Insight into the topic of autism through our ZDF report »Anders vernetzt – Autismus«
Hustle and bustle everywhere, people talking at once, music blaring from the supermarket speakers, your colleague wanting to make small talk – what is completely normal for most of us can be a real stress test for people on the autism spectrum.
In our ZDF report for the »37 Grad Leben« programme, we accompany two people who function differently from the majority of society. For Karin, small talk is a balancing act. In groups, she feels like an alien trying to crack human codes. Until the age of 26, she senses that she is somehow different from others, but she doesn't know why. Then she saw a TV report about autism – and suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The diagnosis finally gave her answers. Nevertheless, everyday life is challenging for Karin, every single day. Her greatest wish is to play table tennis again, but she doesn't dare to take the first step. With a film crew at her side, she dared to do it, which impressed us greatly.
Nico-Raphael, on the other hand, is still waiting: he does not yet have a clear diagnosis, but autism is suspected. Since early childhood, he has also noticed that he is different from other people. The initial diagnosis of ADHD helps him understand, but he senses that there is more to it than that. At the time of filming, his life has fallen somewhat out of routine because he is unemployed and urgently seeking a new job that will bring him stability. We accompany him to the employment agency and witness how difficult it is for Nico-Raphael to communicate with strangers and express his concerns.
THE COMPLEXITY OF FILMING WITH AUTISTIC PEOPLE
Producing this report on people on the autism spectrum required months of intensive research. Casting the protagonists was also a particular challenge: we wanted to present people with different experiences on the autism spectrum. Because what we heard very often during our research was: ‘If you know one autistic person, you know all autistic people.’ We also had to find autistic people who were willing to open up in front of the camera and tell us how they experience the world. We spoke to a great many autistic people before finally making our decision.
RESEARCH AND FILMING
Planning a film production with autistic people is different from conventional filming. Since autistic people don't like talking on the phone, we communicated exclusively via email and digital conferencing tools. This takes significantly more time than just picking up the phone. Filming was also more complex than usual – more shooting days were needed because the protagonists required regular breaks. What is everyday life for neurotypical people can quickly become sensory overload and thus a burden for people on the autism spectrum – we had to take this into account.
A PURE SOUND RECORDING REPORT
Our main protagonists tell us their stories directly into the camera, unlike in a typical interview situation, where the interviewees speak past the camera to their interviewer.
To make it easier for Karin and Nico-Raphael to look consistently into the camera during the long interview, we worked with a special technical feature: the Eyedirect technique. This mirror system allows the protagonists to see our author in the camera lens and look directly at her. However, there was another ‘small’ hurdle with Karin and Nico-Raphael. This is because autistic people often have difficulty with direct eye contact. This made it all the more important to allow more time for the interview. Nico-Raphael and Karin use a trick in such conversation situations: they either look between their counterpart's eyes or at the rim of their glasses if their counterpart wears glasses.
This production was very special for us. That was definitely down to our protagonists, who accompanied us for weeks and months and still do so today. A television production like this requires much more than just good ideas and technical expertise – it is based on precise planning, coordination, teamwork and a great deal of trust.
We managed this process over a period of eight months, with many ups and downs, decisions, changes of course and valuable experiences that strengthened us as a team. What we learned: the topic of autism is so essential. We would like to see more understanding for different realities of life. And perhaps also a little more serenity in our interactions with one another.
