Exercise 1: Beginning Your Process
Do you remember your first important movie
experience?
How did it affect you?
Do you believe that it might have had an
impact on how you see yourself and the world
today?Every developmental stage seemed to draw me to a differ-
ent genre of film. As I entered my teenage years, I lost interest
in adventure movies and became fascinated with romantic
movies.
This was a time of insecurity and doubt about my self-
image as a developing young woman. What was a romantic
relationship like? Would I meet someone who loved me? What
was it like to get close? I was a normal teenager and like most
of my peers, most of my daily thoughts focused on these ques-
tions. Various novels and magazines helped me glimpse this
frightening and unknown world, but nothing gave me as com-
plete a window into this aspect of life as certain films I saw.
Looking back now I can see that many unrealistic depic-
tions of romance — including the many “Hollywood endings”
depicted in movies — may have been a cause for some unfor-
tunately distorted expectations later. At the time, however, I
was hungry for any modeling that romantic films were able to
provide.
When I was sixteen years old I was at the height of my
worries and fears about dating. I felt terribly awkward around
boys and could not imagine how these feelings might ever
change — until I saw Love Story (1970).Though the ending
was heart wrenching, my thoughts tended to focus on the
beginning of the film. I was amazed to see the same insecure
and nervous behavior in the main characters (Jennifer and
Oliver) on screen that I imagined I displayed with boys. When
they first met, nothing seemed to go smoothly. Their insecurity10 E-Motion Picture Magic