Inside The World Of Body Donors
Inside The World Of Body Donors
Inside The World Of Body Donors
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
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October 2025
Real human bodies are used in universities across the world to teach medical students about anatomy.
This documentary gains access to Cardiff University’s medical faculty and reveals what happens to our bodies if we donate them to education and follows Cardiff’s first year medical students as they start their course.
This programme was a collaboration with the BBC Wales Impact Investigations team and News on iPlayer.
Real human bodies are used in universities across the world to teach medical students about anatomy.
This documentary gains access to Cardiff University’s medical faculty and reveals what happens to our bodies if we donate them to education and follows Cardiff’s first year medical students as they start their course.
This programme was a collaboration with the BBC Wales Impact Investigations team and News on iPlayer.
Real human bodies are used in universities across the world to teach medical students about anatomy.
This documentary gains access to Cardiff University’s medical faculty and reveals what happens to our bodies if we donate them to education and follows Cardiff’s first year medical students as they start their course.
This programme was a collaboration with the BBC Wales Impact Investigations team and News on iPlayer.
Scroll to Discover
[001]
Titles
I had taken inspiration from the notable American TV Drama House to conceptualise the idea behind the title sequence. I always thought the title sequence for House was ahead of it’s time and established a sense of allurement to continue watching each episode.
We had limited access to imagery due to the limited access we were given, out of respect for the deceased within the medical faculty.
Therefore, we decided old engraved anatomical illustrations could be used as a engaging motif throughout the programme and would be a perfect and visually impactful way to fulfil the void of where we were limited on imagery and footage.
I really played with the anatomical motif in the titles, replicate the same sense of allurement I get when I watch House through taking inspiration of how each shot is framed and how the camera pans through the 3D scene.
[001]
Titles
I had taken inspiration from the notable American TV Drama House to conceptualise the idea behind the title sequence. I always thought the title sequence for House was ahead of it’s time and established a sense of allurement to continue watching each episode.
We had limited access to imagery due to the limited access we were given, out of respect for the deceased within the medical faculty.
Therefore, we decided old engraved anatomical illustrations could be used as a engaging motif throughout the programme and would be a perfect and visually impactful way to fulfil the void of where we were limited on imagery and footage.
I really played with the anatomical motif in the titles, replicate the same sense of allurement I get when I watch House through taking inspiration of how each shot is framed and how the camera pans through the 3D scene.
[001]
Titles
I had taken inspiration from the notable American TV Drama House to conceptualise the idea behind the title sequence. I always thought the title sequence for House was ahead of it’s time and established a sense of allurement to continue watching each episode.
We had limited access to imagery due to the limited access we were given, out of respect for the deceased within the medical faculty.
Therefore, we decided old engraved anatomical illustrations could be used as a engaging motif throughout the programme and would be a perfect and visually impactful way to fulfil the void of where we were limited on imagery and footage.
I really played with the anatomical motif in the titles, replicate the same sense of allurement I get when I watch House through taking inspiration of how each shot is framed and how the camera pans through the 3D scene.
[002]
First Infographic Animation
Due to the limited access to the medical facility, which is completely understandable. We decided to fill segments of the programme with graphic explainers which could effectively explain the journey of our bodies when donated to education.
As we already established anatomical illustrations as our programme’s motif, we thought it could be a unique and engaging idea to bring an anatomical illustration to life and turn him into his own character within the programme.
This was an effective and engaging way to explain the process to our audience, turn a morbid subject into something more engaging and to also create something unique and memorable for our programme.
[002]
First Infographic Animation
Due to the limited access to the medical facility, which is completely understandable. We decided to fill segments of the programme with graphic explainers which could effectively explain the journey of our bodies when donated to education.
As we already established anatomical illustrations as our programme’s motif, we thought it could be a unique and engaging idea to bring an anatomical illustration to life and turn him into his own character within the programme.
This was an effective and engaging way to explain the process to our audience, turn a morbid subject into something more engaging and to also create something unique and memorable for our programme.
[002]
First Infographic Animation
Due to the limited access to the medical facility, which is completely understandable. We decided to fill segments of the programme with graphic explainers which could effectively explain the journey of our bodies when donated to education.
As we already established anatomical illustrations as our programme’s motif, we thought it could be a unique and engaging idea to bring an anatomical illustration to life and turn him into his own character within the programme.
This was an effective and engaging way to explain the process to our audience, turn a morbid subject into something more engaging and to also create something unique and memorable for our programme.
[003]
Second Infographic Animation
It was important to make our character truly feel alive even though he had many limitations on how we could pose him and him having no facial expressions to work with, due to him being a cut out of a scan from an old anatomical book.
I feel this worked more in our favour as we could project his expressions through his body language which just added more to his clumsy slapstick demeanour.
The idea behind each of his animations was to make him feel that he didn’t know why he was there! And why he was being frozen, embalmed and pulled around up, down and side to side.
I wanted there to be a touch of a comedic value for the audience to help make this subject feel less morbid and reflect the more wholesome approach to this topic that the programme explores such as following the first-year medical students
But I wanted to handle the comedy with empathy and care.
[003]
Second Infographic Animation
It was important to make our character truly feel alive even though he had many limitations on how we could pose him and him having no facial expressions to work with, due to him being a cut out of a scan from an old anatomical book.
