IF YOU WERE walking down Dublin’s Essex St on Thursday evening, you may have spotted a couple raising their voices at one another.
Maybe you walked on, maybe you stopped to intervene, or maybe you watched as the couple moved inside, their shouts still audible as the blazing argument continued. It quickly became clear that this was more than an argument and had become abusive.
What you may not have noticed were the cameras hidden all over Essex St, or the production team of 30 people concealed from view.
The abuse was in fact a social experiment, created by Cosc, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Social and Gender-Based Violence at the Department of Justice and Equality and TBWA\Dublin.
Over 300,000 people in Ireland have been severely abused by a partner at some point in their lives, and through #MyDoorsOpen, Cosc hopes to empower witnesses to domestic violence to show their support. While the couple arguing were actors, the passers-by were not, and their reaction to a very real situation was caught on camera.
“The idea behind the video was to portray an argument which escalates over a short period of time, to gauge the reaction from people on the street,” explains Tomás McCabe, Social Media and Content Specialist at TBWA\Dublin, the creative agency behind the video. ”We wanted to create an impactful piece about domestic violence that felt rooted in reality.”
There were a huge amount of camera angles required to get a 360-degree view, not only of the location but of the argument itself. ”We had cameras hidden under coats,” he continues.
Over the course of three hours, the crew set and re-set the scene over and over, filming from different angles each time. Even the indoor portion of the argument was carefully engineered to ensure maximum impact on the street below.
“We used photographic paper on the windows to give the feeling of a silhouette. The windows were open a little, but we also gave the actors mics and projected their voices through a speaker,” Tomás explains.
After filming finished, a team of editors worked through the night until 5am to create two videos, one with the male as the perpetrator of the abuse and one with the female as the perpetrator.
“We hope the videos will spark conversation, and get people thinking of themselves as witnesses to domestic violence, rather than as bystanders,” says Tomás.
In Ireland, 2 in 5 people know someone who has experienced domestic violence. Share the video and the hashtag #MyDoorsOpen to let victims know you’re there for them, and visit whatwouldyoudo.ie for more information.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say