photoshoot at Avant

Sunday we had a photoshoot over at Avant, and we had make-up artists from L.A. come down and copy actual photos from women who have been beaten by thier partners. there were probably about 15 women of all ages and ethnicities and walks of life. While they went in one at a time, I took a Panasonic and did "behind the scene" type interviews with them while they had thier make-up on, I asked them questions like "does this hit home for you?", and "what does it mean to be able to wash this off after looking at yourself with it on, knowing that there are women who will never be able to wash away the scars?", "how do you think having someone you love and trust do this to you would affect you differently than say, a random mugging?", "why do you think women put up with this happening to them?", "how do you think this relates to emotional abuse, and do you think they are equal, and what are the differences in the scars?" and whatever else I could come up with in the moment. I got so many good answers, some of them almost made me cry, and they DEFINITELY made me think. It was also difficult to see people I knew to have HUGE bruises and blood dripping out of thier nose and open wounds...I knew they weren't really there, but it was difficult to keep the situation in perspective, especially seeing two prof's and 2 classmates with it. after I left I drove around for about a half hour and just cried. I've had bruises from a guy on me before, and it could have gotten so much worse, and it makes me hurt so bad for the women who have had it, and I've had people in my family deal with emotional abuse as well, and it just hit me so hard as to what they have gone through. It was one of the hardest things to come to grips with. On a good note however, the Ikea chair I put together didn't fall apart...thank goodness.

Animal Shelter

Monday I went with Clark and Olivia to the Seal Beach animal shelter. it was a pretty interesting experience to say the least. Now, I consider myself an animal lover, but these people were HARDCORE!! they knew the names of all seventy-some cats and twenty-some dogs...and they made them Valentines!! And the kitten "nursery" was painted specially using pastels...including the cieling, and the sign on the door warned against leaving any "feather or string toys in the nursery unattended"...kitten choking hazzard?!? i wasnt aware that they had to put "3 +" warnings on cat toys... anyways, it was a pretty cool experience, we took a tour of the grounds, and then got an interview with the main "dog" expert, and then the main "cat" expert, and got a lot of good footage that we all thought would add something good to the project, especially when the woman started talking about abuse, and how it begins with animals because they can't fight back, and told us some of the stuff people would do to these animals. it was terrible. mostly i held the boom for the interviews, and help carry the equipment, because there were only three of us. It was really cool to be able to go!

The Shoot!!

Last night I finished the Glenda transcript I got that I have been working on this week, it seems to work out that I do about 1 a week. As with Michele, it left me feeling terrible. I can't even imagine what it is like for these women to go through this, and then be in prison. It makes you realize how messed up the justice system is. there are people walking around free who have actually murdered someone in cold blood, and got out on parole, and these women who, most of them were fighting for thier life, and are now serving life. It's incredible. I just got two new CD's of a lawyer to transcribe today, so that's what I'll be working on this next week. We also had a shoot today from about 9:30/9:45 until about a quarter to 1 at Avant that I thought went really well. It was of about seven kids taking turns and going in front of a greenscreen answering questions. the questions were about how they treat thier friends, how mommies and daddies show love to each other, how they deal with mean kids, if they wanted to get married, things like that. I thought it was so much fun, and the footage will provide a good comic relief to the heavy subject of the film. we have another shoot in about 2 weeks, and then I will probably start organizing the footage to edit.