Thursday, 29 December 2016

Gabies Edit

Over xmas gabie has done a rough edit of our piece and I'm really happy with it!
I like editing so I'm going to have a play around myself but my edit probably won't be too different to hers. I'm going to project it onto a wall in my house to get a better picture of what our final piece will look like.

Below is her edit:


After projecting the edit onto my wall i realised it needs quite a lot of colour correcting.




There is one particular frame (below) that is the perfect colour, the background is perfectly black (@0.53 seconds of the edit/ white jumper shot).

Wednesday, 21 December 2016

Drugs & DID

There are lots of prescription drugs to 'treat' DID, but I want to know what do illegal drugs do to people with DID?

It was quite difficult to find online and I don't know anyone personally enough to ask them, but I did find one article

https://www.quora.com/What-is-MDMA-ecstasy-like-for-someone-with-Dissociative-Identity-Disorder

 
Im not sure what a 'system-mate' is, but I'm pretty sure they are talking about one/more of their alter personalities.
I'm surprised ecstasy had this kind of effect - I expected there to be a more like schizophrenic effect.
Drugs enhance things around you and seem to activate different parts of your brain, which could be both negative and positive for someone with D.I.D

This girls description makes the experience sound really fun and warming, but I can imagine someone will more aggressive and scary personalities probably wouldn't experience the same thing.

Imagine having a bad trip with D.I.D - could drugs make a person more paranoid?, or make their personalities 'turn' against them?
I can't think anything worse to do with serious mental health problems than to take illegal drugs, especially trips!! (hallucinogenics) not that ecstasy is but still... scary.

Monday, 19 December 2016

Helen: The woman with 7 personalities - unfinished

https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/dirxk/the_woman_with_seven_personalities_2004_helen_has/


http://integral-options.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/documentary-helen-woman-with-7.html

Helen: The Woman with 7 Personalities

The Woman With Seven Personalities - Multiple Personality Disorder: Helen and Ruth were best friends at school. Helen, according to Ruth, was one of the prettiest and cleverest girls in the class. Whenever Ruth thinks of school she thinks of the fun times she shared with Helen. Soon after leaving school, however, they lost contact. Fourteen years later Helen and Ruth bumped into each other by chance on a train. As they sat together on the train, Helen told Ruth that she had Multiple Personality Disorder, claimed she had been satanically and sexually abused as a child and had tried to take her own life on a number of occasions. Since that meeting six years ago Ruth and Helen have begun to rekindle their old friendship. Helen wanted to make this documentary to raise awareness of Multiple Personality Disorder, now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder

This film follows Ruth on her journey of discovery into Helen's world. We accompany her as she gets to know her friend again, as she tries to find out what happened to Helen in the fourteen years they were apart and to understand what it means for Helen to live with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), which is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).


Here is the list of Helen's inner family:
  • Alex, A five year old boy who loves shooting toy guns.
  • William, A six year old boy who loves the Mr. Men.
  • Adam, A lovable ten year old boy who is not allowed to play outside.
  • Brenda, An outspoken, feisty 13 year old girl
  • Karl, A sixteen year old boy with an attitude and a temper.
  • Jamie
  • Elizabeth
Helen will switch from her self personality to one of the alter personalities at a moment’s notice and have no recollection of the time spent in the other personality. Under the personalities of Karl and Brenda, Helen would drink and take drugs. She became an alcoholic and overdosed over 100 times. She has since recovered from the alcoholism and the overdoses, were clearly not fatal.

Friday, 16 December 2016

16/10

Today

  • booked a projector and media player for the installation
  • Location: Studio 2- spoke to Sarah and she said its the best room for our needs - we can hang the material from the lighting equipment as its easy to manoeuver
TO DO:

  • Look for transitions over xmas 
  • Do more research on D.I.D - dsm books, library website, watch films/documentaries
  • Aim high with research
  • Scribble drawings
  • Show diversity in thought process
  • Submit notebook as well as blog
  • Look at how D.I.D is affected by drugs 

Monday, 12 December 2016

Shooting day

Shooting went amazing today, the shots came out much better than I anticipated. Gaya's acting was perfect - she had so much enthusiasm and her actions were so realistic.
Tonight we are reviewing the footage and whatever needs to be re-shot will be done tomorrow.
No major problems, just switching batteries a few times - but apart from that it all ran smoothly.
Ran through each shot 2/3 times just to be sure. Had more than enough props and managed to use almost all of them.

We originally shot the first scene/shot in all black, but the outfit blended too much into the background, so we changed the outfit to a grey jumper and blue jeans to help it stand out more.

Stills from today's shoot:





For all shots except the medicated one Gaya had no make up on. She was also barefoot- Chose these to give a more natural feel, also you can make assumptions by peoples choice of shoe so thought it would be better to avoidadded connotations. 
I put dark purple eyeshadow under and around Gaya's eyes to make her eyes look sunken and tired.



The makeup looked amazing, especially under the LED white lighting, it really highlighted the bags and make her face look ill.

