This is a public service announcement about the influence of smoking on younger children. It's almost a minute long because of title and credits, but the meat of it is roughly 30 seconds. While brainstorming ideas for this project, I thought about how I wanted to show the importance of family. Having two older sisters, I thought about how their decisions influenced me. Although neither of them smoked, I wanted to bring in the issue of smoking because it's something many people do or have tried. I found this interesting article on NPR about the influence of siblings. They say that siblings are typically more influential than parents. I agree with that.
With that in mind, I took a bit of time to consider what I wanted the theme to be. I knew I wanted it to be less of "I tried it once and got in trouble," (which seems to be the approach to many anti-whatever PSAs) but rather show the idea that the sister was trying something new and so her little brother wanted to too, assuming it was safe. Is my character is a bad sister or has she just had a moment of independence? I also tried to slip in some themes about the influence of friends and the idea of how easy it is to try a cigarette. Does the fact the friend offers a cigarette to the sister mean that he is a bad person, or is he just being polite? At the end, there is a realization of shame and liability in the group when the brother asks for a cigarette. Interpret my PSA as you will. I hope you enjoy it! |
About BlogThis blog was originally made for a summer class in 2013, focusing on media, film, and sound. Archives
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