Creative Development

The MIC project has been a long time in the works, but despite this, it was quite difficult in places to develop it as a piece, and as a result compromises were made. Having the Christmas holidays in the middle of the project was not ideal and if we had communicated more effectively during this time, there wouldn't have been the issues with the accents. We chose America as the base for the project because my research indicated that this is a very big problem there. America has one of the highest prison populations in the world, and this was why we made this decision, but the actors American accents didn't work for me, and compromised the message. Unfortunately, by the time I had heard the project it was too late in the development to change this, which was regrettable but we agreed that if were to develop the idea it would be an ideal piece to translate into different languages and cultures, and as such accents and languages could be substituted in, which would give us room to improve this.

The process wasn't as immersive as I would have liked. When we constructing the 'performance area' it transpired that creating a four walled room wasn't going to be possible with the budget and spatial constraints we had, we couldn't mount the projectors anywhere, and the flats weren't sturdy enough to support them so our initial plan warped slightly, as the project was a sales pitch, we agreed that with a bigger budget it would be possible to create a more immersive space. In the future were we to develop this project I would imagine an actual room with a central seat for the audience and four walls, with projectors concealed within, this would make the overall feel of the project to be more what we had initially desired.

I took issue with the criticism that the presentation let the piece down. We had a central design theme, and we explored the development of the piece, which we would have done were we selling the piece. I also feel that what was desired of us in the presentation wasn't made clearly, we adhered to the initial brief which stipulated a presentation of 15 minutes of produced media, and we put a lot of effort into developing a documentary, made with stopmotion to go along with this. I especially commend Alfie for her work on this, as she was tireless in it's development and she worked really hard, I feel it was unfair that this was a criticism.

There was also critique that the piece was too film like and literal, and I disagree with this. Mental health problems are very hard to describe to someone who has not experienced them, and as such it's very complicated trying to represent them in film and sound, to use more abstract video I feel would have obscured the point we were trying to make, and taken away from the over all message.
However I do appreciate that it is not everyone's taste and take this criticism on board.

I think when you are talking about mental health it is very important to treat it in the same way that any visible illness is treated. There are sad emotive films about cancer, malaria, parkinsons, but because mental health problems are not visible to represent them like this is very difficult and as such I wish to see more media where they are treated with as much respect and emotion as a visible illness.

Overall I think the project was a success and I really enjoyed working on it, the groups cohesion along with the initial idea made it enjoyable and I liked what we made as an end product.

Personal Development

Personal Development

As a whole, I feel that my personal development was good for this project. I often have problems working in a team and I really enjoyed this project because it brought me together with people who I was unfamiliar with and allowed me to get to know them through working together. I really appreciated the end result, and cohesion we were able to achieve, everyone was on the same page with achievement goals, with one exception, but the rest of the team pulled together to make up for that. I experimented with video editing and really enjoyed the freedom and creativity of the project, and enjoyed working on a project that was about something I value.

I also enjoyed my role with research. I think that my research was really comprehensive and useful and was something I really found developmental. I always look for opportunities to develop my research skills and this was a topic which I'm not familiar with so it gave me time to develop my knowledge.

I also felt that my organisational skills were on pointe, and brought the team together in a manner which meant the project was as successful as it was. This is something that in the past I have been good at but this group task enabled me to develop, as I was working within the group dynamic. 

The MIC Project 20th January

This week we spent most of the week preparing for the presentation. We came together to make our notes as a group. I created the prezi and Alfie finished the additions to the documentary which we showed in the presentation. On Wednesday we submitted all of the documents. On Thursday we presented our final piece.

Our presentation

< http://prezi.com/jwxfcmjy_cz7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share>

We came in four hours early on Thursday so we could prepare for our final presentation, we had practise run throughs to time the piece, and adjusted what we said to make the timings work.

The presentation went well, the only problem we had with it was the sound and the video were slightly out of sync which was annoying for us.

Now the only thing that we've left to do is evaluate the members of our group with Caspar.

