Put a scarf on a person – film documentary

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Marta,

This is a tough one.

I admire you wanting inclusivity, which is great.
But at the same time, you have to be careful not to step on French laws by suggesting that Muslim girls may wear scarfs in French schools.

For clarity: I have no relations one way or the other with any religion, except that I respect anyone and everybody who does.

Have you actually been asked by the girls, their parents or the school to cover their heads?
Point being that sometimes as director/producers we might take it too far to protect the people in the film, when their wishes may be not to be changed.

There are difficult questions to ask, but the answer(s) might create a solution that is easier to manage.

I take it that you have already got permission by the High School to film on premises?

If so, do the High School have public media release forms signed by parents for all of their students? (This is quite common for UK schools involving kids under the age of 18)

Are the girls in the background, or foreground?

Are they being interviewed, or speaking to camera, or just “extras on the set”?

If extras on the set, will the viewer identify their religion? Or is it a concern that being in shot might upset the family and their values?

If interview, find out if the girl wants to have a digital scarf wrapped around their head?
Or, although not desirable, maybe reshoot the interview outside the school, with the school in the background?

The above is the easiest way of getting around the problem.

But failing that, there are plenty of 3D depositories where you can buy everything that you need.

Blender is free to use, and there are compositing courses on how to use Blender for video. Otherwise, there are compositing software such as Black Magic Fusion where you can import 3D models into the video.

But there is every chance that when you watch it on the big screen, that you might regret the result – really depends on whether you can find someone who is really good, and can match “the grain (noise)” from the video onto the scarf to make it look real.

One depository that I found doing a quick search is this one:
https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/hijab

Hope that this helps?

Atb
Mads

[Marta Anatra]

Thank you Mads

I appreciate your questions and I would like to answer in order to precise the context of my question.

First of all, i’m the editor of the film. The rushes was shoot last year.

The director had the authorisation to film in the school.

The Muslim students who raised the scarf issue are two out of a group of six characters.

The issue was raised by the students themselves during filming.

The two girls in question wish to be part of the film but have a problem with the bare head issue.

We don’t want to create a realistic scarf to do not have problems with french law.

We would like to create a digital and somehow “funny” scarf…in a tiktok or social-media filter style.

Thank you very much for your suggestions

Marta

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Marta,

I understand, and it is a difficult choice between leaving as is, dropping the footage on to the “floor” of your editing suite, or reshoot outside of the school.

We would like to create a digital and somehow “funny” scarf…in a tiktok or social-media filter style.

I hate to be the one to point this out, but when it comes to any religion, there is always someone who will not find it “funny”. And, might take offence.

Just be careful not to make your interviewees worse off, than if they were themselves without scarf inside the school, or not in the final edit at all.

You could also look at SnapChat to generate a scarf with?
https://www.snapchat.com/lens/6b1b4fc147bd4134b6c59d149e65b18f?locale=en-GB

As said, just be careful that you don’t make a joke out the religion and interviewees, in order to “protect” the girls.

If the two girls in question did not want to be filmed without their scarf on, then they should have put it on, or stepped aside – Sorry, I know that this sounds harsh, but that is the reality of respecting consent for all involved.

Having said that, if you have a cut as is, without an digitally created scarfs, and show that to the girls and their families. Maybe add an on-screen caption, or include in the introduction, that France has a law that stops Muslim girls from wearing their scarf in school. Then that might just get you the consent that you need, without including the digital scarf.

Atb

Mads

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