This document discusses fear and the fear response. It explains that fear is induced by perceived danger and causes physiological changes that help organisms survive threats. The amygdala and stress hormones play an important role in the fear response. While fear has survival benefits, chronic stress from constant low-level fear can harm physical and mental health over time. Fears can be instinctual, learned from experiences, or taught. Real threats tend to cause action while imagined threats cause paralysis and worry.

1. Factual Research
Toni Ann

2. Existing Product Research
• Research existing products/topics for your production and
production methods.
• This could be quite broad to begin with, but should focus
down to relevant examples [in terms of styles, techniques
and content].
• Consider your audience, what do they expect, what
techniques and content will interest them.
• Summarise your findings before generating your own initial
ideas for this project.
• Your summary should consider what your research has
provided and how this is useful to you and your production.
• Add more slides – this is encouraged!

3. Existing Product
This video shows how our “goals in
life” change as we get older.
Structuring the video in age order from
5-75 the audience can clearly see how
people mature with what they answer.
The video shows what stereotypical
things young children want such as
money and fame, into what
adolescents want, verifying from
happiness and a well paying job. Towards the end of the video where 60-75 year olds answer
they want to their goals to be meaningful and have a purpose. I think doing this shows that the
older you get the more you realize how you should be spending your time doing something
meaningful. I think the creator of the video portrayed this specific idea in a very good and
presentable way, making you think about how powerful time is.
With how the video is presented e.g. the background and how people are present themselves. I
think the director of the video didn’t put much thought in the background of the main shot
because the main subject will be the focus on the video so there would be no reason to beautify
the background. As for the people in the video, it looks as if no typical video shoot hair and
makeup took place. This could be because the director of the video didn’t want to change the
outer look of each person to better them. The editor of the video hasn't edited the video to look
particularly appealing or to stand out. They have added small text annotations such as titles and
sub-headings other than that, there are no detailed jump cuts or transitions.
70 People Ages 5-75 Answer: What’s Your Goal
In Life?

4. The overall look of the video is quite plain because the director of the video
believes that the message that viewers will get is enough presentation. I
think that this video is mostly target towards 15-25 year olds, because they
can relate to the younger age group wanting fame and money, but as they
watch the video and the people get older they can realize that being happy,
having a well paid job and having people that loves you is also important.

5. Existing Product Don't Put People in Boxes
This video is a similar style to the one I
looked at before. In this video the
directors idea was to show that everyone
is the same regardless of ethnicity, race,
gender and sexuality. From the outcome
of this video I think that the people in this
video had a better outlook on how the
judge people. At the start of the video
people are split into different categories
such as being wealthy and those who are
just getting by.
From first look at this video I notice how
the black background gives tension to the
video and also leaves the person
watching wondering what’s going to
happen or who's going to be sorted into
what category. The video shows
important categories such as those who
beat cancer.
While all the different categories are being called out, the music that has been picked to be
paired with it gets louder as the video goes on. The type of music that has been picked is quite
emotional, making the whole video a lot more emotional to watch.

6. • From looking at the video I think that it is catered towards teens to early
adults. I think this because the over all idea of the video is to show that we
shouldn’t judge people before we know their story. Bullying is a big part of
the video because we can se how big the group of bullying victims there
are compared to how many actual bullies.

7. Existing Product Do These People Have More In Common Than
You Think?
This videos context focuses on how
people who look completely unalike can
have something in common. I think that
the writers idea for people to take away
from this video is that we can have a lot
in common with people and that we
should get know the person and not
judge them how they look.
Throughout the video people ask each other questions about their lives, the end goal is to try
piece the person together just from what they answer. Doing this shows that we can easily
stereotype people to certain things.
Similarly to the other videos I looked at you can tell the production value of the video is high
based on the quality where as regarding the colors of the background its quite plain and
boring. This could be to help stand out the people featured in the video or that the people
knew that it didn’t matter how the video looked because they knew they would draw in
viewers now all based on the subject of the video.
With who this video is catered to I think it is mostly adults. This is because the only people
featured in the video were adults.

8. Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger — if we didn't feel it, we couldn't
protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are far from life-or-
death, and thus hang back for no good reason. Traumas or bad experiences can trigger a fear
response within us that is hard to quell. Yet exposing ourselves to our personal demons is the
best way to move past them. Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs
in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and
ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic
events.
Stress Hormones and the Fear Response in Survival. Part of team brain response to survival is an
outpouring of stress hormones like norepinephrine and cortisol that flood the body during
stress. Like the amygdala, they also help us survive.
Fear is hardwired in your brain, and for good reason: Neuroscientists have identified distinct
networks that run from the depths of the limbic system all the way to the prefrontal cortex and
back. When these networks are electrically or chemically stimulated, they produce fear, even in
the absence of a fearful stimulus. Feeling fear is neither abnormal nor a sign of weakness: The
capacity to be afraid is part of normal brain function. In fact, a lack of fear may be a sign of
serious brain damage.
Fear research
Fear is an inherently unpleasant experience that can range from mild to paralyzing—from
anticipating the results of a medical checkup, to hearing news of a deadly terrorist attack.
Horrifying events can leave a permanent mark on your brain circuitry, which may require
professional help. However, chronic stress, the low-intensity variety of fear expressed as free-
floating anxiety, constant worry, and daily insecurity, can quietly but seriously harm your
physical and mental health over time.

9. Through a process called potentiation, your fear response is amplified if you are already in a
state of fear. When you are primed for fear, even harmless events seem scary. If you are
watching a documentary about venomous spiders, a tickle on your neck (caused by, say, a loose
thread in your sweater) will startle you and make you jump out of your seat in terror. If you are
afraid of flying, even the slightest turbulence will push your blood pressure through the roof of
the plane. And the more worried you are about your job security, the more you will sweat it
when your boss calls you in for even an uneventful meeting.
Actions motivated by fear fall into four types—freeze, fight, flight, or fright. Freeze means you
stop what you are doing and focus on the fearful stimulus to decide what to do next (e.g., you
read a memo that your company will be laying off people). Next, you choose either fight or
flight. You decide whether to deal with the threat directly (tell your boss why you shouldn’t be
laid off) or work around it (start looking for another job). When the fear is overwhelming, you
experience fright: You neither fight nor flee; in fact, you do nothing—well, you obsess about the
layoffs, ruminate, complain, but you take no action. Being continuously in fright mode can lead
to hopelessness and depression.
We react differently to real and imagined threats. Imagined threats cause paralysis. Being scared
about all the bad things that may or may not happen in the future makes you worry a lot but
take little action. You are stuck in a state of fear, overwhelmed but not knowing what to do. Real
threats, on the other hand, cause frenzy. When the threat is imminent and identifiable, you jump
to action immediately and without flinching. This is why people are much more likely to change
their eating habits after a serious health scare (e.g., a heart attack) than after just reading
statistics about the deleterious effect of a diet based on fried foods. If you want to mobilize your
troops, you have to put yourself in danger.
most common fears are Cynophobia. The fear or dogs, often resulting from a bad childhood
experience, Agoraphobia. The fear of situations that are difficult to escape from, Acrophobia.
The fear of heights, Ophidiophobia. The fear of snakes, Arachnophobia. The fear of spiders

