The Future of America

I was inspired to create this video because after watching American Creed I thought there was a lack of representation of the voices of teenagers. While there were voices of students from Stanford University, all of them were what I would personally consider “adults”. Additionally, all of them were students at Stanford -- what this meant to me was all the students were highly driven, intelligent, and high achieving students. They represented just a small percentage of teenagers in America. I thought in that respect, the film lacked diversity. Also, while everyone in the film was worried about the future of America, they did not ask the future (Us! Teenagers today!) about their dreams, how they plan to achieve those dreams or how they feel the American dream is a part of them. My goal for the video was to highlight what I felt the PBS documentary was lacking.

In order to create this video, I tried to interview students of all walks of life. I interviewed several students from Okemos High School then went to Holt High School and interviewed several students at Holt High School in order to get a more diverse group of students. I then asked each student three questions: What is your dream? How do you plan to achieve your dream? Do you believe your dream aligns with the American dream?

I wanted my video to be biased, not something anyone and everyone might see and agree with. I wanted to do this because I believe that when you try and please everyone, you please no one. From all of my interviews I took what I thought were the best responses that represented what I wanted to create in my head. Then, I found videos from our current and former president talking about the American dream. Each President with strong and different views on the American dream and whether the dream was achievable. .

In order to set the mood of the video I included a short aerial view of some of America’s most beautiful scenes. All of the external videos I used, I cited, and used under the Fair Use Doctrine.

When watching my video, it should be watched almost like an advertisement. An ad for this generation. My video shows the diversity in dreams and culture in the United States in teenagers today. I strongly believe my video met all of my goals, it is different than what I originally set out to create, but I believe it is better. My video is honest and different, plays into political beliefs but not too strongly, it is short but not too short, it is inspiring.

Works Cited

Akchuk. “Donald Trump: ‘The American Dream Is Dead’ (2015).” YouTube, YouTube, 29 June 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5pYa5cxLEo.

MiND ONE. “President Barack Obama on the American Dream”. Youtube, 14 Nov.

2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkcRmvfPhx8&feature=youtu.be

Renodigitalservice. “Sweet Home Alabama Karaoke No Vocal.” YouTube, YouTube, 20 Nov. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1pjvag_ois.

SkyworksHD. “America from the Air - Aerial HD Footage of the USA.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Oct. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxktUBFzcsQ.

So, An. “The American Dream and the Meaning to the American Society.” Prezi.com, Prezi, 17 Dec. 2015,

prezi.com/h2suqtbefc6u/the-american-dream-and-the-meaning-to-the-american-society/.