Main Post 4b: Narrative/Character Research

In our group we agreed that to be able to portray our characters and have a clear narrative we should research into it.
Here is a link to Opra - Sexual Grooming where we found out the steps in sexual grooming that go like so; 1. Targeting the victim
2. Gaining the victims trust
3. Filling a need
4. Isolating the child
5. Sexualizing the relationship
6. Maintaining control
By researching these six steps we were able to develop the rest of our film using these steps as the basic plotline trying to keep as realistic as possible when it came to Sophie and Alan's relationship.

This link Protect your children leads to information targeting parents so they are aware of what to look out for to keep their children safe. Below is a list of what makes children targets;
Unpopular
Feels unloved
Seeking attention and friendship
Low self-esteem and lack of confidence
Isolated from peers
Spends time alone
Often unsupervised
Experiencing family problems
This site seemed to focus on how the Abuser targets the 'vulnerable' as they are the easiest to get hold off. Therefore to keep our film realistic we have to use a few of the points above to prove Sophie is 'vulnerable'.

As we had an idea of our plot ending with the girl's ringing the NSPCC we checked there website for any information. Here is the link: Understanding Groomers. It not only told the parents how to protect there children but how the mind of an abuser works as seen from a quote below.

"I look for a child who seems to be lonely or sad looking for attention. Then I take my time gaining her trust and becoming her freind. In time she will do anything I ask."

This site also had stages of grooming however there were only four steps in comparrison to opra's six.
-Sexual motivation
-Overcoming internal inhibitions against acting on that motivation
-Overcoming external impediments to commiting sexual abuse
-Undermining or overcoming the child's resistance to the sexual abuse

From this website we have gathered information on how the mind of an abuser works which gives us inspiration when writing the script for our abuser's voiceover.