Radicalized Affects

While doing these readings, I kept the topic of my final project in mind. The “affect” reading was incredibly relevant, as I’m focusing on how the treatment of black skin on film, in terms of the actual production in addition to character types, has an impact on how society views darker skin. While there are many negative consequences of practices that prioritize white skin, I felt that, in light of the recent release of Black Panther, it would be a good time to focus on the positive impact that films can have as well. Black Panther is an example of a film that celebrates black culture both in the aesthetic and content of the film. The impact, thus far, exemplifies the importance of having more films that are inclusive and reflect a more honest depiction of the population. Something mentioned in my video, as well as many articles about Black Panther, is the impact the film will have on children. The franchise opens up the door for children to experience more representation in the toy market in addition to media market. Growing up around a variety of characters that children can identify with can help prevent issues such as symbolic annihilation and “othering”, while enforcing confidence- which is a pretty important “affect.”

For this video, I tried to keep things simpler than my previous posts, in hopes that the impact would be greater. I utilized the video and audio from a CNN article that included interviews with different cast members from Black Panther about the impact they see the film having. The cast members touched on a lot of topics I had been thinking and reading about, and I felt it related nicely to the text. I thought breaking the video up by slowly including bits of the text would be a nice way to integrate the quote and make the viewer think about what was being shown.