Problems and Limitations: Lillie Lambert

Within our group we work really well together as we work off of each others strengths. We have been delayed in editing our documentary as we have both been off at times but are now back so will complete it to a high standard. We both contributed to filming so we had different takes on peoples opinions and different ways of conducting interviews. It gives our documentary a twist on both our inputs.

Interviews: Lillie Lambert

For my part of filming I decided to film a group interview. The reasoning behind this is that you can keep the interview rolling as participants work off of each others responses.
Catharynes interviews were with individual people which I think is a vital point of view as people are more likely to view their own ideas in a more private setting. Whereas when in a group some people will sensor what they really think as they worry that what they may say in a group setting may be mis-interpretted or be 'wrong' in the minds of other participants.
The group of 4 girls that I interviewed are all very open minded so rather than me having to keep the interview going by asking more question we keep going off of the girls varying responses. The location of my interview was in one of the media rooms which made the girls a little more relaxed as the setting was something they were used too rather than an over formal interview where they were uncomfortable.
I was pleased with the responses the group gave as it was all what they initially though even with minor mess ups it gave the interview a true to life feeling.

Interviews: Catharyne

I decided to conduct and film two different interviews for my section of filming, so as to take a more diverse approach in collection my primary research. The first section of the documentary features one girl who I interviewed and her reaction to a statistic I read out to her. I felt it was necessary to add in initial reactions & responses because it gives a more hone
st approach to the documentary, which is obviously what we needed to do.

I decided to film my interviews in the drama studio and the photography studio so as to have better backdrops behind my interviewees to make it look more professional. My second interviewee actually wanted to be anonymous throughout the interview so I had to ensure that he face was obscured through filming which was quite difficult to do, so in the end I decided to block out her face post-editing.

Initial Filming: Catharyne

For the first part of filming for the documentary I decided to conduct some interviews. I thought that interviews would be an important basis, alongside facts & statistics, of the documentary because the subject matter we've chosen is so opinionated and quite a taboo or controversial topic.

I decided to split the filming between us seeing as there was only two of us. I decided to conduct 2 singular interviews, whereas Lillie decided to film 1 group interview.

As dictated on the Location List I did, I filmed my two interviews in the drama studio, against a mirrored backdrop, and in the photography studio, against a black backdrop. I decided to do this to give a more professional standard to my filming because I didn't want any distractions in the background to distract from the subject of the documentary.

Presentation of Primary Research: Lillie Lambert

Primary Research

These are the results of my primary research that I have collated from a questionnaire and other resources.

1.    Does the way the media views what the perfect body is affect you personally?

From the results that I have gathered I have found that up to 80% of people are personally affected by the way the media views the perfect body image. This figure is very high showing that more people are affected by the medias views than expected. Only 20% of people are not affected by the way the media views the perfect body.

2.    Does it affect your confidence?

100% of participants say that the way that the media perceives body image does not affect their confidence. This is something that I had personally not expected to see as I would have expected people’s confidence to be affected through the medias perception of body image. Personally I had thought that at least 60% of people would have confidence issues but obviously that was incorrect.

3.    Has the way the media views the ideal body ever made you want to change something about yourself?

Again 100% of people who completed my questionnaire did not believe that views in the media made them want to change anything about themselves. I did think that people would have had something that they wished to change about themselves but it was good to get feedback on what people thought of their own bodies. Most people have something they wish to change and I have found this from watching a variety of body imaged based documentaries.

4.    Do you agree with the medias ideal body?

All of my participants do not agree with the medias ideal body. So 100% of my participants do not believe that the medias ideal body is right. For me this shows that a very high percentage of people do not agree with the norm that is put onto them every day. It shows me that we are onto a topic that people will be very opinionated about, so will be great for interviews on our documentaries.

5.    Do you feel pressure to fit the ideal?

90% of my participants do not feel pressure to fit the ideal which is completely opposite to what most surveys say. Most surveys find that people feel unbelievably under pressure to fit the ideal. My questionnaire shows that only 10% of participants feel under pressure to be the ideal body that the media puts across. 

6.    Do you have friends who are affected in some way through the media’s perception of looks?

Only 10% of participants do not know anyone who has in some way been affected by the medias perception of looks. This is what I had expected when I put this question onto my questionnaire. 90% of participants knew of someone who had been affected by the medias perception of looks. This is exactly the kind of figure I had expected to find. Most people will admit to knowing someone who has been affected by the expectations the media puts on looks.

7.    Are you constantly worried about what you look like?

100% of participants are not constantly worried about their looks. This figure was unexpected as I did believe that people would be worried some of the time. This means none of the people who I used within my questionnaire are worried about their looks. I think there could have been a bias on this as people knew that their classmates would be seeing this because I know a couple of people I had spoken too  voiced concerns about the pressure they felt to look a certain way so I think it is quite a touchy subject for people to personally talk about.

8.    Has anyone ever commented negatively on the way you look?

All of the participants that took part in my questionnaire have at some point had someone comment negatively on how they look.  I think this couldn’t be truer because even if someone commented negatively at a young age it is branded into you. It was exactly what I thought would come of this question because everyone has once had someone comment negatively. This could be because people have commented through jealousy or just horrible comments.

9.    Is it a big part of your life to try and fit the ideal given out by the media?

100% of people said that ‘No’ they didn’t try and fit the ideal. This is good to have found as a lot of people take the medias ideal negatively and make it their life’s effort to fit it. So of all the people who took part none of them try to fit this ideal. I think that isn’t completely true but as my research progresses I can delve into this idea more.

10. Do you think the media’s perception should change?

All of my participants agree that the media’s perception on body image should change. I believe that this is an idea that is shared across a wide audience as it is unhealthy for people to be pushed to extreme limits or be constantly hating themselves because of what other people believe is right.  This is definitely what I had expected from this question.

Dividing Tasks: Lillie Lambert

Between Catharyne and I we have divided the tasks evenly so we both had a larger task and smaller tasks. We have divided them so that we each have tasks that coincide with our strengths in media. We work well as a team and help each other if we need to, so all tasks are completed to the best of our abilities.