This is a unique circumstance where traditional methods of gathering “Visual Evidence,” as described in the text, are not possible, thus a more robust strategy must be implemented. To start with, I would gather as much possible footage from outside the hospital as allowed, staff and individuals entering the building, ambulances arriving, and anything that would depict the nature of the hospital during the pandemic. To follow this, I would include interviews from at least 4-5 nurses if at all possible to ask about life in their occupation during such trying times. A quote from the text that really resonated with me was one from the very first page. That being “in a documentary about a protest march, there was a shot of a cold-looking police officer standing by a police barrier. Behind him was a completely empty street. The narrator said, “Twenty thousand people took to the street in protest … ” But the visual evidence said nobody was there. Imagine if the voice had come from an interview rather than from the narrator.” This very long quote from the text goes on to conclude that the viewer would think the person being interviewed was lying since the visual evidence contradicted what the person would be saying. Therefore, it is important to consider what visual evidence is being presented to the viewer and whether or not it matches the audio the viewer is hearing. Going with that, depending on what responses I would get from the nurse interviews, I would do my best to get footage that best fits the verbal responses given. If someone describes budget cuts effecting hospital operations, perhaps getting some footage of damaged windows or cracked concrete on the hospital campus would help visualize that particular problem. This is the overall methodology I would use when creating this short documentary.
Works Cited:
Visual Evidence, A/B Roll Editing” and “A Short Sermon about Interviews”