10. Fear is part instinct, part learned, part taught. Some fears are instinctive: Pain, for example,
causes fear instinctively because of its implications for survival. Other fears are learned: We
learn to be afraid of certain people, places, or situations because of negative associations and
past experiences
Fear is an inherently unpleasant experience that can range from mild to paralyzing—from
anticipating the results of a medical checkup, to hearing news of a deadly terrorist attack.
Horrifying events can leave a permanent mark on your brain circuitry, which may require
professional help. However, chronic stress, the low-intensity variety of fear expressed as free-
floating anxiety, constant worry, and daily insecurity, can quietly but seriously harm your
physical and mental health over time.
Fear is also part imagined, and so it can arise in the absence of something scary. In fact, because
our brains are so efficient, we begin to fear a range of stimuli that are not scary (conditioned
fear) or not even present (anticipatory anxiety). We get scared because of what we imagine
could happen. Some neuroscientists claim that humans are the most fearful creatures on the
planet because of our ability to learn, think, and create fear in our minds. But this low-grade,
objectless fear can turn into chronic anxiety about nothing specific, and become debilitating.
Through a process called potentiation, your fear response is amplified if you are already in a
state of fear. When you are primed for fear, even harmless events seem scary. If you are
watching a documentary about venomous spiders, a tickle on your neck (caused by, say, a loose
thread in your sweater) will startle you and make you jump out of your seat in terror. If you are
afraid of flying, even the slightest turbulence will push your blood pressure through the roof of
the plane. And the more worried you are about your job security, the more you will sweat it
when your boss calls you in for even an uneventful meeting.
A near-drowning incident, for example, may cause fear each time you get close to a body of
water. Other fears are taught: Cultural norms often dictate whether something should be feared

11. or not. Think, for example, about how certain social groups are feared and persecuted because
of a societally-created impression that they are dangerous.
Fear is also part imagined, and so it can arise in the absence of something scary. In fact, because
our brains are so efficient, we begin to fear a range of stimuli that are not scary (conditioned
fear) or not even present (anticipatory anxiety). We get scared because of what we imagine
could happen. Some neuroscientists claim that humans are the most fearful creatures on the
planet because of our ability to learn, think, and create fear in our minds. But this low-grade,
objectless fear can turn into chronic anxiety about nothing specific, and become debilitating.
Actions motivated by fear fall into four types—freeze, fight, flight, or fright. Freeze means you
stop what you are doing and focus on the fearful stimulus to decide what to do next (e.g., you
read a memo that your company will be laying off people). Next, you choose either fight or
flight. You decide whether to deal with the threat directly (tell your boss why you shouldn’t be
laid off) or work around it (start looking for another job). When the fear is overwhelming, you
experience fright: You neither fight nor flee; in fact, you do nothing—well, you obsess about the
layoffs, ruminate, complain, but you take no action. Being continuously in fright mode can lead
to hopelessness and depression.
We react differently to real and imagined threats. Imagined threats cause paralysis. Being scared
about all the bad things that may or may not happen in the future makes you worry a lot but
take little action. You are stuck in a state of fear, overwhelmed but not knowing what to do. Real
threats, on the other hand, cause frenzy. When the threat is imminent and identifiable, you
jump to action immediately and without flinching. This is why people are much more likely to
change their eating habits after a serious health scare (e.g., a heart attack) than after just
reading statistics about the deleterious effect of a diet based on fried foods. If you want to
mobilize your troops, you have to put yourself in danger.

12. Fear stats

14. Research summary
• I looked at documentary-interview type videos. I decided to look at
these types of videos because that is the type of videos I would like
to make. The topic of each video I looked at were completely
different but the points I made were quite similar. For instance the
background of the videos. The backgrounds in the videos were
quite plain I think the creator of the video did this because they
didn’t want to draw attention away from the main focus of the
video, and/or they knew they didn’t have to beautify the
background/set because they'd bring in views no matter what
because the topics that some of these videos touch on not many
people want to talk about.
• I looked at what what causes fear, as well as the most popular
fears.
• I also found that what we fear dramatically changes as we get
older. It could change from worrying about getting a job to
worrying about having to give up that job.

15. Initial Ideas

16. Idea 1
• 5-10 min video of people ranging from young
to old describing their worst fears. The
expected outcome of the video is to show
how our fears change as we get older, e.g. 5-
monsters under the bed, 10- school and
friends, 15- fitting in and looking
stereotypically presentable 20- student debt
and other bills, 30- losing a stable job, 40-
getting old, 50- regret. Have them discuss why
this is their biggest fear.

17. Idea 2
• Same video layout as idea 1, instead discuss
what they want to be when they grow up.
(over age of 20) ask if they had become what
they wanted to be, and if not what stopped
them.

18. Idea 3
• Same video layout as idea 1, discuss what
people fear the most about the world. Why do
they fear this and what could they do as an
individual to get over this fear and/or resolve
the issue.