Week One
As a group we discussed that we wanted to create a participatory documentary, and how we could get envolved in the creation of our film.
We researched some of the fad diets that the celebrities claim help them stay in shape, so that when filming begins we can participate by trying out these diets for ourselves.
We decided that one of us will do each of these diets for one week, for six weeks, so someone will be on a series of fad diets for six weeks.
Week Two
We researched personal stories. There are a large amount of self made videos about people suffering with an eating disorder and we looked at some of them to see how having an eating disorder can affect you. We found a memorial video that a girl had made for her sister, and we are now in the process of contacting her to see if she would be willing to talk to us about what sparked her sisters disorder and how it has effected her and her family.
See video below...
Week Three
We discussed the name of our documentary and thought how we need to use a play on words, as other documentaries have had titles such as "the race to Size Zero", and "Diets Gone Wrong". So Amy came up with the name "Fad Me Thin". As the names for all these diets are called "Fad" diets, and we thought this was a good play on words.
*Update*
We have decided between "Fad me Thin" and "From Fad To Thin".
Researched more case studies that we could include in the documentary. Check Blog.
Week Nine
Sorry been away for so long but a few of us have been ill, and have been focusing on other projects. Sorry will we not neglect our website anymore! Having trouble uploading the photographs still as Flickr is limiting us to uploading a number of photos per month. We are meeting up tommorow so we can get all the photos up on the website asap!
I have been looking at what clinics we could contact so we can go there to interview some of the staff and maybe some of the patients if they will let us. Rhode Farm seems to be our best choice at the moment, as they have featured in a few other documentarys where the staff and patients have given interviews, the contact information is on their website and we will contact them before the Christmas break to arrange an interview.
We have decided when we would like to go on these 'fad' celebrity diets and we have decided from mid January - mid April, so we are on the diets each for 3 months. This will give us time to see a change in our bodies, as i don't think 2 weeks would cut it. We have agreed that we will be honest about and slip ups with food/alcohol! Also for this i think we should all keep personal video diarys for the doc, as we can show our experience with the diets.
Have found a woman to interview who has an eating disorder, and how it is affecting her daughter as she does not let her daughter indulge in any sweets/'junk' food. Her daughter is eight years old.
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*Update by Laurence Jack Brown.*
I have decided to undertake a project where i take a picture of my friend and i am going to air brush and re-touch it until i think it would be suitable for a magazine or advertisement.
Ofcourse to do this i have researched loads and loads of helpful hints and tricks on the internet which are used to smooth skin, remove blemishes and create an air brushed 'Beauty'. There aren't tons of websites dedicated to this but i did find tons of youtube videos of re-touching techniques, described as things such as "glamour skin glow" & "Extreme photoshop beauty".
Some were took quite a tacky approach for example... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOsrlXC1Ag&feature=related
However some were extremely interesting and proffesional... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQ5uJjgoPo
By doing this excercise i hope to gain an insight into just how unrealistic the images that are created really are. The re-touching of models is one of the biggest factors that people link to anorexia and the idea of a perfect everything. I'm mainly doing this to show others how fake a re-touched photograph is, i see it as editing however younger and younger girls are seeing these images thinking that is normal and achievable, which it really isn't, which then leads to a warped body image and can lead to anorexia, bulimia and a whole host of other eating disorders.
^^^ This is the Photograph of my housemate Francesca. Check back soon for the re-touched picture. :)
Woo! I have finished! :) See below for a slide show of a Before and After. The original picture is normal and beautiful, what i have turned it into, also seems beautiful and perfect but it is basically a work of art, something that i have created after hours spent on photoshop.
Week Ten
see blog for the good news :)
Website for people we are interviewing in the upcoming weeks.
http://www.mengetedstoo.co.uk/
We will also be interviewing a nine year old n her views on eating disorders.
And a recovering male anorexic.
We will have another promo vid very soon!
x
