tomspurin

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Project Research: Why Certain People Stalk Their Exes

TW

Arash Emamzadeh

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/finding-new-home/202202/why-certain-people-stalk-their-exes

A recent paper by Bélanger and collaborators, published in the December 2021 issue of Journal of Personality, examines the causes of stalking, including obsessive passion and fear of abandonment.

Obsessive relational intrusion (another name for stalking) has eight components:

Hyper-intimacy: Excessive courtship behaviour. 

Interactional contact: Repeated attempts to have face-to-face contact with the victim. 

Mediated contact: Using different media to make contact (e.g., cyberstalking). 

Surveillance: Learning details about the target without his or her knowledge. 

Invasion: Violation of physical or symbolic boundaries (e.g., trespassing, stealing information). 

Harassment and intimidation: Aggressive behaviors aimed at frightening the victim of stalking into compliance. 

Coercive threats: Covert or overt threats toward the victim of stalking. 

Coercive violence: Physical or sexual violence.

According to the Dualistic Model of Passion, there are two types of romantic passion—harmonious passion and obsessive passion.

Harmonious passion: The romantic behaviors of a harmoniously passionate individual are freely chosen; furthermore, the romantic relationship is in harmony with other aspects of their life (e.g., work, school).

Obsessive passion: For the obsessively passionate individual, self-worth is dependent on the relationship, so the romantic relationship dominates their life, resulting in the neglect of other important areas.

4 studies on Obsessive and Harmonious Passion:

(Refer to this link for the measures of the following studies)

Study 1: 223 participants; average length of relationship with the former spouse or romantic partner (e.g., ex-husband or ex-wife, ex-lover), 4.4 years.

Results: Harmonious passion was negatively linked with the use of aggressive tactics and abuse. Obsessive passion was positively linked with abuse, pursuit tactics, and aggressive tactics.

Study 2: 232 participants (101 men); 4.8 years, the average length of current romantic relationship.

Results: Fear of abandonment was negatively associated with harmonious passion. Furthermore, fear of abandonment mediated the relationship between obsessive passion and the desire to engage in stalking.

Study 3: 423 participants (225 men); five years, the average length of current romantic relationship.

Results: Those with an obsessive passion mindset experienced more fear of abandonment, which was linked with pursuit tactics and aggressive tactics.

Study 4: 379 participants (203 men); 5.1 years, the average duration of current romantic relationship.

Results: Compared to the “no fear of abandonment” condition, individuals in the “fear of abandonment” condition were more willing to use aggressive tactics.

"The findings reviewed today suggest that one reason people with an obsessive passion for a romantic partner engage in stalking is an intense fear of abandonment." - Arash Emamzadeh

"Many obsessively passionate people do not experience fulfillment from other aspects of their lives, so they may become preoccupied with their romantic relationships. Given how invested they become in the relationship, a breakup could be a major threat to their self-worth. This might explain why they become extremely afraid of their romantic partner leaving them; and why, as a way to maintain the relationship, they would be willing to engage in abuse, aggressive tactics, and criminal behavior toward their romantic partner." - Arash Emamzadeh

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Project Research: Why do people stalk?

Dr Ahona Guha

TW

https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/stalking-behaviour-early-warning-signs-why-do-people-stalk/100483898

The majority of the stalkers Dr Guha (a clinical and forensic psychologist) works with are the former intimate partner of the person they stalk.

It's more common for people to engage in stalking behaviours at the end of a relationship in an attempt to maintain contact with the former partner and resume the relationship, or sometimes, to express anger and grievance.

People who stalk often have a few common characteristics, including:

Difficulties with managing emotion

Impulsivity

Entitlement to a relationship or to contact with someone

Cognitive distortions e.g. minimisation of their own behaviour

Moral righteousness e.g. "only I know what's right"

Disordered personality traits such as obsessiveness or hostility

Furthermore, people who stalk often present with attachment and bonding difficulties and embed themselves quickly and intensely into relationships and find it difficult to tolerate and manage rejection.

According to Dr Guha, few people intentionally set out to stalk other people and these behaviours are often initially subtle, but she states, "Many people I assess and treat for stalking engage in these behaviours toward partners they find on dating apps".

