Shoot Day - Avert Your Eyes

Alice and I managed to stay pretty organized, so we allowed ourselves two days to shoot, but it turned out that we only needed one.

We used a Canon 305 to film, using a waterproof cover on the camera for when we shot the bath scenes. We also used some external lights to make sure the footage was well lit. We didn't record any audio as we planned to record a voice over using a Zoom mic afterwards.

For the first part of the day we focused on the sofa scene, with our actress in lingerie lounging around, posing in different positions with different crops of her body. Then after a lunch break we shot the bath scene.

To make the bath red we used two bath bombs from lush, which meant the water also smelt incredible!

We were very thankful to our actress for volunteering to work with us.

bath water with the two bath bombs

reviewing footage

shooting

shooting

waterproof cover for the camera

Alice shooting the bath

Planning for our shoot

Alice and I have decided we would like to shoot at 10am on the 31st of October. This is during study week, so if we need to re shoot we will have enough time without it being an issue. The actress has a lot of her own equipment that we will be able to borrow so that's all been confirmed.

We have planned two shots lists of what we want to shoot; first the shot list for the Sofa Scene:

and a separate shot list for the Bath Scene:

In order to make the bath red we went to Lush to buy some bath bombs that would color the water. Fortunately there were some assistants in the store that helped Alice and I select the right ones after we had described what we wanted. 

As we have briefed our actress and made sure everything is prepared I'm sure our shoot days will go smoothly.

Script for Maps and Networks Shoot

SCENE ONE RIGHT SCREEN INT
          mid shot

          We see the female lying on the sofa, it is apparent she is
          naked but not revealing much lying on her front, swinging
          her legs a bit.

                              FEMALE
                    I feel his hands running over my
                    clothes. Itching to get to my skin.
                    No never means anything anymore
                    does it?... I say I have a
                    boyfriend even though I don't, just
                    to make him back away. He comes in
                    closer tugging at my shirt. I try
                    and push him back and get away. But
                    men win. They always do. No female
                    has a voice anymore, no one hears
                    us scream and shout when we need
                    help. We're only heard when we take
                    our clothes off.

          Close up now of Female's face, we see her tuck hair behind
          her ear, we see smudged red lipstick around her lips and
          mascara stains. Her skin looks sore.

                              FEMALE
                    He tells me it's okay to be scared,
                    it makes it more exciting as I'm
                    trying to get out of his hands.
                    Nothing I do lets me get out of his
                    tight grip. He gets rough,
                    scratching my skin to take my
                    clothes off. Lying me down as I am
                    crying begging for him to stop. He
                    mounts me like some lifeless being
                    I feel. Pushing himself down on me
                    he forces in, me crying and
                    screaming as I do. I have given Up
                    now at this point and let the
                    feeling take over me. Staring at
                    the ceiling until it's over.

          Mid shot of Female's torso now as she is sat up on the sofa,
          still naked, but only seeing her stomach and underboob. She
          runs her hands over her skin as her voice plays over the
          top.

                              FEMALE
                    He finishes, pulling himself off
                    me, throwing my clothes at me like
                    some lifeless emotionless being. He
                    turns to me and says

                              MAN
                    We should do that again sometime.
                    That was really good

                              FEMALE
                    I try to crack a smile. Knowing
                    what he's done to me. He thinks I
                    would want this again? I have no
                    voice, I couldn't speak. I have
                    lost everything in this night. I
                    have no dignity. No one will
                    respect me. He will tell people I
                    was begging for it. People will
                    gossip. They always do. He's
                    destroyed me, all trust and faith I
                    had in men has gone. I am nothing
                    now thanks to him, I shall carry
                    this with me forever.

          We see Female getting distressed as she drags her hands
          around and across her body in a frantic manor

                              FEMALE
                    I pick my clothes up, shaking as I
                    do. I am tired, sore and scared. I
                    walk out. People staring from all
                    the noise I was making. No one
                    dared to help, nor see if what was
                    going on was okay. People are so
                    afraid of the power men have. They
                    have such power and control over
                    women they will never know. We are
                    weak to them and malleable, they
                    can use us, pick us up and drop us
                    in an instant. I guess that's just
                    the nature of them. Deaf to the
                    word no.

Pitch - Maps and Networks

For the Maps and Networks project, myself and Alice have decided to work together again, since our last collaboration went really well, with great feedback, we felt that working together again would be beneficial for our work and grades. Previously we have found that we have very similar ideas for style, themes and colour pallet as well as similar passions within our work. With this project, we found that we drew similar ideas from the title and decided it would be a great idea to collaborate again. 

