THE MISDIRECTION: January 2010

Friday, 29 January 2010

THE MISDIRECTION: WAITRESS SCENE

Waitress/ Nikki played by Emma Hall

Anna and Joe attempt to break away from the stress they are under to set up a new life together. They don’t have much money, but can afford one moment indulgence together and decide to go to stop over in a random city on there trip out of France and go to restaurant for a meal together. It is confirmation for Anna that she is going ahead with this and a happy moment for her. The waitress that serves them interests Anna and makes her think about her job she no longer has and fund herself without it.

Thursday, 28 January 2010

THE MISDIRECTION: ACQUIRING PROPS

I've been hunting for props for the shoot on the 28th and found this flask on Ebay which looks really suitable, so i bought it :) My idea is shoot pictures on Anna during when he visits Joe during his lunch break and also when they are travel together from the South of France to the Northern border immediately after she leaves home.

THE MISDIRECTION: BIRTHDAY SCENE

Annabel Bates as Anna

The story drops back and forth between the past following Anna’s leaving from France and the present when she is slumped against the wall at her flat (Opening Scene). When she thinks about Joe, she thinks about him not being around anymore in the present. She looks to her child and he is the one person she is left with. The picture explores Anna’s relationship with her child which results from her time spent with Joe. Joe is not much involved in Renaud’s upbringing and Anna puts everything into making him happy. She can bring him up in her own way and she attempts to make up for all the things that didn’t go well through her time with him. The Birthday scene demonstrates how Anna improvises and tries hard to keep life interesting for her child. She is a single parent who is on the verge of trying to get part time work, but is limited in how much she can earn through the time she needs to be around for Renaud. She makes a special attempt on Birthday to make the day fun. They have no easy form of entertainment like many local friends and don’t have a TV or Radio in the flat. Her child is obsessed with drawing and she fuels these activities. On one birthday she dresses as a clown, they make a birthday cake together and she does a magic show and play games together. The scene describes the nature of their relationship and how he is Anna’s consolation.

THE MISDIRECTION: SUMMARY

The story begins describing a block of flats in Northern England on a cold winter night and then concentrates upon two inhabitants of one of the flats. Both are sleeping. An 8 year old child named Renaud and his French born mother Anna. Anna wakes when a cold breeze enters their room through a boarded up window. She cannot return to sleep once she is awake. She is distressed by her dream and goes over and sits up against the wall. She starts to re-enter her past through her daydream and the story follows her thoughts travelling back to her life as a 17 year old living in Southern France with her younger brother and authoritative mother. In this period in her life Anna is struggling at school and finds it hard to make friends. She cannot please her mum and quits school without telling her. She gets a job to help her father (who is estranged from his wife) pay gambling debts. Anna is used by most of the people in her life. Her mother does not love her and thinks she is a failure, her father uses her to get money and her work colleagues see her as their run around. She cares about her brother who she helps bring up in his young life, but he loses interest in her when he goes to school and makes friends of his own age. She feels very fed up with her life until at a bus stop she meets a 19 year old called Joe who is visiting in her hometown. She sees him during a space of a couple of months and decides to leave with him to his home in North England. They live with Joe's aunt and uncle. Anna lives rent free when she first arrives and tries to repay them by doing housework and being a good tenant. She is trying to learn English, but is struggling and converses still in her natural language. She gets a job breifly, but becomes pregnant not long after and has to give it up. When she gives birth to Renaud she is extremely happy as she feels she has something to concentrate her life on, but her relationship with Joe does not take off when she arrives in England. He is less attracted to her back home than during his stay in France. She doesn't seem able to leave her past behind and doesn't involve herself much in his life in England. He stills wants to go out and see his friends and doesn't really feel ready to be tied down to a family. When Renaud is born its bad news for him. He however sees Anna is happy and is glad at that that and thinks he has achieved what he planned with her which was to help improve her life from how things were for her. He realises though he doesn't love her enough to want to stay with her in a long term relationship He begins seeing an old schoolfriend who he is more compatible to and eventually he and Anna decide to live apart. He helps her get a flat that is not in a great area and he sends her money from his job to help support their child. Joe's rejection of her really batters Anna's confidence in other people and she does not pursue a future partner in the rest of the story. Anna was devoted to Joe and thought he was the only person who ever really cared enough about her. Once he is not in her life she puts her whole effort into bringing up Renaud in the difficult surroundings of their rough apartment block. During this time Anna becomes physically a symbol of her poverty not having much money to spend on herself and encounters problems in her area. She has no friends here (she only knows very basic English) and strangers seem adverse to her. She suffers a physical assault after answering back to some people that carelessly knock her and her child over when messing around, that leaves her with injuries that hinder her life for a fortnight. Despite her troubles though Anna has developed a spirit to fight for son that he does not suffer due to what she is experiencing. Anna shares a very close relationship with her son. She is very good to him. All the things they can afford she gets for him and spends little on her own wants and desires. As they are on there own together a lot of the time without a TV or Radio in their flat, they talk a lot and find alternative methods of entertainment. They go on walks to places and Anna encourages him in anything he takes interest. He spends a lot of time drawing pictures from photographs Anna takes from around the city and Anna gives him little fun exercises to do. Anna makes a special effort on Renauds birthdays. On one birthday she dresses as a clown and performs simple magic tricks which she learns from a book. When Renaud is a little older Anna does not hold him back from making friends despite her own isolation. He starts to play with a friend from school who lives on the same apartment block. Anna dedicates her whole time into seeing Renaud happy and she regains worth back into her life, despite the setbacks and her personal trauma of her own life in South France and with the breakup of her relationship with Joe. I haven't settled on one set ending to this story yet, but there is not happy conclusion for Anna. Time passes on during the night whilst Anna relives past events over in her mind. It is a regular occurance for her as she cannot sleep properly due to her bad memories. She has to get Renaud ready for school. He has a match later with other kids in his class after school and Anna promises him that she will be their to watch him. After dropping him off at school though she is knocked down by a car as she accidently steps out at a bad time..

