Sunday 16 November 2008

Stuff i found out:

Looking into reviews:
I looked on a variety of different film review sites which consisted of:
- http://www.empire.com/

- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
- http://www.yahoomovies.com/
-http://www.filmcritic.com/

Looking at all of these sites it revealed that American Beauty was the highest rated film followed by Kids and last was High School Musical. #

Setting up a debate:
I have also set up an account on http://www.imdb.com/ which i have started a debate on the message boards about dyfunctional youth so far i have found these things out by what other people have said?

- The only one of those three movies I'm really familiar with is American Beauty, so I don't know how much help I can actually be, but I do think that's a very good choice for the topic at hand. Ricky with his odd combination of hippie-ish ideals and ambitious, entrepreneurial spirit; Angela, the beauty-obsessed, attention-starved sex kitten who's afraid of sex; and Jane, the stereotypical average teenager who just wants to be loved for who she is.

- I saw High School Musical 2 and the thing that struck me the most was how these teenagers started prancing around randomly in the dark on a field or a hill. I mean i can't remember the last time I saw a more explicit allusion to drug-taking in my life. Yeah, there's drugs in American Beauty too. So everybody does drugs...

These are the two main comments i have had back. I personally think the 1st statment is interesting and is very good but the 2nd comment is just what someone thought and shows how different people interpret a film.


My focus group questions and what i found out

My focus group Questions:
1. Can you please draw a representation of an american teenager?
2. Can you list 10 adjectives on your sketch that you would use to describe american youth?
3. Can you give me a definition of what you think the american dream is?
My definition: The american dream is the widespread aspirations of americans to live better
than their parents did and also a phrase that translates to mean hope, prosperity and
happiness.
4. Clips:
Kids:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A93rgYI--Q
American Beauty:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU1wSLdshcU&feature=related
High School Musical:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA32s2coJ2I
What messages and values do you think these three clips communicate to you about American
youth?
5. To what extent do you think these films either confrom or challenge the American dream?

What i found out:
1. In my focus group i asked everyone involved which were 13 people to draw an american youth. I found out that 7 males and 2 females drew a male youth whereas no males and 3 females drew a female youth.

2. I asked my focus group to use 10 words to describe an american youth. I found out that 9/13 either named american youths as either fat of obese. 8/13 people used gangster and 6/13 people said sporty or named some sort of sport.
12/13 people's adjectives they used were very derogatory and not very nice towards american youths.

3. 13/13 people understood the american dream by mentioing success, perfect home, perfect job and the perfect family.

Overall i didnt find my focus group 100% useful as the answers i recieved werent as clear as i hoped for and some went against of what i originally thought. This could of been for my questions being too broad but in some way i did find this healpful with the results i have shown above.