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>.