Working Hypothesis

This project conveys our belief that college age students are currently living in a polarizing time, especially in the DC area. This film will explore different perspectives of young people’s lives related to the current important issues of COVID-19, the United States presidential election, and the use of social media. We believe that isolationism is a reaction and sentiment that pervades all of these issues.

The main conflict in the documentary is between ongoing ideologies in society and the impact of these ideologies on the issues that young people are currently facing.

Ultimately, we want the audience to feel informed and to relate the current realities we are all facing. We want to accurately show what society is looking like right now, and how people feel isolated in today’s current social climate. We will try to make a comparison, and show how things have changed since quarantine, and how these changes have affected the election and possibly been impacted by social media use.

Young people, for the sake of this project, are defined as college aged students, especially social media users, and the target audiences of those social media platforms.

Feeling Concern

In a polarizing and difficult time, it can be informative and valuable to document the dynamics that arise in a society under a pandemic and crucial election, often expressed through social media. This documentary can help reduce the audience's feelings of isolation, because the issues are shared and prevalent.

Abstract

The project is about current social issues that are faced by young people in the US. We will focus on how COVID-19 and the election are affecting young people’s lives over a period of time, possibly comparing pre-pandemic times with now and looking into a post-pandemic future. We will mainly talk about young people because as graduate students it is easier for us to reach out to them and identify with them. Young people are also often the target and salient users of social media platforms where they can connect with and influence larger communities, engage with ongoing social events, and post political or general content, which can also work as a looking glass for the many issues. This project asks how young people are dealing with COVID-19 and why they behave in a certain way under quarantine. We will also explore how people feel and think about the upcoming future-determining election. We hope our project will help relieve anxiety and distress about uncertainties in society for our audience. This film may be preserved as a documentation of a period in history for future use and research.

Synopsis

This documentary will contain a number of shorter clips and interviews, as well as montages featuring scenes of DC, and other relevant subject matter. The main characters will be students who we will choose ahead of time to interview, as well as possibly one adult professional from Georgetown, in the field of social media expertise. The minute details of this project may change and adapt based on the content of the interviews that we complete during the process. The film will start with a section on COVID-19, and how the predicaments surrounding this virus have impacted one, or possibly a few students at Georgetown. The film will then transition into a segment about the upcoming election, with the impact of COVID-19 on the election acting as a lead-in for the second topic. We will try to follow at least one student during the voting process, as well as analyze how the election is affecting the experience of an international student. Finally, election advertisements on social media will bring about the third section, which is the social media section. We plan to talk to at least one student about social media use, and how it may bring about feelings of isolation, as well as one interview with a professional in the social media field during this section. The finale of the film will tie everything together under the shared experience of young people who are all navigating these different issues.

Treatment

This documentary will take the Observational Mode, with elements of the Expository Mode through interviews with students, experts, and so on. Possibly, depending on the tone of the final version of the film, it may include elements of the Poetic Mode. There will be narration throughout. At this time, we are not sure if there will be one narrator or if a different narrator will be present for each section. We will collect footage that specifically supports and illustrates our narration. There will be background music if deemed necessary. The ambient natural sounds of the environment (the City of DC, people’s homes etc.) will be included for atmospheric effect. We want it to be as high definition as possible, but we have no specific color scheme or any specific filters in mind at this time.

Collaboration Statement

We are all going to contribute to the filming process (each contributing video to the different segments), although possibly one student will be in charge of each segment. When we encounter scenes that are relevant to each other’s topic, we will shoot them and contribute them to our group project if needed. We will all have final say on the editing process together. Possibly for formal interview shooting, at least two group members will be required. We anticipate completing the editing process all together as a group, either in person or over Zoom. All major decisions will have to be discussed with all group members.

Initial Research Questions:

1. The time young people spend on social media during COVID-19 period vs. “Normal life.”

2. What are young people feeling about social media during the COVID-19 period?

3. What difficulties do young people see regarding the election during the COVID-19 period?

(Or do young people feel their rights to vote have changed during the COVID-19 period?)

4. What emotional changes do young people experience during the election process? (e.g. after the presidential debate/after Trump tested positive)

5. Have young voters been influenced by social media? (e.g. presidential nominees’ tweets /advertisements /other voters’ tweets)

6. How is COVID-19 affecting people’s political views of the election? Is the pandemic being politicized? How is this manifested on social media？

Preliminary Shot List:

1. Headlines, short news clips’ audio, or other descriptions of COVID. (Mid-range shot/Close up/wide shot: Images of people with masks on the street, social distancing, closed shops/restaurants, empty shelves in supermarkets, people talking on the phone with their families) Perhaps quiet, contemplative music in the background.

2. Mid-range shot/Medium shot: The first person we’re focusing on for this section shows up and the documentary narrator (voice of God) introduces us to their situation a little bit, before the student in the frame begins speaking.

3. Medium/Wide shot/close up: We see this person in their everyday activities, explaining a little bit how COVID has affected their life, and made them feel isolated.

4. Interspersed during this section, we will show short montages / memories from the last two semesters at Georgetown CCT (starting with them being in person and moving on to online instruction & quarantine).

5. Medium shot: Make a segway in “interviewing” first subject to the second topic of politics (Maybe the student says something along the lines of “I wonder how COVID will affect the voting process this November”).

6. Then, show a few headlines (“Donald Trump gets COVID,” Chaos at the presidential debate, maybe tweets from Donald Trump flash across the screen), and open to the second student walking near a line of people getting ready to vote (or some other voting / election related location). They begin talking about how the election has affected them and their plans for voting, and how the process may feel isolating.

7. Medium shot: Cut to another scene of a student who is not from the US, talking about how the election may have affected them differently than the first student (still try to tie in isolation, possibly from family members at home or other American voters).

8. Medium/Close up shot: Second or first student from the politics segment, continuing to talk about politics / elections, shows a political advertisement from social media (Instagram, Youtube, Hulu, etc) on their phone or computer, and this works as a segway into discussion of Social Media for the third part of the documentary.

9. Split screen effect of how social media content has affected him/ her (third/ fourth student featured in the documentary), while on the other screen, it shows the physical content the student is viewing.

10. Medium shot: Maybe interview Dr. Turner? Or another professional in the social media field to add some authority and expertise to this segment.

11. Maybe show a second student (third subject) for this section, talking about their digital presence, what programs / editing tools they may use to embellish / falsify their digital persona / image and how this makes them feel isolated through social media use.

12. Wide shot: More short montages of DC, but with a more hopeful tone than the beginning (the sun rising, a couple holding hands, etc.) Flash back to all the students / individuals who were interviewed. Narrator ties together all topics (“Shared experience is what unites us”), and possibly interviewees give last few little comments. Then cut to credits.