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.
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.
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