After spending a few weeks exploring artists that had literal and theoretical themes surrounding maps and networks, myself and Alice selected artists we felt were relevant to what our idea represents. We called on our first year knowledge and sourced out Bill Viola as research as his Martyrs piece was a classic example of a well executed multi screen piece to do with the elements. Another source of knowledge was Jemima Stelhi, with Performing for the Camera. We liked the feminism elements from this piece and felt it was strong and relatable to our idea. We especially liked the themes of forcing men to be aware of what they want as she took her clothes off in front of them and made them uncomfortable and aware.

CONCEPT

The concept of our piece is a twin screen moving image piece. The piece has surrounding themes of feminism, female invisibility and female body positive culture. We feel a twin screen is best for our idea as we can display two feelings and themes at the same time so the audience is made aware of what we are trying to say. On one screen we shall have a woman in a red bath trying to call for help underwater. This is because we feel that often women don't have a voice in the work place, the creative industry and medically. Women are often told to appreciate cat calling as a compliment instead of the cat caller being called out, women have to carry that fear and those comments around. When we do try and speak up for ourselves we feel we are ignored and not taken seriously; Hence the woman underwater trying to call for help. The red colour of the bath water has many connotations to us. Such as, erotic and sexual connotations, femininity, periods and the anger of being suppressed. The erotic and sexual connotations of red roses, lipstick, Valentine's Day, lingerie, sex, danger and erotic kinks. The femininity elements of red are romance, roses, nail varnish, "a well kept woman" sexual desire and menstruation. Menstruation is a key theme with the connotations of red for women, being such a natural part of a woman's life yet turned against her as being unclean, disgusting, shameful and impure. Also the fact that tampons are seen as a luxury item and not taken seriously as an essential item in a woman's life just goes to show that women are oppressed. 

On the other screen we will have a women sat on a red sofa with the main shot being of her naked torso. It will be a mid shot of her on the sofa with her boobs out and her legs crossed so you can't see between her legs but you know she is naked. Within this shot you will be able to hear her talking about important topics, current affairs and women issues with her head out of shot. The reason for this shot is linked to Jemima Stehli's work of showing the audience exactly what they want, but making them uncomfortable about wanting it. This also links to the male gaze, as often films are filmed from the male perspective therefore automatically sexualise the female form. Every so often the shot will change to cut to her face, in which we can see stained red lipstick and mascara that has run down her face, showing that she is uncomfortable about being naked for the audience. However we will make sure that the actress is comfortable being naked on camera. The red of the sofa and her lipstick links with the red bath and the connotations of female oppression and sexuality. This then confirms to the audience that the two screens are linked. 

CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING

We want to create a film that relies on contextual understanding of women's problems and vague but suggestive shots for the audience to interpret by the audience. We have used video and photographical artists as our research but feel we are branching out and creating something original. 

Our concept is to demonstrate and display how women feel in the media and everyday lives, constantly being sexualised. We want to explore how voiceless women feel, how they are shamed for their bodies, yet also sexualised. We will be taking influence from the few weeks of being exposed and shown different artists and how that can affect our work and the meaning to it. Our aim for this twin screen is to educate people on how women feel and make the audience aware that we are human beings not just a sexual item there for your pleasure.

TECHNICAL AND CREATIVE SKILLS

For this production we will be filming on a Canon 700D. This is because we will need to get close intimate shots for our film and feel a 305 will be too big and in the way. Using a DSLR also gives us the options of changing lenses to a prime 50mm lens for a shallow depth of field. We will also need a tripod as we want to keep our shots as still and consistent as we can, therefore excluding any continuity errors. We will then take the rushes into premier pro and start to edit them as seperate screens. After we are happy with each screen we will then take them into After Effects and start to colour correct and add any effects we think will enhance the piece; After we have done that we will then combine the two screens. We are not expecting to add any effects other than colour correcting but ideas develop all the time so we may end up using some. We could potentially enhance the red on both screens as to draw the audience to our piece. 

SELF MANAGEMENT

As proven in previous project Alice and I been very good with self management, communication and schedules. Our pre production is always filled with time plans and schedules to make sure we are allowing enough time for filming and editing. As for communication, we speak very often and always update each other on what research we have done or blog posts so we are both up to speed with the project. With self management, we have always made projects that we are passionate about therefore self management is easy and enjoyable as we want to see this film blossom. Throughout the process we will constantly update our blogs on more research and how the process of the film is coming along to ensure we have solid documentation of the film and its process from start to finish.  

Inspiration - Kine Andersen

I stumbled across an artist online whilst looking for some art inspiration which I think in some ways can influence some ideas for my Maps and Networks project with Alice.


 Kine Andersen is an illustrator and artist based in Bergen, Norway. Instantly I was drawn to his work due to the vibrant color palette and the simplistic but bold illustrations. Even though our piece is going to be moving image, Alice and myself are constantly taking inspiration from everywhere; tabloids, moving image work, photography and illustration. Therefore I looked further into Andersen's work and have included some of his illustrations that display feminist elements.