Sunday, 11 December 2016

AG.07 Risk assessment

Filming tomorrow

Meeting at 10am to set up Ag.07 and get small LED lights from Hasan.
Plan of action for Gaya is the previous post.

Props/equipment needed tomorrow:

  • all costume
  • make up 
  • toys/bouncy balls/ dummies
  • medication/ medication bottles
  • hospital gown
  • hair bands 
  • chair
  • paper 
  • pens
  • lighter
  • scissors
  • pictures
  • LED lights
  • Tripod
  • Cameras
  • spare batteries
  • SD cards

Gaya will come in plain clothes and no make up for an establishing shot.

Plan of action:

  • Set white balance and lighting according to Gaya
  • Mark the floor with tape to help Gaya stay in frame
  • Test shots/ pictures to check lighting
  • Plain establishing shot
  • Child like shot- costume change, hair in pigtails and a little bit of blush for rosey cheeks
  • Playing with child props - dummy, toys etc
  • Drawing on the floor 
  • Shots from standing and sitting
  • Run through the whole sequence 2/3 times to be sure
  • Review on laptop
  • Environment/rebellion shot- outfit change to plain colours/ checked shirt
  • Interaction with props
  • No make up change - but hair to be taken dow
  • Run through the whole sequence 2/3 times to be sure
  • Review
  • Medicated shot- make up change- dark makeup under eyes
  • Messy hair
  • 'taking' pills
  • lots of 'breakdown' shots, jittering, falling to the floor, itching
  • More movement than others- some screaming
  • Run through the whole sequence 2/3 times to be sure
  • Review
  • Look through all shots, see if any need to be re-done= hopefully not for continuity
  • upload files to each hard drive
  • save in a folder
  • pack up.

Plan of action for Gaya

Plans for Gaya 


15 second shot of Gaya in normal clothing to represent her normal state and conscious (clearest)Childhood
  • In child clothing looking innocent & vulnerable (15 seconds)
  • Sucking dummy 
  • Playing will Toys (explore various levels with toys)
  • Sitting on the floor and drawing
  • shows drawing of a happy family 
unconsciousSchool environment
  • Sitting on chair with one hand up to answer a question but gets rejected, she looks sad
  • Playing rock paper scissors (or toy) by herself whilst looking around 
  • Back turned faced towards camera to represent isolation. 
  • Sitting on chair whilst huddled up
                                                   Home environment
  • Ripping family picture which she drew previously 
  • On the floor crying in despair with one hand against her face to protect herself- represent abuse
  • Sitting in corner whilst putting a bandage on herself (self-harm also abuse)
  • Crying
AdulthoodHospital gown
  • In gown for 15 seconds
  • Shouting at herself
  • medication
  • Rocking in corner
  • In chair talking to herself to represent therapy treatment 
  • Feelling itchy & alert
  • Crying
Gaya as a guy
  • In boyish clothing-rebellious and rude
  • Holding knife
  • Acting like a bully 
    Gaya as a criminal
  • Holding knife
Adulthoodconscious
  • Normal state
  • Maybe: picks up a mirror to see all her personality (jump cut)  we can also use ourselves to represent a personality  in this shot- becomes really fast paced and repeats (highlights the development of all her personalities) 
                                       GAYA DROPS TO HER KNEESSS!!!!!!!!!!



Gaya should:
  • Wear normal clothes
  • have no make up on
  • be bare foot 

Friday, 9 December 2016

Building

Super productive day today which Im so happy about!
All thats left now is filming next week and then I'm confident we'll be ready to present.
I'm extremely happy with our progress and how our project is looking at the moment and I think its going to be really successful.

We measured, cut down and sanded our wooden frames today.


 
We cut our pieces of wood down to 42inches, leaving 3 inches of spare wood out of the end of the layers to attach the wire. Sunny made 10 layers, looping the material along the top to create a 'tube' for the wood to go through. Next week we will glue the material to the wood so its secure and to prevent creases.

Final Test Shots

Today we went in AG.07 and did some more test shots- this time with some costume and lighting.
We spent the afternoon playing around with lighting positions to try and capture the image perfectly.
We also decided on no audio, the silence adds to the piece and makes you pay more attention/think more. Watching the piece projected on the layers with no audio created a nice atmosphere, I think audio would take away from the piece.





We used 2 large LED lights and 2 small floor LED's to light the room. We turned off the lights and filmed against a black background. We had 2 lights either side of Sunny and 2 on the floor pointed upwards to help illuminate her feet/legs. Got AG.07 booked for filming Monday & Tuesday.



Im very happy with how the footage came out, theres lots of focus on sunny's outfit and the colours, when projected it looks like a hollogram. I think the images look really powerful with the black background.

We also filmed some shots and projected them onto our layers. It was hard to take pictures of the projection as it was really dark but below is a video of some of the test shots we came up with today.



