Prep Blog 3

Summary of Last Post

In my last blog post, I discussed the process of my research, including the roadblocks I have encountered and the things I have changed. Since then, I have experienced a smoother research process, and data collection has been easier.

Finishing my Data Collection

As I finished with my last movie, She's the Man, my data collection came to a gradual end. All 9 movies have been watched twice. Interestingly, as the deadline for data collection came closer, I began to watch the movies with more joy, for I was excited to start my analysis and finally find evidence for my project.

However, I was quickly reminded that many times the main character has much more depth than any character at all. Because they are the central protagonist, they are likely to be much more complex than their love interests-who may also play a crucial role, but don't tell the story in their own perspective, raising the likelihood that they will not have as much character depth as the female love interest.

Due to these prolems that have become apparent during my research, I need to rethink how I will weigh character depth and how it will be measured.

One idea is to establish a proportion of a male character's depth to the female main character's depth. If the male character meets that proportion, he can be considered a character with depth.

Findings So Far

However, when looking back at the details, I have come to realize how little Bryce (pictured in red) has to offer in comparison to Julie (pictured in yellow). Despite the film capturing both perspectives of each love interest, showing the home life of both characters, and delving into each mind and reading off the thoughts that arise, Bryce falls flat. Julie is described as kind, selfless, optimistic, courageous, and incredibly intelligent. In contrast, Bryce admits his lack of intellectuality in comparison to her, and throughout the movie he lies to Julie, allows his friends to make fun of her mentally handicapped uncle, and refuses to help Julie when she asks him to. Julie doesn't make a mistake in the movie (besides her perhaps obsessive infatuation with Bryce), but Bryce is allowed to do the wrong thing repeatedly. He is painted to be nice by the end of the movie, but it contradicts the majority of the film that just played prior.

This phenomena has occured with the other movies as well, but none of them have surprised me quite the way this one did. I loved this movie as a kid, and I still do enjoy it. But I am becoming aware of the many things that I have missed. There are so many messages and themes hidden in the media that society consumes, despite us being completely unaware of these themes.

Is Bryce a Nice Guy in the film Flipped? I'm not sure. I will have to conduct my data analysis first in order to form a conclusion. But I am certainly becoming aware of many patterns present in flims that are related to gender studies and feminism.

The Next Step

Next, I will begin my data analysis. I have started compiling the data and organizing it into easily digestible graphic organizers, which I hope will make sure that the conclusion I make will be as accurate as possible.

Something that I did nto expect was gathering too much data. After the data collection came to a close, I looked back at the information I had collected and found a lot of excess data. There were many factors that I did not need to include, yet I did. I am not unhappy with this, however, for I would much rather have too much data than too little. I will still keep the data ready for use in case I find that the data can be usable in the future.