SELF PORTRAIT

GIRL NEXT DOOR

BITCH

DISCOVER YOUR FUCKING FLOWER

LOVE YOURSELF

Project Research - Erika Lust

Whilst watching a documentary series I was interesting on Netflix I came across an interesting erotic director called Erika Lust. 

The series is called Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On and as I was watching episode one, that's when I came across the director Erika Lust. Whilst being interviewed she spoke about how she thinks porn is mainly aimed at men, and how she wants to break that mould within the industry. Within her movies she mainly focuses on the role of the women, and likes to make erotic films that focus around the women getting pleasure, rather than just being there for the pleasure of men. 

Some interesting facts I found out about her:

• In December 2014, Lust hosted a TED-talk at TEDxVienna. In the talk, entitled "It's Time For Porn To Change", Lust urges people to question the modern state of porn, its messages and role as a sexual educator.
• The TED talk launched the start of her campaign #changeporn, an online campaign intended to challenge and change the porn norm.
• She graduated university in 1999 with a specialism in human rights and feminism
• Lust is currently producing short pornographic films based on crowd-sourced stories. Viewers can leave anonymous confessions on the project's website. Each month, Lust handpicks two stories and turn them into cinematic short films.

I found it really interesting to learn about her views on women in erotic films through this documentary, and I really like how she is trying to change the future of erotic films. I think this was good research for our project as it shows how women are standing up against just being involved in things for the pleasure of men, and certain industries are changing to empower women.

Project Research - Women Making Their Voices Heard

The piece that Alice and I are constructing has a focus on the bodies of women being hyper sexualized and their voices not being heard so I wanted to look into some women in the media that are campaigning against the consistent sexualization of the female form.

Keira Knightley
Due to my love of actress Keira Knightley, I knew that she had spoken out about issues with the body before, as she's against the use of photoshop when photographers take photos of her, as she wants her body to be seen as it is and not changed to please others. 

Keira Knightley made a stand against the use of photoshop, saying it's turning women's bodies into a 'battleground' and it encourages a damaging attitude towards body image in the media. 

‘I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters. And that [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.”

These articles are really relevant to the messages that Alice and I want to work with in our project, thinking about how women's bodies are displayed for the pleasure of others, and it's all about looking beautiful for the public eye, not about being comfortable in your own skin. By a famous actress such as Keira Knightley speaking out about these issues, it brings more attention towards them in the media, making it a real issue.

I think it's a really positive thing that more and more famous women are coming forward and challenging these ideals that women should fit a perfect mould for the magazines and in order to be in the public eye. It's influential to younger generations of women to feel as though they don't have to fit into these moulds, and to actually have some good role models to look up to. 

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/nov/07/keira-knightley-on-going-topless-in-protest-at-the-use-of-womens-bodies-as-a-battleground

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2821744/Keira-Knightley-Women-s-bodies-battleground-Actress-speaks-body-image-posing-topless-magazine-shoot.html

Emily Bador
Emily Bador is a model who is used for a lot of popular clothing companies. Recently she began using her instagram as a platform to talk about body standards for women and how we should love ourselves.

Emily posted some pictures of how she was beginning to become comfortable in her own skin, and she got a lot of hate and people said she didn't look how she usually does in her modeling photos. This prompted her to make a lot of posts about body image and informing people that she is comfortable in her own skin and others should be too.

I think Emily Bador is a really good advocate for self love and the female body in its true form. She has talked a lot before about the pressures of being a model and the pressures to look perfect and keep a toned body all the times just because others will constantly be looking at her. It's interesting that she's expected to keep a perfect toned body, but that was making her unhappy and she didn't feel comfortable in her own skin, even though a lot of females would be longing to look like her.

I think it's really admirable for her to use her personal instagram platform to bring awareness to this idea of the female form having to be perfect, and for models and women in general to have to look certain way.

It's interesting that when she began posting natural photos of herself she got a lot of hate for the way she looked, but that's her natural body that she feels comfortable in.

These two pieces of research are really beneficial to our ideas and how we will progress with our piece. We can look at them for inspiration within our personal lives but also for our project, as they are women making their voices heard.

Project Research - Cat Calling Project

One day when casually browsing the internet I stumbled across this article on Buzzfeed where a woman conducted a mini project taking pictures of all the men that cat called her in the street, and some of the things they said were quite alarming. 

"But most of the time they have their thumbs up, they're happy because they honestly think that they're complimenting me. They really didn't care about me. They never realized that I was unhappy,"

Noa Jansma, a student in the Netherlands, highlights how the men didn't really give any though about their feelings and found it funny when she stopped to take photos of them. In some cases she didn't even take the photos as she feared for her safety. She comments about some men following her around in vans, shouting at her several times whilst others just sniggered at her as she passed them on the street.

