Upon my analysis of the brief, I discovered that the video that had to be produced could be based on an Awareness Campaign of my choice. I believe, given the opportunity, people, especially Women should use their platforms to proliferate a message that is contextually relevant. For this reason I chose to engage with the topic of Gender-Based Violence because it is both a topic of political discourse as well as, social upheaval in South Africa. South Africa has the highest prevalence of gender based violence in the world and thus, it is fitting that I seek to create awareness regarding the topic, not only because I’m South African but most importantly because I’m a woman. When thinking and planning the awareness video, I decided to go ahead and make a video based on intimate relationship seeing as, statistically, most gender- based violence occurs between men and women in relationships. However, after having filmed the video it dawned on me that women should be the focus for these types of awareness campaign, therefore I took to portray the individual woman in a manner so that her individuality and victimhood were emphasized. I portrayed the model putting on makeup through a small mirror showing her public life where she portrays herself as beautiful, put-together and whole. Following this, I captured her smiling, laughing and having pride in her womanhood. In order to capture this mood, I made use of a pink effect to capture her femininity. However as the video progresses we get a glimpse at the private life of a GBV victim. The following scene opens to a dimmer blue tinge lighting, in order to portray the coldness of the life of a victim. I also made use of a larger field of view, in order to emphasis the separateness and aloneness of a woman caught in a cycle of abuse. I took out all vocal audio and use props including tape to show the silent suffering that many women experience daily. I then, added music written by Kai Engel, called Illumination, to invite a emotional atmosphere as well as, ambiance. In a more practical regard I made use of my tripod in order to stabilize the camera and give the video a still effect and also made use of a plain wall for the background to emphasis the emptiness many women feel. All of the models makeup including bruising, black eyes, tears and smudges were all done by me and used to portray the duality of the lives of women. The red paint was used to give a sense of permanence to the injuries sustained by women everyday. Regarding the titling of the video “Look At Me” forces the viewer to concentrate on the model and subsequently think of the position she's in and the lack of vocal audio further emphasizes the silence and forces viewers to use visual ques in order to place themselves in the shoes of the model and women everywhere. In final commentary, the hashtags used are popular in the realms of social media and are used here to instruct views on the stance that should be taken regarding Gender-based Violence. As a woman living in South Africa, in these extraordinary times it is imperative that I am neither complacent and therefore, complicit in the proliferation of Gender-based Violence, because of this I took to creating this video to spread awareness regarding one of the most existentially threatening pandemics of the 21st Century. #enoughisenough #keeptheenergy
FollowFollowing
Appreciate
Gender-based violence awareness campaign
Gender-based violence awareness campaign
Published:
Gender-based violence awareness campaign
0
Published:
