Bria Holness

The Scene

This scene that I am pitching will be in a small classroom with subjects both close and far from camera. There will be some movement and it will be somewhat close to the camera. The camera will be at sitting level so that the viewer feels as though they are sitting amongst the students.

Lighting

The scene will have indoor lighting. However, I envision a couple of flickering fluorescent lights to add to the feeling that the classroom is in poor condition.

Audio

The audio will mostly be of the fluorescent lights, dialogue, and in-scene music playing from a phone. The scene will mostly be composed of young students talking loudly and laughing over the voice of the teacher as she tries to get their attention. The sound of a chalkboard getting scratched is also important to the scene. After that the audio track will just be all dialogue and the sound of the fluorescent lights.

Experience

Through this video I hope to give someone the experience of what it feels like to be in a classroom that is in poor conditions as a result of being underfunded. Such classrooms can be vermin filled, dirty, filled with broken textbooks, inadequate lighting, and broken desks, etc. I want someone to see how difficult it is to learn in such classrooms and furthermore, how such conditions make it clear to students who have to learn in these schools that no one cares about them. By the actions not taken to fix their schools and provide them with adequate tools for a quality education they begin to internalize and believe that they are not worth the proper tools needed. Here, self fulfilling prophecies begin. This results in disciplinary problems as they begin to act out against each other and faculty and sometimes even blatantly decide to not learn. Therefore, not only do I want a viewer to see what schools such as this look like but also what happens to the young students forced in these schools by their socioeconomic position and how they are perfectly aware of what is being done to them.

This is a compelling experience because many people who are privileged and in higher positions of society feel as though impoverished students and students of color plainly do not want to learn and that they do not care about their education. They genuinely believe that they are lazy and should be harshly held to the same standards as everyone else in the nation. However, it is easy to say those things when sitting comfortably in a middle class position of society not having to face the same struggles or difficulties. Through a video like this it can become clear that these students do want to learn but they have given up on the American system of education as it has given up on them. Through the dialogue of this video it will become apparent that these students are not learning anything but have continued to be passed on to the next grade without the tools to succeed academically. It is important to to deconstruct stereotypical assumptions about poor students of color and make people aware of such socioeconomic systemic issues to create a better education system for ALL students. Providing the experience to witness such poor conditions of a classroom where students are supposed to safely learn has the capability to overwhelm anyone.

It is an experience everyone should have because as a society supposedly built on democracy we can no longer tell these students to make use of what they have when there are schools only a district away that have the resources they need to receive a quality education. There are students who have resources inside and outside of school: up to date technologies, proper textbooks that are culturally relevant, low teacher turnovers, good guidance counselors, expensive tutors, parents who don’t have 2 or 3 jobs so therefore, have time to check their children’s homework, etc. Therefore, it does not make sense as to how we as a society feel we can hold the nation to the same educational standards when not all schools or students are provided with the same resources. A lot of people do not want to help with such causes out of a blatant belief that impoverished people and people of color should remain in an inferior place or just an ignorance of how these people live. When you cannot identify with something it is hard to care about it or be empathetic to it. Therefore, this video provides the opportunity to somewhat experience firsthand the issues these students deal with on a daily basis, what it does to them, and how aware they are the decisions made against them at only a middle and high school level. Maybe, by experiencing this firsthand a viewers feeling about impoverished students and students of color will change and it may convict them to take direct action against the education system as they think about the young students in their own lives-children, siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins, and etc.

For some individuals this video may provide context to their experiences with the school system. They may be able to identify with it and it may help them confirm hegemonies working in their own lives. For others it may be something they had no knowledge about before and it may disturb them enough that they could get emotional about it. They could immediately want to do something about it. Others may be disturbed as well but may do nothing with the knowledge, feeling as though there is nothing they can really do because that’s just the way things are. Then there may be others who wish to remain ignorant and use what they see in the video as ways to fuel the stereotypical assumptions they already hold about these students.

Some individuals may want to avoid this experience because it is essentially facing a harsh reality. The video has the ability to make viewers aware of their privileges whether that be white privilege, economic privilege, high social capital, etc. It can also make people aware of the fact that they may have held wrong assumptions about these students and have even been complicit within their oppression. This knowledge and awareness can make them feel guilty and bad about themselves, a feeling no one wants to feel and generally wishes to avoid. However, getting past those feelings can result in the desire to do something about it.

