We could talk about genre?

So I've been doing all of this research for schizophrenia and how it is portrayed in movies and how I want to incorporate it into a suspenseful thriller. What have I neglected to talk about? The actual genre! In order to do the genre justice, I need to know how it's done. I know what creates fear in humans but now I need to know how directors incorporate it into their films. I need to ask myself, how do I want my audience to feel? Do I want to use that fear to have more of a conscience about the disease? Do I just want to give them a good scare?

I have never been a fan of movies that I can just forget about when they're done. That doesn't mean I don't like light-hearted movies; I just like to wrap my head around the plot and the characters and how it made me feel. For instance, just last night I went to see Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Sure, I know the director did not intend to make me think about some sort of social ill or anything that can be applied to the world we live in. But I at least wanted to come out thinking about how clever the plot was or how interestingly the characters were portrayed. There were some awesome parts in the action sequences, but in general, I walked out unsatisfied feeling like I had not seen anything with any real substance. 

But when I walked out of watching The Big Short, a movie about the Great Recession in 2008, I walked out thinking; concerned. I was interested in economics, in the story itself. I had to wrap my head around what happened, who it happened to, and most importantly, how it was shown through the medium of film. 

I like to watch something that makes me react. So, by making my production suspenseful, I want to give it some weight. I know I'm only talking about a two-minute film opening, but once I understand what I am trying to achieve with the whole story, I will able to create an opening that hopefully will leave the audience with some new and interesting idea in their minds.

Thanks for reading!

Popular movies and their techniques

To get ideas, I wanted to look at some popular movies with schizophrenic characters, and also with other disorders and see what type of filming techniques they use in order to create the mentally insane feel. So, I went on IMBD's list of top 10 movies on schizophrenia and picked the top three to analyse, all of which use a different technique to portray the character's mental state. 

THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS 

 Shutter Island (2013):

You've probably heard of or seen this movie directed by Martin Scorcese; Leonardo DiCaprio is a cop who goes to a mental institution on an island to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Without getting into too much detail, he turns out to be a schizophrenic patient of that institution.

Apart from the visual hallucinations that the character experiences, an obvious indicator that something is off, the more subtle techniques used throughout the movie to show mental disorder are what is interesting. This movie relies  on sound in order illustrate mental instability. Most of the time there is silence that is interrupted by very loud noises, such as the striking of a match or a door breaking open. When the background is not quiet it is very loud, louder than expected. For instance, there is a scene where two characters are inside a chapel while it's raining outside and the rain is louder than one would expect. It's as if the rain is interrupting the dialogue between the characters.

Here's a scene where DiCaprio's character is interviewing a patient.

Notice how the background is completely silent and it is interrupted with the patient's loud outbursts. When he loudly mentions Rachel, DiCaprio's character shows signs of disturbance. As an audience member, you get a little uncomfortable yourself, his vulgar language and explosive attitude are interrupting the quiet of the room and the calm that both police officers are trying to maintain. And then the slight interrupting sound of the pencil scratching against the paper. Sure, it's annoying but it is disturbing the patient more than it would someone else. 

I like the idea of slight sounds disturbing the mentally disturbed characters because they are a clear, but not so in-your-face indicator that the person has a mental condition. 

Pi (1998): 

This is a movie about a mathematician obsessed with finding numerical patterns in nature who dedicates his time to try and find patterns in the stock market. It is not explicitly stated that he is schizophrenic but he does have the symptoms of the disease, such as illusions of grandeur, paranoia, and hallucinations. 

What I like about this movie's depiction of mental instability are the  close-up and the handheld camera. The handheld camera gives a more visceral feeling like everything is out of order and us as an audience is in the action. The  close-ups are quite strange and frankly quite uncomfortable (as can be justified by UChicago's approach-avoidance study). 

Here's a clip.

