As we near in on the second half of the semester, it’s pretty important to ask the question: “what is it that I want to have to show when we’re all wrapped up?” I came into Documentary As Action knowing that I’d like to produce a film looking at an “issue” and how community groups or charities combat the problem it presents. It’s therefore appropriate that, alongside Bronte, I’ll be working towards producing a film looking at the cost of menstruation and inaccessibility of sanitary products experienced, most often, by women living in rough conditions.
As a group we’ve already made contact with The Melbourne Period Project, a local organisation that fundraises for and facilitates collecting and delivering sanitary products to women facing the harsh realities of homelessness. Their work is unique because it looks at and addresses a harsh aspect of homelessness that most people don’t think of, probably because it isn’t as “in your face” as other elements of homelessness are.
Hopefully we’ll be meeting with one of the organisation’s representatives this week, which would allow us to nut out the logistics of filming. This is as well as determining the direction in which the video would head and the light in which the associated issues would be presented.
In our initial correspondence with The Melbourne Period Project, they’ve already told us that it wouldn’t be possible to film or interview the women who benefit from their programs, in order to protect their privacy. Of course, we totally understand this. I also feel as though it presents a unique opportunity to be creative with filling the gaps this first hand perspective would otherwise offer.
In view of this, there are two important things to take into account: firstly, that it would be far too easy to deliver a video emanating an ‘A Current Affair’ segment which, it goes without saying, we really don’t want. While it’s certainly important for us to present the value of the work that organisations such as The Melbourne Period Project are doing, giving them publicity isn’t the soul purpose of our project. Rather, we need to bring into the spotlight the harsh aspects of homelessness that are “forgotten”. The pain and cost associated with menstruation is one such example.
Due, to not having access to interviews with these women (which we understand, given the sensitive nature of the topic), we also have a unique opportunity to bring light to the topic. We feel it’s important to make a video that’s entertaining to some degree, for that way a documentary is arguably more likely to further fulfil it’s function in serving a social cause (as more people are likely to watch it). I think this is important to keep in mind, considering the over abundance of digital content available nowadays, that presenting information in an engaging and unique manner is highly critical.
As a small part of our video, I thought of the idea of including small segments from a Snoop Dog Parody, “Drop it cause it’s rot: Dropping the Tampon Tax”, which was very topical when the tampon tax was last being discussed in mainstream media. You can view this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEdtTbtmxmI
The short segment would ideally be one of the following: 0:00 – 0:11; 0:39 – 0:41; 0:44 – 0:49; and 1:01 – 1:04. We most likely will not be discussing the tampon tax itself. Yet, we feel there are really relevant sections of the video that highlight the traction the issue (being the cost associated with menstruation) has received, in a light hearted, original and humorous manner.
It’s also really important for us to point out that the overall tone of the piece would be more light hearted than otherwise (well, as much as possible). We recognise that, in this instance, it wouldn’t be appropriate to feature interviews with the women that benefit from the work of organisations such as the Melbourne Period Project anyway. We also appreciate how putting such interviews in a video alongside parodies of pop cultural icons could be seen to be trivialising the experiences faced by women sleeping rough. Of course, this wouldn’t be at all our intention in the slightest.
I’ve already contacted the producer of this video, reiterating the above and whether there would be the possibility of gaining permission to include short clips (one or two, lasting for a few seconds each) in our video. I am yet to receive a reply.
In the meantime, today I have played around with some different filming and editing techniques, looking at fun and unique ways to bring in a title in a video looking at these issues. (The draft for this intro is below).
I am not so sure how I feel about the inclusion of flowers at the beginning, but thought that it would be worthwhile including it in the final clip to see how it comes out. The line of thought I had when taking these shots and editing them into this little experiment was that I could represent the organic and feminine nature of periods, in an abstract manner. The bubbles – which is essentially bubbly soap and hot water with food dye – is probably a bit more self explanatory. The “inspiration” for this was taken from an abstract print I have on my wall, which my sisters so thoughtfully dubbed “The Period Painting.” I haven’t been able to un-see this since.
I’m not so sure that these two ideas (the first and second half of the clip) connect so well but am nonetheless pretty happy with the quality of shots taken of these flowers.
CC music courtesy of Ryan Little “Ballet” (http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Hip-Hop_Beats/)
