AS Media Homeless Actors Source Of Inspiration

Homeless Actors Source Of Inspiration

 

Research and Planning

There are not many urban dramas and social realism films that centre around a young homeless protagonist, nevertheless, there are many documentaries that take the issue seriously and give us an insight into their lives. I believe that although homelessness in film is good as it is so original, it can offend people if not done in the correct way, hence, the lack of such films. One way by doing this is through breaking the stereotypes and producing an incredibly realistic account, similar to some sort of documentary.

A film that does this is the 2006 American film, "The Pursuit of Happyness", casting Will Smith who plays a struggling father, influenced by entrepreneur Chris Gardener. The fact that this is a biographical recount explains the realistic production of the film. Most American urban dramas tend to focus on issues like race, violence, gangs and poverty and unfortunately some appear to be incredibly stereotypical and, therefore, fairly comical with films like "Straight Outta Compton", as they lose their realism.

Consequently, creating a middle aged homeless character who we can pity rather than laugh with/mock that is not only a father, but also a character that is shown to be trying hard through being a businessman presents a more realistic, and therefore, a hard hitting response.

However, for our film opening, we will use Emma Fuller from our group to act as the protagonist in the scene. Hence, we will be unable to realistically create a middle aged business man and father like Will Smith's character. Instead, as influenced by our survey, we could play with age, gender and stereotypes of homelessness to make her seem vulnerable and still create this pity with the audience without subverting common conventions. Although as said earlier the conventions are somewhat unrealistic and stereotypes are heightened to display homelessness etc. I believe making her appear as stereotypically homeless as possible will probably be the best idea sadly.

For inspiration then instead of using the very minimal amount of realistic urban dramas that revolve around homeless youth, I will be looking at the following documentaries. The choice of creating a young female protagonist was not only decided by the survey but it was also influenced by the urban drama "Fish Tank", however, we are unable to use this as inspiration for a homeless protagonist.

In the below documentaries, the homeless teenagers and their backstories make us pity them. In society unfortunately there is a lot of stigma around homelessness where everyone seems to assume it is due to them being disrespectful, lazy/not willing to work and dirty, despite Will Smith's character base from Chris Gardner showing that this is not true. The stigmas are similar to those surrounding the modern working class, which I discussed in my blog about urban issues.

So, hearing these people's stories makes us see beyond the stereotypes, so although, as a group we will most likely be using stereotypical homeless clothing etc., with the slight idea that the protagonist is an orphan or something may allow us to see beyond the unforgiving stereotypes as we began to understand the reasons and purpose of her homeless state. This depth in character will hopefully also make the audience more engaged in the story and adds to the realism.

Studying the above documentaries, I have noticed that the majority of teenagers do not look like the stereotypical homeless person. They actually appear somewhat clean and are seen wearing fairly normal, warm clothes like a hoodie or coat. Some of them talk about them taking shelter at friends, hostels or charity shelters, hence, their appearance is different to the stereotypical disrespectful, dirty modern working class homeless man similar to Frank in TV series "Shameless" (the character is not homeless but is usually too drunk to return home). These costumes are different to the true clothes worn in said documentaries.

Yet, I think to clearly show that our protagonist is homeless we are going to have to use some costumes that overlap with said stereotypes. Even, the actual appearance, rather than costume, of the protagonist will have to display poverty and lack of possessions that Emma's character is unable to wash her hair etc. This could include scenes of her scrubbing her arms in a public bathroom, but we can also convey this by asking Emma not to wash her hair or even applying some dirt etc. I wanted to test the effects of this with different methods, hence, the following was carried out.

Production

Below are methods I wanted to test that would make Emma seem unclean due to poverty etc.

The first idea was about the character having greasy hair. I believe it would be better and more authentic if we just get Emma to not wash her hair for a week or so, but as I don't know her hair type etc. and whether it will make a difference, I would like to test the use of products to make her hair look dirty. This can be developed through back combing as shown below, where layers of hair are held and other layers are teased.

I then tried spraying some water to create an almost greasy, matted effect. At first, spraying water created a subtle effect, so I tried running through a wet brush, this caused the effect ton the right photo.

These were less successful so I think just not washing her hair for a few days would be more appropriate and subtle. Similarly, Emma should not be wearing make up. Then we could try fluffing up the eyebrows to emphasise the bare faced appearance.

Some soil could be applied as a way to enforce lack of hygiene. If we are to include a bathroom scene where the protagonist is washing in a dirty public bathroom, then the mud and untidiness of nails would emphasise the little hygiene of sleeping on the streets. This could be applied by rubbing hands in the dirt.

Outcome

Below are photos of the outcome.

Personal Comments

I felt this production was somewhat unnecessary as it was obviously fake. The dirt and hair looks so purposeful and, therefore, supports the stereotype of homeless people as someone to be disgusted by. Therefore, I think like in the documentaries the appearances can be normal, with some slight dishevelment to slightly conform to this stereotype just the audience can easily understand the homeless situation.