"Lasting Im-pressure" Documentary Tiara & Dara 9LL


Tiara Shafa Sudijono
English 9LL
Documentary Rationale
Word Count: 484

Our documentary, titled “Lasting Im-pressure”, is about the academic pressure in Indonesia that causes a lack of self-love in students. This pressure, we think, mostly comes from parents as a result of their good intentions yet inefficient ways of conveying those intentions. We wanted to make this statement apparent in our documentary because our target audience is parents in Indonesia. We used a mix of dialogue, sound, and image to make the audience feel that parents should prioritize their child’s self-love and mental health rather than their grades or academics. Throughout the documentary, we used stacks of thick textbooks as imagery in order to symbolize academic pressure; heavy and burdensome (0:24-0:34). This was done in order to make the audience feel inferior to the books and what it symbolizes. By using these shots, we tried to build up the idea that academic pressures are overbearing, intimidating, and burdening towards students. Furthermore, we arranged the footage in a way that it discussed the topic cohesively. We started with clips of Indonesian news to introduce the audience to the importance of academics to Indonesian parents (0:00-0:15). We then cut to student interviews to show how their parents’ views on academic performance have influenced them (0:36-0:54). In between those clips, we inserted a parent’s interview to provide more insight into the parents’ perspective (1:33-1:41). On the other hand, we used footage of the psychologist to support the students and convey our bias towards them (1:52-2:21). Another aspect of the documentary was the music. We chose the first piece of music because of its serious tone conveyed through its low pitch and slow tempo (0:00-3:20). This was done to evoke fear and pity into the target audience. The tone became more hopeful as the second piece of music’s higher pitched chords started to play (3:20). Then, shots of smiling students were added to express happiness as a result of self-love (4:08-4:16). At the end of the documentary, the music stopped and the screen went black to emphasize the psychologist's dialogue (4:21-4:24). This was meant for the audience to realize what self-love meant for a student; to be able to accept themselves as they are. The idea to use music to enhance emotions evoked by imagery came from the documentaries we watched. In class, we observed “Gun Nation” which used pictures of people with guns and labeling them as “extreme” in order to convey their bias. In addition to the imagery, the music was tense, helping the “extreme” image appear more unbelievable in the target audience’s eyes. In summary, our documentary, “Lasting Im-pressure” was successful in evoking emotion in the audience through its music and imagery. However, I think there could have been more statistics and cited facts that supported the message we were trying to convey; that academic pressures can result in a lack of self-love in students in Indonesia. Despite the lack of statistics, how the documentary evokes emotion is enough to leave a lasting impression.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Characters in Relation to Themes in the Merchant of Venice

"Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew’s man that would, sir, as my father shall specify—" (II.ii.91-92) "The Merchant of Venice" is a play by Shakespeare that discusses themes related to prejudice, racism and much more. After reading through all of Act 1 and half of Act 2, we've already been introduced to a handful of characters that play a part in the story's multiple plots. I'll be discussing the character Lancelot, also known as the Clown and how his actions relate to a few of the themes introduced in the story, namely prejudice between religions and races.  He makes his first appearance in Act 2, Scene 2, with a long soliloquy that talks about his relationship with his master, Shylock (also known as the Jew). He talks about how he wants to stop working for him, proven in the line, " And in my conscience, my conscience is but a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew." (II.ii.24-27). He also reveals that ...
Read more

Out The Door - Short Story

“Do you need food? Water? You look thinner nowadays,” Paul quickly asked the dark-haired girl, stepping closer to where she was standing. The girl smiled. Irene Sobczynska. That was her name. She was an interpreter from Poland, as it was rumored, and spoke five languages in total: Polish, German, Russian, French,  and some Italian. He’d heard that she even helped prisoners, bringing them medicine and extra food from time to time.  “You noticed? I can’t sleep at night.” she pretended to write things down, checking the newly transported grain sacks in the warehouse, knowing that the SS-man could come in at any time and catch her doing anything other than her job. That meant punishment. “You can come to me if you need food,” Paul said. “That’s my job, not yours, Paul.” Irene laughed, slowly making her way out of the warehouse. She didn’t forget to throw a wink his way. * * * “Hello, dear, why I haven’t seen you around?” a neighbor asks, calmly sitting in the li...
Read more

B L O O D C H I L D

"How could I put my children into the care of one who hates them?" "Bloodchild" is a short story written by Octavia E. Butler. The short story is set in what seems to be another planet - inhabited by Terrans (humans), Tlics and several other animals. While following the story's main character, Gan, we are introduced to this mysterious creature called T'Gatoi. She is described to have multiple limbs, a long spine, ribs, a skull, three meters tall and has a velvet underside. As we dig deeper into the story, we are told that she, among many others, is a Tlic. Tlics are gigantic worm-like creatures that live alongside the Terrans (humans); using them as their host animals for their young. When Tlics are ready to lay their eggs, they look for a host animal with enough fat to take care of their babies and Terrans who have Tlic eggs implanted inside them are called N'Tlics. They usually prefer women to keep their babies, but women are not usually used as th...
Read more