Month: December 2019

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Week 9, December 2nd to December 6th

The Bay Dementia Hub

Strike Action

No seminars this week due to UCU action

Literary Review

The accumulation of literary resources continues, sometimes I think I am building a library rather than conducting a review. At the moment the challenge is to input all my references and quotations into qualitative data analysis software. Unfortunately I still have to decide which option to choose, so I am repeating work by adding new data, to both Atlas.ti and NVivo, the same with the bibliography apps, Mendeley and Endnote, at some point I’ll have to commit to one or the other, or should I?

During my research, mainly online, I identified a good resource of information in the form of an eBook The Routledge Companion to New Cinema History (2019) and added a few others to the ever growing list of Journals and eBooks.

Biltereyst, D., Maltby, R., & Meers, P. (Eds.). (2019). The routledge companion to new cinema history. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Meeting at the Bay Dementia Hub

This is a monthly event held on the first Friday of each month alternating between a venue in Morecambe and Lancaster.

A place for people and their carers living with dementia can meet and get advice from a number of organisations.

Today I met with Penny who introduced me to Boris Segal who looks after the photography and video production for the dementia hub. Boris turned out to be a mine of information on local cinemas, many of which no longer exist.

I also met with a few people in the early stages of living with dementia who I generally asked about their cinema going experiences. One stood out, remembering a recent James Bond movie they had seen with the character Odd Job in it (Goldfinger 1964) and who they met at a function soon after.

Briefly met with the Mayor of Lancaster, David Whitaker a supporter of the Dementia Hub who expressed interest in my film proposal. I will keep in touch with David to discuss permissions to film in locations around Lancaster in the future. There are many interesting landmarks and buildings which I would like to feature in my films.

Touched base with Gil Graystone, Inclusive Film & Theatre Officer from the Dukes, she confirmed that she will also be at my meeting with Helen on the 16th December.

So, what did I achieve at this meeting?
◦ Identified a group of potential participants for my film
◦ Increased my Network of contacts
◦ Showed my face, which means while people do not know me, I am now a familiar face, and people who saw me interact with people they know and people who run the Dementia Hub (Soon to be renamed) will be easier to approach in the future.

Film Festival Update

My idea of creating a film festival for MAC Clinical Services has been passed upwards in the organisation for approval, which Penny thinks is likely to happen.

Watch this space for further updates.

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Week 8, Nov 25th to 28th Nov – Atlas.ti and other things

Butterfly House Williamson Park Lancaster

Atlas.ti and other things

Strike Action

No seminars this week or next due to the UCU strike action, which is a shame as the FASS510 Interviewing in Qualitative Research – I & II would have been helpful as I will be conducting interviews for the documentary film. Fortunately, I will have the opportunity to take these again in the new year.

Atlas.ti and NVivo

So, for this week I concentrated on my reading and learning how to use the Qualitative Analysis applications, Atlas.ti and NVivo. I had already decided that I would most probably go with Atlas.ti but the more I use it the less it appeals. The user interface is not as friendly as I would like and the screen gets too busy with small text for me to view on a MacBook Pro’s 15” screen, so either I get a much larger screen to work on or consider using NVivo? NVivo seems to have a improved layout compared to Atlas.ti but I’m not sure if it is as powerful as Atlas.ti, this is going to be a work in progress for a while as I plan to run them together until a clear winner presents itself.

Supervisor meeting, 26th

Key points

1. Think about the style of your Documentary, will you be a participant?
2. Consider how using someone to act as the interviewer in the film, as they may become the most important part of the film and may influence how the film is produced.
3. Instead of using a go between (which is required by the venue) the best answer maybe to just become someone they know through attending several screenings a visitor who also makes films. Take time to get to know your subjects.
4. My synopsis for the 2nd film looks promising, maybe instead of a 2nd film it could find a place in the documentary so that the documentary has an experimental element to it.
5. Take the list of memory sequences in the experimental film and use these as questions in the documentary – ask people living with dementia about their dreams?
6. Look again at my proposal for funding and simplify it and make it more readable for people outside of the subject area. Explain (collective, cultural, new media) memory in simpler terms.
7. Reading list is progressing, and it is good that I am using a referencing software tool (Mendeley and Endnote).
8. Write short notes against your references to explain why it is important and why you have selected it.
9. Continue working and reading for the 2 set questions and think about how the written thesis and practical element will come together.
10. The competition details I received from is worth pursuing and would be a perfect opportunity for students.
11. Regarding the recent contact showing interest in having me make a film for an external charity, I will keep in contact with them and suggest my idea of creating a film festival and competition instead with the winner’s film as the film they could use for their charitable work.

Some interesting ideas came out of this weeks supervisor meeting, one of the best and the more I think about the more I like the idea is to try and incorporate my idea for the standalone experimental film into the documentary film. This would be unexpected and would add an interesting new way of looking at the documentary film format. Of course, I can always edit several versions so there could be films with and without the experimental film footage but as I said the more, I think about this the more attractive it seems.

Research and Reflection