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