Treatment for Impacting Girls, Influencing Life

IMPACTING GIRLS, INFLUENCING LIVES; THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN THE MEDIA

Theme:
Everyday young girls and adolescents are bombarded, and targeted by almost every form of mainstream media. The media tells them how to look, act, and dress. These images have instilled American cultural norms that are impossible to reach and led girls to go to extraordinary ends to meet these impossible standards. As a society a new image of girls, teens, women and gender must be created.

Synopsis:
Impacting Girls, Influencing Lives is a 20 minute expository/reflective documentary about the way women are portrayed in the media and the effect that this portrayal has on young girls growing up. The story will be told in 3 parts, the first is a section to establish the way that women are portrayed in the media focusing on how the media creates the images of: taller, whiter, skinnier, and blonder. The evidence in this section will be provided mostly through media clips as well as the pictures that each of the interview subjects have drawn about women in the media. The second is a section, about the impact that this has on young girls, this will consist mostly of interviews supplemented by b-roll. These interviews will depict personal experiences reflecting on the influence of media in the lives of children. The third and final part will attempt to deconstruct the media images and empower people to move beyond media imagery.

Style and Structure:
The main story telling of the piece will be through interviews conducted with people of varying ages, genders, races and sexualities. The interviews will be conducted in an interactive format that will reflect elements shown throughout the piece, in the form of repetitive activities, such as images drawn during every interview.

Length and Shooting Format:
I am aiming for a length between 20 and 30 minutes and I will be shooting in digital video. This format will give me great flexibility to incorporate various forms of media, imagery and multiple layers of video in post-production. In addition, the length of the piece will allow me to go into depth with my subject without boring my audience.

Voice and Point of View:
The piece will be a mostly reflective video, but it will capture many elements of an expository piece, as I explore the way that these images effected me growing up as a girl, my presence as the video maker will be present throughout the piece however, I will not use direct voice over. My biggest goal is to utilize different forms of media throughout the process of the creation of this film, and to have these different mediums shine through in the final product. For instance, the final piece will show the drawings I have collected from every interview. These different elements will come together in the end to form a empowering and thought provoking piece.