by Lim Hui Kai Kiven (Tutorial Group 9)
Modern Parenting
It is only “right” for parents to push their children to excel in life during their early childhood days. Parents tend to send their children for various types of classes, most of which take up a lot of time and energy. These classes include tuition for academic subjects, ballet, piano, painting, singing, sports and the list goes on.
Children continually complain about their huge struggle to complete their school and tuition homework and having to participate actively in their extra activities. In many Asian societies, most parents believe that this is the way to go, and would always preach to their children that “this is what you should be doing.”
But have we ever considered the pressure that our kids face?
“Helium Boy” by Jonathan, Gang Of Peanuts http://gangofpeanuts.com/helium-boy-update/
Our group hopes to tell parents that our children deserves the freedom to fly and to follow their dreams. The visual above inspires our work in regard to the cultural perspectives it provided. Personally, I view the arrangement of the signs as a visual metaphor as the boy is able to float into air by holding on to a balloon. The balloon is a symbolic sign of childhood dreams, and taking flight is the representation of achieving that goal. The balloon, green in colour, symbolises growth and nurturing. Also, a syntagm is present in the visual as seen in the sequential relationship between the balloon and the boy.
This visual has a connotation for allowing children to do what they want, and to give them the liberty to choose their path. Similarly, our group wants to portray this message in our images with this similar concept.
“Parental Pressure — Ad Film (PSA)” by Vertizontal Pictures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5xtBt-8qQ8
In addition, this YouTube film inspires our group in regard to the technical perspectives that it provided. The film includes a classical structure of a narrative chain of events. It is linked by cause and effect that is motivated by the characters. Our group intends to adopt a similar narrative structure from this video, and the context in which the work is shown.
In addition, the mise-en-scene in the film emphasises on a dark lighting to create a tense mood, assenting with the theme as shown. This allows its audience to immerse with the apprehension that is being portrayed. Also, the staging goes along with the theme as the visual elements — facial expressions, gestures and appearances — enhanced the overall performance of the film.
Furthermore, parallel editing was used to contrast the personal aspiration of the character and the struggle he was facing. This inspired our group to follow this production method as it was able to clearly express the agenda of our message.
