Creative Critical Reflection

Here we go! I talk about my trials and errors, what I learned form this experience, and how this whole idea came from start to finish

FInal Project

Here it is! The full two minutes.

I hope you enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ezxnvCDHU&nohtml5=False

Filming!

Filming has commenced.

Alright so let's talk some challenges:

I had to stay near street lights and I'll probably have to
improve the lighting while editing.

LIGHTING! My God, lighting was a much bigger issue than anticipated. The video capability on the iphone does not take up that much light which really through me off guard and forced me to changed things around. I had planned to film a lot around my neighborhood, which is very gloomy and empty at night, to show Marcus walking around after leaving his house do to work-related stress (a trigger for schizophrenic episodes). The problem is that the gloominess comes from the very little lighting, and although my eyes can see perfectly fine and think it is very well illuminated, my camera does not see like my eyes do.

Another struggle I had, this being my first time being behind the camera, was that I was not sure how long to make the shots. I planned for cuts in certain point, yes, but a lot of questions ran through my head. Should I just film enough to where I think I’m going to cut or should I film a little extra just in case? Will I need to reshoot? How many takes should I have just in case? These are all questions that I’m sure a filmmaker has asked himself at one point.

Let’s talk about a couple things I’m happy about:

My actor, Harrison Sharpe

LIGHTING! Although there were some challenges, we achieved something really awesome by playing around with lights. I had planned for Marcus to wake up in his room (my room) while having minor hallucination. In order to create a creepy and hallucinogenic feel, I wanted the light to be red. It was actually easier than I thought. All I had to do was get some red china paper and wrap it around the lightbulbs. It was cheap, fast, easy which was great because I then took it out to film in normal lighting.

Contrary to me saying that I was going to film in the forest, I filmed at home. In the end, the plot needed it to be filmed at home. And they both came organically from each other, for the sake of convenience I stayed at home which in turn made me rethink my plot to something I ended up liking better.

If anybody tries to tell you that my desk is always this messy,
they’re lying

So I’m happy with turning my room into a little set. I messied it up a little bit in order to imply that my character’s disorder makes him... a tad disorganized. I left little clues on the desk so people could imply that he is a college student, such as a textbook, a letter from his university, a backpack near the desk, and school supplies.

I’m almost done with the shooting, we worked pretty late last night, so I’m happy with than. Now I just need to go on with my editing and see if I want to re-do any shots.

Thanks for reading, thinks are looking good!

Here’s the plot for my movie: Dosage

Alright all, here's the plot!

Marcus is a 19 year old college student who lives with his parents. He has recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is still learning to cope with the medication; getting into the habit of taking it when required, getting used to the side effects, and to the idea that he is dependent on that medication to have a proper perception of reality. The problem is, he is having a lot of trouble with coping with that dependence and how the drugs make him feel; so he decides to throw the drugs away. This, I plan to include in my opening.

This, obviously, will leave his mind unbridled and open to different perceptions of reality and hallucinations. Since he is new to the disorder, he does not know fully how manage and control it so he is susceptible to its symptoms. 

He wakes up and begins to have delusions although he is still in somewhat of his right mind (this is also intended to be in the opening). He can still make reasonable choices so he tries to recuperate his medication. 

He goes the doctor to get a new dose. In between this and him throwing away the medicine, his symptoms have been getting more intense; by the time he gets to the doctor, he becomes incredibly paranoid, thinks they’re trying to kill him with the medication, and runs away. The doctor, gets concerned and calls the police to try and track him and get him help. Marcus, being paranoid and not having a proper perception of reality, thinks he is being hunted for doing something wrong, he’s not sure what. It isn’t until he is finally caught that he is properly medicated and put under watch. He wakes up in his bed the same way as in the beginning of the movie. Now though, we see the doctor and the medical staff as well as the police being who they actually are; friendly and/or helpful. He realizes the importance of the medicine, how he can live well with it, and how he is weak without it.

By the time he gets to the doctor, I inted to make it all from his perspective. So the doctor really will be "evil" and the cops really will be "hunting" him. This is in order to create more tension and fear in the audience since we are not sure what is real or not along with him.

Aslo, I want the plot to say something. It will be a little over the top, but it's a movie and it has to be entertaining. I want the ending to be able to have some sort of message that tells people: doctors are out there to help, they're not naturally evil as in some movies; and medication is essential when you have this kind of disorder.

This day has been full of work related to the project, preparing to film and doing more research. I actually plan to start filming tonight so I'll deffinately post something about that. Thanks for reading!

Codes and conventions of a PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

   Ok, I realize that in terms of plot and genre I have been a little vague and have been focusing more on researching schizophrenia. That's because there was so much less that I knew about the disorder and it's portrayals than anything else. That doesn't mean that I have nothing to learn about thrillers, I've got a lot of that to do.

It is also essential to understand what puts the story under the category of "psychological thrillers" as well.

This is a list of basic elements found in thrillers/mysteries/suspense stories.

• Suspense and tension: there should be a "raising of the stakes" for the protagonist.
• Proactivity: The character should be proactive instead of being reactive and letting things happen to him/her.
• Character growth: Characters need to have shown growth and change by the end of the novel. Something that will help them win by the time the climax rolls around.
• No open endings: There should "no more loose ends" and the character should have learned something from the experience.
• No coincidences: Although common in real life, everything must seem to have a purpose.
• Plot: In terms of plot, there should be a turning point, something that happens to the character that makes him/her change his/her everyday life, conflict, complications, a darkest hour, where it seems that the character has lost and that there is no more hope, a climactic battle, and a denouement.

In psychological thrillers, the conflict should be centered around the mind of the character. Dangers are less physical and more mental; the final battle/climax can definitely include life and death situations, they are just more centered around the mind.

Some common themes found in psychological thrillers:

• 
  Reality: The character often struggles with determining what is real and what isn't.
• Perception: Often, characters misperceive the world around them through their senses.
• Mind: Usually a source of inner conflict where characters struggle to find a new level of purpose or understanding
• Existence/Purpose: The narrative's conflict is often a way for a character to discover a purpose in life.
• Identity: Characters often have a skewed perception of their own identity and try to discover what their true identity is.
• Death: Characters either have a fear or a fascination with death.

These rules are not set in stone and are frequently broken, that's what makes a breakthrough story. Having this as a general guide has helped me pin down the important elements of my plot to actually make a story. I had the idea in mind, however, it was hard to find a conflict or where to go from my intro. However, no I have a plot that I am very excited to share with everyone and I will do so shortly!

Thanks for reading.

Bundy, Nick. "Codes And Conventions Of A Psychological Thriller." Codes And Conventions Of A Psychological Thriller. N.p., 09 May 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2016. <http://www.slideshare.net/NicBunby/codes-and-conventions-of-a-psychological-thriller>.

"Elements of the Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, and/or Crime Fiction 
     Genres." Hunter is Writing. N.p., 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. 
     <http://hunterswritings.com/2012/10/12/ 
     elements-of-the-psychological-thriller-mystery-suspense-andor-crime-fiction-genre 
     s/>. 

"The 100 Best Psychological Thriller Movies." IMBD. N.p., 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 2 
     Apr. 2016. <http://www.imdb.com/list/ls057336010/>. 

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>.