Question Bridge is an innovative transmedia project that facilitates a dialogue between a critical mass of black men from diverse and contending backgrounds and creates a platform for them to represent and redefine black male identity in America. The project is a platform for Black men of all ages and backgrounds to ask and respond to questions about life in America. We created it to stimulate connections and understanding among Black men, but we also wanted to show the diversity of thought, character and identity in the Black male population so rarely seen in American media. In essence, we want to represent and redefine Black male identity in America.
Their intention is to break down the negative perceptions people have about Black males. American media rarely shows whole, complex and authentic images of black men, so by creating a space where these images can live, we hope that people will start to see things differently
"It’s a method used by those who want to create honest expression and healing dialogue among members of a particular group. It works like this: first, one person asks a question looking into camera, as if they are talking directly to another person. Later, another person responds by talking directly into a camera. This question-answer exchange, the Question Bridge, reduces the stress of normal face-to-face conversations and makes people feel more comfortable with expressing their deeply held feelings on topics that divide, unite and puzzle. This was the central approach used in the project. It provides the consumer with the opportunity to navigate through many questions asked by subjects as well as watching the answers from many and even answer the question themselves.
"After the overwhelming success of the art installation, we wanted to expand the conversation and make it easier for Black males to participate across the country. So we created the site and app. And since questions and answers are added constantly, this creates a living archive of Black male voices that can be searched by location and timeframe – essentially generating a map of Black male identity. We want that map to be heavily populated in the next few years, so from September 2014 to summer 2016, the website and mobile app will be our main focus as we push for our participation goal of 200,000 Black males. We think that this will help us gain visibility as a place to find authentic Black male voices."
This section of the documentary is very interesting in terms of the layout of the videos. There are 5 different videos placed in a line and one of the subjects ask a question. Meanwhile the other 4 subjects are looking in his direction to make it seem as if they're there with him and listening. After the man asks the question, they all respond simultaneously and this looks very natural and flows very well. It makes it seem like they are all together side by side in a single space. Also the slight rotation in the end videos provide a sense of depth and perspective to the screen and almost drag the viewer in.
We could use several aspects of Question Bridge for inspiration for our project, specifically the layout of the 5 screens as this works very well in engaging the audience. Also the way in which the subjects answer each others questions and even flow from each others statements could work very effectively in our project when intending to show the similarities and parallels between religions. For example, several subjects could be placed and edited together, speaking coherently after each other to form a single statements, implying a similar belief or view for several religions. The interaction and responses between characters is also a very effective method and we could look into including this in our piece.
this technique could be used in ours to show the similarities and parallels
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