Dark Arts for a Dark Cause

Eyes on the red light, I sat dazed in my car staring as if it was the only thing I could see. My dramatic mirrored sunglasses shielded me from the beaming rays of the sun and protected me from the surrounding mundane while I surrendered to the moment of just another day. I enjoyed my day dream until it was broken by the loud screeching sounds of a bus pulling up beside me. I glanced to my right to see a huge blue banner across the side of it. "Don't Believe the Promises. Don't Believe the Lies. Don't Buy It" it said. It was referring to human trafficking. It pushed my pattern of thought into a new direction. Is that how it happens? Through manipulation? My face squinted the way it does when a micro-dart of realization hits you. I had always had one picture stored in my head when it came to human trafficking and I swear it’s a freeze frame from the movie "Taken." It was simply just something I never gave a lot of thought to. The light turned green and I pushed the petal to drive. Just a passing thought, or so I believed. As time went on it would be become clear that sliding moment was more than just that. It was a newly planted seed.

A couple days later early in the evening, I sat on the couch social mediaing my brains away. As I went to look something up, Google recommended an article for me to read. “Hillsborough Begins Human Trafficking Awareness Blitz. Billboards, Broadcast Commercials and Other Advertisements Will Ramp Up as Super Bowl Approaches” and there was a picture of that great blue banner except this time with a different phrase, “Victims of Human Trafficking are Hidden in Plain Sight. Don’t Buy It Tampa Bay."

The article went on to explain that the boards as well as advertisements on vehicles used by Uber, Lyft and food delivery services and on buses are part of an advertising blitz with a $250,000 budget designed to be placed all over the city until June 2021 with a heavy build up to Super Bowl, Feb. 7th. It continued to explain that studies have found that sex trafficking may increase in cities during large events such as the Super Bowl. This was very intriguing to me.

After reading the article, I couldn’t get the notion that human trafficking was happening locally at such an alarming rate that it would motivate the city to budget hundreds of thousands of dollars for an awareness blitz and Tampa International Airport which later announced it would be partnering with the "It's a Penalty" organization to promote another awareness campaign digitally throughout the airport during Super Bowl out of my head. That planted seed was now being nurtured by my newly found increased awareness. To think that there’s this whole dark world amongst us feeding and growing. How privileged we must be to enjoy our lives blind to such a monster. I imagine that the worst day of the year for us, EVEN in a COVID year does not touch a Monday for the victims of sex trafficking. This waking realization became a subtle haunting for me buzzing in the back of my mind for weeks to come.

One day on another scrolling through my phone moment, I discovered Vocal’s Good Deeds contest. I read the details and tried to think of what I could do to give back. Of course, there’s only one thing that came to mind. It was as if it had been waiting for it’s moment. It was at that point I knew I had to do something to raise awareness for human trafficking.

That night I googled how I could help locally and I found myself at a loss. It seemed like everything I came across basically recommended starting your own organization or campaign. There wasn't much. Trying to find how I could help with this was ending up to be as mysterious as the cause itself and it suddenly dawned on me that this was going to be a daunting challenge. However, it does depend on how you look at things and one's daunting challenge can be another's adventure. That's what I decided I was going to treat this as and hopefully at the end of it all I would have at least raised some awareness and have a good story.

First thing first, I needed to think of a different way of going about things sense clearly my googling wasn't producing any results.

My first plan of action was to reach out to the account director at the advertising + marketing company mentioned in the article. Their campaign really impressed me and I thought surely someone that in-touch with this subject would be open to guiding me. After a few phone call attempts, I decided to write her an email. I was excited to see what she may respond with. Would she respond with a marketing opportunity I could assist with? After all, I do have a marketing background. Would she respond with a great organization recommendation I could volunteer at? Time would tell.

After waiting a few days for her response, it occurred to me that this was a door that was not going to open. I was a little let down but I was not going to be discouraged. After all, I had a backup plan. His name was Michael.

Michael was an acquaintance I met this past summer. There was thing he mentioned that stood out to me and that I never forgot, his job. He worked for the human trafficking division at the FBI. I figured I would reach out to him and ask him to lunch. Certainly, he could easily give me a recommendation on where I could help the cause. A part of me worried he would flake and he did. Of course. At this point, I felt like I hit a wall. I expressed my frustrations to a friend and he suggested I should just call the FBI directly. Why didn’t I think of that? I wrote it in my planner as the first thing to do the next morning. :)

“Hello, this is the Federal Bureau of Investigations. How may I help you?” “Hi, yes, I am a local SFX artist doing a visual and written piece on human trafficking and I would really like to volunteer my time so I may include it in my written piece. Is there anyway you could help me?" She was so nice and transferred me right away to the FBI community outreach coordinator. Another thing I have learned that I wasn't aware existed before. The coordinator was amazing. She took her time not only to listen to me but explain exactly where to go. She highly recommended a place called Selah Freedom located in Sarasota. She said they do have a volunteer program. However, at this point all of it is on hold due to COVID. I could donate items for the survivors so she gave me their website.

The website had a list of immediate items that are needed including everything from cleaning supplies to socks and shoes. It made it very easy because it is connected with Amazon and would be sent directly to the survivor house. I bought a few items for the survivors and although I imagine that would probably count as my good deed, it didn't feel like it was enough compared to the magnitude of this cause. I knew that in order to calm my heart strings I would have to do something on a larger scale. I would have do it my way.

