We actually got some work done. Wonder of wonders everyone was available at 12 pm and we hitched a ride with my brother to the factory ( saved on some petrol ah). We finally got to the The Factory which seemed like no small feat. Since we had only visited The Factory only once before we still had some investigation to do for the location. 

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After looking around we shot our first scene in the chemical plant. We chose the chemical plant out of all the other areas due to the reason that there was much less commotion and people occupying that area , and it looked fairly daunting which i knew was something that would lift my music video to the next level.

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Through the entire day and through all the production days my overall clothing got progressively worse , from "I'm working" attire to homeless attire the journey was choppy and full of exhaustion. we decided to call it the Media Studies Syndrome. It consists of eyebags , a foul smell that faintly resembles old people and red paint that is present in places where red paint should never be present. 

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Back to the day of production, we got through the first 7 shots and made a timeline of shots for the next few days on the availability of others.

The first one was of course the swinging sheet. Which definitely was not as easy as we thought. We obviously could not put Khudija herself in a sheet several feet above the ground that we later planned to cut from any support keeping it up ( we contemplated Khudija's importance and realised we needed to keep her intact at least until the end of my production). So we piled on into the sheet anything and everything we could find ( coats , jackets , extension cords , my bag). We tied the sheet with red thread to adjacent metal frames on the second story of the plant , from there on we had trouble settling the frame and lighting for a while ( Let me be honest and let you know it took me over an hour to shoot the simplest shot in the whole video , so when i tell you the while experience has been a journey from being unlearned to learned in the mechanics of videography, it is true).

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I next shot the decided shot where khudija had to lie on the floor. the push out motion and the pans were something I know i struggled with a lot due to the shakiness that a handheld camera offers. Though , worry not I will be unable to use any of them because something known as blacklight seemed to be enjoying it's position as the thorn in my foot , and rest easy it has it's buddies down there that  it is currently high fiving , so it is certainly not alone.

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Shortly after we went on to do an experimental shot of the one in the alley to see the lighting we needed to work with alongside what can or cannot be improved in the work. I did end up getting some nice shots.

To keep my balance of extra shots in case my actual ideas do not work anywhere , i shot an alternative last shot ( because it was becoming more and more unlikely that i will be able to arrange a drone , since it was Farzam who had one in the first place and he was once again not present ). This consisted of a  girl in a black outfit dragging her red hand against a wall. Representative of the full transformation from a white pure image to a black one with fully red hands. By using Sven E Carlson's concept of juxtaposition and black and white boxes I believe it would help me bring the video to a full circle in a similar manner to the shot i actually decided.

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If you must know shortly after we left The Factory things took a turn for the worse. Effectively ensuring that mentally and physically i was not left unscathed in this experience ( read : death trap). Of course looking like rudolph the deer with red hands instead of a red nose was not enough my friends decided I had to get a public shaming for my homeless role in an extremely weird indie movie called my life. So we ended up at Mcdonalds. Of course , i did not volunteer to stay in the restaurant after placing my order , I mean fulfilling any shaming kinks was not meant to be done in a Mcdonalds those were preserved for special places namely no where on Earth.

So I with my very red hands and extremely exhausted eyes stuffed myself in the passenger seat of the car sitting next to our designated driver ( Taimoor). Like I said , the universe had decided I was not be left untraumatized from my experience in my media work ,so of course, that is when our dear Pakistani Police decided to show up. 

If you feel scandalised with what happened next let me ensure you dear reader you are in no way alone. Our country's very patriotic and of course extremely  qualified officials decided that I , a 12 year old looking chubby red handed girl ( QUITE LITERALLY) was doing something that deserved to be shamed in the car. ( I will let you take a guess , and if it needed clarification I was not). So of course for the next 2 hours of my life my tears were uncontrollable as our esteemed supposed saviours decided physically assaulting an 18 year old boy was something that suited their position. with shaking hands i called my cousin ( Haleema) who made her way out of the restaurant with everyone else running on foot only to be also verbally abused by the officials. It all ended with them asking for some petty cash and then leaving. Also leaving all of us effectively traumatised for the rest of our lives. On a serious note, this was an extremely difficult day and I do believe I will not be forgetting it anytime soon

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