She never did anything to provoke the men, not that she would have anyway, but she noted down the amount of times she was cat called over a month. The comments ranged from men shouting "sexy" to alarming ones asking her to get in their vehicles.

If anything I think this project she conducted indicates how women don't necessarily have to do anything to attract negative attention. This young student was just going about her daily life and was harassed for no particular reason other than for the entertainment of the males shouting at her. 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/julesdarmanin/she-takes-selfies-with-her-catcallers-on-the-stree?utm_term=.xyOM1X4Bm#.raZ4GXRqb

Project Research - Understanding the female in society

As our project is going to focus on the role of women in society, the sexualization of the female body and the ways in which women are represented, I decided to do some research into celebrity culture and the ways in which women are seen in society.

Shockingly, most of the time when women make headlines it is to do with their bodies, beauty, embarrassment or their lives with men. Magazines and the news are always commenting on the looks of women and how they are changing, or what women are doing with regards to men, rarely ever involving their achievements.

Going back to thinking about famous female celebrities I started with a really well known woman, famous for her looks and beauty, Marilyn Monroe. 
When you look at photos of Monroe, she is always seen as looking glamorous, articles always focusing on her latest looks of photoshoots, but what people never mentioned or even thought about was the struggles and issues she was facing behind closed doors.

Marilyn Monroe is now known to have faced a lot of mental health issues that were never spoken about or addressed during her period of fame. This is interesting to me as it shows how women are literally just an item of beauty to the public / media, nobody is actually interested in their well being as long as their leaving the house looking beautiful. She was glamorized as this icon of beauty, but her life behind closed doors was far from it.

Even nowadays, if a woman is in the public eye for something negative, usually it's just to embarrass them or shame them. Women fighting for their privacy or literally just popping to the shops in their joggers are called "shameful" and "unglamorous" because they aren't making an effort for their public 24 hours a day. 

Another example that was brought to my attention is how women are shamed for their behavior compared to men, or if they are seen to be showing more skin than they usually do they are instantly shamed to the public. We could also talk about how celebrities have been being hacked recently, and it's all female celebrities who are having their private photos shared for the pleasure of others.

However, recently there are more and more articles, posts and spokespeople speaking out against this gender bias against women. I read a few articles about how gender bias has to stop, and the shaming of women is wrong, which is a good positive change in society.

I read a blog post on the Huffington Post about the shaming of women, which I found really interesting, and have attached the link.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/johanna-higgs/stop-shaming-women_b_16709906.html

Further research to follow soon.

Artist Research - Jemima Stehli

Looking at the work of Jemima Stehli was really interesting to me, as she often explores the themes of feminism and the female form in her art work. She often thinks about challenging the idea of women being a sexual object and how she can indulge in the stigma around women and female artists.

One of her pieces we looked at in a seminar with Rosie was her piece in which she stood in front of art curators and gave them control to take a photograph of her when they felt most uncomfortable, whilst she undressed. This was a really interesting piece as she was putting full control in the hands of the male, whilst she exposed them to the female form.

Although I understand what she was trying to achieve with this piece, I do feel as though she could have just been reiterating the stigma of sexualizing the female body. Giving the men total control to take the photo when they felt most uncomfortable showed that there were plenty of different stages of her getting undressed, whilst most were of her completely naked. I do think that this does sexualize the female body and she might not have totally achieved her goal through this piece.

Alice and I discussed this work and how it has influenced our own ideas of wanting to achieve an outlook showing the female form through a sexual nature, but also adverting this stereotype, and hitting the idea that the female body doesn't need to be sexualized in order for women to be paid attention to.

Maps and Networks - Initial Ideas

The title Maps and Networks seemed a bit confusing to me at first, and I wasn't sure which approach to take at all. I wanted to think of a project that really fit the theme but I wasn't sure how to get the research behind it.

Alice and I have once again decided to collaborate, as we have similar ideas and work well together. 

After a few conversations together we have decided that we want to explore the idea of female oppression, the male gaze, women having a voice and other themes of feminism. We have looked at a few artists in seminars and in our own time to be able to explore this idea further. 

I want to look further into artists such as;

• Jemima Stehli
• Bill Viola
• Emily Knecht

I also want to do some exploration into other artists that explore ideas of feminism and women in art. I have also been thinking about looking at the work of female artists and how they are regarded in the art world.

Alice and I also thought about looking at the way women are seen in the public eye, such as celebrities and public figures. This research wouldn't necessarily revolve around art, but rather some background context for our idea and maybe some inspiration into how we want to tackle the idea of women oppression.

Artist research to follow.