Video Overview:
The video itself will be filmed in Auckland, New Zealand, with european actors to make the video relatable to the western world. We have been saturated with images of overseas poverty, we tend to tune out when we see images from Tearfund/World Vision. By capturing images from around a western society this will be more involving and relatable for the audience.
Coming up with the idea:
Coming up with the concept for the promotional video was pretty easy, but we soon realised once we got to the edit studio, we had to recreate the whole video as the video portrayed a different message which we were trying to avoid.
It's quite hard to create a video on the subject of prostitution as depending on the route you go down, you can offend a lot of people, or make it look like the women was subject to kidnapping rather than selling herself for money. We knew that even with a promo video, this idea is going to be hard to get funded as it is taboo to speak about in many cultures.
We had to be very careful as we wanted to show the pain and hurt she goes through, the life she leads without actually showing the prostitution act itself.
We need to create a film where the audiences puts one and one together. We wanted the film to be relevant for western culture, rather than the Tearfund and World Vision commercials which we see every day of people in different countries, We have become so cold towards this imagery that we need to create a relatable video, in a western culture. I'm in no way attacking this type of imagery but wanting to create a different style.
I have a style of filming, and it is quite abstract. See my showreel below:
Creating the idea:
First thing we had to do was decide on a style and colour grade we would use. Once we decided on this we could start thinking about what we would put into the video, how we would frame the subject and what aesthetic we would run with.
I started drafting up a few storyboards of how I wanted the film to look. My film aesthetic is lots of close up and extreme close ups, this giving us a better perspective of the emotions which the character is feeling.
The main thing I had to when creating this script was that we need to see the environment which the character lives in. We need to see the cold streets, the lights casting from the overhead street lamps, and the long dark alleyways. This letting the audience have a greater sense of knowledge, showing them how dark and dingy her surroundings are.
We also wanted to show she was only doing this to afford the basics in life, like a cup of rice. We want to show how little money they make and how they are treated badly.
Shot List
Bellow is the attached documents which we wrote for the film:
The next thing we had to do was sort out who would be the actor, who would be doing what on the shoot day, locations and where we would get our gear from.
We ended up having to re-shoot our project, as a lot went wrong on shoot date 1, but we will cover that on the next blog 'Promo Video - Shoot Day'. So here is the production outline for both shoot days.
Location Scouting: Shoot 1
Location: Alleyway
The locations we sort for our first day, was a dark and dungy alleyway. We found one down a notorious red light street right next door to a strip club. This alleyway was great as it had a red street light at the very end illuminating a dark and dungy stairway. With the ripped posters and bright 'SEX' light next door, made for a great location.
On the shoot day this turned out to be a very bad location. The bouncers from the strip club did not like us outside with a camera filming, and the street light at the end was not working. Our camera also did not have a great sensor so you could not even see anything apart from black.
Location: Street
The location we used was in Point Chevalier, Auckland. I have filmed on this street before during spring. The trees conjoin in the middle making a beautiful arch of old oak trees.
The problem with this location was that it was in the middle of winter so all the trees had lost their leafs, the street had no street lamps so we could see nothing, and the only light source was from our car headlights.
Location scouting: Shoot 2
We learnt a lot from shoot 1, things what not to do, and what to look for. We spent the rest of shoot 1 (after the camera died 10 minutes into filming) to actually go around the city looking for proper locations, which we should have done the night before shoot 1 but we were to busy.
Location: Alleyway
We found an alleyway just down from where the original alleyway was. In the middle of Auckland CBD was this side street, which was perfect as had ripped posters, garbage bins and abstract looking street lights.
The only problem we had at this location was a lot of pedestrians walking through our shot, and the dairy owner next door did not appreciate us filming outside. We also had parking enforcers telling us to get of the street.
We found a great location which was still in Auckland CBD region, this was the Upper Queen Street overpass. This was a beautiful spot as it overlooks the motor way with cars zipping under us, and also has the Sky Tower in the background. We filmed at the perfect time, as the next week was covered in roadworks as they made the bridge bigger.
Location: Dairy
We knew this location would be the hardest location to be able to film in, as we never had any permits while filming outside, or knew any contacts who own a supermarket or dairy, and had no money to give them for their time/letting us use their store.
We asked one dairy owner who flat our refused, which is fair enough.
We walked down Karangahape Road at midnight, trying to find an open dairy. We came across 'Xpress Mart' which is run by the nicest man you will ever meet. He let us use his dairy as a location, and just wanted to know how the footage would be used.
Location: Studio
We needed a white studio to use for when we speak about the project, we wanted a clean backdrop with us being well lit, this would be a contrast from the promo video.
We sent a few emails to people we knew who had access to studios, unfortunately we hit a dead end.
As going to film school for 3 years, and working on external projects for my university, I sent a few emails to the HOD of Unitec Performing and Screen Arts. We got 2 emails back saying they would love to help, but unfortunately when we gave them our dates of filming, they would only reply after that date saying sorry just read your email now do you still need a space.
This was our biggest problem, as neither of us own a camera, lights or even a tripod. Thankfully we had a few mates who had a camera.
We didn't have any lighting equipment so had to use all natural lighting.
Shoot 1
We managed to beg a friend for their camera, the morning of the shoot we were told that the camera was not charged, all the files still on the camera and that they had to use it that night. We understood, and got on Facebook begging to ask for equipment, or anyone with a camera.
The actor for shoot 1 had a camera but not a tripod so this worked out great as no one else we knew had a camera. But once we got the camera, the batteries had not been charged so we only got 10 minutes worth of footage. We then got into edit and found that the camera was not that great in little light so all our footage was blurry and too dark to use.
As we didn't have any lights, and our street location had no street lights, we had to use my car. This meant we could not use any wide shots, as it was obvious the light source was coming from a car.
Shoot 2
We managed to get a great camera with a 50mm lens from my good friend at work Wayne. His partner had leant it to us, and in the end made the film look amazing.
We were told they didn't have a tripod so we had to source this from someone else.
For lighting we went out and brought a $7 torch. We then wrapped it with tissue paper to make the light softer and spread the source.
Studio
We had to film the studio shoot on a different night as we were still waiting to hear if we could use Unitec's studio.
We ended up having to shoot in our lounge using the overhead lights and a laptop with power point scrolling though our presentation, prompting us on the next topic we were to speak on.
We had to borrow another friends camera (Stefan) from the other side of town, and then pick up their tripod from the complete other side of town.
In the end it all came together.
Actor availability
Trying to find someone to act for us was very hard, as Jesse and I both worked full time, and had different days off this made it hard to schedule an actor, and also the camera equipment.
We managed to get a good friend Jessica to act in shoot 1, she was great!
For shoot 2 our friend who we messaged for shoot 1 was back in Auckland, and really wanted to get involved. We used Natalia Abbott who was so passionate for the campaign it showed through her acting.
Film crew roles
As we have very little time outside of work, we found it easier just to use ourselves for the filming. Xavier did all the production, cinematography, editing, colour grading while Jesse directed the shoot.
See our next blog 'Promo Video - Shoot Day'
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