The hectic paning of the handheld camera resembles what is going on in his mind. The muffled synchronous sound of the crowd mixed with the close-up of his face and the voice-over let us know that we're in his little world kind of excluded from society. This is a typical depiction of people with mental disorders; they don't mingle well. And watch out! in this movie, he is displayed to be quite intelligent, almost genius-like, a trait that does not come along with schizophrenia.

Using close-ups and an unstabilized camera are cheap and easy ways to convey my message that my character is mentally disturbed, or, at least, to introduce that something is not right in my character's mind. 

The Fisher King (1991):

This movie is about a schizophrenic Robin Williams who befriends Jeff Bridges, a guilt-ridden ex-radio host who caused a tragedy that coincidentally affected Robin Williams' character. Because of this tragedy, both become "bums" and eventually befriend each other.

William's character experiences hallucinations, illusions of grandeur, and catatonia. He believes to be on a quest for the Holy Grail. The most prominent filming techniques used to illustrate his schizophrenia are the close-up, high and low angles, and the dutch angle.

Let's watch:

Low angles generally make the character look more powerful as if he or she is above you; high angles make you the powerful one. The dutch angle is very rarely used but it generally conveys confusion or mental insanity. The film 12 Monkies (the picture for dutch angle I linked to up there) used the  angle very accurately to convey mental insanity. The constant change in perspectives from low to high; from "behold" to "succumb" in this excerpt mixed the distortion of the dutch angle really help show Williams' schizophrenia. As a matter of fact, the techniques in themselves convey a symptom of the disorder: disorganized thoughts.

All of the techniques I have talked about are favorable to me because they do the job and because they are cheap and easy to use. They don't require some fancy editing software or special effects that I, as a student, don't have the money or experience to implement. They are simple movements and placements of the camera and use of sound, nothing fancy.

As usual, researching on the topic has helped me increase my knowledge on how to portray the disorder and more clear ideas as to how I am going to carry it out. 

Thanks for reading!

Shutter Island Poster. Digital image. Demaciado Cine. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://www.demasiadocine.com/desde-el-set/afiche-nnnnactualizado-de-la-isla-siniestra-shutter-island/>.

Pi Movie Poster. Digital image. Film Affinity. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <http://pics.filmaffinity.com/Pi_fe_en_el_caos-886013167-large.jpg>. 

The Fisher King Movie Poster. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2016. <https://psy317chiearn.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/the-fisher-king-nnnn1991.jpg>. 

Schizophrenia in the movies

Ok, I think it's safe to say that many people get their impression of what schizophrenia really is from how it is portrayed in the media. And I think it's safe to say that the impression created by schizophrenia is bad. Before I learned anything about schizophrenia I would automatically think it was a crippling disorder, the worst of the worst; it would leave you in the looney bin away from society. But that would be horrendous, especially since 1 in every 100 Americans will get the disorder. Doing research on the disorder, I still see that a misinformed attitude there; people think it is "horrifying" or "torturous," they see them as "victims." And sure, if you want to call a cancer patient a victim then you can use that word, but most people, thanks to the media, have conceived this negative perception thanks to Hollywood.

According to a study done about portrayals of schizophrenia in 41 contemporary movies (1990-2010), most patients were dangerous or violent towards others, ten committed suicide and one-third actually became homicidal. Most were seen to be unpredictable. Five characters had paranormal abilities, and seven had some sort of genius or special talent. Most movies created the idea that schizophrenia is a losing battle, medication, love, and assistance cannot help. Check out this video of a man with disorganized schizophrenic having a "bad day" (he starts talking about his hallucinations on 4:25). 

Does he look unpredictable or capable of going off on some killing spree, or possibly killing himself? He does look disturbed by his disorder, which is natural, but to go to the extent of what movies generally depict?


Then again, one must play devil's advocate and remind themselves that .02 percent of schizophrenics can become violent or have incredibly wild episodes. Movies are meant to depict interesting stories, so one could say that movies about schizophrenics are based on that .02 percent. It is just important to make those movies accurate towards the disease so the correct perception can be made. For me, I want to make my character have realistic symptoms but at the same time, make them movie-worthy. The man we see in the video is already having some pretty vivid hallucinations, seeing letters written on walls and hands coming from his lamp. I want to intensify what he is feeling, focus on paranoia and auditory hallucinations. But I do not want to help these negative stereotypes thrive by making him kill himself or others or by spewing out wrong information about the disorder. I just want to show what a bad episode and lack of medication can bring forth. 

I remember when I first thought of making this idea with scary situations that I couldn't really explain or with some sort of hallucination, me and the friends I was discussing it with said: "just make him schizophrenic." I know now that although schizophrenia does provide a pathway to use interesting filming techniques and unique story lines, it is not a free pass to do whatever I want. If I can't explain something, the disorder is not something I can hide behind at all times, I just need to improve my plot-line.

Thanks for reading and I'll be going more in depth about the movies in the study in another post.

Owen, Patricia R., Ph.D. "Portrayals of Schizophrenia by Entertainment 

 nnnMedia: A Content Analysis of Contemporary Movies." 

 nnnPsychiatry Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. <http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ps.201100371>.

Inspiration

    I am currently on a school trip for acting in Tampa Bay, Florida right now and every night we have been going to a special performance. Last night, we saw Next To Normal, a wonderful play that, coincidentally, tackles schizophrenia in the household. SPOILER: the mother ends up being a schizophrenic who sees her dead son, who at the time of the play would be turning eighteen. At first, they don't let you know this, so all you actually see is the son speaking to his mother. But when you realize she is schizophrenic and you start to look back on it, you realize that no one else in the household actually interacts or even looks at the son. He doesn't touch anything, and if he does, it doesn't actually move. For instance, the mother would give him a lunch bag but he wouldn't actually take it. I thought of what a great way that is to display a hallucination! Now, I know that film and theater are very different mediums, but nonetheless, the basics of interacting with a hallucination were present.

    As of now, my character will be alone in the forest, but the hallucinations he hears or sees in nature could be juxtaposed with what we actually see and hear, a quite and calm forest. I thought of what a funny and helpful coincidence it was to watch that play that would give such an insight into what I actually am doing. I have learned a lot about schizophrenia but I have not learned much about how it is displayed in the media. So, this has opened my eyes as to what research and work I need to do to make this go forward. 

Thanks for reading!

Let’s try talk about the plot

Here we go... the hardest part about making a movie: figuring out what you're making. So far, I only really know that my character will have schizophrenia and that it will cause problems for him, thus creating the suspense and frightfulness of the film. The more I talk with my peers about my ideas, the more they change and evolve; and it's quite difficult to really lock down on one story. So I want to make this blog post about the different ideas I have in mind about the actual story and hopefully being able to find some clarity.

At first, I had an idea involving the sound I included in my first post. I'm not going to talk about it because I dropped the idea. Point is: it had too much happening for the first two minutes; it was more like an ending. I learned that I should keep my beginning intriguing but I don't want to just throw the audience into chaos.

Upon dropping that idea, I emmediately thought of another one. It's purpose is to establish the character's schizophrenia and how he is waning away from his medication and slowly slipping into his symptoms. I was thinking it would start off outside of his house with the ticking a watch. Then we cut into his house where the ticking is booming, almost as if it were a heartbeat. We see some empty pill bottles and the main character on the bed, as if he took a random nap. The booming wakes him up, he goes to his watch and it goes back to normal. There would be a couple of other things like this, like I sayd before, maybe you would hear his cell phone ring but when he looks at it is off. I want to juxtapose his clean, normal medicated lifestyle with the hallucinations. So his room would be very clean; he would be well dressed, and you could tell that he is completely normal. But the hallucinations throw you off and make you suspicious towards what the reality actually is. So this opening establishes his hallucinations but I do not know where I could gow from there with the story since I don't have a general plot. 

