Blog 8: Final Reflection

For this class in particular I found it challenging to know what was expected of me. It was never all that clear what each assignment was asking for, besides the blogs. Without a defined rubric or outline of requirements for each assignment it was always done on assumptions. I also found the participation grading was a bit confusing. I was never really clear on how I got the grade I did. One grade would be low, and the next grade, having done the same amount of participating was different. I struggled with the speeches in the beginning because I wasn’t used to give them. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the blogs. I liked writing my thoughts out, and it was helpful for the final project, because almost all the work we needed for it was done throughout the semester. I also enjoyed the videos we watched in class. I thought they were all relevant to what we were learning at the time. I found success in my blogs and in the storyboard. I learned about how to properly give a speech, meaning how to address the audience and how to give a good presentation. I also learned how to properly write a research paper and create a documentary.

Storyboard

Hannah Potts

Jennifer Hudgens

WRD 110

17 November 2015

Storyboard

            This storyboard is being used to display and outline the process, tones, and events that will be happening throughout my documentary. My topic is the effects of divorce on kids, and weather sticking it out for them is the right choice. In my first scene I will introduce my topic and have opening credits. The credits will include the names of the people I interviewed, and my own as the creator. This will be a black screen with the words “Staying Together For The Kids” written on in with the rolling credits underneath. There will be music playing, although that is unclear. It will be a low key, almost sad song.

The first scene will be a brief 20 second video. The original intent of the video I think is to promote the idea of staying together for the kids, and the video is almost an “up next” type of thing. I think using this video will help set up my entire documentary as almost a preview of what is to come. The music behind it is more up tempo, and hopefully gives a intriguing tone to the scene. The video is pretty self explanatory and will be a good, entertaining source to get the audience interested.

The next scene will begin with me describing the why I chose this topic, so it will include me saying “I chose this topic because it relates close to me. My parents were divorced when I was 7, and my sister and I both reacted differently. I have always wondered how different my life would be had my

parents stayed together.” The picture behind this will be a picture of my sister, dad, and I, also a separate picture of my mom, sister, and I. The song that will be played during this scene will be Billy Ray Cyrus’, “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”. I chose this song because I think no one, including my parents, really wanted my dad to leave. No one wanted my parents marriage to be over, but it was a think that needed to be done. The tone will convey sadness over the situation.

After this scene, I will go into the first interview I did, which was with my dad. During the interview I asked “How do you think the divorce affects us? He said I think it obviously made us all sad. It was not a goal of ours to have our marriage end, or to put you two through this. But it was something that needed to be done, to make us better parents and people.” I asked him if he thou

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ght that would do more harm than good. His response “Yes, I asked if there was a way to stay together for you girls. And although there wasn’t a hostile environment between the two of us, it was decided that that wasn’t going to work. There were other factors that prevented us from staying together, but now I could say that it was for the best. I became a better dad, a better man, and I was able to provide a positive environment for you guys. Our lives together became happier. We were able enjoy our time together and it allowed me to change my way of parenting. Instead of me living in the future, I started living in the present. I realized that worst my life could get was in those divorce papers. But I knew that there was no her taking you from me, or moving. So I realized that from then on, it was my job to show you that I was okay, that we were okay, and that my happiness was overall the most important thing in allowing me to love you.” Finally, I asked if in general “parents should stay together for their kids,” and he replied “no, if all options have be exhausted and you both have tried to save it, and there is still no desire to stay, all you teach your kids is a miserable representation of a relationship for your kids.” Even though there is a voice over, the song I would like to play behind is “I loved her first” by Heartland. I chose this song because my dad and I are very close, but the song doesn’t encourage feelings of sadness. The tone of this scene isn’t supposed to be a heavy as the previous one, because my dad describes happier times.

