On the 12th of June 2012, Dominic jumped off of Archway Bridge, North London (known locally as “Suicide Bridge”) and survived. Since that major life event, he has spent the time rehabilating; he returns home at the weekends.

This project aims to research, document and communicate a body of work contain-ing narratives that allow an understanding of Dominic.

There are possible contexts and narratives that could exist in the documentation of Dominic, to name but a few:

- His “pre-fall and post-fall”

- His background, his family, his home.

- Dominic’s interests in music. (He admires Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bowie, Bob Marley, The Libertines...... He sometimes quotes their lyrics in conversation)

- Dominic is a keen poet (he is formerly, a student of English and Creative Writing). He also records a lot of his poetry to song (in which he improvises on instruments with friends and his family)

Documenting Dominic

Approaching this brief, I wanted to acknowledge the event of Dominic’s “fall” (a term he uses to describe the event), but to not dwell on the event.

The early stages of research was conducted through visiting Dominic at his home and by getting to know each other.

It was important to establish a trustful relation-ship before documenting him.

It was immediately perceivable that Dominic invited the idea of being documented.

We continued to establish an understanding of each other and proper documentation com-menced in the third weekend of the process.

Dominic was documented for 7 days on either a Saturday or a Sunday for 7 weeks.

Footage was shot with a Sony Handycam and edited with iMovie ‘09.

The filming was held in the season of Spring, a season that symbolises rebirth in a range of cultural contexts.

This concept of rebirth also related to how Dominic counts his age after his fall - he says he is 19 + 1. In a sense, he has begun again.

I wanted to embed light references in the docu-mentation to the symbolism of the season in the life that exists in the natural environment to Dominic’s narrative of his post fall period.

Dominic produces a lot of material; he writes poems, adds to his novel and screenplay almost everyday. His laptop is rarely away from his side.

He sometimes asks to read to his friends, or for them to read his writings, asking for their feedback.Also, he sometimes asks his friends to collabo-rate with him.

Because there were so many products of his creativity and he was openly sharing them with me, it helped to develop an understanding of Dominic.

An interview with Dominic that a friend of his conducted on whim of Dominic’s.

Dominic also gave me videos and pictures which were taken from his laptop.

This further helped in developing an under-standing of Dominic.

I had taken pictures from my laptop as a way of understanding why he does the same.

At the fourth and subsequent sessions of film-ing, lots of Dominic’s friends had visited him at home. It brought out the lively side of Dominic’s character. It also made me aware of the many people who love him.

The notion of how certain characteristics of Do-minic’s become enhanced when he sees friends is something that I wanted to reference in the documentary.

It made sense to ask those who knew him well to take part in documenting him.

On the same day of filming, I had realised how physically spent Dominic can become.

A small vein of documentation and research was taking film photography of Dominic.I had also given him two instant cameras for him to document what he wanted but the film’s came back empty.

Dominic taking a bath, taken within two hours of meeting him.

Dominic in his garden.

A neighbour of Dominic’s.

Taken by Dominic

Dominic’s cat, Faella.

The view of the sky from Dominic’s garden.

When shooting finished and the footage was reviewed, the possible narratives to edit around became overwhelming.

This was resolved by not focusing on creating a final edit, but an aim to create an initial edit in between 5 to 10 minutes. This had also helped to practice constructing conventional narrative structures.

In this edit, there was the presence of the fol-lowing narratives and details:

- Dominic’s footage from his laptop.

- The bridge in which he jumped from. (a very deliberate long shot without a cut)

- The neighbourhood Dominic lives in.

- Dominic’s house.

- The presence of musical activity and instru-ments in his house.

- The environment of Dominic’s room.

- The natural environment outside of the house. - Dominic enjoying the company of his friend’s, in particular, his female friend. They all sing a song together.

- Dominic discussing his work with his friend.

- A second performance of the song he sings. The second version is more developed.

Reflecting on the comments of the 6 minute edit and from watching other documentaries for references, (“The Devil and Daniel Johnston” was the most influential) it became easier to progress to a more finalised edit.

Deciding to edit around the main narrative of what Dominic does in his house gave the editing process something to edit towards.