After discussing that idea, I got some feedback from my peers and one brought up that I did not have a reason for the character to be waning off his medication. So, he suggested something that I am really interested in expanding on, but I have not made the decision. The character would get stranded in the forrest somehow, maybe because he was camping. Maybe he lost his bag that had the medicine too, which gives a reason for him get off his medicine. This gives me the opportunity to use the forrest as a set, which I really wanted to do. It also gives me a an opportunity to use the creepy sound I had made. I can still incorporate the hallucinations I wanted to use in the other opening and it creates much more suspence. 

This post has acutally cleared up my mind and I think I'm actually going to go with the idea. This helps me with the plot but does create difficulties in terms of setting. Luckily, our local park has some great forest scenery and I think I can make it work. 

Thanks for reading!

Perspective

This is made to show what a schizophrenic episode is like. It's a little long so I understand if you don't feel like watching it, but essentially, it shows a man having a paranoid episode because he does not take his medication.

In terms of how I would show my character's schizophrenia, I wouldn't want to take this video's approach and make it a POV with voices in his head. I reffer to this video because it provides a helpful perspective. Filming it, I would go more of the route that A Beautiful Mind took where they displayed John Nash's schizophrenic hallucinations from a third person persepctive as if they were real. For my film opening, I do not want to say outright that he is a schizophrenic; I plan to hint at it. For instance, we will hear his cell phone ringing but when he looks at his phone, it is off. The audience will be just as confused as him because we are not seeing it dirrectly from his eyes and being thrown immediately into his hectic inner thoughts.

In this scene from A Beautiful Mind that whole scenario is a hallucination that Nash is having. Granted, I do not plan to make my own production that elborate and I do not plan to fool the audience into believing it is real like Nash does. I simply plan to create mystery, a reasonable doubt about whether or not they are witnessing reality completely. Maybe a watch's tick will consume the whole room or he sees a different outfit in the mirror than the one he has on; subtle things. All of this is yet to be determined, but it the case of my movie opening itself, I'm moving in the right direction. All I need is a plot for the rest of the film...

Schizophrenia

To have a reason for these frightening things to happen, I did not want to resort to the supernatural; I want to make my character mentally ill. More specifically, I wanted to make him schizophrenic. This is because Schizophrenia is a disease that can cause hallucinations, false perceptions of reality, and disordered thinking. But, like my last post about fear, I wanted to be able to understand schizophrenia and its symptoms before diving any deeper with the idea.

Reading an article in Mental Health America, I was able to learn many things about the disease. Firstly, you are born with it. It tends to surface from ages 13 to 25; this can happen naturally or it can be triggered by a stressful event or viral infection. Before it completely surfaces, one can look for symptoms such as a change in personality, a withdrawal from social situations, the inability to sleep or concentrate, a constant feeling of being watched, and an irrational anger or fear towards loved ones. But don’t worry, just because you may be experiencing one of these does not mean that they are exclusive to schizophrenia.

Now, all these symptoms are parts of the five different types of schizophrenia which include paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, residual, and schizoaffective schizophrenia. When one has Paranoid schizophrenia, they generally feel very suspicious and feel as if they are being persecuted. SPOILER ALERT: A well-known case of paranoid schizophrenia is John Nash, in A Beautiful Mind, which is based on a true story. Disorganized schizophrenia is when a person has incoherent thought or speech and can experience delusions. When a person has catatonic schizophrenia, they are very quiet and withdrawn and tend to assume very abnormal body positions. 

A person with residual schizophrenia no longer has hallucinations or delusions, he or she simply does not have any interest in life. Finally, schizoaffective disorder is when someone has the symptoms of schizophrenia mixed with a major mood disorder, such as depression or bipolar disorder.

In terms of creating a character, the different types of the disorder allow for many different possibilities when looking to establish a personality and a plotline. Thinking of my character, I think he will most likely be paranoid because it gives him, and the audience, a reason to be afraid.

