These are the mood boards we made for each separate story. We chose to make a different one for each story because this way we were able to label and focus on key facts that were needed so that we could make a start.
Story one; Emily and Stan:
Emily is only 19, a regular teenage girl, pretty normal, that’s what you’d think when you look at her, you would be pretty surprised if you knew what her life is really like. After Emily’s parents had gotten divorced when she was only 7, her mother soon became a heavy alcoholic and gave up on life therefore this had a negative effect on Emily’s upbringing. Her father was arrested after being charged of rape. Watching her mother move from one man to another and witnessing how badly she was treated by each one of them, both herself and her mother beaten up, abused on a daily basis, it was difficult for Emily to trust any person, let alone any man. She currently lives with her boyfriend of 3 years; she felt like she could finally trust somebody, somebody who would make her happy. She was wrong. Things started off very smoothly between Emily and Stan, he seemed like the best boyfriend ever, he was always there for her, always supporting her. This was only until he slowly began to change. Once Emily moved in with Stan she realised what he really is like. His anger was life threatening, he lost self control very easily and did things he shouldn't have done and most of all he treats Emily worse than her mother was treated. In the past year all that Emily has been through is abuse, verbal, physical and sexual abuse, but yet she still decides to stay with Stan, because he is all that she has left now and now she has discovered that she is going to have his child. After Stan finds out that Emily is pregnant, he becomes extremely angered and abuses her once again and this creates an argument between the two of them. Emily becomes upset and unknown of what do to, where to go and what is best for her unborn child...
Story two; Jade:
Jade is only 17, but at the moment her life isn’t going as she wanted it. She’s grown up as a single child, having to live with two parents who always argue, bills, mortgage, marriage, family life, friends, everything. They will find any excuse to just argue. Her parents never got on from the beginning and somewhere along the line Jade feels the need to blame herself for it. She thinks that if she wasn’t born then maybe all these problems wouldn’t have occurred and maybe her parents wouldn’t be on the verge of getting divorced every single day. None of her ‘friends’ understand her situation all that well either, they do listen but they ignore the fact that it’s a big issue and that something should be done to help Jade and her family. Jade feels like she is alone all the time and that no one is there to truly listen and understand her problems, so she decides to lock herself in, away from the busy world, away from friends and away from any social contact, she feels like only she can understand herself. Due to loneliness she becomes dependent on things that could harm her. At the age of 13 she began to self harm herself, finding any sharp object to cut. Another problem of hers is that she is a lesbian and she is worried about how her family will come about it once they find out. What she doesn’t know is that they already have and therefore she walks into an argument which her parents have about her. She knew deep down that there are many other ways to solve her problem, councillors, doctors teachers, anyone but still she felt like this was the only way. Her parents are too caught up with their own lives and problems to notice the scars and scratches on her body, and therefore like always she is left alone, with herself as a danger.
Story three; idea one: Rabbi (forbidden love)
Rabbi, a typical 17 year old, Asian girl in a typical Asian family. She’s not a genius but she isn’t dumb either, she knows what she wants in life and her ambitions are clear and she is willing to do anything to get to where she wants. She’s that one friend that everyone thinks is always happy no matter what, the one that’s smiling non-stop and laughing endlessly. They are wrong. She may seem like the most open and free person ever but in fact inside her very own house she is restricted from doing many things. She feels trapped, like a bird inside a cage. She feels as if she cannot do anything with her own will, this is because it’s true; she in fact cannot even step outside without confirming with her parents that she isn’t going to see any boy, or going somewhere she shouldn’t. She has to show proof to her parents that she is going where she says she is and that she is going with girls only. The pressure of education and responsibilities are on her shoulders, being the only daughter in her family, the reputation and self respect of her family depends on her. Problem is, now that she has reached a respectable age, her parents feel the need to constantly pressurize her about arranged marriage, they wish to find a guy with a good earning, a house and a good family, regardless of the fact that Rabbi may not even want to get married at the moment, especially not to some guy that she doesn’t even know. Everyday she has to argue with her family to earn the right to her freedom and her life, but it gets tiring. She is sick of not being able to be with someone that she wants but instead having to be put with someone she doesn’t like. What makes things even more difficult for Rabbi is that she has fallen for a boy, not right for her, and her parents will certainly disapprove of him, because of him not being the same as them. [lover’s name ] is only 2 years older than Rabbi, he is a sophisticated young man who knows how to respect women, he is sweet, gentle and caring with Rabbi, and he is there to support her no matter what, but they both know they cannot be together, but they just can’t leave each other yet. Rabbi wants to fight for her love but she doesn’t want to bring shame to her family name, once again she is stuck between the two biggest decisions of her life, love or family?
Story three; alternative: Imaginary Friend
Our idea for the third story had changed because we felt that our first idea was a little bit difficult to do. This story is about two characters (a girl 17 and a boy 20) each one live in two different countries. Bother characters pretty much the exact same life, both feel like they have nothing to live for any more, they both feel alone and trapped where they are. The girl lives in England and the boy lives in America. They boy is studying law and everyday he goes through different cases of divorce and watches all kinds of happy and unhappy families fall apart, this breaks him to pieces seeing how happy people can be one moment and how things can fall apart the next. The girl is still in college but she has been through a tough life, she has been through a lot of bad relationships with her family and friends which have caused her to lost faith and the ability to trust people. From a young age both characters have had an imaginary friend which they felt the closest to. the image of the friend which the boy had was a spitting image of this girl in England in real life and vice versa for the girl also. The boy one day decides it's time for a break from all these broken marriages and lost love, so he goes to England for a holiday. a few days of being in England, he is in the home town of where this girl lives always. little did they know that the 'imaginary friend' they both had been living with was in fact a real person somewhere quite close to them...
Story three; the final story: Ashley and his mother
We decided to get rid of the alternative story for number three again because we couldn't find actors who would fit the roles of our characters. We finally then thought of an idea fir a story about child abuse. This last story is about a little boy called Ashley. He is only 8 years old, his father left him and his mother when he was born and his mother (Val) became a severe alcoholic afterwards. Ashley has had to grow up so far living with his mistreating mother and her violent boyfriend. Because the boyfriend does not like children and Val is always drunk most of the time, Steve (the boyfriend) uses this as an excuse to abuse Ashley by physically tormenting him or not feeding him properly. We see the loneliness which Ashley goes through and how neglected he feels because of they way his mother behaves towards him.
