Contacting Ella

I have been given the email address of an escort my friend (also an escort) knows from her agency. I originally considered contacting Ella via her adultwork account, but decided that she must recieve so many emails there and that this would be a better way of introducing myself. Below is a copy of the email.

From: Bethany Wales (bethany_wales@hotmail.co.uk)

Sent:9th January 2015 17:55:22

To:*******92@outlook.com (*******92@outlook.com)

Hi there Ella,

I hope you don’t mind me contacting you; Bex gave me your email address because she advised me that you might be able to help me with a project I am currently working on. I am a third year student studying Performance at Northumbria, and am in the process of putting together a film whose goal is to create an accurate portrayal of the escorting industry in the North East, in my opinion it is an industry which suffers from a great deal of misrepresentation, both in the media and in popular culture. My motivation for this is that I strongly believe that these representations push those working and seeking service in the industry to the fringes of society, further perpetuating the discrimination that they face in mainstream life. As public opinion has a huge impact on the laws of our country, I feel it is incredibly important to challenge these misconceptions, in order that these laws are fair and appropriate to the reality of what goes on.

The film that I want to create will be written in a verbatim style, meaning that the script will be made entirely from transcripts of interviews that I hope to record with yourself and others working in the industry. This will then be performed by actors, meaning that everything you say during interviews would be completely anonymous, and your identity would not be revealed at any point in the project. If you did not feel comfortable meeting with me then I would be more than happy to communicate via phone, email etc. My only intention is that the women working in this industry have the opportunity to voice their opinions, and to challenge the narrow portrayal of the industry that I have encountered.

Bex has informed me that you are also a student, so I completely understand if it is something you wouldn’t have time to be involved with. Equally I understand if it is something you are not interested in being involved with, and if I am ill informed on the issues I have raised then I sincerely apologise. I am not seeking to create a film about how shocking the industry is, in fact quite the opposite. I would love to have some casual conversations about it, which I’m hoping will uncover some facts and help silence speculation about the women and men involved, as well as educating people about what really goes on.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this email, I hope that I have communicated my project in a positive light as I really do feel passionately about the issues I have raised. If you have any questions then please feel free to ask them, and equally if you feel I am approaching this in the wrong way I would really welcome the feedback.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Bethany

I am now keeping my fingers crossed and hoping my film is something that will interest Ella as much as it does me!