My Final Film for MEDA102 is named ‘me and my shadow’, and is a piece which aims to bring awareness to mental health and mental illness. Throughout my life I have been very passionate about advocating for mental health awareness, and showcasing this through artistic expression. For my final project, I was motivated to create a film which expressed mental health awareness in an alternative way, perhaps giving a glimpse into the mind of someone experiencing mental illness. In order to achieve this for my final project, I brainstormed different ways in which I could achieve my desired tone and concept through alternative film techniques. Some of these ideas included using a constraint such as black and white tones, creating a rough tone through the use of abrupt cuts and transitions, as well as graininess of the film itself etc.

Inspirations

An older example of a film which inspired my film is Martin Arnold’s ‘Passage A Lacte’ (1993). This film uses black and white, and uses cuts and editing to be the primary feature of the film itself. Although I did not wish to resemble the difficult to watch style of editing, I did want to edit in a way where the cuts where showcased, perhaps to a certain musical beat.

Similarly, “afraid” music video by the neighbourhood uses cuts in beat to the music in order to convey a tone, and also feature a black and white scale. This is a more contemporary example of a video which uses similar techniques, in a more ‘watchable’ and enjoyable fashion for viewers. The afraid video acts as a very strong inspiration for this film as it also represents personal struggles in a way that captures the audiences attention, and where the audience can relate the lyrics to the visuals being shown. This allows the message of the video to be apparent for the viewer.

Metaphor’s and Filming Techniques

When creating the film, I wanted the filming to be almost ‘rough’ in it’s style, without the use of tripods or a rigid setup. As I wanted to create a representation of mental health, I wanted to use this raw footage as a metaphor for the imperfect nature of the subject. Similarly, throughout the film itself I used visual metaphors such as the ripping up of flowers and spiders webs to represent the frustration associated with mental illness, as well as the spiders webs representing perhaps a cluttered mind or another personal meaning for the viewer. 

I wanted the length of the film to just be long enough to give a glimpse into the mind of the subject being filmed, as well as for the audience to create their own meaning behind the visuals. However, I didn’t want the film to go for too long as I wanted the audience’s attention to be captured for the entirety of the film, leaving them to reflect on what they had just watched afterward. I wanted the audience to be engaged, and still be actively thinking about the meaning being conveyed, and perhaps how they personally can relate to subject.