happy with how the day had gone, all three of us got on great and the answers that Lindsey gave us to our questions were great and quite eye opening.

Pitching Time!

Thursday (27th March) was pitching time! We had briefly gone over what we were going to talk about in the pitch on the day, just to keep it fresh in our memory. Below is a photograph of Caoimhe and I after our pitch and you can see our t-shirts.

On Caoimhe's t-shirt, I wrote "Vegetarians Do Eat..." because a lot of people think vegetables just eat vegetables so I listed a number of different foods (including vegetables) below this and on the back of the t-shirt, I drew and coloured in a few foods.

On my t-shirt, I wrote in big letters "What is a Vegetarian?". This was my first idea for the documentary; I wanted to dispel the myths and find out from vegetarians themselves what others think when they hear they are vegetarians. So on the front and back, I wrote questions and phases that vegetarians are likely to hear when people ask them about being vegetarian. 

For our pitch we talked about a number of different topics:

The title: "Green Beans and Everything Inbetween", I actually give credit to Pearse for this quirky name because he came up with it and we thought it wasn't a generic name for a vegetarian documentary but it was enough for people to be interested, just by the name.

Subjects: Lindsey Mitchell and Richard Andrews. We spoke very briefly about how we were glad to have a man and a woman involved so we could get two different perspectives. Richard has been a vegetarian since he was born, so he didn't choose the choice to be vegetarian, whereas Lindsey did make the choice so it will be nice getting those two different sides too.

Audience: We want these to go out to a wide range of audiences. We want people to watch this who are skeptical of the vegetarian lifestyle or don't know much about it. We want people who are interested in getting involved in becoming a vegetarian. We want vegetarians to watch and feel like they're not dislocated from society like a select few make them feel.

Research: I feel our research has been strong; we watched a film called "Vegan Love" about a guy who wanted to make a documentary about his best friend who was vegan, and trying to find a vegan girlfriend. I also ordered a lot of resources from the Vegetarian Society including leaflets, pamphlets and posters which I had posted about before. 

Themes: Both our themes and locations are heavily dependent on our questions and our subjects answers. Our themes include whether it is their choice to be vegetarian or not, their lifestyle, the reaction of friends and family, common myths and their experiences eating out and shopping.

Locations: As I previously mentioned, this will be dependent on our subjects answers. For example if Lindsey said to us, she did it for the animals, we would go somewhere like Streamvale Farm and get a few shots of the baby animals. However, if she said she did it for the health benefits, we would get shots of health food shops. A few examples of locations are; Holland and Barrett, St. George's Market, Streamvale Farm, supermarkets.

Interview locations at this point are depending on shooting dates; we have Caoimhe's house and my house down as possibilities but when we know when both subjects can film, a decision on interview locations can be confirmed.

Shooting Dates: We were thinking the 4th or 5th April for Lindsey's interview and 8th April or 12th April for Richard's interview and then going on the 13th April for cutaway shots once we watch the interviews back. We feel this will be much more productive due to time restraints, instead of going to get a lot of cutaways at all different places, at least if we know their answers, we can base locations off them.

I was really happy with how our pitch went; we had an innovative idea with the t-shirts and no-one had the same idea. It stood out, it was memorable and we were able to explain how our original idea started in a more colourful way.

Our Fourth Meeting.

Myself and Caoimhe had another very successful meeting yesterday morning (Thursday 20th March). We first had a meeting with our tutor to discuss how we have progressed throughout the week; we spoke about meeting up with Lindsey and how she was excited to talk about all the various aspects of being a vegetarian, not just the food side of things. We also said how we were planning on meeting up with Richard (another person who said they would like to be involved) on Monday morning.

Our tutor gave us the idea of just concentrating on Lindsey and learning more about her life and her hobbies. While I think this is a great idea, this would change the whole dynamic of the documentary and possibly become unlinked to our 'dislocation' theme. My original plan was to interview people and get their views on why do they think they are being judged for choosing this lifestyle, what problems with people have they encountered, do they think being vegetarian gets easier, why did they start and how did they start. These would just be a few of the questions but I was stream lining it on the fact that we were learning about the vegetarian lifestyle and that anyone who had had reservations about vegetarians or didn't actually know about the lifestyle, would watch the documentary and find out that it's not just about eating vegetables. However, if we just concentrate on one person and their life outside vegetarianism, I start to question what our documentary would even be about. I'm really passionate about learning more about the lifestyle because it's something I have wanted to learn about for a few years and if I can help even a little on reducing the stigma on it, then I will be happy and feel like I have created a successful documentary.

The Vegetarian Society.

Last week I was doing some more research online and I thought the perfect resource for my subject would be The Vegetarian Society website.

