THE UNLUCKY ONE

By Rhys Painter

Physical Abuse towards childrenDirector: Louis WyattCamera: Courtney HallowellSound: Ben HeartEditor: Zac CoppardOthers: Leah Wright playing as Krissy,Boe Alexander playing as Vanessa. A fake doll playing the baby.

WORKING HYPOTHESIS AND INTERPRETATION

I want the world to be more aware about physical abuse towards children and my film will help show this.In life I believe that children should not be treated like something to beat up when their parents/carers are drunk.

In my opinion if a child is abused or neglected it would seem that that child would then neglect or abuse their own children in the future.

Physically abusing children is not fair nor is any other form of abuse towards children.

A mother shouting at her child, the child will be a doll but the mother will pretend to be slapping the child because it won’t stop crying, will the audience/public say anything to help the child or just let the mother carry on hitting the child?

The main conflict is between the parent and her child.

Ultimately, I want the audience to feel how the child or siblings would feel and understand why it is so wrong even if you are just teaching your child discipline, hurting a child in a physical way is seen as physical abuse.

Also to understand that it is not ok and that there is help out there if anything like this is happening to them, don’t be afraid to tell anyone if you’re getting abused not just physically but anyway or form of abuse. Report it!

Topic

My films subject is about physical abuse towards children. In my short film there will be a mother and her baby a bystander and a police officer. The mother just was made aware that her husband could be cheating on her which was revealed by one of her best friends. This has made the mother angry. Due to her being angry at her husband for cheating on her she has no one else to take her anger out on.

Therefore her baby would be the only one left with the mother. Since the baby "Joseph" wouldn't  stop crying and the mother is now getting stressed and turns to what she knows best, alcohol. After drinking nearly half the bottle she is now drunk and uncontrollable she then begins to shout at the baby before then hitting him. Will the public help the child?

The audience must take into mind the importance of being aware of physical abuse towards children, scenes can be a bit of a sensitive nature due to the fact that it involves child abuse.

Due to children being abused if anyone sees it they should report it, if they don’t then the child could later on get hurt, its better to report it then to just leave it.

My Short Film is based on mother and son and their physical relationship.

The mother and child are out on a walk, enjoying the warm weather.

Mother receives text from friend suggesting her husband is cheating.

Mother is now starting to get stressed out and pulls a bottle of gin from her pocket.

Mother turns to child and now looks like she is going to hit her child which is abuse.

Mother has hit her child due to frustration and anger. Child suffers for mothers frustration.

Will anyone attempt to rescue Joseph?

MAIN CHARACTERS 

Character One: Parent (mother) - mother

(Krissy) is Joseph’s parent. (Abusive parent - Alcoholic)

Character Two: Baby (Joseph) - is related

to mother by birth. (Falls victim by parent) - Damsel in Distress

 Character Three: Vanessa – Bystander Character Four: Police Officer Baby Joseph is the victim

of abuse and his mother, Krissy is the abuser.

  

In this film, Krissy a nurturing mother takes her son Joseph for a walk. Receiving a text from her a friend with news that her husband could potentially be cheating on her with her secretary which leaves her angry.

Due to the news she just received this makes Krissy insecure and depressed resulting in her taking out her anger and depression onto her son.

Joseph is left frightened and incapable of understanding the reasons for his mother’s outrage. This results in him constantly crying which leads to Krissy to turn to what she knows best, alcohol.

Despite looks from bystanders Krissy turns bitter and hits Joseph , leaving one question for the audience; Will anyone come to Joseph’s Rescue?

CONFLICT

Joseph, Krissy’s baby wants a caring mother and doesn’t know that abuse is wrong because the fact that he is a baby not even turned 1 yet cannot talk or ask for help so is depending on others to notice that he needs help. 

Eventually police find out with the help by Vanessa who saw it happening and straight away phoned the police. When the police had arrived they saw Vanessa talking to the mother in a calm and respective manner trying to elaborate how this is wrong and to make her realise that she is harming her son.

Krissy, Joseph’s mother, now realises that she has abused her son after hitting him. Luckily, with the help of bystander (Vanessa) this helped Krissy realise what she had done, and now her son is out of harm.

Joseph would be in a safer environment, and mother would be able to get help from rehab because of alcohol abuse.

AUDIENCE BIASES

The audience could have a positive bias on the fact that mothers are caring and loving towards their children but mothers in lower class could have financial problems which could then lead to abusing their child.

Some may see the stereotype of where if you were in the higher class you would have better finance and therefore could be better parents than lower class.

Audiences do not need to have any specific knowledge about child abuse as this will be made clear in my film. Although, there are alternative view points that some men shouldn’t be babysitters there have been cases where the babysitter who was a girl and abuses the child.

Stereotypes don’t always fix the meaning it is supposed to set.

In society the public think that men are more abusive than women, however the truth that I establish is, it isn’t gender specific and that anyone can be apart of a abuse, you just have to open your eyes to see it.

STRUCTURE

My production is linear due to the events taking place chronologically starting in the morning and ends in the afternoon. There will be no flashbacks due to the fact this is the first time the mother has hit her son due to being under the influence of alcohol.

My film will be set out with a structure, the three-act structure: setup, conflict/ climax and resolution. This way it will smoothly move from one act to the next, progressing as the story goes on. Allowing the audience to understand clearly what is happening in my short film.

I intend on making my climatic sequence significant and memorable by the scene consisting of the drunk mother, walking her son in the park in the buggy, this begins to agitate the son and sons starts to cry, then mother receives text from friend suggesting her husband is cheating on her. The mother is now beginning to become more agitated and now chooses to grab a bottle of gin from her pocket while her son is watching and crying.

Krissy, Joseph’s mother, is now getting stressed and decides to hit her son thinking this would make him stop crying. My short film scenes starts off slightly mild then the situation rapidly worsens and the child quickly becomes in danger. His mother starts taking out her regrets, one of them her child, and punches her child.

My climatic sequence relates to other sequences in terms of action by each scene having a minor climax within it, to make importance and to dramatise every situation that occurs.

They all slightly relate to the most climatic point of the film but giving her very little away so it creates a build up, tension and the audience struggle with anticipation to find out what happens.

The action sequence will also act as the important part of the film as the audiences attention becomes diverted to find out how the film ends, what has come out of the climax and how it is resolved.

FORM AND STYLE

Any special considerations in shooting or editing style that might further your films content. The special considerations in my films short proposal are the use of camera work emphasising the vulnerable and the dominant. I would use high angles to make them appear weaker and more vulnerable. In addition, I will make use of make up to suggest violence has taken place.

The camera would be looking down at Joseph to show his vulnerability whereas camera will be facing upwards to show the mothers dominance.The use of the high and low angle camera shots shows clearly who is in power and not in power.

Resolution

Local distributionAs for my short film I will be raising more awareness by viewers in local areas such as schools, colleges, prisons and charities.

National DistributionBased upon the success of the local distribution, I have gathered enough money from the local sales to distribute towards putting my short film on TV.

Budget

The budget will go towards:

- The location- The actors

(clothing)- The short film

(props, make up)

- Crew (lighting, editing, sound)

- Food and drink- Copyright- Distribution for

showing short film

Logistics

The location that I wished to obtain has been easily succeeded due to the fact that it happens to be in a local field which shows the surrounding. I’ve secured a vehicle through a friend who is allowing us to transfer the equipment to the field.

I have made sure everyone has a schedule of when this is going to happen so everyone knows when its happening and therefore cannot back out in the last minute. Correct make-up to apply.