Shifting the Lens Presents

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Shifting the Lens PresentsA Youth Production on
Teen Stress

• Crossroads Conference
• June 11, 2004
• Tyra Bacon
• Ameena Batada
• Anita Chandra
• Sha Ray King

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Acknowledgments
Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund Shapiro Family
Foundation Shifting the Lens participants
families Center for Adolescent Health, Johns
Hopkins School of Public Health
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Shifting the Lens
A Three-Phase Project
PHASE I (Jan-Sep 2002) Quantitative
qualitative study of teen stress and coping
PHASE II (Feb-June 2003) Facilitation of
youth-produced video to translate study findings
PHASE III (July-March 2004) Production of
process documentary and replication guide
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Phase II

• Project development
• Objectives
• Use a participatory method to frame an adolescent
  health issue
• Translate and disseminate research from the
  Shifting the Lens study to the community
• Build skills in the planning, development,
  production, and editing of a video among 8
  participating teens and
• Increase 100 community members (family members,
  teachers, therapists, researchers, etc.)
  understanding of local teens perceptions of
  stress and coping.
• Funding search
• Recruitment
• Video Production

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Video Production

• Conducted research on stress and coping
• Reviewed and discussed data from the study
• Learned film-making terms techniques
• Identified the audience and messages
• Wrote scripts and storyboarded
• Filmed on location
• Edited, pre-tested, and revised video
• Made presentations and led discussions
• Evaluated the community response to the video

Give Angie some color!
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Research on Stress and Coping

• Read books on teen stress
• Watched old videos on stress and compared them
  with new stress videos
• Looked at websites
• Called organizations that work with teens
• Observed other teens

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Data Review

• Read parts of the final report and analyzed data
  (graphs) from the Shifting the Lens study
• Played the Data Game (categorizing data from
  the study)
• Pulled out themes and quotes from the study to
  use in the video

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Learning Film-Making

• Film-making terminology
• How to work the camera
• Storyboarding
• Production roles

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Audience and Messages

• Selected parents as the audience from a list that
  included teens, teachers, community members, and
  counselors
• Developed four messages
• Teen stress is different now from when parents
  were teenagers
• How can parents identify stress in their own
  teens
• How can parents help teens cope with stress
• Its okay for teens to get outside help/for
  parents to help teens get outside help

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Scripts

• Broke into groups to work on scripts for each
  message
• Brainstormed about issue and techniques
• Wrote script pieces
• Presented script pieces and gave feedback
• Revised scripts and prepared for production

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Filming

• Picked locations and roles
• Learned parts
• Filmed over four days of spring break at five
  locations

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Editing, Pre-testing, and Revising

• Arranged video clips
• Added text, music, graphics, and color
• Shared the video with parents and critiqued it
• Went back and filmed and added more video clips,
  and more color and graphics (chart)

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Presentations Discussions

• Set up the agenda for the presentations
  (speakers, order, discussion questions)
• Presented to Johns Hopkins University, Community
  Health Action Project, South East Youth Academy,
  Kids on the Hill, Julie Community Center, Office
  of Employment Development, Parent-Teacher
  Association,and the Department of Juvenile
  Justice
• Led group discussion

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Evaluation

• Gave out and collected evaluation survey forms at
  presentations
• Entered and tallied data from survey forms
• 67 said they work with teens
• 83 of people said that the film had an impact on
  their lives

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Quotes from the Evaluation

• It was well thought out and straight forward.
• I liked the youthful production quality rather
  than polished adult looks.
• I liked the fact that it was created by teens,
  they are the ones that can best describe what
  they feel and why.
• Stress knows no special age groups to pick on.

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Shifting the LensVideo Production Team
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Participant Evaluation

• Teen team members developed knowledge, skills,
  and comfort using the video production equipment.
  

Reporting of Selected Video Production Skills
Before and After Project
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Participant Evaluation

• Being part of the Shifting the Lens Video
  Production Team has taught me how to write a
  script, edit it, record the script and also edit
  it. Before I started this program, I didn't know
  how to do any of this.
• I have also learned a lot of facts about stress,
  in which I can actually use to cope with my own
  teen stress as well as giving advice.

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Parents Comments

• In general, parents commented on the video
  production skills their children gained.
• Parents were impressed by the project and
  suggested that the video be more widely
  distributed, particularly in the community.
• My child has learned leadership skills, building
  relationships, and hands-on skills to show her
  how a project is started and completed.

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Issue I Getting Off-Task

• It felt like school
• Writers Block
• Sometimes too much talking and playing

• Hard to instill ownership
• Youth hesitated to take initiative
• Didnt know how much to lead the youth

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Issue II Adult vs Youth Perspectives

• Unaware of their concerns
• Give opinions not suggestions
• Good to leave final decisions up to teens

• Target audience (parents versus teens)
• Main messages
• Presentation of messages

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Issue III Presentations

• Presenting in front of peers was challenging
  because they are judgmental or not-focused
• Adults sometimes cant relate

• Adults do not respect teens as collaborators and
  contributors to our understanding of the issue
• Audience members sometimes didnt take the work
  seriously

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Challenge

• How do we balance the benefits of the
  participatory process with the potential costs of
  not fully addressing the issue in an effective
  manner?