Film Case Study - The Pharmacy

FILM CASE STUDY: The Other Frontline

Client: Elizabeth Roddick, New Life Pharmacy, Glasgow.

Subject: Covid Diaries from a Community Pharmacy

Camera: Sony

Crew: 5 Director, producer, sound, lighting and runner.

Brief: Create a TV-revealing documentary about what it was like inside a community pharmacy during the first 10 weeks of covid 2020.

The brief: Create a TV revealing documentary about what it was like inside a community pharmacy during the first 10 weeks of covid 2020.

When I was contacted by the client all I had to go on was a small booklet of notes that had been turned into a diary. I was asked if this could be made into a film for TV.

When I look at any film project I am always searching for the story and then the angle to present that story. My first step here was to read them as many times as I could in the 10-week diary. It revealed a lot but not quite enough for me. Yet the idea itself was good. It was also a story that had to be told.

After some time planning, taking notes, storyboarding and discussions I decided to do the following.

Write a series of questions built around a single idea.

Interview the pharmacy owner. Interview all the staff involved in that period. Put those interviews onto film and then go back home to our studio and build a compelling story from those interviews. As additional materials, I decided to interview other pharmacy owners connected to Elizabeth and the head of the community pharmaceutical organisation in Scotland.

Once we had all of this film and audio we then began to work out the story. After watching the same recordings time and time again it came to me that what should be revealed was this.

If you wanted medical treatment during covid the only place that would come from was a community pharmacy. Hospitals and most GPs rejected seeing sick people (as we all know). The ironic thing was hospitals were known as the frontline yet the truth was there was another TRUE frontline. This frontline was being fronted by the likes of Elizabeth, her team, partners and other community pharmacies all over the country.

Hence I came up with the name of the film - The Other Frontline. Once the title was in place I wrote and constructed the story for maximum impact.

From two long days of film and weeks upon weeks of editing, we finally delivered a brilliantly revealing, at times controversial but truthful and honest reflection from the other frontline.

The film is compelling, engaging and revealing.

Notice how the film starts. The clever use of news footage is powerful, especially the way we edited it. Then the use of the sound and virus image adds a real sense of ‘something is coming.’

The style of filming is frontal with close shots to the face. This allows the viewer to become part of the person telling the story. The location is the actual pharmacy that is telling the story. This also creates a stronger sense of drama to an already dramatic story.

My client loved it.

I loved it.

You can watch it in full below.

I think we delivered a fantastic film and story that deserves to be seen.