My way would be to utilize and combine my SFX artistry, public relations knowledge and public health awareness background into one strong series or campaign. The thought of this was enticing but I have to admit this was a strange decision for me. In complete honesty, this is not something I would like to do or would want to do. As I sat there on the living room floor watching videos by Ashton Kutcher (Yes, he is a huge supporter of this cause. You have to look it up.) and Tim Ballard, Founder of Operation Underground Railroad (which included videos of the underground trafficking parties and rings) it was like my eyes began to open. All of a sudden, it became very clear how enormous this world of horror is. It does not leave any good feeling on your skin. I study monsters. I study horror. This is different. It is true disturbing humanity at the lowest level. There was a darkness that filled the room the deeper I got into researching this topic and it made me sick. So much so, I had to get up and leave the room. I imagine that's why most people would turn their head to this and stay far from it. I almost don't blame them but that's the thing though. The more we turn our heads, the more it wins. They win. Rather than a desire, I felt a responsibility. This is not something I may want to do. It is something I have to do.

So, Let’s GO:

First thing first, one of the ideas I had in my head was a photoshoot. A picture is worth 1000 words but these days, it is worth so much more. It is worth 1000 reaches, 1000 engagements, 1000 shares and even more shares from those, etc. The possibilities of influence are almost endless. If done correctly with a high attention to detail and connection with the heart of the cause, it could really have an awakening impact. I had 3 concepts in mind. All 3 I planned to attach with a researched quote. With the help of my friend, Owner and Photographer at Crimson Hands FX Studios, the photoshoot would take a little over 10 hours non-stop to complete.

First Concept: Blood Money Mouth

This was my first idea and had been swarming around in me for weeks. I could see it so clearly. Now, I just had to put it together. I did a couple test runs to see how small I should cut the bill, the best sewing needle to use and to test out other possible mishaps. I loved the idea of combing money with SFX horror because I believe it paralleled some of strongest factors in the dark business world of trafficking. On the day of the shoot, it took me 2-3 hours to complete. Please see time-lapse and final shot below:

I thought the fact paired with this should be just as “introductive” as the shot itself to the world of trafficking. The fact I chose for this one was stated by Ballard when discussing the business operations of trafficking in an interview conducted by Talks at Google, "You can sell a 10 or 11 year old girl for double or more of what you would sell an adult prostitute for. It is very profitable. Human trafficking is the fastest growing enterprise on the planet. Why? Because you can sell a kilo of heroine one time. That's it. You can sell a child 20-30 times a day and that's not an exaggeration." I thought this picture would serve this fact well.

Second Concept: Seven

After spending hours researching this subject, there were many statistics that stood out to me. One of them was that the average life expectancy for sex trafficking victims is 7 years. This really spun me. For this next concept, I partnered with my friend again at Crimson Hands FX Studios. He was excited to help me with this project and guided me through the process of making a customized prosthetic for the “7” from start to finish. See below:

Including finishing and applying the prosthetic, it took a few hours to do this section of the shoot. I tried the entire time to put myself in the mental space of what it must feel like to be a minor being trafficked. I imagine it is a scary place. One where you are exhausted and disassociated from your mind and body. Your mind belongs to the manipulative trafficker and your body to the multiple disturbing transactions of perverted humans. The room felt heavy and dark when we shot these but it was my goal to provide a clear window for the audience to see the pain of what these victims must go through.

Third Concept: Big Business

This third concept had to be all about the money. This one had to be big because trafficking is big business. I don’t think many people are aware of how much money is made in this business. I sure wasn’t. Ballard inspired me when he mentioned in his interview how lucrative this is for traffickers. It is known to bring in over $2 billion a year and is growing. Someone once said that money is the root of all evil. I'm not sure about that but in this case the bill fits. I withdrew $410 from my bank account and singed the end of the $100 bills followed by folding them in a bouquet-like fashion and gluing them to an eye prosthetic of mine. This one I had to really count on my friend because I could not see throughout this entire shoot.

The Final Shoot: Light Within

One idea I came up with was supposed to be part of the Big Business concept and that was to set the ends of the bills on fire so we could get a couple shots of smoke rising from them. However, I discovered that in order to pull that off we would have needed an assistant because it was too much of a safety hazard to do it without one. So, we compromised and decided for me to light a match instead. Sometimes I think creativity is simply the catalyst because art has its own plans. After seeing the final shot of this, I knew this one had to be separate and for the victims. Something directly and specially for them. A visual reminder that perhaps someone can take your mind, they can take your body and even your heart but they can never take that inner light or for some, that inner flame.

The photoshoot was finally done but the project far from over. After finishing editing, I had to think of how I was going to post all of this. I knew I wanted to post it in the week leading up to Super Bowl but I couldn't just drop these out there. Usually, I'll build up a launch with my audiences for 2-3 days with teaser shots. It makes it all more fun, but it didn't feel right to do it that way for this. I realized the only way and the best way to introduce this campaign/series was to create an intro. video. I wrote down my talking points and filmed.

Almost there, the final leg to all of this with exception to actual launch was designing it. It was time to bring out my inner PR girl. I wanted to be very mindful when approaching the launch of the series. So, I laid it out on a white board the best way I know how very strategically and over-thinking every detail. Lol However, as I write this it is still one week away from launch so not every detail is complete yet. But I thought I would give you guys somewhat of a behind the scenes look while I can.

Overall, I have to say that this has been an adventure. I have spent the past few weeks working on this everyday in someway. My eyes have been opened to the size, dynamics and horror of the world of trafficking. I have learned to be grateful for what I have and how important it is to dedicate yourself to something more. There are so many less fortunate out there that need us. Going forward even after this series is done, I am going to continue to fight to raise awareness and help in some way. It is the least I can do. I will continue with my life and my art but a part of it now will be a strong focus on how I can help end sex trafficking. A determination. Some might say, I have my eyes on the red light. As if its the only thing I can see.