Now, many people believe that once you are diagnosed with schizophrenia, you are bound to live in a mental institution for the rest of your life. However, with proper treatment and medication, schizophrenics can actually live normal and fulfilling lives (our character’s problems would most likely arise from him no longer taking his medication). There are actually many schizophrenic artists in the world, most famously, Louis Wain. He originally became popular due to his drawings of cats for satirical magazines in the 1860’s. However, the cats he drew once he was diagnosed with schizophrenia are what have given his name a lasting legacy.


In terms of my character, I want his story to be about the dichotomy between his actions as a normal-acting medicated patient, and a delusional schizophrenic who is used to living a normal life and now does not know how to deal with his surroundings. 

Thanks for reading, and check out some more schizophrenic art, it can be quite beautiful.

 Mental Health America. "Schizophrenia." Mental Health America. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/schizophrenia>. 

Images:

A woman with catatonic schizophrenia. Digital image. Mind Disorders. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.minddisorders.com/Br-.    .  .  .     ,  ncncncnccncDel/Catatonic-disorders.html>

Louis Wain’s cats. Digital image. Schizophrenia. N.p., 18 Nov. 2016. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. ..........nnnn<http://www.schizophrenia.com/pam/archives/004232.html>..

Boo!

Before creating any solid ideas about a suspense film, I thought it would be important to research fear; what is fear? And more importantly, what aspects of fear do we all share as humans? I feel that once I am able to get a grasp on this, I will be able to strike fear all the way to human instinct. Once you know instinct, you can’t miss.

To begin, it is important to know exactly what fear is. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, "Fear is a feeling of disquiet that begins rapidly in the presence of danger and dissipates quickly once the threat is removed.” We all know what it is, we’ve all felt in. Maybe in the form of butterflies in the stomach, instant sweats, or even shaking. It is a part of human nature. So, knowing this, it is important to know that fears are either innate or learned. A baby isn’t born afraid of a gun, but he is afraid of loud noises. And that is what I want to tackle with my project, the fears that we are all born with.

According to Doctor Karl Albrecht, an expert in cognitive styles, there are five general fears we all share. The fear of Extinction, Mutilation, Loss of Autonomy, Separation, and Ego-death. Dr. Albrecht explains that the fear of extinction is really just a fancy way to talk about the fear of death. From this fear come many others, such as the fear of heights. When you think about it, if you peer over a building and feel afraid, you’re really scared of falling over and dying. 

The fear of mutilation is the fear of losing an important part of our body. From this fear comes the fear of certain animals, such as insects; we are afraid they will cause some sort of damage to an essential body part. The fear of the loss of autonomy is the fear of being trapped, enveloped, or enclosed. Being physically trapped what we know as claustrophobia. But from the fear of the loss of autonomy can also be seen in being afraid of commitment, losing your freedom and the ability to do things "your own way". The fear of separation is the fear of being left alone, not loved, or not wanted. Think about when you hold back telling someone something unpleasant because you fear that will cause the person to not like you. The fear of ego-death relates to the fear of the “loss of integrity of the self.” So imagine you being jealous of your girlfriend with another guy, it’s the fear of her valuing him more than she does you; the fear of you losing your worth to her. 

Interestingly, the University of Chicago came out with a study about something called “approach avoidance”. According to Dailymail’s summary of the study, we humans are innately afraid of things getting closer to us; it implies objects moving closer, sounds getting louder, and even dates of events approaching. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Surely you’ve been in a conversation with somebody that tries to get closer to you, resulting in you feeling uncomfortable. Or when you think of a trip or presentation coming up and get a little nervous. Even when you’re watching a movie and hear the music start to build, like it’s getting closer to you. We’ve all felt approach-avoidance and it’s a big part of our daily lives. 

Doesn’t this make you feel just… uncomfortable?

Out of all of these, I am most fascinated by approach-avoidance. I had never put much thought into it, it’s simply a reflex we all get used to since the day we are born. And for movies, approach-avoidance plays a very big role. Think about scary movies you’ve seen in the past and how they’ve used this; the music building up to get really loud, a random close-up to someone’s face, or the idea of being followed. With this in mind, I can’t wait to implement it and see what kind of effect can come out of it.

I hope you’ve learned a little something about fears with this, I know I did. And don’t feel bad if you get anxiety from things that you think are not normal; maybe they’re just getting closer to you, or maybe you’re just afraid of being mutilated.

P.S.
Please leave a comment on this post telling me some fears you think we all experience!


Albrecht, Karl. "The (Only) 5 Things We All Share." Psychology Today. N.p., 22 
     Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ 
     brainsnacks/201203/the-only-5-fears-we-all-share>. '

"Cambridge International AS and A Level Media Studies (9607)." Cambridge 
     International Examinations. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2016. 
     <http://www.cie.org.uk/programmes-and-qualifications/ 
     cambridge-international-as-and-a-level-media-studies-9607/>. 

Griffiths, Sarah. "Back Off! Our Brains Are Hardwired to Feel Fear When Someone 
     Moves Towards Us - Even If They're Not a Threat." Dailymail. N.p., 24 June 
     2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ 
     article-2667168/ 
     Back-Our-brains-hardwired-feel-fear-approaches-theyre-not-threat.html>. 

"Neuroscience and Psychiatry Module 2: Fear/Safety, Anxiety, and Anxiety 
     Disorders." National Institute of Mental Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 
     2016. <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/educational-resources/ 
     neuroscience-and-psychiatry/ 
     neuroscience-and-psychiatry-module-2-fear-safety-anxiety-and-anxiety-disorders.sh 
     tml>. 

Images:

 N.d. Mashable. Ed. My-Fantasyworld. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://mashable.com/2014/02/24/3d-gifs/#ZmK2_8xJwmqc>.

2014. Mumbai. Where Cool Things Happen. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. <http://www.wherecoolthingshappen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/420-feet-     nnabove-mumbai-640x410.jpg>.

Starting Off!

Alright everyone, so there's not much on the blog so far, and before I dive into this whole process with you guys, I wanted to let you know what I’m doing and why.

This is all part of a project (considered half of my final exam) for AICE Media Studies at the AS level, a high school class created by Cambridge. If any of you has heard of the class or plan to take it, you can find more information about it here. The project assigns me to create a two-minute film opening for a story of my creation. I am also in charge of documenting the whole process, from actually thinking of the idea, to the research, all the way to the final product, which is why we’re all here!

So, since this is the first post, I figured I would talk about what my ideas are as of now.

Currently, I am thinking of making the opening to a suspense film; now I haven’t done the all the research as to the customs and practices when making suspense films so I will share my ideas for the opening itself once my research has influenced me a little more.

Originally, I had planned to tackle a completely different genre and make the story about a failed teenage romance, the pressure of being in this age, and the influence of drugs. I was actually pretty dead-set on this idea until one day, I was playing around with my guitar and created an eerie, ominous sound that I really wanted to put on screen. Check it out.

So, I changed the whole idea and genre and am now pretty dead-set on this idea. This project is in its very early stages; there are so many ideas in my head and I have many creative decisions to make, but I plan to expand my knowledge of the genre (and hopefully help you do that as well!)  and what I want my own idea to be in the near future. This is the first time I have gone behind the camera to create a project like this so I’m not 100% sure what to expect but I am very excited to have the opportunity and incentive to do this, and especially be able to share it with all of you. I’ll keep on posting with research, ideas, my obstacles, and successes.

Welcome to my blog!

"Cambridge International AS and A Level Media Studies (9607)." Cambridge 
     International Examinations. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2016. 
     <http://www.cie.org.uk/programmes-and-qualifications/ 
     cambridge-international-as-and-a-level-media-studies-9607/>.