Final Project Reflection

For my group’s final project, we interviewed a guy named MacGregor Whiting. He has several digestive diseases and has resorted to an extremely unique, simple, self-discovered diet to make sure he gets all the necessary nutrients without any discomfort. Basically, his diet and entire outlook on food blows my mind because it’s never something that I could be strong enough to do. I guess these are the types of stories that I would really love to tell as a Mormon artist – I want to find interesting and unique stories about people who are a lot different than me. They don’t have to be different in a bad way, just different. Like MacGregor. I want to document and tell the story of people that I really respect and look up to because of their focus in life. I’m hoping that finding inspiring stories will help me grow as both an individual and a filmmaker. If I’m lucky, I will be able to portray them in a way that is beneficial to others as well.

In short, completing this documentary really helped me wrap my mind around what stories I would like to create or find. It showed me that I need to find people who share this dream so we can work towards it together. I’m glad that BYUs film program is as collaborative as it is, because sometimes I need motivation that only comes when other people are relying on me. I’m excited to work together with others to find interesting stories and portray them in a compassionate way. This collaborative effort also taught me that I still have a lot of patience to learn when working with others. No one was appointed “group leader” or anything like that, so we sometimes found ourselves chasing our own ending or goal. Obviously, I was rooting hardest for my vision and sometimes got frustrated when the other group members opposed me. In the end, I learned that these disagreements can create the best type of film because it contains so much from each group member. We were each able to help the others get over particular things that they were attached to so that the whole would be coherent and interesting.