THE MISDIRECTION: CELIA SCENE

Kathryn Mason as Celia

Photographed by Imran K

Celia is Anna’s cousin. She is the focal point of rivalry between Anna’s mother and her sister. Celia is succeeding at school whereas Anna struggles to fit in and seeks to find work as soon as she can to help her father pay gambling debts. Celia is the source of pride in Anna’s mother’s family whereas Anna has little respect. Anna is effected during her teenage years by her parents splitting up and her father leaving the household and she has no confidence in herself at school.

Anna’s mother is disgusted how badly Anna does at school and she sees Anna as an embarrassment to her. She further focuses herself on her own career to stay one step ahead of her sibling, but Anna and her younger Benoit are left much to their own devices as a result. This picture appears during where Anna’s family structure is described and where her difficult life in France is put across. Anna doesn’t however blame Celia when her mother sees her as the daughter she wishes she had. Celia is wrapped up in trying to fulfil the expectations of her and normally succeeds, but she struggles with the adhering to the perfect image people have of her. She hides her smoking habit and is seen as someone who is to good for others, but watches a man that changes in front of a window from the bathroom where she can see him. Anna sees Celia as being secretly mixed up as she is, but masks it being her successful academic achievement

THE MISDIRECTION: DRINKING GLASS SCENE

Annabel Bates as Anna

Anna leaves her home address in a hurry. Knowing that her family will oppose her leaving to England, she just decides to gather the things she needs and goes. She leaves with just a rucksack on her shoulder containing one change of clothes. After a few days away from home she has been walking long distances, out in the rain and through forests and has not had chance to have a bath since. Anna and Joe are staying over temporarily at a place. Anna has spent days wearing and a night sleeping in the same clothes and finally decides she needs to clean up and change. This scene describes a little about Anna’s personality and her relationship with Joe.
It is just after she has left home and is in the midst of her travel out of France. She is staying over at a relative of Joe’s and cannot sleep for long. She slips away to shower to get a spare moment away on her own. She has just left home and it is a very sudden and life changing thing for do. She is unsure of herself, her future and about her relationship at this point with Joe.

During Anna’s time in France her dress is not very fashionable and she is not popular at school. She rotates the same clothes time and again for a long period. She feels warn down by leaving and decides she needs to make an effort to improve her appearance. Anna has never been in a relationship before and she is really drawn to Joe. Whilst Joe and everyone in the building is asleep she slips away to the bathroom to have a bath. She does not like boys at school and her norm is to do everything she can to not attract them. She doesn’t intermix, is quiet and wears long skirt and shirts and high neck T Shirts. Following her bath she feels cleaner. She considers she might have to let her normal guard down now she is left Joe and be more open to him and less protective of herself than the first days she spends with him. The alternative clothes she has are the most fashionable she has. It is a checked top and loose fitting very dark purple trouser’s. Her hair is wet and she has no towel so dries it on her clothes and dares to be more care free.

She goes downstairs to get a drink and sits at a table and begins to think about how her family will react to her leaving and how she will cope with what lies ahead. At this stage of the story Anna is still in France and can turn back and is nervous about her future. She worries about waking anyone and lights a candle that only lights her tiny space in the room at the table. She has a English book and is trying to learn English, but is not getting very far with it

THE MISDIRECTION: WOODLAND SCENE

Annabel Bates as Anna

This is a potential cover page for the book. It depicts during her life in France. She takes to the woodland to get an escape from her problems and where she feels free from everyone.

THE MISDIRECTION: OPENING SCENE

Annabel Bates as Anna

This photo still reflects the Opening part of the story where we first meet Anna and her young child Renaud. They are described living in a dilapidated block of flats as they sleep during a cold winter’s night. Anna awakes as a cold breeze catches her at her leg which is outside the blanket. She wakes from her dream and for a moment is unsure of where she is. She looks to a clock at the side of her bed and then sees the boarding on the window has broken. She looks again at the clock and sees the picture of Joe nearby which she brings to her face. She slips out from the bed, puts a coat over her child and slumps against the wall and drifts into half sleep, half awake. The story follows her thoughts as she looks into the picture and thinks about the past when she lived in South France, just before meeting him

Thursday, 7 January 2010

NEW COSTUME

I am still making progress with the shoot i intend to do with Charlie and Annabel. The icy weather forced me to venture down a shortcut to the job centre on Monday to a road which i consider suitable for the shoot. I realised that i have also been rotating the same two costumes for shots i'd been doing with Annabel so bought another dress for her from Oxfam. I also got a boilet suit in Charlie's size so as to be able to centre a shoot around his work place.

I'm still not at the end of the planning for this shoot. I still want to do that shot depicting Joe's passport picture. It'd also be nice if could get into a location suitable to suggest to Joe's workplace. I've sent many letters before, but people aren't civil to even reply these days.

Lace Market Theatre, Superfly Bar and a studio in Carlton were all receptive to my enquiries about a location. I've also practically acquired Charlie's costume now. Nottingham City Artists were also positive about me shooting there so have to visit them, as well as the Loft, but that is all about another shoot. I am intrigued by an idea of using space at NCA as its a venue that's interested me from when i used to take flyers there from Surface Gallery way back in 2006.

I've agreed a day with Annabel and Charlie.

THE MISDIRECTION