Fight Club -based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk- is an inspiration for my video as it has a running theme of mental illness, exploring Schizophrenia, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Insomnia and Depression through a number of the characters featured. The main character (unnamed but sometimes referred to as 'Jack' or The narrator') suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, with his dissociative identity being the complete opposite and representing everything that he isn't, and the book presents a very idiosyncratic version of DID in which the identity manifests itself either conterminous to the multiple (as an audio-visual hallucination) or as a more realistic version that manifests while the protagonist believes he is sleeping. This inspired my video in the overruling theme of dissociative identity and presenting the binary opposition of the two personalities, as well as the use of flashing contrasting imagery throughout the video.
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| Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club' (1996) |
David Fincher's 'Fight Club' (1999)
Sucker Punch
Sucker Punch is an inspiration for my music video due to the running idea of an individual creating a different world in their head - in this case as a coping mechanism to deal with the stressful situation the girls in the narrative are dealing with, as made clear at the end of the clip below. The idea of a fabricated world within one's head and trying to differentiate that from actual reality is an idea I wish to carry over into my own production, and is also set within a mental institution so fits in with my theme of mental illness (DID).
Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' (2011)
MPD Psycho
MPD Psycho is an on-going manga series written by Eiji Ōtsuka and illustrated by Shou Tajima, with the first volume published in 1997. The series follows a police detective suffering from - as it was then titled- Multiple Personality Disorder, and the killer whose case he is on identifies him as a 'fellow psychopath'. This text acts as in inspiration for my production as I wanted to add a sense of ambiguity with the stance of the girl in the narrative, in regards to if she herself - aside from her dissociative identity- has dark and malicious intent. With this, I hope to reinforce a dark and eerie mise en scene, creating a sinister and nightmarish feel.
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| MPD Psycho: Vol. 1 |
The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical -and the only- novel written by Sylvia Plath, originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963. The protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression, with Plath later committing suicide a month after its first UK publication. I used this text as inspiration as it deals with a young woman suffering from mental illness much like the character in the narrative of my music video, the state of which declining as the novel develops - although it also explores the idea of treatment and progression, this will not be evident within my production. I also used this as an inspiration as it has a strong sense of realism - especially considering the contextual factors and Plath's later suicide- which reinforces the fact that the person in this situation could be anyone, and that mental illness is still a very contemporary and malevolent issue that many people have to struggle with.
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| Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar' |
Splendid independent research and an impressive reference to Plath's The Bell Jar.
ReplyDeleteYour commitment is at the highest level.