I'm going to show these shots to Gaya before Monday so she can have a clearer idea of what she needs to do. I'm also planning on testing out costume and makeup on Sunday.\

FILMING DAYS:
MONDAY 11-1pm
TUESDAY 1pm Onwards
AG.07 booked for both

Props/costume

FIRST SHOT:

  • dummy
  • pig tails
  • teddy bear
  • lollipop?
  • juice box
  • drawn family photo
  • on the floor drawing - different levels/heights to play around with in post 
SECOND SHOT:
  • hospital gown
  • tablets
  • tablet bottles
  • messy hair
  • rocking back and forth on the floor
THIRD SHOT
  • Photograph
  • lighter
  • A4 photo
  • If burning a photo doesn't work then she can rip it

Films about split personality

Fight club
American physco
Me, myself & irene - watched on 23/11/16

Thursday, 8 December 2016

Meeting with Gaya

Availablity:
  • Monday 11-1 (AG.07 booked)
  • Tuesday 1pm onwards
Going to research a D.I.D relapse/breakdown for reference for Gaya

Outfits:
  • Pinafore and t-shirt (see other post) for child like
  • Blue hospital gown for mediated
  • All black or all white for environment 

TO DO:
  • Make layers tomorrow - bought black paint to paint the wood, emailed 3D workshop 
  • Book AG.07 for shooting/ potentially studio 2 or 3
  • Test make up for shoots
Also thought of name ideas for our piece, could take a quote or sentence from Lydia's description.
' I dont have control?'
'Shift'?

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

Storyboard

FINALISED STORY BOARD





Story Board / group meeting


TO DO:
  • make a description card for final piece - explanation of the piece
  • piece will be on a constant loop
  • building frames on Rriday- poles along the bottom and top of the material
  • Bought wooden sticks for the frames
  • We have all materials DONE
  • Story board 
  • Order hooks
  • visit 3D workshop 
  • Ask hospital for a gown
  • Buy polaroids to burn - ordered prints DONE
We also talked about filming as a moving image but making it stop motion in post. This is probably a wiser idea because then we have 2 options and with stop motion its much easier to make mistakes.

TOMORROW:
  • meet with Gaya
  • test shots using props
FRIDAY:
  • Materials should be ready to project onto
  • 3D workshops for frames 

Phineas & Ferb Theory

THE PHINEAS AND FERB THEORY (http://anitasnotebook.com/2013/11/phineas-and-ferb-the-true-story-and-dark-theory-behind-the-show.html)

'The Phineas And Ferb Theory says that (like Angelica in The Rugrats Theory) the real Candace has lost her mind due to bad things happening in her life.

The theory says that Phineas was her little brother and he was bullied a lot in school because the other kids thought he was too nerdy. One day a bully punched Phineas in the head really hard and it killed him.
That day changed Candace forever.

Candace couldn’t deal with Phineas’ death so she built an imaginary world where he was still alive and playing with her other brother Ferb. Ferb has a disability and can’t talk or do much, but she imagines him and Phineas going on great adventures together.
The real reason why her mother can’t see the things that Phineas and Ferb build is that, well, they simply aren’t there. And the more Candace tries to convince her mother the more crazy she becomes.

The villain of the show Dr. Doofenshmirtz is actually Candace’s psychologist who she’s been seeing twice a week.  It started to put a strain on the family to try and pay for all these expensive doctor visits though. In desperation her mother had an idea to write down all the fantastical stories Candace was telling her and try to sell it to Disney as a show, and it worked.' 

I've seen and heard loads of different theories about Disney shows having underlined messages about mental health, for example apparently in Winnie the Pooh each character represents a different mental issues:
  • Winnie the Pooh: He has an eating disorder, and perhaps attention deficit disorder aka A.D.D where it is very hard to focus.
  • Piglet: It is believed that he suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The theory states that he may have suffered from an injury that crippled his self-esteem, and that his stuttering problem most likely developed from said injury.
  • OwlDyslexia and Short-Term Memory Loss. Even though he's shown as being exceptionally bright, it's shown that he has trouble reading. An example would be in Pooh's Grand Adventure when he mistook the word school for "skull." Also Owl tends to forget things as quickly as he says them.
  • Tigger: He suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Tigger's always seen bouncing and can never stay in one place for a long period of time. 
  • Kanga Social Anxiety Disorder. She is very overprotective of her son, and she would never let her son make his own decisions because of her overprotectiveness.
  • Roo : Autism Spectrum Disorder. He lacks awareness of danger and has a strange attachment to sitting in his mother's pouch.
  • Rabbit: Rabbit suffers from Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). He is very orderly and obsessive, and the theory also questions his sexual orientation due to his feminine behavior.
  • Eeyore: Not surprisingly, he suffers from Depressive Disorder. He always has a bleak outlook on life, and never feels any positive emotions like happiness and excitement.
  • Christopher Robin: Lastly, Christopher Robin himself suffers from Schizophrenia.
http://fantheories.wikia.com/wiki/Winnie_the_Pooh


They are mostly fan fictions that are discussed in online forums but they could perhaps be true!!