iMovie: Marriage Equality
Documentaries are used to provided factual information to a broad audience. This documentary is used as a public service announcement in the documentary form to discuss the issues surrounding marriage equality. In order to create awareness about the issues and viewpoints on the topic, two different approaches, as well as editing tactics, were used to create a short compilation of informational clips. Through these approaches, it was hoped that a documentary could bring to light the truths and concerns of marriage equality by showing those who oppose and those who support.
Marriage equality was the concept that Marcell, Sophia, and Jaclyn chose to represent. Each member of the group has dealt with concerns such as empathy, equal rights, and the issues surrounding adoption. Since all of the above concerns are in one way or another intertwined within marriage equality, that was the big idea that was agreed upon. From this point forward the group used concept mapping as well as provided worksheets to work out details. Through these processes, it was decided on to focus on LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgendered, and Questioning) and how marriage (in) equality protects the metanarrative of the “Majority”. In order to be as unbiased as possible it was decided to pick random people from Kirkhof from various ethnic groups, sexes, and ages. Then, the group thought about questions that they could ask, camera angles, and the like.
In creating a storyboard and filming the documentary the group focused on two types of interviews. The first interview, with Kim Ranger, provided context and information on the issues from someone who faces inequality on an everyday basis. This created a sense of awareness for the viewers on subjects that they may not think about everyday, such as medical rights and simple tax laws. Also, this addresses the rights those who are fighting for equal marriage rights have currently and what they want in the future. The next interview addressed the public asking how they define marriage, how being for or against equal marriage affects them, what the pros and cons of equal marriage rights are, and why they would choose to be for or against marriage equality. These questions were used so that there was support from both sides and a general awareness of different outlooks provided to the viewing audience. When constructing the interviews it was decided that the interviewee would be the major focus of the clip, with a straight on angle in order keep the focus on their responses.
Following filming, all of the clips were uploaded and parts were split between the group members. Marcell addressed the interview by providing informational clips from the interview with Kim Ranger. Jaclyn and Sophia split the questions to provide the audience with a variety of responses from those interviewed. Marcell used longer clips in order to provide context and quality information from the interview with Kim Ranger. In contrast, Jaclyn and Sophia used short clips to provide a range of answers and wide variety of demographics and opinions to address the questions. This resulted in the documentary first highlighting the issues within the community and then short responses on opinions, concerns, and feelings on the issue of marriage equality.
As a result a short public service announcement was created focusing on the issues and questions at hand as well as the many views that come with them. In order to solve the pressing issues, such as marriage equality, people must become aware of the limits of their own experiences. By showing many view points, it can be hoped together as a society we can overcome such obstacles by becoming more empathetic. This video, as a compilation, is meant to open doors so that these issues no longer exist.
