Audience questions
- The content did not change too much. You'd have to pay pretty close attention to hear the few details I changed here and there. I was pretty happy with my intro that way I wrote it the first time, so there wasn't much to change except make the thesis more specific, which I think will help the audience focus on the problem at hand and streamline my content.
- The form has done a complete 180. I've recorded myself actually reading the script and now it's in video format! There are pictures and clips and fading in and out, and all the good conventions that will make this a real video essay. The information is being communicated more effectively because it's finally in its intended form.
In case you missed it, here's a piece of my script for the intro of my project:
"Clip from Scream "Do you like scary movies?"
Scary movies. Either you love them, or you hate them, but almost everyone can agree that it's one of the most unique and exciting genres in film.
Scary movies have been known to reflect the anxieties of our society and recreate our nightmares. (as clip from the exorcist of her head turning is playing)
The content in scary movies varies greatly, from zombies to vampires to gore to the post-apocalyptic. (include a few images to represent this such as various classic movie posters) The characters and the plots of the movies may differ but their goal is the same; to scare the audience. No other genre of film has such a common purpose across all it’s films.
Because of this, it’s not hard to imagine that the fears fabricated in these films can have a very real affect on the viewers. Horror films can affect people of any age group based on their sensitivities, but the group that often suffers the most is children. (a few pictures or clips of children in the movie theatre) We can all think back to something that we watched as a kid that we knew we shouldn’t have. Maybe we still remember how it affected us, maybe it didn’t affect us, but studies show that horror films tend to have a pretty gruesome affect. A study done by the University of Michigan on college students revealed that a fourth of the participants still experienced “fright effects” and “residual anxiety” caused by horror movies they watched in their childhood(DeGroat).
This is clearly a problem. How can these films, created to entertain its thrill-seeking audience with a few good scares, be negatively affecting children so drastically? A solution needed to be sought. (more shots of children scared)
That’s where the MPAA comes in. (MPAA logo comes up) The MPAA, or the Motion Picture Association of America, is the organization behind movie ratings and censorship. The organization was originally created in the 1920’s, as a part of the Puritan movement to develop a more “moral” world, along with the Prohibition(an old MPAA logo? If it exists). So the original purpose of the MPAA was to regulate the content in movies in general rather than create a strict ratings system in response to children, but they’re the sole party behind the ratings system and the guide for what parents allow their children to view. (a picture of the ratings screen that appears before trailers)
Ideally, the MPAA would be the solution and children wouldn’t be exposed to the violence and gruesomeness of the horror genre. The problem lies with how the MPAA goes about rating the movies. Critics call the ratings too subjective, unreliable, unfair, and damaging to the films. Directors want to stay in the PG-13 range for their films and reach a broader audience, censoring themselves, which critics believe “ruins” the movies.
So what is the MPAA really doing? Is it saving our children from the content that will hurt and haunt them, or oppressing the artistic freedom of one of the most unique genres of film?
Here's a link to the edited version of this script.
Now it's in video format and I'm reading it off, so it definitely took on more of the form of the video essay that it was born to be.
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