Production Log: Brainstorming

1) Write a short paragraph outlining the essential questions you want the documentary to address, the target audience, and the desired response. Use the rest of your entry to collate a list of preliminary research questions, along with a strategy for answering them. (In other words, in order to make this documentary successful, what do you need to know about and how are you going to go about getting that information?)

Our class's documentary topic is about ethnic and grouping stereotypes around and about Punahou. The documentary should ask questions such as What defines a person as a nerd or jock or geek? Is the label based more on appearance/ethnicity, or the actions of that person? How do you think the other students label you? What is it about you that would give that impression?
What is the common stereotype about Punahou students? Is the interviewee's impression based off their own personal experience or from the rumors? When you think of Punahou students, what kinds of ethnicities come to mind?

The target audience should be Punahou students. They can learn more about their own personal biases and how prevalent prejudice is in our society. They can see their own views, the views of their fellow students and the opinions of those who do not belong to the Punahou community.

I would mostly like to see a lot of new unprecedented ideas about stereotypes come out from this documentary. I would also like to know the reasoning behind those who have a negative view of a certain group of people.

My main concern is that we will not be able to find a lot of people with negative views to speak frankly about it on the documentary. Perhaps we could keep interviews at the same level, so that one person's interview won't be singled out.

It won't be hard to find student and faculty views on the issue because we can find them at school. On the other hand, to find those outside the school may be a little more difficult. If we can't get anyone outside the school community to talk about the Punahou stereotype, we could get students and teachers who went to different schools and ask them about what their impression was before coming here. It would also be interesting to see if their views changed as they started attending Punahou.

I would also like to know if it is ok to interview a classmate working on the same documentary who has a lot to say about the topic.