Story Discovery

My protagonist is a Jamaican 7^th grade girl with an attitude. She lives in the South Bronx with her alcoholic single mother who can barely keep a job due to her disease. She is very aware of the conditions of her school and refuses to learn from a system that obviously does not care about her. She says what is on her mind without hesitation. When a substitute teacher comes in on the day of this scene, along with the rest of her classmates, she doesn’t even acknowledge her. When the teacher calls their attention she is the only one who speaks up to say “Look lady we are all here. You don’t need to take attendance. They don’t even really care if we’re here or not. So lets not waste anyone’s time; you can just chill in that seat up there until the bell rings.” The other students nod in agreement.

At first, it seems as though the protagonist is just trying to get rid of the substitute. She just wants the substitute to leave them alone for the period as every other substitute has done in the past. However, as the story progresses, she actually is trying to solve a problem that she finds herself and her classmates facing on a daily basis- a problem grounded in systemic inequalities. She is trying to find an answer as to how she is expected to learn in such a poor environment. How is she supposed to want to be in school when she can’t even concentrate as the light flickers, the smells get worse, and mice and roaches run across her feet? Why does no one care enough about her and her classmates to fix this and give them a quality education like the students in the next district get?

When the teacher first comes in the room, the viewer’s attention will be directed over to her as the door slams and she walks in the room. The students won’t budge and they will carry on with their conversations and music playing as they usually do. This unusual response to a teacher or authority figure will call the viewers to look around at the students and their lack of response to the teacher trying to get their attention. As the story evolves into a call and response between the teacher and the protagonist it will direct the viewers’ attention to look back and forth between the two as they engage in a conversation. As the conversation evolves into the students discussing how they really feel about their school and the situation that they’re in, the viewers’ attention will be directed by the conversation to look towards who is speaking at the very moment. As the viewers hear different voices coming from different areas of the room it will incite them to turn around and look at those speaking. It will feel as though they are one of the students in the classroom and although they may not be able to actually engage in the conversation they can direct their attention to those sharing their opinions on the matter.

As stated before, it is important that other people have this experience because it is important to to deconstruct stereotypical assumptions about impoverished students and students of color and make people aware of such socioeconomic systemic issues to create a better education system for ALL students. Providing the experience to witness such poor conditions of a classroom where students are supposed to safely learn has the capability to overwhelm anyone. Through a video like this it can become clear that these students do want to learn but they have given up on the American system of education as they continue to be passed through the school system without actually learning anything.

As stated before, this experience will allow viewers to understand that as a society supposedly built on the principles of democracy and equal opportunity we can no longer tell these students to make use of what they have when there are schools only a district away that have the resources they need to receive a quality education. We can not hold the nation to the same educational standards when not all schools or students are provided with the same resources. Therefore, this video provides the opportunity to somewhat experience firsthand the issues these students deal with on a daily basis, what it does to them, and how aware they are the decisions made against them at only a middle and high school level. By experiencing this firsthand a viewers feeling about impoverished students and students of color may change and it may convict them to take direct action against the education system as they think about the young students in their own lives.

The biggest empathetic factor here is that these students are children; children looking for a system to love and care about them too. What becomes clear in this video is that by leaving them to fend for themselves in such inadequate conditions, we as a society tell them that they do not matter. They then internalize this and begin to actually believe that they are not worth it. What human society do we live in where 12 year olds blame themselves and give up on school because they genuinely believe they’re not worth it? But if society truly believed they were, they would have better schools.

Where is my head?

The experiencer needs to be sitting down amongst the classmates as if he or she is one of them. Therefore, the experiencer should be in the the middle of the classroom so that this environment is all around them and they can engage and navigate it as if they are really there experiencing it as if they were one of the students themselves.

The 360 rig should be on a student desk as if the viewer was sitting at the desk. It would be put into place by being posted onto a desk or chair at the desk.

I would want a class of students to make it as realistic as possible. 15-20 students in a small room could be a representation of a real class in an underfunded school. However, usually these schools pack 30-40 students a class. Therefore, with less students, the quarters would need to be tighter to make it feel more congested as these classes can be.

Safety

I can either play the teacher or one of the students so that I can watch the equipment as the scene is being filmed. I can also cast actresses and actors who I can trust, such as fellow Newhouse grad students who understand the severity of consequences from losing and/or stealing equipment. The scene could be shot in Newhouse where equipment is relatively safe when secured and watched over properly.