I never thought I'd be responsible for coordinating the creation of 12 videos...from the conception of the scripts to recruiting a video producer and actresses to feeding everyone (food and lines) on film day. Wow, such a cool experience!
The videos will be used in the weight gain prevention intervention that I've been developing and will test for my Ph.D. thesis. They'll serve a few purposes: introduce participants to an eating-related problem and some solutions, and (hopefully) substitute as "support".
In the literature and in focus groups, we see that women like to know that they're not alone in their struggles and they want a way to give/receive support. Since the website won't have a chat room or forum (they'd require a moderator to be sure there's no one posting anything inappropriate) we thought videos of three friends might be a good idea.
Truth be told, at first I was less than enthusiastic about the videos. In the back of my mind I was thinking about what a P.I.T.A. the logistics would be. I would tell myself, in those early days of development, "Well, yeah, we're developing content for an
ideal intervention, but... including videos for real sounds too difficult...we don't have the funding for them anyway." Basically, I thought someone somewhere would come up with a good reason why we couldn't go forward with videos.
Silly, silly me. The video scripts pre-tested well in focus groups, so it looked like we really did have to include them in the intervention.
At that point, there was a lot to do to make the videos a reality:
- Finalize scripts
- Find $$$ to pay for video production
- Recruit three actresses (one of them M
āori) between the ages of 40-50 and have a body mass index greater than 27 (overweight)
- Find someone to film the videos
- Find someone to edit the videos
A lot of work went into finalizing scripts... Olivia, a student working on her master's degree, and I started writing them last...August? Then our supervisor gave feedback and we revised them. Then we'd test them in focus groups and revise them based on feedback. Then we'd send them to the supervisor and revise based on her comments. Then we'd test them in another focus group, revise, resend to supervisor and revise again. THEN we sent the scripts to two researchers - one in the field of intuitive eating research and the other in the field of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and weight loss. They reviewed the scripts and gave feedback. By that time Olivia had finished her degree and so I was on my own. I revised the scripts based on the expert opinions and resent the latest and greatest versions to my supervisor. She revised them and then I either accepted her changes or made my own. THEN I tested the scripts with M
āori women. Guess what happened next? I used their feedback to revise the scripts and they were reviewed by my supervisor. Again.
Our scripts on emotional eating were extremely tricky for me to write. Originally, the script focused on three women discussing how they can meet their emotional needs without using food. So, if a character said, "I feel lonely, so I'm going to eat this piece of cheesecake to feel better" her friends would say, "If you feel lonely then you might like to try talking to a friend instead." Or, if one said, "I feel lethargic so I'll eat a sandwich to give me energy" then the others would suggest going for a walk. Turns out this isn't consistent with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Oops.
That meant I had to revise an entire script for a video (that should only take 2-3 minutes) to make concepts like "experiential avoidance" and "values-guided actions" really easy to understand for a lay audience. We already knew from focus groups that our scripts needed to sound more colloquial, so developing and finalizing the script was no small task - just ask my supervisor!
I revised the script, she revised the script and then we re-sent it to the ACT/weight loss expert... and then waited... and then revised again based on his feedback... At that point I asked a few focus group participants from a few months ago to comment on the script... We were making revisions right up to the night before filming! Such an involved process, huh?
The end result is that the actresses were happy with the scripts - which made it easier on them during filming.
YAY!
There's so much else to say - the $40,000 estimate for the videos (!!!) ... an actress pulling out a week before filming... sussing out paperwork (the last thing I want is someone coming to me in two months to say I can't use the videos!)... To sum things up, the learning curve on this little project was
steep. But, the result will be really great. I know so because I've had input on the scripts from, like, 45 people (no joke) and the feedback has generally been positive. Women are really excited that we're developing something so different from what they're used to - they'll LOVE the program when the website is up and running!
In just a few weeks I'll have videos to send to the web developer.
Aaaaaah, yeeeeeaaaaaah!!!! But, there's no time to relax, yet. I have someone recording the audio activities, but I have to edit them. I also need to finalize the written activities... and there's some work to do on another section where women choose to receive motivational messages via text and/or email. This last part is taking a wee bit of time because I'd like messages to be in English and te reo M
āori. That means I need help from M
āori women to translate the messages correctly and ask if there are any motivating messages from M
āori culture that can be translated to English.
I wish I could say this website development is the only thing I have to worry about for my thesis, but no... we're about to send out questionnaires to over 1,000 New Zealand women to collect data on their lifestyle, eating habits and wellbeing (it's the 5-year follow-up survey). My job will be analyzing and interpreting the intuitive eating and weight outcome data.
Be jealous. :)
