Research on Paranoia

People that experience paranoia have beliefs that other people are intentionally trying to do them harm even no there is no actual evidence of them doing so. Paranoia is the unknown fear that something bad is about to happen, however not knowing what and that other people are to blame for this as there are to be believed to have planned it out.

People who have experienced the symptoms of psychosis regularly have paranoid thoughts which becomes a frightening. They live in the fear that they are going to be psychically harmed, believe that things are being said behind their backs, have people plotting against them or even trying to control them by manipulating their thoughts. Sometimes the person with paranoia doesn't even know who they're scared of.

In general people with paranoid have a constant fear, however there are different types of threats that they can feel paranoid about, such as:

• Psychological or emotional harm - thinking that someone is against you, such as saying stuff behind your back, planning stuff against you, intentionally annoying you and so on.
• Psychical harm - having thoughts that someone is going to intentionally hurt or kill you.
• Financial harm - having thoughts that someone is trying to steal from you, damaging your stuff or manipulating you into giving them money.
  

Persecutory delusions are seen to be the most extreme versions of paranoid thoughts as they are one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia; although not everyone diagnosed with schizophrenia will have them these types of experiences can be related or come along with voices that confirm the person's beliefs and fears. They are a symptom of paranoid schizophrenia which is a sub-type of schizophrenia, sometimes people who are diagnosed with this may see themselves as being important in some sort of way and thus this is the reason that they are being persecuted with the illness. They can also experience auditory hallucinations, sinister whispering or laughter as well as voice that can be seen as mocking or threatening.

Some people can be given the less common diagnosis of  'delusional disorder' if they do experience persecutory delusions however do not experience hallucinations.

Anyone who is a victim of persecutory delusions is more than likely to withdraw themselves from other people in their life to protect themselves from getting hurt therefore to avoid situations where they feel threatened. They mostly will spend a lot of time by themselves worrying about their fears rather than turning to someone for help as they do not seem to trust anyone. If someone is content that other people are intent on hurting or harming them, they begin to interpret actions and events in a way that confirms their beliefs for them rather than considering alternative explanations.

I love You Analysis

'I Love You'

Produced by Adam Wright

The short film begins with a close up of the persona's eyes with delicate childish music playing in the background, as she applies make up to her face the camera stays close up to her face it then carries on to show close ups on what the persona is doing as the next shot is a close up of her fixing her hair. It is then followed by a medium shot of what the persona looks like as she applies more make up it then goes back to a close up of her hands as she places her make up down, this then begins to give the audience that the actions that are being shown are going to be significant to the story line. She then removes some of the make up that she has just applied shown using a medium shot then changes to a close up of the music box that is playing in the background the box then gets shut and the movie title is shown on screen.

The scene then changes to a kitchen and the persona's movements are still being tracked however the persona seems to be shown as nervous. As the scene goes on it is evident to the audience that the woman persona is preparing to see her significant other as she is preparing a candle lit dinner. It then shows a close up of a glass that she picks up and switches to a close up to a candle light flame that is beginning to go out as it is flickering quite fast connotes to the audience that something is about to happen, then in the background you hear the diegetic sound of a glass smashing.

She then sits on the floor and slowly picks up the pieces of smashed glass and says "when he comes home we will definitely notice, i hate this kinda thing" presenting to the audience that the persona is now nervous for when her second half is to arrive home. It then cuts to the male persona on the phone saying "she can't do anything right" and carries on to explain onto what she has done wrong then goes onto say "I think it has been doomed from the start" also the male persona is first shown from the back leaving the audience in mystery as the woman persona's appearance is shown almost straight away in the story line.

Unfortunately, half way through analysing this film the video was blocked due to copyright issues therefore it is difficult to carry on the analysis. This has made the importance of not using audio that is not copyright free. However from what I did get to analyse the idea of the film was great however some of the footage could have been better.

Storyboard

I have used a range of shot types to show the location and the confusion on the actors face. I will follow the rule of thirds where possible to insure the shots are dynamic and stylish I have used a close up on the characters hand to show that he is trapped within the location that i have based him in.

I have decided to use a black and white filter to achieve the style of film noir, the reason for this choice is to emphasise the feeling of the character being trapped. It also signifies to the audience that the character is in a state of a dream and it is not reality. The alter ego is shown with shaky camera affects as well as the camera is not in focus to show a state of the characters imagination.