Construction

As part of the project we constructed a screen and filmed the making of it in a mini documentary. The construction consisted of taking the four pieces of wood, and drilling them together, to create the frames, we created three frames which we then lay a bedcover over and stapled it taunt over the frames. We then using brackets put the three frames together to create a demi room. The documentary can be found in the prezi.

The MIC Project Week 13th January

Over the Christmas period, Jamie and I, who are responsible for the video collected as much found footage as possible. Jamie collected his footage from a stock footage website, and I took my footage primarily from the website Vimeo.

On Friday the 10th Marcus sent us the final sound, when we heard this we broke the final audio up 50/50 and with our found footage made video to match the sound as closely as possible. I have never used projectors before, with a project so it was guess work in terms of how the different qualities of videos, in different sizes will come up and project.

We plan to film the making of the makeshift room we are creating and film a 'making of' documentary.

Marcus and Alfie are collecting the final materials, to bring into school and on Monday the 13th of January we are putting on our piece.

The link to the health and safety evaluation

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-HXc3GjbwsyQlRlYlJ2NXVkWjg/edit?usp=sharing

Editing Process

The editing process was broken up into two parts for me, initially I started collecting footage off of Vimeo. Where I did my foundation degree we did a re-mediation project where we took existing footage and used it to create other meaning, I used the chrome add on Vimeo Video Downloader to download video from vimeo. In our development meetings with Mik and Liam, we discussed re-appropriating video footage and agreed that it was the best use of our time on the project, given the scale of what we wanted to achieve

Using my research I looked for videos with similar themes, I also looked within my personal experience to find footage I thought suited the project. As someone who experiences depression and anxiety, I was aware of the difficulties in representing depression in video format, so I went very literal with my video choices. I think that to avoid confusing the issue it is important to be transparent in the representation of depression.

I use Final Cut Pro for my editing, so I imported all of my footage into my project. This screen shot shows my project folder with all of the files I used. I didn't rename them so I could see what footage had been useful to me, and what I hadn't used. A difficult part of the project was the render time, because all of the clips were different levels of quality some clips took seconds to render and some clips took hours, it was a long and arduous process where I had to be working for long periods of time, because lots of the time was waiting for renders.

I wanted to have a visual representation of the audio, because for me, some people are visual and some people are audible thinkers, it is important for me that both groups of people are able to connect with the project.

 This is my time line for my project in final cut pro, you can see the markers where I've marked changes in the audio sounds, in order to be able to edit to them, I didn't want the video to be too sharp because it went with my theme, so I've been very open with my markers and just used them as approximations. I created initially three different videos, and in the end we didn't use one of them because the insects whilst common motifs in mental health delusions were not appropriate to the project. I created three minutes of common prison footage which was used in the piece with the minute of footage Jamie had, and we put this on a two minute loop, which went on throughout the eight minutes of audio. I also created four and a half minutes of video that directly went with the audio. Within this I took all of the colour out of the clips, and used filters to create warped imagery of the videos which in the end had a nice effect for me. It was reflective of my own experience of mental health sometimes making life feel like a television show you are watching but are not really part of, and that separation but also immersion in it. The idea that you can be making important decisions and put in difficult scenarios such as being in prison, when you are mentally ill is a very harrowing thought to me.

The MIC Project Week 2

For the second week of the Mic Project Alfie and Marcus who are the people we decided would do the sound for the project are working on a rough cut of the final audio. Joe, Jamie and I are doing the video, but we are waiting for the rough audio so we can work with that as a time line for the filming, so this week we are looking to collect found footage. We are looking to base the visual part of the piece on common symptoms of bipolar and common schizophrenic delusions, because these are the two main mental health problems we are focussing on. We are trying to not sensationalise mental health in perhaps the standard way people might be used to seeing it portrayed.

