How best to capture the story of recovering opioid users?
Chicago-based medical writer Lindsey Tanner and Atlanta-based photographer/videographer David Goldman teamed up to produce an intimate look at a diverse group of people – among them, a lawyer, a businessman and a trucker – who got caught up in the worst opioid epidemic in U.S. history.
Their package – Tanner's story and Goldman's photos and a 9-minute mini-documentary – earn the Beat of the Week.
Tanner began developing the story several months ago during several conversations with a pain-and-addiction doctor at Vanderbilt University who had been recommended for another opioid piece that didn't pan out. It became clear during those calls that the doctor had been personally and professionally touched by the epidemic – he'd lost his brother to a possible drug overdose and was now helping people from all walks of life recover from opioid addiction.
That set in motion an ambitious project: to document through the words of these one-time opioid users their struggles and their journeys from rock-bottom to recovery. Over two to three months, Tanner had several phone and email conversations with the patients. When she sensed she'd developed a rapport, she'd ask each to describe their low points and those stories helped drive the tone of the writing.
Goldman made video the priority, aiming to produce a documentary-style piece with patients' voices driving the narrative.
Goldman decided to experiment with storytelling.
Instead of packaging a traditional AP video, he aimed to produce something more personal – a documentary-style piece with patients' voices driving the narrative. The Broadcast News Center was on board and moved a 9-minute video along with a 2-minute breakout of the doctor. Then this full-length version was posted on AP's Digital Products YouTube page:
Here's how Goldman describes capturing the documentary look: "First, I shot whenever possible with a shallow depth of field to give the visuals a moody feel. With the subject in focus, blurring out the noisy background gave it more of a cinematic look. This is something we do often for photo stills so it's as simple as applying the same principle. Second, I used a Glidecam to be able to shoot motion relatively stable. This allowed me to move with the subject to capture candid footage without having to stay stationary with a tripod or handhold the camera which can create shaky video. Third, I used still images when I thought it was stronger than B-roll footage. Fourth, I tried to keep talking heads out of the piece as much as possible. Unless the person is showing strong emotion, to me it's always more interesting to listen to someone's story while watching them doing something interesting or at the very least, something mundane they are doing but shot in an interesting way. Lastly, I created some background music which I thought would tie the piece together and gave each person's story their own music to reflect their situation."
Goldman says he didn't know how long the piece was going to be until he sat down to edit the interviews and found it very hard to keep them tight without losing crucial elements.
"The idea for the intro came just from trying something different," he says. "I was curious what it would look like to introduce the viewer to each person as they sat in their own space with themselves, not saying anything and not doing anything. And then to contrast that with each of their own statements about hitting rock bottom. Hopefully it was engaging enough that people would want to keep watching past the intro."
Jeff McCoy plants sunflower seeds in the yard of his home in Dickson, Tenn., June 7, 2017. McCoy is a straight-talking study in contrasts. He's been a meth-using country band drummer, Harley rider and long-haul trucker, but these days McCoy calls himself a house husband – gardening, baking cookies for family and friends, doing crochet and doting on his wife, JoAnne. Recovery from opioid painkillers prompted the turnaround.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Dr. Dan Lonergan, a pain specialist who also focuses on addiction, left, treats patient Jeff McCoy at his practice in Franklin, Tenn., June 5, 2017. Back pain still bothers McCoy; he spends a chunk of each day flat on his back to rest it. Suboxone, an opioid recovery medicine, helps a little, but he worries about not being able to find a specially-traned doctor to prescribe it, if he or Longeran were to move away.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Dr. Dan Lonergan, left, a pain specialist who also focuses on addiction, treats patient Jeff McCoy at his practice in Franklin, Tenn., June 5, 2017. For McCoy, it started nearly 17 years ago, after surgery for a progressive back injury. His doctor at the time prescribed Vicodin – a painkillers containing the opiate hydrocodone. After a year he was hooked.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Jeff McCoy, right, a recovering opioid addict, laughs with his wife JoAnne at their home in Dickson, Tenn., June 7, 2017. McCoy says his wife is now his addiction. "She's my everything, she's my drug. All she has to do is walk by me and pat me on the head and I'm like a dog in Heaven."
AP Photo / David Goldman
Kyle Graves, left, lights a candle in his mother's bedroom at the home they share in Franklin, Tenn., June 6, 2017. Recovering from opioid addiction, Graves looks after his bedridden mother and two small dogs. At times, in the middle of the night, when back pain flares, he still fights flickers of temptation. "The voices always still call you back to the darkness. You just have to ignore 'em and go on," Graves said.
AP Photo / David Goldman
A billboard advertising treatment for opioid addiction stands in Dickson, Tenn., June 7, 2017. More than 2 million people in the U.S. are hooked on opioids. Overdoses from these drugs have killed more than 300,000 Americans since 2000, and they are killing an average of 120 people every day.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Whitney Duncan stands in her home in Jasper, Ga., June 26, 2017. Duncan and her husband were given a choice after failing a drug screening in 2016; lose their daughter to foster care or temporarily give her to a family member during the county's two-year family drug court program to help with their opioid addiction. "At home when she's not there you feel empty. The house feels empty," said Whitney Duncan. "It's just so quiet. You don't want to be there. It's depressing."
AP Photo / David Goldman
Whitney Duncan, right, smiles at her husband, Dalton, after they were praised by the judge for their progress in the county's family drug court program in Jasper, Ga., June 26, 2017.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Whitney Duncan, right, plays with her daughter Deklyn, 3, while visiting her at the home she's staying at with her grandmother in Jasper, Ga., June 26, 2017. Across the United States, the opioid epidemic – and other types of debilitating substance abuse by parents – is fueling a surge of children being taken into foster care. One of the most dramatic increases has been in Georgia, where the foster-care population nearly doubled in the last four years.
AP Photo / David Goldman
An inspirational message is written on a desk as Dalton Duncan, seated, attends a class with his wife Whitney as part of their mandated enrollment in the county's family drug court program in Jasper, Ga., June 26, 2017.
AP Photo / David Goldman
Whitney Duncan, right, plays with her daughter, Deklyn, 3, while visiting her at the home she's staying at with her grandmother in Jasper, Ga., June 26, 2017. "It took a while for me to be ok with me being an addict," said Duncan of her recovery. "I can actually dream again and smile at my future instead of not caring about my future. There is one to be had and it's not going to be a jail cell and it's not going to be death."
AP Photo / David Goldman
Goldman says he made video rather than stills his priority for this project. "I always feel it's helpful to pick one, never both equally. I find it usually doesn't work when you're equally committed, that moments get missed and it's far too stressful."
For their illuminating package that combined powerful text and photos with a haunting mini-documentary, Tanner and Goldman share this week's $500 prize.