I am going to use editing techniques to add a flash to when the alter ego disappears this will be further emphasised through audio. There will mainly be long shots to show both characters and then medium/close ups will be used to show the characters body language and emotions to his reactions. This should support the audience to understand his state of mind as there are some shots such as the long shots which can be seen as a point of view shot.

Survey and Analysis of survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VQXTRZ3

So in my survey i got the exact asked amount of responses of 100 the reasoning behind the amount of responses is due to the accuracy of how well i want my research to be, as due to if i only got a small amount of responses they would be highly limited and then i wouldn't get the necessary information that i need out of my survey, therefore with 100 responses i get a more varied response and more accurate and to the point.

My first question was ''what is your gender?" the reasoning behind this is so that i can target the right audience, it then also helps to create a cast due to males normally prefer to watch women or women prefer to watch men depending on the genre of the film. The predominant gender in my survey was Male so that means my persona will most like be male due to females are portrayed to be the weaker gender therefore a male will feel more comfortable watching a male go through self discovery.


My next question was "what is your age?" and the most dominant age range was 18- late 20's, therefore my target audience will be mainly to young adults. Age is important due to it will set the pace to my film because younger adults prefer faster paced films due to them being more inducing this would contrast to an older generation which prefer a build up and slower pace so that they can take an easier understanding to it.





The third question i asked was "what is your favourite type of short film?" which I then gave them the choice of the three types of short films, narrative, documentary and anamation so that I could get a good idea of which type of short film is most popular and which one will most likely have the biggest audience if I create. Narrative was the most popular answered therefore I have decided to make a narrative  short film due to it will give me my highest audience


The next question i asked was "what short films have you watched?" so that i can find out what the audience that have filled out my survey's genre of short film would be. I got a varied amount of answers from stupid answers that are invalid to my research so i will not include them, not seen any at all to a massive list of various different short films. The list of films i got were Le voyage dans la lun, mall, Wallace and Gromit, 2+2=4, One minute time machine, Plug, Vengence, Remember my story, One man and his dog, From the future with love, Waste, Immersion, Maybe, Eat the tourists, Elefante, The flying man, Inside, Unwind, Removed, Post it, Text me, One mans loss and promexity, Charlie McDonnell's short films, Promemity, The most beautiful thing, Slim time, Room 8, Brain Divided, Coming out, Simpsons short films, Journey through the Night, Swan Song, Waiting for Woody, Remembrance, Feast, Shock Theatre, The Boxer, Minecraft the film and so on. The genre's that were written instead of films in this question were thriller, action and documentaries, therefore i decided to choose a thriller/horror short film.

The next question i decided to ask was which do they prefer out of feature or short films, the majority of 65% said short film therefore the next question i went on to ask was why they chose short films compared to feature films. I then got a varied list of responses such as they take less time to watch, easier to follow the story line, it's nice to get to the point quicker, they contain more knowledge, they are more creative and don't necessarily follow codes and conventions, tends to be highly creative and they often use music to portray emotions rather than narrative script which can be much more effective to the audience.

Where Am I In My Current State of Coursework

Currently in media, I have decided my chosen brief of a short film under the genre of psychological/horror and the reason in which to why I changed over to a short film instead of carrying on with advertisement due to I knew if i carried on with the advertisement brief I knew i wouldn't have been as successful as I have experience within short films and I enjoy this brief much more as personally I find it more interesting.

I have tried to analyse as many short films as i can and still currently carrying on to do so, the reason in which this part of the research is so delayed is due to the fact that i want my analysis to be at the highest standard that it can be and that I don't just try to get it over and done with, only for it then to be half heartedly done and not to the best of my ability. However, I have analysed 10 film posters which highly helped me in my project due to now have some idea of what i want my film poster to look like. I want the film poster to be black and white due to most posters within my genre of short films have a black and white theme to them; i then want my persona to be predominant on the poster thus giving my audience somewhat clues to what my film is about as it will have a title of "Isolation" which automatically gives off the impression that the persona that is displayed on the poster is trapped wherever they are.

I have one post of secondary research where a blogger on youtube talks about a film that he has recently watched and highly criticises it, this was highly helpful for me as it began to make me realise what things i should be mainly watching out for whilst watching a film and how to make it easier and more basic, rather than writing a load of random notes that later on i would look back on and realise that i didn't understand or even that they don't really make that much sense. Therefore, due to this helping me create a better understanding how to analyse short films, i have decided that I need to carry on with further secondary research so that i can develop my skills even further.

