Parents React To Doll Test

After watching 'The Doll Test' I came across a video where parents react to their children taking part in the experiment. The video is the same type of experiment in my last post however it has different people. It was very, very interesting to see these reactions from parents. Although I do not know these people, I felt as if I was watching my child. The anticipation built up every time when it was time for a child to answer. We as the auidence could see the anxiousness on the parents faces as they waited for their child to answer.

 In my documentary, I want to talk to young black people and see how they feel about being black. Watching these reactions made me think about how my audience would react to my film. Watching social experiments and race related issues is very touchy but I feel that it always needs to be adressed. I felt empathetic towards some of the young girls in this clip and it made me quite emotional. I hope to get an emotional responce from my audience too.

Doll Test

On YouTube, I found a social experiment involving dolls and children. The only distiction seperating the dolls were the race. As different children sat at the table, the interviewer asked them which doll they preferred, which one was nice, bad or pretty/ugly.

Each child pointed to either doll, illustrating their answer. The whole point of the video (in my opinion) outlines how racism can be adopted from a young age due to upbringing in the household or representaion from the media. There ws an added shock factor as these were children, we expect them to know nothing about rasicm or discriminate. Instead, most children said that the black doll was ugly or bad. Whereas the white doll was good or pretty. Another shock factor was that even the black children said that the black doll was bad/ugly. I think that it would be common for some people to think that black children would go for the black doll. The fact that they did not, may also connote that they are not taught to love themselves at home or anywhere else.

 It saddened me to see this as I know that most young girls like to play with dolls, and to see them have a preffernce due to it's race is upsetting. It was not only girls that took part in the social experiment, but boys too. They too also chose the white doll to be pretty or good. This may also be the root to them growing up to dislike women of their own race as they get  older. The whole video made me realise just how much children's lives are already polluted with the wrong message. I hope to do something similar in my documentary.

The Media's Representaion.

Previously, I analysed the documentary Supersize Me. Within my analysis, I looked at narrative and representation. For representation, I looked closely at how Americans are represented in the documentary and in the media. From this, I decided to look at the media's portrayal of black youth. I also focused on how British media coverage portrays young black people especially males and even provided an example involving Mark Duggan. In the last slide, I also acknowledge and write about what black and ethnic minority news groups portray people from their own background. I felt that this has helped me to understand how people can be presented through media and how I can personally represent the people in my short film.

Supersize Me Analysis.

Here, I analysed the documentary film 'Supersize me'. I decided to analyse this film which is different to my current ideas. I feel that looking at different types of documentaries will broaden my knowledge of them and will thus give me more ideas. The documentary uses a range of visuals such as graphs, interviews and animations which gives the audience a better understanding of what is going on. This may also add humour to the documentary depending on the subject and how it's done. Since I am focusing on a social issue, I thought that an animated graph to portray statistics and figures would be a good factor to incorporate into my short film. Overall, I am glad that I analysed Supersize me as it has given me many different ideas. Also, by analysing the narrative and representation helped me to understand how I am able to emphasise them in my own production. Finally, I also looked at the representation of different demographics and Americans as a whole. Because of this, I will research on the media's representation of young people in the media.

Thomas Bennett.

Here is a short presentation I made looking at the short film produced by Nathan Honnold titled, 'Thomas Bennett'. The short film gave me some more ideas rooting from the street photography. I also looked at the narrative and representation in detail. By watching and analysing this short film, it helped me to think of my own production in terms of camera angles and shot types for emphasis. Thomas Bennett also sent the same message I wish to convey in my film, which is not to be judgemental. It also had a long lasting impression on me which is what I also aim to do.

First Idea.

 Outside of school, I have hobbies such as street photography. I often capture pictures of homeless people as they make such a powerful statement especially in photography. Below are some of the pictures I've taken before this project which also lead me to inspiration for my documentary film. Before I take pictures of them, I talk to them and buy them hot food. Getting to know them is interesting because most people would expect that they all have the same life story and that they aren't doing anything to make a change. This gave me the idea to do a documentary film on a specific homeless person and get in insight on their life. I felt that this would be a powerful documentary that changes people perspectives on the homeless. With a lot of thought and days of research on homeless people and documentaries on them, I was unsure if I should still carry this short film out. Planning film dates would be difficult as the person I wish to interview did not have a phone. I would also have to provide transport money along with other things. If this person did not show up at an arranged date or time that would jeopardise my whole project. So finally, I decided not to go through with this idea. However it still inspired me to document another social issue.  

Plans for my film.

Here, I have a small mood board on a few ideas I have for my documentary. I decided to do a documentary in the first place as nobody else in my class is working on one which already makes my idea different. Also, I have been interested in documentaries from a very young age and I took this chance to create my own. Deciding on what to do was quite difficult as a documentary can cover a whole load of topics. So I decided to document something that was easily accessible and that would have a long lasting impression on my audience. The mood board I created below shows the topics I wanted to cover. These topics include: homelessness, crime involving both older and young people. Not implying that these issues would be easy to cover, but I find them interesting. I concluded that if I film something of my interest, I could make it a lot more creative with it. I also aim to turn the idea of something ugly into a work of art. For example homeless people is a burden in societies eyes, however by going into depth and finding more about an individual may change a persons' view on homelessness.