Lauren Greenfield did not expect one Emmy nomination For outstanding documentary or nonfiction series for its five-part FX documentary series “Social Studies,” What documents in disturbing detail over a year the intimate relationship between upper secondary schools and their mobile phones. Greenfield is happy to get more attention for the series, because she is on assignment. Known for their film portraits of the exclusive society in “The Queen of Versailles,” “Generational wealth” and “Kingmaker,” This time Greenfield throws its eye on a wide notch of teenagers in Los Angeles.
“At a time when people are paying more attention to celebrity,” she told me at Zoom, “It’s pretty hard to get a serious show like this one in the world to find their audience.” Concern with social media’s impact on teenagers is universal, Greenfield learned on its global promo tour. “This topic has touched a nerve worldwide, because it’s not something that just kids in la or in the us are dealing with. I was happy that fx and the Disney platform were supportive of me doing a serious and no-holds ketsbarred. It’s Important for Parents to See So They Understand, and Also For Young People to See, So They Feel See and See Other People Dealing with Similar Issues. ”
In this non-fiction series on social media, the children are the experts. There are no talking heads, no academics, no people from Tech, only Greenfield’s crew after the students. At a recently LA FYC panel for the film, Greenfield brought some of its young subjects up to the stage, which has moved on to College. Participating in the show changed their lives because they understood how their peers handled similar social media problems, including not communicating with their parents. “It has been fantastic to see how authorized they have gone through the experience,” Greenfield said, “because they showed everything in such a vulnerable way.”
The filmmaker not only wanted to see the children interact with social media, but be in social media and see the content. This meant to convince her subjects to abandon their reservations about opening their phones. The film shows its lyrics in an uneducated way. “They let us into their phones,” Greenfield said. “It was an important element of the series, technical, accessible and creative regarding the message regarding social media. Yes, the media is the message, as Marshall McLuhan said, and you must actually see it.”
Thus, Greenfield changed how we see texts on the screen. “Many times in a show they will cut to a black screen with words or a social media thing on it,” she said. “I wanted it to be layered at the top of the live document. So you take in both social media and real life at the same time, both because of the distraction of it and the multitasking reality that we all live through. We see children in school played at the same time as listens. And we used a scanning technique so we would have to read. On top of the living act that, craftsmanship, was a pretty challenge. ”
This is because it required almost start-to-than animation for five hours. New Zealand’s animator Eric Jordan collected three animations Awards To create the animation in the series, which holds genuine to the original format, but also slows down enough so that viewers can process it. “In reality, how they browse, you could never take it in,” Greenfield said. “It does not read as an animation, but the layered way was important because it shows the contradictions. You can see the lies when Ellie sneaks out of her bedroom to see her boyfriend and also talk to her mother on the phone and say,” I come in for a second! “
Greenfield got a sigh that Ellie fled and got her crew to float in the driveway to catch her climbing out of her bedroom window and take a waiting Uber. “It’s like visual cubism, because you see these different perspectives,” Greenfield said. “Taking these multiple perspectives was important for the content.”
And on the positive side, several of the film’s participants have become a creator. “Many of these children are manufacturers themselves,” Greenfield said. “They work with movies, or have their own podcasts and or make music or entrepreneurs. So even if you see how (social media) oppress them, you also see how it is a way to creativity. The hope if the show comes from these children to find their voice, and this idea that it is an antidote to talk.
After 150 days of photography, the editing process took two years to search all pictures plus 2000 hours of social media content. “When I shoot, I try to catch as much as possible,” Greenfield said. “I am obsessed with keeping everything in my archive and we have a small computer factory in our office. For this project I did not want it as a consequence document, like other documentaries I had done. I wanted it to be a social experiment.”
Making decisions in the editing room is an important part of the process. “Sometimes you don’t even know about things that will be important or become part of the story,” Greenfield said. “In the editing, where the hard, ethical choices are made, over time and with the advantage of seeing where people’s stories go and how they end up.”
A topic, Sydney Shear, in section 1, shows provocative “thirst traps.” “She shows sexy videos by herself,” Greenfield said. “And in section 3 we see her get full at a fratic party. She is on the floor. I could use all this brutal reality, partly because Sydney comes out of it in the end and learns to use her voice and talks about her journey, what she has gone through. She is embarrassed about it, but this is what she learned.”
A ready to newly trained from NYU Film School, Shear, conducts a film career. “Lauren came to my movie class,” she said at the panel. “I went through cyber bullying at that time, and Lauren gave me this outlet to find my voice and find myself, and I have definitely entered myself throughout the movie.”
Shear had to prepare their parents before watching the show. “Lauren’s story is honest,” she said. “We were all so vulnerable. Lauren caught authenticity in this digital age and showed both the good and the bad.”
Generation Z is hyper conscious of what it means to be filmed, what it means to be public. When Greenfield made her first movie “Thin” 2006, “People didn’t know what it was like to be in the public eye that way,” she said, “and now the children know so well. The challenge is given confidence and gain access, because they are so painfully aware that these things are out forever. But just because we shoot it does not mean that we will use it.”
Greenfield turned off its cameras during an overdose of drugs at the end of a massive party in section 1. “But then I interview Jack and Scarlet, who threw the party, and they tell me all the things that happened,” Greenfield said. “And then we could use it. And they show me the child who had the overdose, (he) published publicly from the hospital.”
The filmmaker uses her conscience and instincts when she calls these judgments, she said: “It is difficult choices, but you know when it can be made safe and with permission and with the agency. It is important not to cherry coat these issues and to show them how they are. Bureau from the children expressed in both theirs InterviewsIn time with me, and even in these group sessions, where I could control, “Do they understand, do you know what this is about?”
Each section is chronologically for one year, from the university’s application process to the degree, but is also thematic. Greenfield originally planned to deliver four sections, but gradually realized that she needed an extra. Fortunately, FX joined and Greenfield was able to raise money with the help of the late philanthropist Wallis Annenberg. “Sex Ed and the Way Kids Learn About Sex From Social Media Was Going To Be Important,” Greenfield Said, “And Also The Way There’s Violence In These Depictions. Also Stories Came Out About Violence thats owl ideal. Phenomenon for this generation, that the number have gone up. In our group of 20 or 25, there were maybe five kids who had experience with suicide issues, more than we included in the series. “
Greenfield and some of her subjects also met legislators in Sacramento. “It was super exciting for them to be able to have a voice in changing politics,” said Greenfield, who says the movement to remove phones from schools are two -party, with support ranging from governor Gavin Newsom to Governor Ron Desantis.
Parents respond to the series. “We heard a lot from parents:” I want to look at it, but I’m afraid. “” Said Greenfield. “What parents are starting to understand is, it’s better to know, and it also gives you a way to talk to your children. We have encouraged parents to look at it with your teenagers, or look at it separately and then discuss, because there is so much known to them that they want to talk about. Children ask for help and intervention from the adult world.”
Next up: Greenfield has a new “social media” -themed photography show that just opened by Fahey Klein Gallery And she prepares, with the help of some of her student subjects, a museum show that will open in Berlin next fall.