I have also looked into the codes and conventions of short films and written a blog post of what needs to be included within my product for it to be able to be passed as a ' short film'.

Analysis of Peep

Peep

Produced by Micheal Evans

The film begins with a medium shot of the protagonist using high key lighting to make the audience focus on her; she is laying in bed and seems to be looking over or at someone which automatically begins suspense to the audience. It then changes to a full shot of the woman persona laying on top of the bed sheets looking over a man who is laying in the bed sheets, this therefore shows that she is either not welcome in the bed she is currently laying in or that she has somewhere else to be. Slow suspense music plays then there is a sound of a knock at the door, there is then a medium shot of the woman's face as it shows that state of confusion on her face. The next shot is of the front door with highly suspense music, making the audience feel on edge there is then another three knocks at the door and yet still no one has gone to answer the door, making the audience become highly curious on what is actually going on, it then cuts a shot to the time of 1:47am which then gives the audience an insight that whoever is at the door should not be there. It then cuts to the woman persona's face, still looking highly worried and afraid, she then decided to get up from the bed very slowly which connotes that she is unsure of what she is about to do, it then cuts to a shot which makes it looks like someone is watching her from the hallway and you can see her shaking and still very hesitant on what she is about to do, the use of the lighting of the room creates to shadows on each side of the wall, making the scene become much more eerie, again you hear three knocks at the door so whoever it is, is very persistent on someone answering the door. The mis en scene then becomes very dark as you can barely see the persona anymore as they are walking in darkness as well as there is a lot of space on screen which presents her isolation thus creating higher suspense as there is also slow tense music playing. A close up is used to present danger as well as isolation as the persona is petrified as you can see the fear in her face due to the camera being so close up, it then begins to create high tension as both of the characters on screen are right in front of each other but the only thing stopping them from anything happening is the door, however they both can see each other through the small hole in the door known as the 'peephole' therefore this then links with the movie title which gives a clue to the audience that whoever is behind the door will be highly significant to the narrative. As the persona we've got used to seeing on the screen looks through the peephole there is then a crashing sound which makes the audience jump as the camera turns to who is standing outside, the audience is then confused as the same persona is on the outside of the door as well as the inside it then turns out to be a flash back (which is confusing as there was no clear indication that it was a flashback to begin with) as it shows her partner answering the door, it then cuts back to the persona walking away from the door crying.

Where will my film be set?

Due to my film being a psychological thriller or something that is somewhat along the lines of this genre, as the person is trapped and has no way of getting out, i decided that the best possible place to base my film would to be to film in it a place which can be related to horror or other psychological film, such as treasure island which is based on an island, which in itself is incapable of being able to escape without authority and a full blown plan. Then the fact that it is based in the middle of the island with high security presents the danger which the protagonist is beginning to get himself into due to nothing that is safe would be protected or hidden away that much.

Therefore this means that i could either base my isolation film in a forest/woods due to they are the typical setting of where a character is trying to escape such as in horrors therefore for the audience they can easily relate to the panic and distress of the persona's dilemma as the scenario is relatable or even recognisable.

However, a typical psychological non escape film is based within a room which the persona cannot escape, such as Saw 1 two men are locked up in a bathroom with only a certain amount of space to move and to escape the room they have to complete certain tasks that saw gives them or he gives them clues towards how they can get out, however the whole suspense to the film is they both do not know how they actually end up there or where they are in general all that they really do know is that they are in a bathroom with a stranger which is the type of film i want to create.

I want to create a film where a person wakes up to be isolated and confused with whats going on, whether or not they are in a dream or whether they are in real life due to them being in a random room/woods with no escape with no memory of how they got there. Of course they would begin to believe that they are in a dream if they have no proof to prove to themselves that it's not? therefore this then leaves the audience uncomfortable and leaves them in suspense as well as leaving them questioning the film a lot thus making them want to watch the rest of the film. Such as wanting to find out whether or not the persona actually does escape, whether or not they find out how they got to the place that they are trapped in or even finding out whether or not it is in fact real life or just a concept of their dreams.

Therefore, to decide where i'm going to film i need to either find a plain room or woods that i can get to be authorized to film in, so from now on in the production process i need to go to both of these kind of places and see which of settings would fit in with my genre of film the best, so that i can produce the best possible short film that i can.