What does Breakfree mean to you?
Break free means to me more than just leaving something behind. To me it is the act of getting rid of judgements and stereotypes placed on yourself and those that you put on others. This I think is very important that we all remember that we all place stereotypes on other people and for us to not have them placed on us we all need to see the stereotypes and judgements that we put on others.
What was the most challenging part of the work around Breakfree for you and how did you overcome it?
The most challenging part of this project was the post production. Because after we had finished all our interviews with our actors we then had to take a huge amount of footage and responses and conscience it down to a around a six minute video. This was especially challenging when we had to chose what responses to use because we had so many from each actor. I was also concerned about the video not being boring to watch so I had to try to have multiple cuts and shots to keep the viewer more interested. Our next big concern and problem was making sure our message to end gender stereotyping in the workplace was accurately portrayed in our video. Also we needed to make sure our break free moment evoked a strong response from the audience.
What have you learned and gained so far in our studies approaching Breakfree not only on a personal level but also academic understanding?
What I learned was how big of an issue my topic of gender roles in the workplace really was. I was even surprised when I uncovered the research and studies that we used ti film this video. I was expecting to get no response at all from our actors but I got one of genuine surprise and concern. This really showed me that this is still something that needs to be talked about more because many people don't know how severe the issue is. Or don't think it that bad and think it was all a thing of the past. Our game proves that it still lingers in our society and hopeful videos like ours
Where are you at with Breakfree now - what is your current thinking of it and what are your hopes for it?
I am at a good place, throughout this project I learned the true weight of the judgements we put on people without really even knowing them. I many times have been so quick to judge others and sort them that I didn't think anything of it. I do hope that in the coming years with more young people like myself who are more open minded than the adults of today that we will see a shift in thinking and hopefully the statistics will be at 50 50. As we grow older and slowly take over the work force we bring our innovative different minds hopefully we will start to resolve this issue.
Describe the venue and your reflections of our exhibition.
We had our final exhibition at Queen Bees in North Park. We set everything up in 2 rooms one was for our big bands to play for the audience and for spoken words to be presented. The other room in the back was for art and additional performances that wouldn't be going on the main stage. Instead of having specific stations we walked around naturally and guided people through the exhibition and showed thank our videos or art pieces. there were two big band performances on the main stage after a certain number of spoken word poems. The two song my band played were "Stand by Me" and "Same Love."