According to their website they are "an educational charity working to support, represent and increase the number of vegetarians in the UK who "work constructively with businesses, government agencies, policy makers ad professionals, whilst always remaining independent." They also "rely on membership subscriptions and donations to carry out this vital work"

Below is a screenshot from their website and even on their front page, they offer a lot of information, not only about themselves but about recipes, advice on starting out as a vegetarian, being active and the online community within the website, to name a few.

So far, I have found this website extremely helpful and I haven't even looked through half of it yet. I'll be spending the weekend looking through it more thoroughly and finding out even more about my subject of choice.

Online Advertisements.

Tonight I wrote out a small advertisement for my documentary to post on both Gumtree and Facebook. My first option (after a lot of sitting down with myself and deciding what exactly I wanted to do) was to do a possible "Day in the Life" and an interview session with one person and find out about their journey with their lifestyle. Below are post the ads posted on both websites; I'm hoping that I'll hear something back because I'd love to explore and find out about some-one's views, experience and thoughts through the documentary.

(Facebook) 

(Gumtree)

I also tweeted it using the hashtags #vegetarians and #Belfast to make it easier to find if people were interested.

(Twitter)

Vegan/Vegetarian Documentary Proposal

Purpose (What’s my goal?)

My purpose for my chosen documentary subject is not only to inform the public on another way of healthy living but to educate everyone on what they may not know about vegetarianism or veganism and to break down some common misconceptions about these lifestyles.

Audience (Who will be watching?)

I would like a wide range of people to watch this documentary. It would appeal to younger people and their parents and to people who are looking to change their eating habits or maybe just don’t know anything on the subject, and this will give them more information about both lifestyles.

Content (What do I want to say?)

I want people to understand more about the lifestyles of a vegan or vegetarian; I want to be able to show more of a personal side of people. For example, I want to ask who I interview about how people first reacted to their change, why and when they started, how difficult or easy it is to go out food shopping or going out for dinner. I don’t plan on making this a scientific documentary, I’m not going to go into the science of the body or how food works.

Voice (How do I want to say it?)

This will be a documentary piece with the slight possibility of adding stop motion animation. This will all depend on what footage I film and the topics of conversation as well as stories that come up along the way.

Imagery (What do I want to say?)

I want to interview a number of people who are vegan or vegetarian or have been in the past. I would also like to get the opportunity to visit a few businesses who do vegan/vegetarian food and ask them questions such as: why did they decide to make this type of food, is there a big demand for it, how has it changed in the past five or ten years and if any of them or their employees are following the same lifestyle. Before I even start filming, I want to know what questions or how much information the public really know, so I wanted to create short anonymous questionnaires for people to fill out so I can cater the questions they have, to the documentary.

Style (How do I want to show it?)

I want it to look quite smooth, I don’t want it really slow but the only time I can see it going fast paced is if I choose and/or able to get a number of interviews, while editing their interview together, make their answers quite choppy and follow into each other.

Tone (How do I want the audience to feel?)

I want the audience to feel like they have watched a short documentary and they have learned something and they have a better understanding of a different lifestyle to what they may lead. It may also give the audience an opportunity to want to explore more lifestyles like this and possibly go to the businesses that I mention and try out something different.

Platform (Where will it be viewed?)

It will be shown in the Odeon, Belfast as part of the HND Film Festival and once it has been shown there, I plan on putting it on YouTube on my personal YouTube channel for more people to see, my personal Facebook page and my own Twitter page too.

Promotion (How will it be shared?)

I plan to promote this documentary on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and quite possibly, Vimeo, as well as the blog that I am using to keep track of my progress. I may also put it on a number of DVD’s and USB sticks.

Budget (What can I afford?)

I am not exactly sure how many locations I will be visiting, but to get to these locations, it will simply be using public transport, car or walking. I may also purchase some food from the businesses that I go to because I want to see what they offer as well as going in and knowing something more about them.

First Idea: Vegetarian and Vegan Documentary.

After taking some time looking over my spider diagram, I decided to first choose an idea that I want to find out more information about. In doing this, I choose vegan and vegetarian. For a long time I have been very interested in both lifestyles but I don't know very much about both so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about each or one or the other. I want to create this in a documentary format so that it is more informative and along with the research, if I choose to go with this documentary, throughout the process I will be able to find out new information about both subjects and it may even make me explore them more in my own personal life.

In my notebook, I took a few basic notes on my very first thoughts on the idea:

• Exploring the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, how people react, the questions they get asked, their experience eating out and food shopping, is it as hard as people think it is.
• Interviewing shops/bakeries that make vegetarian and vegan food, how different or difficult it is, how in demand it is and possibly shooting them making the food. 

The theme of 'dislocation' shapes around this idea very well. A lot of people of vegetarians or vegans when asked by 'normal people' or meat eaters, are often questioned why they lead this lifestyle and are often told that they need meat or that "it's just a phase" so many people who live these lifestyles, I would assume, feel quite dislocated until they find people who live the same lifestyle, and don't have to worry about fighting their corner every time they go out for something to eat or if they are invited round to someone's house, for example.