Reaching Contributors

Over the past couple of weeks since confirming our idea at the pitch I have been reaching out to social groups for older people to try and find contributors for our film. Using the SheffieldHelpYourself website, which has a sub-section listing many of the groups around Sheffield and their contact details, I have been calling up those which we were suitable and which had regular meetings we could attend to talk to members who are interested. On our group Facebook page I created a list of the groups that had been contacted and so that we don't contact them multiple times and are also reminded of any meetings we have or leads we should chase up.

The first group I spoke to was the Hawthorne Corner Senior Citizens Club, which has a large regular attendance across a wide range of ages. I used the phone script we had come up with as a rough guide explaining who we are and information about our project. For now I said that we were just looking to speak to anyone who's interested and has a photo with a strong memory or story that they can tell us about, (rather than ask for a photo that can sum them up which may be difficult) so that we can get as much interest as possible in the early stages. 

After speaking with the club's leader I had initially arranged for us to go down to speak to those who were interested on Thursday 6th, but later in the week he told me that he had got the dates wrong and that it we'd be meeting him on 20th instead. I was aware that this was just before we would be submitting our first film and treatment for the longer film, which might cause difficulties in specifying any contributors we find, but he said that the members are very keen to talk to us so its likely to be useful for our project. 

I also took the opportunity to ask about whether we'd be able to film or just record the audio of anyone we speak to, with the intention of filming in the homes of anyone who's interested afterwards - which he said would be fine. Initially we were unsure whether we'd want to record or not in these early meetings but decided it would be helpful in guiding our questions in further interviews.

I continued to contact a number of groups afterwards and made similar arrangements to meet members who were interested. Jamie also spoke to a group which we highlighted, and talked more with his Gran's friend about her potential involvement. Due to the difficulties of the group leaders contacting their members outside of the weekly sessions, they told us to meet the week after next when the people there will have photographs with them to share. As a result, next week we have four meetings with groups to go to where we will take equipment. This week we have a short window to speak with members of the Lowedges Friendship Group who are interested before their session starts, but we will likely stay around to talk longer afterwards if that's possible.

With the nature of our film relying on the stories that people share with us, it is difficult to plan the further stages in much detail and create a desired structure for the film. At this moment we can only really consider the types of questions that we want to ask at these initial meetings so that we can try and work out which would be well suited for pursuing as a portrait in the film. For example, after talking with my grandparents about places where they used to go when they were young, it would be a good opportunity if people had photos of Sheffield locations that don't exist, such as the old Upperthorpe Swimming Baths, where we could visit for further filming.

By the end of next week, after speaking with the four groups, we are hoping to have a list of contributors who we can include in the film, and from there we will meet them again at home to film and talk to them more. For now, we are focusing on creating the poetic documentary using my granddad's photo and interview.