VIDEOGRAPHY

The film begins at school. A young happy little girl, smiling, 

laughing, playing with her friends. Not a care in the world and 

everything is good. Unware of future happenings that would change her and her happy little life.

After school she sitting on her bed in her room. Happy and content playing with her teddy. A figure appears in the shot and enters the room, I do not show the individuals face but you can tell it is a man. I want to leave the viewer guessing who the man is. As he shuts the door behind him I slow the shot down in extreme slow motion to capture the intensity and nature of the scene. As I watched it back I felt uncomfortable and felt a shiver down my spine. I captured it exactly the way I wanted to, so that the viewer immediately knows what is happening even though they do not see.

Quite like the mother, who is not present in the film but I imagine her to be down stairs cooking dinner. She knows her heart that something is happening but she does not interfere , she just turns a blind eye. This unfortunately is the case in a lot of these situations. The wife or partner of their man are so blinded by ‘love’ they refuse to believe or pretend to know nothing.

Later back at school things have changed. They are not the same as they used to be. Once a happy little girl, now a sad frightened child, confused and lost. Too young to understand, to scared to speak up. She locks her feelings away and bottles them up inside. She no longer plays with her friends, instead she spends her time alone by herself. She keeps her distance from people, she does not trust anyone.

She I in the toilets looking in the mirror. Mesmerized by her 

reflection staring back at her. Consumed with so much emotional pain and anguish she lashes out. She scratches the walls,

forcefully digging her nails deep into the wood. She feels frustration and disgust in herself and hatred towards her abuser. 

Her childhood and innocence lost. She has changed into an angry, confused young woman with various personalities. She is stealing from shops. She steals a bottle of vodka from an off licence. She sits on a bench in the park and consumes the bottle. I slow the film down again as she takes a gulp from the bottle. The expression that she makes screwing up her face as she drinking the vodka, the pure disgust, you can imagine and almost taste the raw, 

burning taste of the vodka.

She reaches extremes when she goes to new heights to find ways of forgetting. She turns up at a house and knocks on the door. A man answers and invites her in. They sit down at a table and she hands the man money. He draws up two thin lines of a white 

powder substance that resembles cocaine. They both take turns in snorting the powder up their nose through a rolled up note.

Her troubled mind riddled with horrific childhood memories deep in her subconscious, coming back in bits and pieces in flashbacks. She thinks back to a time when she was happy, laughing and 

smiling...

EMOTIONS

                                                               JOY

                                                                      

                                                             ANGER

SORROW

CONFUSION

Split screen

I was thinking about the idea of having a split screen for the showing of my filming. I thought visually this would work...split personality, split screen. Two screens, same person but two very different identities. I came across this video in my research and I think it works well.



split personality from remie van os on Vimeo.

Pepper's Ghost

Pepper’s Ghost effect involves creating the illusion of a ghost through optical trickery, by using rear projection which could be repositioned to make images move on walls, on semi-transparent screens, and inside of smoke, to produce the effect of an apparition. 


How Pepper’s Ghost Effect Works

The illusion of a ghost is created by an actor who remains out of sight from the audience in a room that is completely painted in black. The audience views a scene through a piece of plate glass such as a room with furniture, a dungeon, or any other type of scene. The actor is costumed in the black room with a beam of light focused directly on the actor which creates a reflection in the plate glass. When the audience views the scene through the plate glass, they see the reflection of the actor on the glass which provides the illusion of a transparent ghost.






How to Create Pepper’s Ghost Effect

The materials which are used to create Pepper’s Ghost effect include a large piece of glass at least several feet tall by several feet wide, a light to focus on the subject, a black room, black fabric, or black backdrop, and a light dimmer which can be used as an option instead of a requirement. The plate glass can also be substituted with Plexiglas as long as there are no imperfections or scratches. For optimal results though plate glass provides the best effect.


Create the black backdrop where the actor will be located. You can create this with black cloth or a constructed plywood room that is completely covered with black paint. Whatever you choose, make sure the room is completely hidden from the view of your audience.

Create a scene which will be situated behind the plate glass. You can use your imagination here and set it up as a room in a haunted house with a chair where the ghost will be seated or any other creative ideas you can come up with.

The lighting behind the plate glass and in the black room where the actor is located will require adjustment so you can clearly see the props behind the plate glass as well as the transparent illusion of the actor. The brighter the light the less transparent the image will seem and lower light levels will make the image appear to be more transparent. This is where a light dimmer can come in handy because it will make it easier to adjust the lighting for the perfect effect.

The plate glass will need to be positioned at a 45 degree angle to the black backdrop to enable the actor’s refection to be seen by the viewing audience. The visible edges must then be camouflaged in a way which is not obvious to the audience that the plate glass is present.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I began the school with an intention to create a eerie dark feel to it. I had a story and different scenes in my head. Maire sits alone outside, her head riddled with confusion. I shot a various range of very close up shots of Maire. I asked her to convey sorrow, pain and hurt. I zoomed in close to capture the expressions in her face. The sadness in her eyes draws you in. I want people to stop and stare. I want them to wonder why is the girl in the picture so sad? My photography is an emotional 

mechanism, drawing people in so that they view the video room to find out the story behind these images. I want the viewer to feel emotionally involved with my piece and experience something unique that it stays with them. I want my work to stand out and be remembered. 

She keeps her affairs to herself, bottled up. Soon she will explode. Later she is in the toilets, looking in the mirror at her reflection, she becomes angry with herself. She scraps the walls with sheer frustration. She is frightened and alone inside but hatred and anger cover this up on the outside. 

She stands in the middle of the corridor, her arms folded. Her guard is up. She looks sad, alone. There is cracks on the walls and 

ceiling, with the paint pealing off. Her surroundings are unstable, she is in a fragile state. When I shot this photographthe sun shined in the windows filling the hall with beautiful purples and blues. The vivid colours really captured the photo and brought it to life. Sometimes your just ‘in the right place at the right time’ and indeed i was.

I found a little jagged hole round the back of the school in the old shed. It  became interesting to me when I peered through and seen a vast open landscape, so free, but I was confined  in this dark place only able to look out from within. 

I took a ray of shots of Maire behind netting and bar cage of a tennis court. I wanted to convey a 

metaphorical element of her being trapped in her own mind. The bars represent her confinement. Horrific flashbacks of childhood memories she had tried to forget can never be forgotten. There is no escape from her past and the feelings that come with it.

My final shots represents the confusing and lack of control Maire has over herself. Flashbacks, forgetfulness, sever emotional changes...I wanted to portray the true terror of this. I blurred some of my photos to show the distorted mental state Maire is in.

School location for Inner child shoot