The next scene I will be talking about the secondary source used, which was an article titled “Should You Stay Together for The Kids?” This article will be used to back up my dad’s statement about his thoughts on sticking it out. This will also be a voice over, I will say “In the article “Should You Stay Together For the Kids?” the authors go into detail of what the right decision is. The article mainly focused on the beliefs of Judith Wallerstein, a therapist. Judith originally believed that if parents are unhappy they should divorce and the kids would be okay. However, questions began to arise as to why kids weren’t sleeping or why they were more aggressive and out of control. These questions led to more investigating. After almost 30 years of listening to kids, Judith’s conclusion was a: kids don’t need their parents to like each other or even be civil, but they do need them to stay together; and b: for parents to suck it up and stick it out.”  The tone here is neither sad or happy, its more of an informative section where I will describe the article and talk about what their conclusions were, while relating it back to my original topic. The song behind this scene will be “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac. I chose this song because although this section may not require a lot of feeling, this song does. This song is one of my personal favorites. I think that’s the case because it brings out the raw emotions that anyone can feel. It allows for a connection the the scene and the audience, when my words my not be able to do that.

This next scene will be a video clip I found from youtube.com. In the video a group of 5 women, Paula Bisacre, Carolyn Meyer-Wartels, Lesli Doares, Morrisa Drobnick, and Melanie Gorman, have all been deemed experts. In this video they talk about divorce, co-parenting, and staying together for the kids. I will only be using the first minute of the video. The tone here will be set by the video itself, and feel more conflict centered because some of the women agree and some disagree.  I will be using this video to help the audience realize that this question isn’t only in the minds of parents who have divorced, or kids whose parents have divorced, but also in the minds married couple and psychologists alike.

After that, I will move into another interview I did. This interview will be with Emily Haynes. She is a freshman I met here at UK, and her parents were divorced at age 3. I asked her thoughts on having her parents divorced and how she thought that affected her. She said “having my parents divorced affected my childhood at first. I always wanted my mom and dad to be together like every one else's. And then I went through the stage where it was cool that I had more than 1 Christmas, or more than 1 birthday party. But later I understood that not everyone can love each other. It's better to be happy and separated than to be miserable and together. I think my parents still loved each other, but mainly because they had my brother and I. I don't think divorce is a bad thing, I think that it could be good. When it goes bad it's because the parents might not recognize that their children are hurting just as

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much as them from it. And the children are the ones who really come first. Overall, because of what I went through as a child, I don't want divorce, but I understand. If you can't fix it, it probably wasn't together in the first place.” This will also be a voice over, however I will include music in the background. The song choice is still unclear. The tone for this scene will be sad to start out with because of what Emily says, but is intended to move to a lighter feel, because of what is said at the end.  During Emily’s scene I will be playing the song, “Burning House” by Cam. I chose this song because its about one mistake and trying to make up for it. I think about how her parents avoided this mistake, and for there was still some sadness for a while. I think about how it makes me feel like someone should be helping them, but that maybe they helped themselves.

 My next scene I will bring in another secondary source. This source however will include a little more detail about how divorce effects the kids. Im doing this to hopefully display the impact divorce can have. I will be using the graph found on the website where the information came from. This graph is a visual representation of how kids feel their lives were effected, or how the can change. It

will be able to provide a more direct way of seeing how they think divorce effects them, but they get to pick which category they agree with, or relate too.In my voice over I will simply be relaying this data, and comparing it back to my topic. This will be supporting evidence to my thesis. The tone will again be informative, but hopefully with a little more impact on the audience in terms of importance.

The scene that follows will be another voice over. This scene uses an experiment that was done and published in the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage to portray in a more relatable way how divorce affects kids. This scene will be similar the to the previous in that its about about how kids say their parents divorce effected them. This time however, I will be explaining where the data came from a little bit more and will be able to give the audience more information for them to make their own opinions about my topic. My voice over will say “This secondary source is of an experiment done using 365 kids, from middle school and high school, from together and broken homes. In this study each person selected if they felt that the phrase on the paper related to them, and by how much. This source is used to help us relate more because we all just came from high school.” The tone of this scene will antagonize the audience to thing more about they would do if they were about to get divorce, or about how they would be if their parents were divorcing.

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The next scene includes the final interview I did. This interview was with my sister, Meredith. There will be music behind this scene, whether different than before or something new is unclear. It will be a voice over and I will be saying “I asked how our parents divorce effects her? She goes on to reply “In the beginning, it was rough. It caused separation and distance between me and both my parents. It resulted in internalization of all my feeling, happy or sad, and it drove a wedge between my you(me)and I. Oddly enough, us having gone through it at the same time and same place, it for some reason, whether that was me and my more internal approach, or you and your very external approach, caused a lot of anger and hostility towards one another.” I will being using this to encourage the audience to think about what her life would have been like had my parents stayed together. That may include less anger and hostility, or more openness and feelings of acceptance. The tone for this scene should portray conflict and frustration. The music I will put behind will be a song that describes the pain felt at the time, but the also the eventual freedom and growth felt. That song will be “Gravity” by Sara Bareillis.

The next scene will be a secondary source that I have already found. This source is a book titled, Children Of Divorce : Stories Of Loss And Growth. The book uses the thoughts and ideas of multiple scholars to help remove the negative connotation the follows the word divorce. This source will be used to the give the audience a more positive sense. This will hopefully allow them to see the true struggle over divorce. I will be doing a voice over describing the book and contrasting all the negative thoughts to the positive outcomes. I will say “This secondary source brings a change of pace. This source allows people to the happiness that come from a divorce, regardless that initial pain. The source is a collection of thoughts of scholarly people on the topic of divorce. This source is used to help show that kids will actually have a higher self-esteem if they are able to properly deal with the divorce, and they may be more compassionate to other people.” The tone will be a happier one and possible one that gives relief. There will be music in the background and I was thinking about a song that gives a more positive feeling. The song I would like to use is “Lean on me” by Bill Withers. I am choosing this song because I think it relates times of struggle to an outcome of togetherness and love.

The last scene will be a picture I have made that contains a picture of me with my dad, and a picture of me with my mom. There will be writing across the screen that says, asks the question “should they stay or should they go?” In ending the documentary with this, I am hoping to provoke the audience to decide for themselves. There isn’t really a right or wrong answer. I think this kind of thing is always situational, and it always depends on how the people involved choose to act in those moments. That question will be followed by the ending credits. The credits will include my works citied, as well as the people that were interviewed. The tone of this last scene will be of happiness and I want it to feel almost like a movie just ended. So I will be playing the song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash. I chose this song because it gives a feel of resolution and completion. It is also more up beat and happy, which is how I want things to end.

Works Citied:

Bareilles, Sara. Gravity. Epic Records, 2009. CD.

Cam. Burning House. Arista Nashville, 2015. CD.

Cyrus, Billy Ray. Ready, Set, Don’t Go. Walt Disney, 2007. CD.

Fleetwood Mac. Landslide. Reprise Records, 1975. CD.

Heartland. I Loved Her First. Lofton Creek, 2006. CD.

Hanna, Erica. “WCCO Promo- Should You Stay Together for the Kids?” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 7, May 2009. Web. 17, Nov. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9lrPTuBDsk

Harvey, John H., and Mark A. Fine. Children Of Divorce : Stories Of Loss And Growth. Mahwah, N.J.: Psychology Press, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 22 Oct. 2015. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzEwNzQxOF9fQU41?sid=8c669a97-ec7f-4372-b9a2-4e11509f2e57@sessionmgr4004&vid=4&format=EB&rid=7

Gatins, Deborah, C. Ryan Kinlaw, and Linda L. Dunlap. "Do The Kids Think They're Okay? Adolescents' Views On The Impact Of Marriage And Divorce." Journal Of Divorce & Remarriage 54.4 (2013): 313-328. PsycINFO. Web. 10 Oct. 2015. http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/10502556.2013.780496

Kirn, Walter, et al. "SHOULD YOU STAY TOGETHER FOR THE KIDS? (Cover Story)." Time 156.13 (2000): 74. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

Laumann-Billings, L. and Emery, R.E. “Distress among young adults from divorced families.”    Journal   of Family Psychology, 14, 671-687. (2000). Web. 30 Sept. 2015. http://emeryondivorce.com/how_divorce_affects_children.php

Potts, Hannah. “Photo 1: Me and My Dad.” 2015. Photograph.

Potts, Hannah. “Photo 2: Me and My Sister.” 2015. Photograph.

Potts, Hannah. “Photo 3: Emily Haynes.” 2015. Photograph.

The Clash. Should I Stay or Should I Go. Epic, 1982. CD.

YourTango. “Should You Stay Married For The Kids?” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 24 July, 2013. Web. 17, Nov. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOmzOs5sW30