Dr Guha also outlines that "Possessiveness and overt jealousy are two factors that I encourage people to be wary of" when dating. Dr Guha outlines that jealousy is common in most relationships and a natural human emotion, but becomes problematic when "used as an excuse for enacting controlling behaviours...e.g. telling you what to wear, or who to see."

Dr Guha states when discussing the recovery of stalkers that unfortunately "past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour and it is helpful to pay close attention to someone's actions". However, with sufficient treatment some stalkers do not reoffend.

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Project Research: 7 types of stalkers

TW

THOMAS FEITER

https://www.fighterlaw.com/7-different-types-of-stalkers/

The 7 types of stalkers that the healthcare industry has identified.

1) Rejected Stalkers, who refuse to accept the end of a relationship. The stalker may be looking for a way to salvage their relationship, or want to remain as close to the victim as much as possible. In other instances, they’re angry and want revenge for being rejected.

2) Predatory Stalkers, preparing for a sexual assault. Typically male, their victims are usually women who are strangers, but in who the stalker has a sexual interest. It can start with voyeurism, which becomes a precursor to sexual assault. 

3) Incompetent Suitors, lacking social skills. They assume they can convince the object of their desire to start dating them. They can often seem blind or indifferent to the suffering they inflict on the victim.

4) Resentful Stalkers, seeking revenge against a perceived wrong. These stalkers often have some form of mental illness, experience feelings of paranoia or persecution, and can be self-righteous and self-pitying. They feel like they have a certain amount of power over the victim as they stalk them.

5) Intimacy Seekers, who desire a close relationship with their victim. Often suffering from mental illness, the intimacy-seeking stalker believes the victim will love or learn to love them, and they may have a delusional belief that the victim already does love them. In many instances, they focus on prominent or celebrity figures. 

6) Political Stalkers. These stalkers are unique in that they’re motivated by political beliefs, and end up stalking people who either agree or disagree with their views. 

7) Hitmen. The most dangerous, victims are stalked by a hired killer who has instructions to badly injure or murder that person.

Studies have indicated that up to 16% of women and 7% of men are likely to be stalked in their lifetime. It’s also been documented that stalkers are often unemployed or under-employed and can be delusional and have narcissistic personalities. Personality disorders are present in more than half the stalkers who have been evaluated. 

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Skate 3

On the 2nd and 3rd days of shooting I was pushed outside of my comfort zone. We were out in the elements, with high winds and and a time crunch. I needed to ensure each actor was securely mic’d up with radio mics so that we didn’t waste time on set if they were displaced while skating. The mic fix tally only made it to 2 which I think is good going considering the sheer amount of movement the actors were required to perform.

The radio mics were an absolute necessity rather than a back-ip because the high winds were making the boom recordings very unreliable. 

Once the mics were secure and I was very confident that everything was recording at an appropriate level I could somewhat relax and simply maintain awareness for any minor changes.

Furthermore, for a few scenes Jenny asked for my for my input to help with directing. One such scene was the main argument between Pip and Jake. I gave my input that the actors were not giving enough energy for the height of the conflict of the film. Without high energy in the scene the silence in the scene that follows will fall flat and feel misplaced. With this note Jenny got the actors to take 5 minutes to regroup and then explode with energy for the next take. It was then a matter of bringing it down to a perfect level rather than struggling to raise it up to a certain level.

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Action

The end of the first day of shooting was great success in terms of sound. We filmed inside Willie’s News Agent in Fife and I recorded all that I set out to, such as clean boom tracks and wild tracks of spot effects such as jangling keys, fridges opening and Jake at his desk drinking etc. I am confident this scene will not be too challenging to design and will be fairly stripped back.

We also filmed outside with Jake skateboarding down an empty road. For these shots I attached a radio mic to the actor and also used a shotgun mic, but I was fairly sure I was going to foley those scene at a later date as it was a very windy day and the audio was not coming out clean. The skateboard sounds needed to be recorded on the boom as the Radio mics were not providing the quality I desired.

