Single Story Video: Depression


Despite the fact that the process of creating this video was stressful and exhausting, I'm really pleased with how it came out. I struggled for the longest time to come up with an idea. I actually had one idea that I was going to do that I ended up changing at the last minute (see my storyboard in my portfolio). It was important to me that I handle the subject matter delicately. I knew what message I wanted to get across, but I didn't know how to bring that message to screen in a way that way tactful and honest. The message I wanted to emphasize is that you don’t have to be constantly exhibiting/experiencing the diagnostic criteria/stereotypical aspects of depression to be struggling. It was important for me personally, and for my single story development, to accept that someone can be outwardly happy and still struggling internally. I realized that a depressed person can feel happiness without it invalidating their mental illness. In other words, happiness and mental illness are not (and should not be made out to be) mutually exclusive.

So, with that message in mind, I ultimately came up with the idea to do a video that was more of a narrative than it was a collection of every single little lesson I learned from reading my texts for my single story. I show my friend Joe experiencing two different types of days. At the end of each day, he completes a depression checklist. The checklist had a lot of criteria representing some of the main symptoms of depression, and then said at the bottom, "If you checked almost all of the symptoms, you are depressed." I was trying to represent my initial, and incorrect view, that you have to act or feel a certain way every day to (for a lack of a better word) earn or live up to your depression diagnosis. On the second day, the man has some happy moments and fun with friends. He goes to complete his checklist and doesn't check off everything on the list. But he accepts that he is (and is still allowed to be) depressed. He scribbles out the text to reveal "I am depressed." In doing so, he rejects the idea that he constantly has to experience sadness, fatigue, loneliness, crying, hopelessness, negative thoughts, and isolation to still be considered depressed.

As for the filming process, I had a detailed storyboard for this video. However, I didn't end up using that storyboard at all. The storyboard represents one idea I had for the video, but that idea didn't feel right. A link to the storyboard is in my portfolio, so I guess you can see what my original idea was and how it changed. I came up with the idea for this video by bouncing ideas of my good friends Joe (the actor) and Taylor. We sat for 30 or so minutes and I discussed my single story project. I talked about my motivations for choosing depression as my single story, what I got out of reading my books, and some of the main lessons I learned. I was about to give up and just go with my original idea, when the idea of a depression checklist popped into my head. I had this moment where I thought "What if you had to check off certain criteria everyday to actually be considered depressed?" Joe helped me flesh out the idea and we got to filming. I have to say, Joe was instrumental in creating my video. He is a video production major, so I was really lucky that he was so willing to help me. I did the directing, filming, and editing, but he was an amazing resource for ideas and editing help. He's also a pretty darn good actor.

Editing this video took forever and a half. For my first video, I used iMovie. But for this video, Joe recommended I use Adobe Premiere Pro. It was like "real deal" editing software and using it required a lot of help from Joe. He sat next to me the entire time and showed me how to use the program. Despite it being tedious and difficult, I'm glad I used Adobe Premiere Pro because it allowed for a lot more creativity in the editing process. There are a lot of choppy cuts and music stuff that I don't think I could have done on iMovie. One editing moment I'm proud of is how the music continues into the shot where Joe is entering his bedroom at 3:53 and then it stops abruptly when he shuts his door. That's all movie magic that I definitely did not know how to do at the start of the semester.

As for music, I chose a sad song for to be playing as Joe goes about his first day. I was a little worried it'd be cheesy, but I think it's subtle enough that it gets the sadness across without hitting you over the head with it. For the happy song, I chose "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes. Not only is this song the unofficial anthem of my friend group, and a song that is associated with a lot of happy memories for me, but I had a clip of Joe and my friend Pete singing/dancing to the song. I put that clip in to represent Joe having a good time, and during the editing process, I was able to line up the audio of the real song with the clip of them singing so that the real song faded as they were singing.

All in all, I'm really proud of how this video came out. I honestly didn't think I could do it, but I think I did a fairly good job of representing how my views on depression have changed throughout the semester.

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