DELUSIONS PRODUCTION

Delusions Production Diary

In production

Shooting day 1

Cast

Ally Goodman

Caitlin Walsh

Location

Exterior detached house

Interior: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, kid’s room.

Unfortunately I had a very tight timeline to do filming, as one of my actors didn’t finish his work until 18:30 so I had to start shooting after 18:45. First day I have planned to shoot my exterior scene as the weather was lovely. I shot my whole film with Canon 5D Mark III with f1.4 24 – 105 mm lens. Also I have used Go pro hero 3+ black edition to do my time-lapse and some other shots. Because we started filming late evening, I had a bit of problem with lighting. Interior scenes I used ARRI light kit and set up three-point lighting. For the sound and sound effects I used microphone and Tascam sound recorder to record all the sounds.  Locations I picked for time lapses were Hope Mountain and World’s end.  I managed to finish shooting all the scenes I planned to film which were exterior detached house, breakfast, dinner, bedroom scene.

Shooting day 2

Cast

Ally Goodman

Caitlin Walsh

Ethan Barry

Margaret Barry

Emin Atilgan

Location

Exterior care house

Exterior playground

Interior kitchen, kid’s room, living room.

I had to make a last minute cast change, as my female child actor’s wasn’t able to come and I had to change the character’s sex. Instead of using a girl actor I used a little boy. As I knew it would be dark to shoot after 18:30 I started my shoot with exterior care house scene. This was a good shoot as I got to work with different range of ages. Next stop was playground scene. We have just managed to get the filming dark before it went completely dark.  As soon as we are finished exterior shots the last filming of the day was interior house. I felt very stressed during filming, as I didn’t have long time to shoot as the child actor had to go home early. Although I didn’t manage to get all the filming done with him, I filmed the essential scenes.

Shooting Day 3

Cast

Ally Goodman

Caitlin Walsh

Emin Atilgan

Andreas Wanner

Runner

Tom Barry

Location

Gresford Pond

Gresford All Saints Church

Glyndwr University, Plas Coch Campus

Third day was the last day of shooting. It was all about filming the flashbacks and the final scene of the film. I was lucky that the weather was gorgeous so everybody in the cast and crew enjoyed the shoots outside. First shoot was the wedding shoot. Luckily there is a beautiful church by the main location where detached house is; we shot the wedding scene outside of the church as the gates were locked. Secondly, we shot the purpose scene, which was again near the main location. The next shoot we had in university corridor to as a hospital corridor, which I was very happy with the results. And last shoot was in the house, filming final and the most important scene in the film.

Postproduction

I used Adobe Premier pro CS6 and Adobe After Effects CS6 in postproduction. I transferred the footage day by day and categorized them scene-by-scene to match the sounds and I didn’t start editing until I finished all the filming. I used Go pro editing software for time lapse.  In the final scene of the film I had a problem as I didn’t have enough footage to edit. As James puts the ring, Ella fades away. But the camera was on the floor in the middle of them, looking up. To make her fade away I need footage of Ally in same shot without Caitlin. My solution for that was to take a still image from footage and edit in Photoshop. ( I will supply breakdown with images).  After photoshopping I had to rotoscope Ally, Caitlin and the ring and this was the most time consuming part of editing. ( I will supply breakdown with images.) While I was editing I went and got more sound recordings for sound effects such as, door, gate, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen ambiances. Also for breakfast scene I had to color grade to make it lighter as we shot the scene at nighttime with three-point lighting.  In flashback scene I use different color grading to make it stand out.

This project helped me to understand time managing more. It was good to be by myself but struggling.

Negotiated Studies 2

DELUSIONS

For my negotiated studies 2 I have chosen to produce a short film as I was specialized on filming.
Plot of my short film project.

Short Film Ideas

About the man who lost his wife but still believes that she is alive.

About the men who has got schizophrenia and his family relationships.

Or both ideas combined together.

STRESS

When he was younger he had psychological problems and found out he has schizophrenic genes but it would develop when he stresses or uses drugs again. The reason he had the symptoms were drugs.

PREGNANCY AND BIRTH COMPLICATIONS

After being happily married his wife is pregnant to a baby girl. But she has problems during pregnancy and when she gives birth she dies from bleeding and complications during birth baby has a lack of oxygen.

As soon as he finds out day by day she starts getting effected by schizophrenia. And his baby gets taken away from him and gets located in care house.

The more stress he feels the worse he gets and get taken to the hospital for treatment and had to stay in the mental health services.  After 5 years of treatment he moves to a house by himself and believes that his wife is alive in the house with him all the time. When he meets up with his daughter for the first time he realizes that his daughter got schizophrenia just like him.

When he releases from hospital he goes home and starts living on his own. But he always sees his wife in the bed, on the table, when he watches TV. However, she won’t do anything. (So the audience will have suspicions if she is deaf or ill.)

For a patient with schizophrenia, the death of a parent or other loved one, a change in therapist, moving from one apartment to another; these events can trigger acute anxiety, depression and psychotic episodes.

 

Pregnancy and birth complications

Although the effect of pregnancy and birth complications is very small, research has shown the following conditions may make a person more likely to develop schizophrenia in later life:

• bleeding during pregnancy, gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia
• abnormal growth of a baby while in the womb, including low birth weight or reduced head circumference
• exposure to a virus while in the womb
• complications during birth, such as a lack of oxygen (asphyxia) and emergency caesarean section

Stress

The main psychological triggers of schizophrenia are stressful life events, such as a bereavement, losing your job or home, a divorce or the end of a relationship, or physical, sexual, emotional or racial abuse. These kinds of experiences, though stressful, do not cause schizophrenia, but can trigger its development in someone already vulnerable to it.

Characters

James

He had a stereotype childhood. He was on drugs in his 17’s. He was influenced by his friends and that was the reason to start drugs. After meeting with Ella he stopped using drugs to start a family. He is brunette mid tall and fit and he is cautious, can be paranoid, hopeless but Ella supports him.

Ella

She had a stereotype childhood. She met with James on her early 20’s.  She is caring, jealous, supporting. She is small mid weight and blonde.

Stella

Their daughter, unfortunately her mom dies while birth and she gets taken to care house.  She is happy, playful, hopeful even though she has brought by the carers without mother and father, she is a strong character. In her 15’s she shows the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Props

Doll

Book

Baby doll

Wedding rings

Hidden meanings

Beginning of the film

He moves to a new apartment.  (Getting out of the asylum will be realized later on.)

The ending

End of the film will be about showing audience that the wife has always been dead and never was there. He finds his wife wedding ring then realizes that she is not wearing it and when he tries to put the ring back ring just falls off on to the floor.

Research

 

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition that causes a range of different psychological symptoms, including: 

• hallucinations - hearing or seeing things that do not exist
• delusions - unusual beliefs not based on reality which often contradict the evidence
• muddled thoughts based on the hallucinations or delusions
• changes in behaviour

Why does schizophrenia happen?

The exact cause of schizophrenia is unknown. However, most experts believe the condition is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

It is thought certain things make you more vulnerable to developing schizophrenia, and certain situations can trigger the condition.

It is important that schizophrenia is diagnosed as early as possible, as the chances of recovery improve the earlier it is treated.

How is schizophrenia treated?

Schizophrenia is usually treated with a combination of medication and therapy appropriate to each individual. In most cases, this will be antipsychotic medicines and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).


Once I have finished this project I will publish a production diary.