In 2004, between April 19 and April 25, various elementary schools around the nation will be participating in National TV Turnoff Week.
During that time, students will be encouraged to not watch any television. Benefits cited include children not witnessing violence, not witnessing profanity and family unity is encouraged.
However, the inherent problem with this endeavor is that it links media with bad, in no uncertain terms.
“‘No TV Week’ equates media with violence, profanity and sexuality,” said assistant professor Dean Duncan. “Media is neutral. It can be evil, but there’s lots of good stuff.
“Most [graduating film students] just want to go join the film industry. There is big talk about changing the world, but chances of that are pretty slim. And as far as being able to share your convictions…that hasn’t been happening.”
Enter the Children’s Initiative, a program begun by the film department at BYU. The Initiative is a project meant to teach parents, teachers and children that media is not simply bad, and to give film students experience producing uplifting, edifying projects.
“We’ve got a couple of different goals,” said producer Tawnya Kazier. “One is that we wanted to go ahead and create classic stories that taught values so that families could sit down with their kids and talk about them. Two is that we wanted to produce high quality projects in the department. Three is the mentoring aspect … it [is] very much the students doing the projects, but with mentors they can get the kind of quality they want.”
The Initiative is currently producing a half-hour piece with four segments. Stories are adapted from material that is well known – mostly fairy tales or fables that teach important values.
” There is more that can be gained from simple stories than people realize,” said Kazier. “They’re kind of like parables, they have a lot of layers.”
This first project will include 2-D animation, puppetry, and live-action pieces. There are plans to broadcast by 2004, although nothing is set in stone.
“Our aim is to take classic literature and repurpose it in a fashion,” said Tom Lefler, Associate Chair of the Theatre and Media Arts department. “Our interest is to not point out what is good or bad, but to say, here is a classic piece of literature; now, how can we explore the ideas, the values, the morals.”
Along with the student-based project, the initiative is also working on a set of tools to teach parents and teachers how to use media to uplift children. A web site, radio programs and a documentary on home movies and their purposes are in discussion.
Said director Ryan Farrington,”[The initiative] is really all about uniting the family, and keeping children as mounted in the gospel as possible.”
