FMP - Interview with Ryan

I interviewed Ryan on his take of living with his cleft. He gave me his account of his journey through operations and we discovered both our lip repairs were complete by the same surgeon - Mr Summerlad. It was strange how a complete stranger can be connected to you on such a personal level.

One thing that did not go to plan was the footage, it seemed to be really fuzzy, but it was still insightful because I could play it back and listen to his answers.

Below you can see some of my key points and notes I wrote down after the interview that I will take forward into the next stage of this project and developing it. I needed to have that human connection and element to my project that made it relatable and emotive.

It was great interviewing him as he was a real help in getting the project off the ground, giving me insights that were not my own. It was after this that he inspired me to write my own stories. As I was thinking of creating animated short stories, and as such it forced me to remember memories that I had blocked out and have not thought about since.

I have been on a emotional rollercoaster with this project as I found myself over thinking a lot at this point. It kind of made me non productive for a while, but what put me back on track was the stories and illustrating them. Because I realised I had been through a lot and im at the time of my life that I can reflect and visually convey them. As people emote and empathise and can relate.

It was also at this point I started talking to my parents about what they felt when they first found out they were going to have a baby with cleft lip and palate. As well as looking back at all my old baby pictures. I experimented with making memes out of them as I found my pictures very funny because I was such a character.

I started writing short stories to try and reflect on what situations people with cleft can experience.