I feel this worked more in our favour as we could project his expressions through his body language which just added more to his clumsy slapstick demeanour.
The idea behind each of his animations was to make him feel that he didn’t know why he was there! And why he was being frozen, embalmed and pulled around up, down and side to side.
I wanted there to be a touch of a comedic value for the audience to help make this subject feel less morbid and reflect the more wholesome approach to this topic that the programme explores such as following the first-year medical students
But I wanted to handle the comedy with empathy and care.
[003]
Second Infographic Animation
It was important to make our character truly feel alive even though he had many limitations on how we could pose him and him having no facial expressions to work with, due to him being a cut out of a scan from an old anatomical book.
I feel this worked more in our favour as we could project his expressions through his body language which just added more to his clumsy slapstick demeanour.
The idea behind each of his animations was to make him feel that he didn’t know why he was there! And why he was being frozen, embalmed and pulled around up, down and side to side.
I wanted there to be a touch of a comedic value for the audience to help make this subject feel less morbid and reflect the more wholesome approach to this topic that the programme explores such as following the first-year medical students
But I wanted to handle the comedy with empathy and care.
[004]
Third Infographic Animation
During this phase of the programme, it was important to not distract the audience from the statistics shown.
So instead of animating our anatomical figure too much, I decided to go for a more subtle approach and use our anatomical figure to supper the statistics by having him hold his bachelor’s degree when medical students are mentioned and to also have him wear a face mask and surgical head mirror when medical professionals are mentioned.
[004]
Third Infographic Animation
During this phase of the programme, it was important to not distract the audience from the statistics shown.
So instead of animating our anatomical figure too much, I decided to go for a more subtle approach and use our anatomical figure to supper the statistics by having him hold his bachelor’s degree when medical students are mentioned and to also have him wear a face mask and surgical head mirror when medical professionals are mentioned.
[004]
Third Infographic Animation
During this phase of the programme, it was important to not distract the audience from the statistics shown.
So instead of animating our anatomical figure too much, I decided to go for a more subtle approach and use our anatomical figure to supper the statistics by having him hold his bachelor’s degree when medical students are mentioned and to also have him wear a face mask and surgical head mirror when medical professionals are mentioned.
[005]
Cross Platform Promo
Due to BBC trails being short, I decided to re-use the animation of the title sequence but frame the camera in a way which shows the entire body animation.
This allowed us to shorten the trail graphic as the extra camera cuts would have been unnecessary.
[005]
Cross Platform Promo
Due to BBC trails being short, I decided to re-use the animation of the title sequence but frame the camera in a way which shows the entire body animation.
This allowed us to shorten the trail graphic as the extra camera cuts would have been unnecessary.
[005]
Cross Platform Promo
Due to BBC trails being short, I decided to re-use the animation of the title sequence but frame the camera in a way which shows the entire body animation.
This allowed us to shorten the trail graphic as the extra camera cuts would have been unnecessary.
[006]
iPlayer Thumbnail
Designing the poster image for the programme was an extremely challenging task. It’s hard to sell the idea of dead bodies to an audience as well as the programme not having much picture rich imagery we could use.
During the conceptual phase we experimented with using a contributor in the poster, however editorially it did not necessarily make sense as the audience may have assumed the programme followed our contributor donating her body, when the programme takes a more in-depth view into what happens to the bodies of those who have already donated.
We also tried another idea using an anatomical diagram; however, it was felt that it may be too gory and off-putting.
So instead, we used a drawing of an anatomical illustration’s head, which ties the programme nicely with our anatomical character.
[006]
iPlayer Thumbnail
Designing the poster image for the programme was an extremely challenging task. It’s hard to sell the idea of dead bodies to an audience as well as the programme not having much picture rich imagery we could use.
During the conceptual phase we experimented with using a contributor in the poster, however editorially it did not necessarily make sense as the audience may have assumed the programme followed our contributor donating her body, when the programme takes a more in-depth view into what happens to the bodies of those who have already donated.
We also tried another idea using an anatomical diagram; however, it was felt that it may be too gory and off-putting.
So instead, we used a drawing of an anatomical illustration’s head, which ties the programme nicely with our anatomical character.
[006]
iPlayer Thumbnail
Designing the poster image for the programme was an extremely challenging task. It’s hard to sell the idea of dead bodies to an audience as well as the programme not having much picture rich imagery we could use.
During the conceptual phase we experimented with using a contributor in the poster, however editorially it did not necessarily make sense as the audience may have assumed the programme followed our contributor donating her body, when the programme takes a more in-depth view into what happens to the bodies of those who have already donated.
We also tried another idea using an anatomical diagram; however, it was felt that it may be too gory and off-putting.
So instead, we used a drawing of an anatomical illustration’s head, which ties the programme nicely with our anatomical character.
[007]
iPlayer Thumbnail Experimentation
Over My Dead Body was the working title for the programme, it was later changed as it did not reflect the wholesome nature of the programme.
[007]
iPlayer Thumbnail Experimentation
Over My Dead Body was the working title for the programme, it was later changed as it did not reflect the wholesome nature of the programme.
[007]
iPlayer Thumbnail Experimentation
Over My Dead Body was the working title for the programme, it was later changed as it did not reflect the wholesome nature of the programme.
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