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 Bedlam is much more than a film, it had a purpose.

Our film was about schizophrenia, a common issue some may have. However, it’s not spoken about enough which we thought was unfair. Mental illnesses are known about, and briefly talked about. But no one really tries to understand it. My group and I are interested in mental health, as we have all done something surrounding that topic. Whether that is experiencing it or joining groups that are based off mental health we all have something that connects us to it. So for our film we wanted to bring attention to how a person may feel with a mental illness. We wanted our audience to feel it for themselves. We did this by having in our opening scene a point of view from the main character and a jump cut to one of those newtons cradles and the main character sleeping. In the point of view the vision was blurry as she walked up to the room she was sleeping in. The second she opens the door her eyes open. This opening was to show that she has no control over herself. The illness makes her feel like it controls her body and she just lives in it. Throughout the film we expresses her taking pills and just overall having issues to understand the life she is in. At the end of the film everything goes in reverse and ends with her getting her medication, and boom, screen goes to black. This was a form to express that none of what was shown happened. It’s the perfect plot twist because people with schizophrenia feel like a pool of plot twists. Overall our film may not be the best but we certainly tried to bring attention to this issue. 

For branding we created social media accounts including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and of course YouTube. We also made a website and post card. For obvious reasons these were created to just promote our film to gain views. However, these all worked together to give our film meaning. Our social media has posts of us simply enjoying our time making the film, having funny bloopers,  up coming film festivals, and even resources for mental health. Our webiste had was very similar but also had reviews, casting, an actual synopsis, etc. But what was most important for our stuff to make sense was for it all to connect. Our social media, website, and post card have photos or backgrounds that represent a state of disorientation/confusion. This was to create a theme to easily spot our work, we also tried to use the same font or wording. Because it’s the little things that matter. It honestly was repetitive by the amount of information that was repeated. But we had to make sure that everything had at least one piece of media that was the same.  Besides the little commonalities in appearance we tried to really emphasis mental health as a whole. Our social media and website has links for resources in mental health. Our webiste has something revolving mental health in every section, for example, our mission statement explains the importance it has and how we plan on giving it the attention needed. They are little things but seeing similar pictures or words in other areas will connect a person back to our work. That’s how branding works, finding a vibe that matches your work and following through completely to create something that is yours. Even our title fit with the theme. Bedlam by definition means a sense of uproar or confusion. The word it self gives an uncanny ghostly appearance perfect for the branding we are trying to create. One of our shots actually has a shadow. In the opening scene the audience gets a point of view from Luna walking. As she walks through the hallway she passes a door where a shadow seems to hide then it’s followed by a big bang and increased speed in the music. You can say this was her bedlam, our bedlam.

That’s enough on the background of our project. Obviously it is important to get all of the branding and purpose out of the way but people don’t really pay attention to stuff like that. We had to make sure everything looked appealing. People are attracted to shiny objects. So to make our purpose shiny we tried to make things scary. Cause another thing people are attracted to is the unknown, curiosity. For the film it self we used eerie music which lets the audience know something is about to happen, meaning they have to pay attention to not miss it. We also tried to incorporate different types of angles to give a sense of being their with the characters. Especially in the beginning of the film many cuts of Luna- the main character- are shown with loud sound effects and messy drawers. These were all done on purpose because all of these details are emphasized in her head, everything seems louder so we tried to express that in the film for our audience to feel it too. Even the music we used was copied throughout the film because our vision was that those noises and sounds were everything she was feeling. My favorite part was when the music in the beginning and end of the film matched, we used the same sound at the end when everything reverses followed by her eyes opening. It also had a sped up shot of walking up to Luna recieving medication. This is what tied everything together because it shows everything that everyone as an audience went through was actually all in her head. We purposely made it a little confusing to take the audience through her experience. Through her thoughts and emotions. We believed that the best way to show how someone feels with schizophrenia is by making them experience it. And this was the best way to produce that.  

    Overall this film was hard to produce but before we started this project we went through a stage of research. This included mental illnesses as a whole, mostly schizophernia, how to produce a thriller mystery, and how to promote our film. In my last projects, hypotheticals on how I would promote a film actually came true this year. Most use film festivals to promote their films because it can earn rewards and recognition We tried that but we thought that the best way to promote our film since it’s done by teenagers was to promote on social media. Usually movies or shows like “On the Block” are acted by a younger generation. Most of those actors all had social media accounts where they would post behind the scenes, funny clips, even following trends that had nothing to do with them. This was a form to promote because people are so intrigued to know what happened in the next season that they try to find clues in every video they post. My group and I are not as popular but we tried to do something similar. One of our few post on Instagram was Omnia- the girl that played Luna- clapping her hands to show “take one.” We believed due to a lack of popularity making random videos weren’t going to have the same effect on us as it did to the cast of On the Block. Instead we decided being “funny” was the best option. We also tried to have serious moments like showing our importance to mental health. But in turn making the film was the hardest because following all of the conventions thriller mystery films have was a lot harder to fit in a five minute video when usually they are at least ten minutes long. Everything had to be quick to the point in our film when other films are take longer to reveal a story. Other films have more details and longer filler scenes. Our film had to have a lot less or else we wouldn’t be able to reach the word requirement. I would say that was the hardest convention to follow so we didn’t do it all. It honestly might have made our film confusing due to the lack of suspense. But at last our movie title quite literally means confusion.

Link to essay: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1odS8oKhRApbbPcsaWbR_XwG7NzYbsGd88Y6u7dLPnEc/edit?usp=sharing