Genre Research

 Interview research 

Troughout this topic of documentary, it's not only important to research through watching other documentaries but just learn more about this topic so that during interviews I sound knowledgeable. The first topic I really wanted to research was the topic of survival guilt as well as prolonged grief.

Let's start with some definitions: 

According to Oxford's English Dictionary survivor guilt is "a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress experienced by someone who has survived an incident in which others died." This was an issue that many individuals who survived the MSD shooting faced. In my interview with Rylan, she mentioned her best friend who unfortunately took her life due to survivor's guilt. This is something that people can overcome however it takes many years of therapy and recovery. 

The other term that is commonly mentioned within my conversations I wanted to familiarize myself with is prolonged grief. The DSM-5-TR (diagnostic tag) criteria for PGD requires that an individual has distressing symptoms of grief for at least 12 months following the loss of a close attachment and that the grief response is characterized by intense longing/yearning for the deceased person. An example of someone who suffers from prolonged grief is Mitch Dworet who within our conversations actually mentioned this phrase to me and discussed how most individuals who lost a family member that day are now diagnosed with this disorder. 

I also decided to look into news articles from different parents and friends to identify good subjects to talk to. I had actually done this before going to the memorial as well to see if I could find these individuals at this event and find someone who specifically focuses on grief like Mitch does. 

So like I had said this week I plan on going through my b roll from the memorial as well as beginning the structure with the interview I have received. I need to work with my other two interview subjects to create a good time to film those interviews. Also!!! It's really far-fetched and probably not going to happen but I may have a fourth interview with Dara Hass who was in the English classroom at the time of the shooting. I'm not sure if she will be comfortable but I am working with her to possibly film a brief interview 

But honestly, I have my work cut out for me so

Until next time 

- Emma <3