The Importance of Biases...

I still have a long ways to go in the interviewing process for my project on film viewing criteria; however, I have noticed a few interesting trends. I have made a point to interview my close friends that are students but also other classmates that I am not very close with. The reason I have chosen to do this is because of my biases. My roommate made a great point the other day by saying that I tend to influence those around me with my biases about film. He explained that my friends, himself included, tend to highly regard what I say about film as important because I have a lot of background in the subject matter. I did not really understand how this would be relevant at first; however, after interviewing some of my close friends, I have realized that many of them now share some of the same ideas about film as myself, most likely due to my biases. In order to properly complete this project I need to interview a wide range of students and professors in the field of film and those who are not. Although it is convenient and good to interview close friends, I need to branch out and be careful because I may have already biased their opinions. To help avoid biases, I have created a list of interview questions which mesh together a nice medium of questions I feel important and those that other viewers, unlike myself, might find helpful. Any biases I have are prior to starting this project.

I had the opportunity to interview a few film students this week, one of which I am not close with as a friend, merely just another classmate of mine. While interviewing her, I made sure that I did not ask any questions that were biased toward my opinions. Out of all the film students I have interviewed so far, this was the most interesting and different opinionated interview I have held. I noticed that her main area of focus when deciding to watch a film is safety. She loves watching the same movies over and over again because they are her favorites. She does not tend to branch out and watch new movies or even movies other classmates and professors suggest, which is very rare for a film student. She does not watch many movies at all and when she does decide to watch a new film, reviews are not relevant to her. Advertising does play a role in her decision making process, along with her peers suggestions. Every once in a while she will see a movie that is coming out that she is dying to see; however, for the most part she just likes watching her favorite films. She feels that in order to become a great filmmaker she needs to be creative and come up with her own spin on how to make a film. Watching a lot of movies would influence her opinion when actually making a film. All and all, the directors, producers, cinematographers, etc. do not influence her film viewing. Every so often, she will watch a film because of an actor starring in the film, but mostly any new movies she will watch are based on the genre of the film. She does not like watching movies in general, but when she does, branching out is not important to her.