Interview & Narrative Structure

Firstly, I have taken into consideration the types of things that I want to include in the structuring of the documentary, the type of things I want Will to say, to create a beginning, middle and end. Originally I wanted this documentary to create a meaning for the viewers to want to go travelling and volunteering themselves, seeing his experiences and being inspired by his journey to want to go and do similar things based on how they felt from watching the documentary.
However, as the project has developed and I have shared my progress with others, feedback suggests that this meaning has not been captured by others, as his story is more personal and doesn't really have suggestive parts for other people to really relate to, its more about his personal journey and the things he did to the build up of going, his time there (good and bad), and reflecting back, how it has inspired him to continue volunteering and travelling to other countries.
For these reasons, I have decided that the meaning to the piece will be based solely on Wills personal journey, the things he faced and over came and how it has changed him as a person. From this, it will be open to the viewer to take away whatever message or meaning they want, but hoping to leave them with a sense of the positives and serious issues that come with volunteering in poorer villages around the world.

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Structuring and piecing together the video in a sequence, I want to start the documentary with video clips of the present day of Will reflecting over his time whilst back in his home town and then ending the video with the same shots, as a round up back to the beginning. In between this, I want him to talk about his journey:

• where the idea came from
•  leading up to going
•  arriving there and the welcome he received from the villagers
•  meeting the other volunteers, the project he was working on (building the school for the children and other building jobs he did)
• hospital visit - shocking experience
• most memorable moment - good experience
• the experiences with other volunteers (speaking with another volunteer about their time together)
• leaving the project - achievements, saying goodbye to the villagers and other volunteers
• coming home - reflect on the experience

These are the main points i want to address in the documentary, giving a structure to the narrative. I want to engage the viewer all the way through, creating a flow to the piece of high points and low points, following his journey in order of how it happened. 

Originally, I wanted to get permission from the volunteer organisation (Think Pacific) that Will travelled with to be one of the main points of the documentary and the things they do to help poorer villages in Fiji. However, as i am now making the narrative to be focused on Wills personal story, i have made it so we follow his journey, rather then the organisation and what they do. This allows the viewer to connect more with his story and his time there, rather then advertising for the volunteer company. I feel that this was to broad of subject and i personally haven't researched enough into the organisation to produce a documentary based on them, plus the issue of trying to get their permission to use their logo and add parts in of who they are and what they do. This would have also created to issue of the duration of the documentary, combined with Will's journey, the piece would have been to long. I am aiming to keep the piece between five to seven minutes long overall and so due to this, Wills personal story will be the main focus of the narrative.