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Script done

On its 10th and final revision the script is ready to be handed over to Jenny once and for all. It has changed considerably but I am happy with the condition it is in. Looking back I fear that I was attempting to tell a story that needs longer than 6 pages to be completely effective, but I am still confident that the story I have provided will be engaging and cathartic by the end. 

I am now focused on the sound of the film. I have begun considering sonic techniques and how I want the soundscape to make the audience feel. I do not want the sound to be overbearing as we aim to keep the film within the bounds of social-realism. Therefore, the most important thing is that the dialogue is clean and the soundscape is realistic (non-stylised)

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Shooting moved!

As a result of the issue of kids disrupting the shoot, we’ve agreed that moving our shooting dates forward is a requirement. We’ve had to move the dates forward to Tuesday the 21st - Thursday the 23rd (Of March).

This is to avoid filming in the school holidays as the kids would be far too disruptive. This means I need to get moving slightly faster with finalising the script tho!! in order to give Jenny and Cal enough time to prepare a shotlist.

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Location Ska(OUT)ing

It has become apparent that I order to fully fledge out the script and write blocking into the script, we need to be sure that it can be logistically achieved at the location.

So off Jenny, Cal and I (Bonnie tagged along too for fun) popped to various skateparks in and around Edinburgh to find our favourite spot. We went to:

Saughton - Too Big 

Drylaw - Too Small

Treverlen - Too Busy 

Transgression - Too Indoors 

Penicuik - Just Right 

The final skatepark we visited was Penicuik, a quiet and perfectly sized skatepark which wasn't too far to travel too. It provided every necessary setting the the script required, such as a spot for the boys to relax, a wall for Jake and Pip to walk off too and grass for Adz to wrestle Billy to the ground. Furthermore, we visited multiple times and were sure the park was never busy during working hours on weekdays. 

However, as soon as school was let out the kids flocked over making filming during that time a complete impossibility.

[tomspurin]

The SOUNDDDDD of silen... Skateboarding

I am very focused on getting the script to the shape I want it in, but I must also consider my second and third roles on this film: sound recordist and sound designer.

I can tell that this is going to be a difficult film to record sound for. There are lots of movements including headlocks, water being spat and skateboarding tricks. Each of these are difficult record; muffled speech in the headlock, risk of equipment damage with the water and a difficulty to keep close to the tricks.

Therefore, I am planning ahead. radio microphones are an absolute must-have for this shoot so I can capture al of the various actions the will be occurring in unison and then have the ability to pick and choose where I want the sonic focus to be.

Unfortunately, I cannot use the MixPre3 sound recorder for this project as I am requiring 4 channels; 3 for radio mics and 1 for a shotgun mic. Therefore, I will be borrowing Rowen’s personal recorder which gives me 6 channels at my disposal. 

The issue I am facing with a shotgun mic is that the skatepark will be very open and possibly windy. Furthermore, the movement around the scene will be hard to follow and capture. Therefore, I will be sure to capture clean dialogue on radio mics and record wild tracks at the end of each day, such as skateboarding, kicking the board up and other spot effects.

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Script Feedback!

For this first draft I have received wonderful feedback from Jennifer Morrison; all  of which I agree with!

First up is the interaction with the man at the start outside the cafe. This interaction is no bueno and gotta go. It adds little the story, a logistical issue as it adds a whole extra shooting location to the film and wastes valuable time for a 6 page script meaning the main characters cannot be developed as much. This is a simple fix: CUT.

Next, while in the shop, Jenny suggested I cut out some of the detail in the actions, such as the making his breakfast. There is simply space to spare in the script to write out these details. So now it shall be: “Jake pours himself a bowl of cereal”. In the words of Jenny Morrison “Tom, you’re not out here tryna write a whole ass novel”. Words to live by as a screenwriter.

I realised that the script is overly detailed because I am writing as if I am seeing the shots. I should write the story as a whole, not with any shots in mind, the is not my department.

When speaking with Jenny we also decided that the story cannot deviate from Pip and Jake’s friendship as we must priorities their character development. Therefore, I shall cut out any extra details such as Adz being angry and talking badly about Jake to the rest of the group.

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