We are basing our piece in America because

"Quietly but steadily, jails and prisons are replacing public mental hospitals as the primary purveyors of public psychiatric services for individuals with serious mental illnesses in the United States" 

Torrey, 1995 

According to the NHS website (2013) the common symptoms of Bipolar are:

Bipolar disorder is characterised by extreme mood swings. The mood swings can range from extreme highs (mania) to extreme lows (depression). Episodes of mania and depression can often last for several weeks or more.
Depression
During a period of depression, your symptoms may include:

• feeling sad and hopeless
• lacking energy
• difficulty concentrating and remembering things
• loss of interest in everyday activities
• feelings of emptiness or worthlessness
• feelings of guilt and despair
• feeling pessimistic about everything
• self-doubt
• being delusional, having hallucinations and disturbed or illogical thinking
• lack of appetite
• difficulty sleeping
• waking up early
• suicidal thoughts

Mania
The manic phase of bipolar disorder may include:

• feeling very happy, elated or overjoyed
• talking very quickly
• feeling full of energy
• feeling self-important
• feeling full of great new ideas and having important plans
• being easily distracted
• being easily irritated or agitated
• being delusional, having hallucinations and disturbed or illogical thinking
• not feeling like sleeping
• not eating
• doing things that often have disastrous consequences, such as spending large sums of money on expensive and sometimes unaffordable items
• making decisions or saying things that are out of character and that others see as being risky or harmful 

We also looked at common symptoms in schizophrenia according to the NHS website (2013):

• Positive symptoms represent a change in behaviour or thoughts, such as hallucinations or delusions.
• Negative symptoms represent a withdrawal or lack of function which you would usually expect to see in a healthy person. For example, people with schizophrenia often appear emotionless, flat and apathetic.

We googled common delusions and Schizophrenia: Signs types and causes (2013) had this to say about common delusions:

• Delusions of persecution – Belief that others, often a vague “they,” are out to get him or her. These persecutory delusions often involve bizarre ideas and plots (e.g. “Martians are trying to poison me with radioactive particles delivered through my tap water”).
• Delusions of reference – A neutral environmental event is believed to have a special and personal meaning. For example, a person with schizophrenia might believe a billboard or a person on TV is sending a message meant specifically for them.
• Delusions of grandeur – Belief that one is a famous or important figure, such as Jesus Christ or Napolean. Alternately, delusions of grandeur may involve the belief that one has unusual powers that no one else has (e.g. the ability to fly).
• Delusions of control – Belief that one’s thoughts or actions are being controlled by outside, alien forces. Common delusions of control include thought broadcasting (“My private thoughts are being transmitted to others”), thought insertion (“Someone is planting thoughts in my head”), and thought withdrawal (“The CIA is robbing me of my thoughts”).

Disorganized speech

Fragmented thinking is characteristic of schizophrenia. Externally, it can be observed in the way a person speaks. People with schizophrenia tend to have trouble concentrating and maintaining a train of thought. They may respond to queries with an unrelated answer, start sentences with one topic and end somewhere completely different, speak incoherently, or say illogical things.
Common signs of disorganized speech in schizophrenia include:

• Loose associations – Rapidly shifting from topic to topic, with no connection between one thought and the next.
• Neologisms – Made-up words or phrases that only have meaning to the patient.
• Perseveration – Repetition of words and statements; saying the same thing over and over.
• Clang – Meaningless use of rhyming words (“I said the bread and read the shed and fed Ned at the head").

They also suggested hallucinations were a common symptom of schizophrenia. According to the National Institute for Mental Health's Schizophrenia website (2013):

"Hallucinations are things a person sees, hears, smells, or feels that no one else can see, hear, smell, or feel. "Voices" are the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Many people with the disorder hear voices. The voices may talk to the person about his or her behaviour, order the person to do things, or warn the person of danger. Sometimes the voices talk to each other. People with schizophrenia may hear voices for a long time before family and friends notice the problem.
Other types of hallucinations include seeing people or objects that are not there, smelling odours that no one else detects, and feeling things like invisible fingers touching their bodies when no one is near."

 As such we are going to look into found footage of things we have heard of as common hallucinations such as bugs crawling on the persons skin. I will also see what found footage I can find of shadows and other things that are in line with these symptoms.

Videos I am collecting from Vimeo (2013):

http://vimeo.com/3478186
http://vimeo.com/groups/freehd/videos/14870217
http://vimeo.com/46769049
http://vimeo.com/50922574