Concealment (short experimental)

!!! STOP PRESS !!!

We've reached our target, but are still welcoming contributions. The more money we receive the more chance the film has of making a real impact as we can spend that little bit extra on aesthetics, promotion and distribution.

Keep upto date with the project at our blog here: http://concealmentshort.wordpress.com

CONCEALMENT

A short, experimental film exposing the media's sexual objectification of women. To be shot on 16mm celluloid, in association with the Cambridge School of Art and supervised by cinematographer Tim Sidell.

Starring: Angela C. Heywood
Director and DoP: Ann Evelin Lawford
Producer: Ryan Chapman
1st AD: Clare Unsworth
Editor: Kim Hanzlik
Still Photographer: Josh Murfitt
Costume Designer: Karin D. Read
Makeup Design: Becky Gilbanks
Sound Designer: Scuz Brophy
Sound Mixer: Joe Nicholson
Production Designers: Matthew Richmond


We're asking for your kind donations to make this project possible. As we're filming on celluloid film the processing will be expensive, but we think it will be entirely worth it. This stage will take up a large chunk of the budget, upto £432. We want to be able to spend around £100 on costume and the location fees may be the same amount again. We'll also need to feed everyone involved, and get them all to the shoot etc. The budget is very close to £1000, so I've rounded it up to allow for the odd minor overspend.

We would love to hear from you, so should you have any questions you'd like to ask or if you would like to know more, please feel free to contact us:

Producer: Ryan Chapman:

Director: Ann Evelin Lawford:

MORE ON CONCEALMENT

Concealment is an awakening to our society’s delusion of erotically charged perfume commercials’ hidden and manipulative politics that play to our fantasies to meet the male gaze.

The film challenges this way of manipulation through camera movement, positioning, compositing and lighting and exposes the effect this has on the portrayal of women, in what terms she is objectified and distorted, what impact this has on women’s and girls’ perceptions of themselves and on the way men look at women and girls.

It takes as a starting point the high-end perfume commercials which sell us the idea of sex. They are concealing messages in these commercials without our awareness and are intentionally stimulating our lust by putting women (and men!), who match our society’s imaginary beauty ideal, in various provocative poses. The sexual content is often woven into sexual promises: promises to make us more sexually attractive, more likely to engage in sexual behaviour, or simply to feel more sexy for our own enjoyment. Media and mainstream, narrative cinema are not gender-neutral and the camera moves and is positioned in a way to meet the male gaze and play to our fantasies.

WHY ARE WE MAKING CONCEALMENT?

Concealment is a response to some of the findings of previous projects Experimental Film No.1, Experimental Film No.2.1 and Experimental Film No.2.2. These projects explored the media’s sexual objectification of women and fascination and pleasure in looking, by exploring the line between whether a woman is seen as sexual object or not. They exposed that people often do not realize that the media and mainstream, narrative cinema manipulate visual pleasure as it represents and reflects the way that our patriarchal (male dominated and orientated) society has shaped our unconsciousness of pleasure in looking. People do not acknowledge this or even believe women have brought this on themselves. Some see it as “normal” and “acceptable” and this poses a great danger!

Women and girls take in this male gaze and make it an integral part of their attitudes and beliefs. This changes their perceptions of themselves and makes them think of themselves as objects.

We feel the urgent need, drive and passion to raise our voices and concerns about this and to awaken people. We intend to expose how we are being manipulated and that this is most likely harmful to us. It leaves women and girls with the question how to nurture a positive body and self image while we are constantly being judged and while our bodies are turned into sex objects. Will there ever be a limit? Will someone ever draw the line and not claim that this is what we want, need and expect? How far are we willing to go?

MEET THE TALENT

Actress - Angela C. Heywood

''Concealment is direct, it serves a purpose and aims to bring to light how many people view and manipulate the female identity. A very strong subject portrayed cleverly through a commercial concept. I feel blessed to have been asked to take part in this piece as this issue has been troubling me for years and I admire Ann's passion and dedication to getting this message across. As an actress, you feel a constant pressure to come across as flawless, seductive, mysterious and never ageing. For me, acting or any other art form is about being raw and real. Everyday women are fed with illusions, superficial expectations and examples of who and what they should look like. Through Concealment my hope is that we can in some way contribute to changing people's views for the better.''

Director and DoP - Ann Evelin Lawford

“Having explored the line between whether a woman is seen as sexual object or not in previous film and installation projects - as a director and female, I am fascinated by gender roles within our masculine society, and to what degree our gendered behaviour is a product of socialization.  In particular the role media, film and art play in prescribing what qualities and activities our culture imposes to the feminine gender role, the dangers in doing so and its manipulation of visual pleasure. Concealment intends to stimulate the audience to think again about the content they normally consume without question. As an aspiring cinematographer I am extremely curious and interested in creating awareness of this issue and highlighting and uncovering its actuality by creating a film with cinematographic characteristics that fit the norm, setting up audience’s (genre) expectations that subsequently – seemingly – will be satisfied…”

Producer - Ryan Chapman

"I'm a Cambridge based student and filmmaker currently studying at the Cambridge School of Art. I've made promotional films, documentaries and dramas in locations ranging from a poverty-stricken township in South Africa to a football stadium in Dortmund. I was recently awarded the Anglia Trust Foundation Scholarship to fund a return visit to South Africa to produce another short documentary. I recognised the potential in this project and wanted to be a part of it. I have a lot of faith in Evelin as a director and cinematographer and enjoy working with such a passionate person."

Stills Photographer - Josh Murfitt

"As a photographer I am very interested in the manipulative aspect of photography and moving image production. How things can be seen and represented differently - which helps to shape the audience’s response to the image. It is what makes photography such a powerful means of communication, for better or for worse. All cameras work on the same basic principles, yet they can reproduce so many different interpretations of reality. I think is is important that people realise how images ‘speak’, who they speak for, and how they are used to manipulate our emotions, especially with regards to advertising. Evelin’s film seeks to expose the media’s misportrayal and manipulation of female identity, and how the camera is used to meet the male gaze. The film proposal promises an approach to this subject which is both sensitive and strong, personal and political, and visually challenging."

Costume Designer - Karin D. Read

“I was eager to be involved with this project, as I am a big fan of Evelin's fluid and intuitive handling of light through the lens, and how this relates to fabric, to flesh, and so forth. Further to this, costume is the study of character, of identity. The questioning of gender roles cuts straight to the heart of this matter. With this film I hope that the viewer might, for a moment, think about gender as a character, a construction, a fabrication. I feel it's important that this project is realized to allow these issues to come to life and be explored in a world here objectification and "the pleasure in looking" at women is accepted as standard and rarely questioned.”

Production Designer - Matthew Richmond

“I am extremely interested in being part of this project, as I feel that the design of this film can be explored in so many different, but exciting ways, especially due to the films strong underlying message. The films topic itself is both an emotional and thought provoking one, which asks the viewer to constantly question our ideals and thoughts on femininity and the portrayal of the female form. As a set designer, trying to capture the essence of such ideals to try and provoke this questioning, will be challenging, but extremely rewarding. Production design is extremely powerful as it creates a visual world in which the audience are drawn into, a world which can cause certain reactions as well as help the understanding of the films topic on screen. Within this project I hope to create a world the audience is drawn into, to help really highlight the important underlying message within this film.”