Performance location set up

In order to have the lighting and other technical elements that we desire for our production we have spoken to Harry Stocking and our narrative actor Jay Khatri, as they are both part of the school lighting team. The good news is that they have both agreed to be on hand at our performance shoot to take control of the lighting for us so that we can concentrate on getting apt and correct shots. This set up is almost perfect as both Jay and Harry are familiar with the lighting controls in the location we are filming, due to them having organised gigs in their previously. In fact the gig which we filmed as part of our location recce was one of those, and because the lighting routine seen in that is already saved, and matches well with our track (our track and the music at the gig were of the same and similar genres) we have agreed with them to use this for our own performance.

We will be shooting our performance footage (fingers crossed!) on Thursday, December 15.

Shoot Cancelled

Due to an unforseen circumstance we were unable to film today. Acting quickly though, we have been able to arrange Tuesday, 13 December for another shoot. Everyone who we require is available so here's hoping we'll have more luck then!

Storyboard

Weather Check

To make sure we are not caught out, myself and Frank have both viewed the Met Office weather information for our outdoor shoot date - Wedensday, 7 December.

As you will see if you look at the screen shot the weather looks good enough for us to film without too many problems. Frank is of the same view and so we are all ready to go.

Change of Actor

Unfortunately our first choice actor, Martin, is no longer available for filming at any time, and so we have contacted our reserve actor Jay, who thank the lord is available!

This should not affect anything. As we are shooting a music video there are no pre-prepared scripts or the like so we simply need to ask him to wear the correct clothing, give him a bit of direction and we shall be away.

Representation of domestic violence in the media

As we are dealing with such a sensitive issue, we feel the need to research a little into the representation of domestic violence within the media. From a quick Google search looking for ‘domestic violence statistics UK’ we have encountered a website which appears frequently with different pages of information called www.womensaid.org.uk. The site is dedicated wholly to female victims of domestic violence. The ‘About Domestic Violence’ page is particularly handy and gives us a wealth of information for us to explore, before making decisions on various aspects of our production such as clothing, character type and so forth, from the results of our findings. The screen shots to the right show this information.

The key points we are taking from this information are that: -

1 - The reasons why a women might not leave a relationship where they are being
abused, including that ‘she may feel ashamed’, ‘she may feel too exhausted’ and ‘she
may be isolated from family or friends’, are indicative of the expressions and body
language that should be displayed by the female in our production. This information
also helps us to determine what we should and shouldn’t include as part of our mise-en
-scène. For instancethe last point from above suggests that there should be no family or
friends of the female character in our production, as this would therefore provide a
more realistic representation of the female and her ‘isolation’. This can be reinforced
by returning to the video for Eminem, Love The Way You Lie, which in its own
representation of domestic violence does not at any point feature on screen friends or
family of the victim.

2 - ‘Abusers choose to behave violently to get what they want and gain control. Their
behaviour may originate from a sense of entitlement which is often supported by
sexist, racist, homophobic and other discriminatory attitudes.’ This information
basically indicates how the male should appear in our production as opposed to the
female. Obviously we really need to ensure we get across to the audience the male’s
need to for dominance in the relationship. We shall have to consider how we can do
this, perhaps by use of props or by varying shots. We could also take from this that the
male could be of a different, say ethnicity, which would perhaps enforce or maximise
that this is a narrative concerning domestic violence.

3 - 'Abusers come from all walks of life. They can come from any ethnic group, religion,
class or neighbourhood. They may be older or younger. However, whilst they may also
be any gender, the majority of perpetrators are men.’ This point really backs up and
makes viable the comment that I just made about how the man could be different to
the women in some way if we decided that that was what we wanted to do.

A final piece of research that was not taken from the Woman’s Aid website is an interesting quote from a report/study into the representation of domestic violence in the media (http://newsblaze.com/story/20090318125318garr.nb/topstory.html) by Garrett Godwin, who writes that in the gospel play ‘Love Lifted Me’ that one of the female characters exclaims “if a man hits a woman, then the woman can either leave or hit him back.” This gives us almost a choice of two endings to our narrative.

Questionnaire Results

List or requirements for filming

• 2 cars (for lighting)
• 2 cameras (to film the same piece of action from different angles/distances)
• 2 tripods
• 1 dolly (for the tracking shots)
• 2 SD cards
• 1 storyboard
• Narrative actor – to provide own clothing based on what we tell him.
• Narrative actress – to provide own clothing based on what we tell her.
• Performance actress – to provide own clothing based on what we tell her.
• 1 half of a smashed bottle – as the weapon for the female to ‘hit back’ at the male.