Why is choosing a topic so difficult?

Despite thinking that I had settled on a topic that interested me (decoding color stories in art over time), I’m afraid I have changed my mind.

Over the weekend, during one of my notorious Netflix surfing adventures, I re-discovered that the categories tabs that list every film or series in a genre also display an image representative of each film in order to entice viewers and give them an at-a-glance idea of what (or who) the film is about.

It is a lot like checking out the box art of the film in a store. Designers layout text and use specific photographs to impart some sense of the story. For example, a box that shows a male and female in a cozy embrace might automatically signal to most people that the film will be a romance or love story. On the other hand, a box that shows a darkened house with only one light on inside might be a horror or a psychological thriller. And it is very unlikely that we’d choose either film when looking for a comedy.

The idea is that box art is chosen with the potential viewer in mind. And thus, the title images we are shown by Netflix are equally important as description when determining what kinds of films we choose to watch. But what if all of the people shown in the title images in a certain genre, like comedy, were all of opposite gender? Would we still want to watch comedies if we didn’t feel represented? What if all of the romance films showed white/caucasian actors in the images? Would black Americans still want to watch romances?

For my research, I plan to study title images within specific Netflix categories (Action, Comedy, Romance, etc.) in order to understand sex and race representation in film media so that we can appreciate the biases that may be present in Netflix’s categories and perhaps film selection and acquisition.

In order to accomplish this, I plan to create a Google form that I will use while visually analyzing each title image for all films within a specific category. This form, when completed will automatically add entries to a Google Sheets spreadsheet that can then be analysed for patterns and anomolies. The results of that analysis will be organized and used in a graphic presentation such as an infographic or slideshow. If I had any confidence in front of a camera, I would make a video.. but sadly I do not.

Finally, during my analysis, I intend to seek out additional completed research in the field to complement my findings, including established viewing patterns for varying sexes and races over different film genres in general, or specific Netflix categories/films if available.