IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

OUR MOVIE

FILMS FROM YOUTUBE WE USED IN OUR PRODUCTION

AGATA

During week 6 we had to focus on a dialectical montage. We had to create a new story and combine it with already existing footage. As a scriptwriter, I thought the best way to do it would be using videos from youtube as some kind of flashback or visions. That is how I came up with the idea of showing a psychiatrist appointment of a person with schizophrenia. The patient was talking about nonexisting things he sees daily and the pictures from his head were appearing on the screen. To make the fact that he has mental disease even more clear and show something else than only the flashbacks we made him have another vision in the office and see a person, who wasn't even there talking to him and convincing him that the psychiatrist is lying to him just like other people who are saying that the things he sees aren't real. 
We filmed this movie in one of the study rooms in the library. Feedback on our previous movies has taught us how important working on mise en scene is so to make it look like a proper office we had to move things around a lot. I also brought a few books and a couch. This time the place in which a scene was taking place was obvious to the audience.
This time, because we couldn't find any actors I again had to act. Since I had a sore throat and directing and acting in this movie required a lot of talking, filming it was really hard and painful for me, but I really like the final effect and I think it was worth sacrificing.
Editing took a lot of time, but I think we made a pretty good job in it. We used a lot of different films from youtube. The aspect ratio was changing - it was different in the patient visions and things that were really happening. It was Harrison's idea to do this and I think it was great.
I am really happy with this movie, I think it's the best one we made together. Everything was planned, the shots were good, we made a really good job in the cinematography and the costumes.

I have no words to describe how sad I am that it was our last movie for this year. Working together as a group was an amazing experience. Within every week we were getting along better and by now everyone found out in which role they feel the best. We had a lot of ideas for next week and the final movie, but unfortunately, we will not have a chance to realize them in the near future.

 explaining my vision to the team

HARRISON

 It’s all in your head in my opinion was the best film we made yet. There are many elements to this film, especially the element of a dialectical montage. The film starts off with b-rolls of the scene’s environment. It shows us a painting, a clock, a psychology book, and finally a person. Again, these are the typical codes and conventions of psychiatrist’s room. With this, it immediately sends a message to the viewers of where the scene takes place. Followed by that, there was also a ticking in the background for the first 9 seconds. This plays a role in setting atmosphere for the scene too. The shot where it only showed the psychiatrist (Agata) is a symmetrical shot. We wanted to do this because not only is it the point of view of the patient (Thomas), but because we wanted to indicate that he is diagnosed with a problem (Schizophrenia). The shot between Thomas and Agata staring at each other awkwardly is split between the ends of the book and whiteboard. This was purposely done to indicate the views of each other. Agata, being a psychiatrist is portrayed with a high-key lighting to illustrate her positive views, as she wants to help Thomas. Thomas is portrayed with a low-key lighting connoting the fact that he has darker views, that are then later revealed in the film. Another point I would like to mention is the aspect ratio switching between shots in the scene. The 2:1 aspect ratio gives a more cinematic look or style to film. And when it cuts to a shot with it being full frame, we are seeing things through the patient’s eyes, i.e. seeing his problems through his own eyes. This was untold but since the patient was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, the montages shown are images he remembers seeing from YouTube and claiming them to be real experiences. Also, the part when Agata mentions that he is crazy, and the film starts going from a 2:1 aspect ratio to full frame, this can be indicated that he starts to realize even Agata thinks he is crazy as it shows his eyes widening in shock. One major flaw in the film though is the sound. Again, the sound was too soft and could only be audible if volume was almost at its peak. Other than that, this film did a great job in the acting, the location, and even the costumes. Overall, great film.

 My experience making a film for the consecutive 6 weeks were interesting. I got grouped up with 3 other people, and we all started out with little to know about each other. The thought process of coming up with a film was general throughout all the 5 films. We share different film ideas, and choose which is most suitable. When making films, we would usually rotate the roles every now and then. However, the more films we made, the more I notice who are more suited on certain roles. Agata has good writing and ideas, therefore can be a scriptwriter, Dan has good knowledge on cameras so he is the better cinematographer and Thomas can act and or be a film critic as he can critique films well. Personally, my experience with the Avid Media Composer editing software has improved with the more films that we created, I become more proficient, comfortable and confident with my editing especially with “It’s All in Your Head”. However, one mistake we can never learn from or one obstacle we find hard to overcome is getting good sound. Overall, everyone has improved drastically in their own right.

Thomas getting into his role

THOMAS

This film was the last on film we had the opportunity to make during this module.
It was so saddening to find out that the rest of this module got called off and that we couldn’t
create further films. I feel that as a group our dynamic had improved a lot and we all were beginning to
come up with some great ideas for our final film. However, this was a bittersweet ending as
I feel this film was the best one, we made across the weeks.

This film just had a great feeling about it, Agata’s idea for this week worked so well for the exercise we
got given.
The location and mise-en-scene worked so well in order to achieve the narrative we were going
through. On the day of filming we were trying to figure out a way for which the vision of himself that the
patient was seeing could make his way onto the screen we wondered if we could have me appear
through some effects during post but we doubted such a thing could be done so the idea that I
suggested was settled on in which we had the vision walk from off screen through the shot back
and forth. There were some really nice shots within this film that were allowed by the location,
such as the side shot of both me and Agata which we are both separated by the books and the
whiteboard, this shot shows well the divide between these two characters. My performance for this
film was also my best throughout the weeks, I think I did really well in playing the two different
characters.

The editing for this week was done really well, Harrison had been getting increasingly better
throughout the weeks at this process and this film really shows that off.
The addition of the ticking clock at the start of this film really added to the feeling of awkwardness
between the two characters.  Along with this the varying uses of aspect ratios during the visions and
the interview, showed a distinct difference between what was reality and what wasn’t.

This film just worked so well, the planning for it went flawlessly and shooting was surprisingly easy
thanks to the location. The costuming was subtle but worked to show what was going on and the
location worked so well for the script. This was by far our best film we did. 

Overall, this was such a brilliant experience, I had not met any of the people in my group before I
turned around to the people sitting next to me in the first week to ask if they had anyone to work with,
but now I would happily call them friends. I do believe had we had chance to film a final film it would
have came out so well as we had been getting increasingly comfortable in the varying roles
throughout the weeks but at least we finished on a great film.

DAN

For this film, the whole concept was that we had to use 3^rd party footage for this film mixed in with our own footage in order to create something original, which was a interesting concept to do. Originally, I had the idea to do a montage parody, but in the end we settled on the concept of psychological drama, with the plot being a man who has 2 personas and visits a psychiatrist in order to help him with his issue. During this he explains the vivid thoughts he has, which is how we used the 3^rd party footage to represent what was going on in this man’s mind. During pre-production, I decided to do the sound for this film as I had not done this role yet and I thought this would be a decent film to do it in, since it very dialogue heavy. I also created the storyboard for this film, which helped create the shots that were needed in order to make the film. During filming, Tom Played the insane man along with playing his inner voice, with Agata playing the psychiatrist and Harrison filming. My favourite concept during this film was tom talking to himself during the filming, and having the camera quickly switch between positions whilst they were interacting. Other concepts we came up with on the day, such as the inner voice replacing the Doctor, using this as a way to question the whole film, with the man potentially talking to himself the whole time. During post-production, we added the 3^rd part clips which showed how crazy this man’s thoughts really were, with scenes from horror movies like The Nun to clips of P.O.V perspectives of birds flying. The feedback on this film was overall received well, with the p0yscological aspect being the most loved part. Overall, I believe this to be one of our strongest films and has potential to actually start a series of this character if done correctly.