Having collected all of the responses from my focus group this past Tuesday I have received a total of 51 responses. I am pretty happy with this because it is a lot of material to go through. Most of the responses mention the main points that the films and interviews made them think about seizing the day more, or being more careful. What surprised me was that a large amount of people said how watching the clips and listening to the interviews made them thankful for their lives and how healthy they were. I am not sure why I never thought that this could be a response before; maybe because I always think of myself as lucky for growing up in Newton and being fortunate to do all the activities I want. I really appreciated the responses and how well thought out most of them were. One response stuck out to me in general, "I do not like TFIOS [The Fault in Our Stars] it made having cancer seem glamorous and dramatic." I understand this response because I had some of the same impressions after I saw the movie but once I started researching and understanding the origin of the story I realized that that is not what the film wanted to accomplish and it is not what it accomplishes. I specifically showed scenes from The Fault in Our Stars that emphasized having cancer and not the romance because this film, believe it or not, actually represents the unexpected and heat wrenching torture that cancer can have on the patient and families. It makes me rethink my decision to show parts of this film over others because many people have seen and many people have already formed opinions about it. It is an understandable and appropriate response however it was one of the only two responses I got from my focus group that specifically put down The Fault in Our Stars.
Yesterday I conducted my first interview. It went well, my interviewee answered all the questions with detail and spoke from a genuine place but I felt as if I was missing something. After thinking about it and re-watching the interview video for a while I came to the realization that maybe thats the point. That films glorify cancer because otherwise it would be too hard to hear and the only way people without the disease can really connect with what a person is going through is if the main point is exaggerated. I am going to continue the rest of my interviews with more of an open mind on this.
During our CAPs class today I made a schedule of the things I need to get done this week; the list was rather extensive. I have attached the list below... This may not look like much but it is. Every thing that goes into this project needs to resemble the passion I have for it. Many things need to get done and the only thing that can keep me going is the passion I have for my topic and research. I am collecting information about films about cancer and reviews of those films to research papers and presentations people have done about how the media in general affects its viewers. The quotes and snip-its of articles I am reading are sticking to me like glue and I'm constantly thinking about what is running through people's minds as they write what they wrote or say what they said.
Truth be told I was overwhelmed these past few weeks with all that I had to do and keep up with from my project to my regular classes. It was a frustrating joy to find out that I could drop my english class about a month ago, regardless, with my english class now gone I have more time to really focus on my project. The greatest part that I have experience about my project thus far is my research. When we have work days for our CAPS classes I zone out and narrow in on what movies are out there, along with reviews of them, people's reactions and how those movies came to be. I could research for hours and hours at a time on the same movie like I did with The Fault in Our Stars last week. As more deadlines pop up more things need to be done and focused on; I can feel my anxiety increasing with my excitement. I am trying to hit the ground running for these last few weeks while I am still in class so I can really nail it on my release.
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AuthorI'm Guinevere MacDonald, just another teenage girl who loves movies but think that they hold more meaning than they lead on to. ArchivesCategories |