After months of collating a list of my weird and wonderful Major Multimedia Project ideas ranging from Hollywood’s stunt actors to a sex worker’s day in the life; I settled on the idea of ‘Reborn Babies.’
Reborn babies are collector dolls with quite the price tag, the reborn community is an international phenomenon that no one seems to know about. Many adults around the UK and US spend hefty amounts on dolls that look eerily lifelike. The artistry that goes into the production is what fascinated me most and made me choose it for my MMP.
I watched previous work that Vice and local news teams created and the majority of the work portrayed the community negatively: outcasting and labelling them as ‘freaks.’ This research would later help me understand why no wanted to talk to me.
Using social media I reached out to many Reborn baby ‘vloggers’ who made videos on YouTube as I knew this meant they would be comfortable in front of a camera, therefore an ideal interviewee.
Next I messaged many reborn businesses and joined national Facebook groups full of thousands of collectors. I sent polite messages and reinforced the fact I’m fighting for an accurate and positive portrayal of this community yet I was met with spitefulness, threats of removal or just removed from the group before I could even fight my corner.
Although this was deeply frustrating, I understood why I received this reaction. It was clear these people had been hurt my previous journalists in the past, I saw it for myself in the press coverage I had read and the previous documentaries I had watched!
So whilst preparing for my pitch which is on the 10th of October, I must figure out a way of proving my trustworthiness when approaching potential interviewees.
