First Edit of My final Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxikcWzLZ3I

Local Research

I got in touch with a local Psychotherapist in Crystal palace. I asked him his thoughts and opinions on Social isolation and multiple personality disorder. This is what he had to say on the subject:

Response from Chris Osborne from http://www.bodymindpsychotherapy.co.uk/

Hi Lauren

I’m really sorry, I forgot about this; I don’t know if it’s too late to be useful but anyway.

The term Social Isolation implies a sociological perspective, whereas I will an offer a psychological (i.e. individual) one.  I think there are a number of reasons why people either seem to isolate themselves, or cant tolerate much social interaction.  If people are poorly socialized; poor communication skills, poor impulse control, little empathy or social sense, they will tend to isolate themselves because they get such a bad response from the world.  I think these skills are transmitted through example, so the children of poorly socialized people will tend to be so in term.

I would say that shame is a major factor in the desire to isolate oneself.  Shame is recoil, a sense of being untouchable and unacceptable.  Some shame has a positive function: we have done wrong, we feel bad, we do better, but if the shame is too intense we may feel like a pariah and exile ourselves from society.  A lot of shame is negative, not based in a response to our own moral values, but coming from a sense of rejection from our early emotional attachments (I wasn’t good enough for my family to love me/meet my needs, so I must be appalling and shameful in some way.) As a result we may recoil from ordinary contact because we don’t deserve it/we'll be found out/it will end in yet another rejection etc.

Multiple personality disorder is more often termed Dissociative Identity Disorder these days (a better term, less sensational and allows for more subtle, nuanced phenomena).  I’m not an expert with this and there are loads on the net.  It is a fracturing of the personality; it has some relation to schizoid disorders because it is a defensive splitting: the ego. Can’t tolerate functioning as a whole (I would assume because of early and fairly extreme trauma).  Differs from psychosis because the splits are into functional parts, not chaos.

Don’t know about D I D and isolation, I would assume that most sufferers find relationships very difficult.

I don’t personally buy this idea of new info technology isolating people, seems to connect them up just as much, its just new (another way for old people to be suspicious of young people).

I do think the idea of 'social isolation' has some potential to be co-opted by people with political agendas; an easy to sell idea about how the world is going to the dogs.

Have you seen the film Sybil with Sally Field (about DID)

Let me know if any of that is helpful

Chris Osborne

Lighting Test

Although I want my film to be shot using mainly daylight, there are some scenes I was trying to shoot that required a little bit of fill in light. Here are some stills from my lighting experiment:

Shot using the lights on in the bathroom.

Shot using available light. I also left the landing light on to give the shot a bit of warmth.

As above, but with a white reflector bouncing some light back onto the actors face.

As above, but this time with a sunfire reflector.

As above, plus 'lite panel' bouncing light off of the reflector.

Test Stills for Isolation Project

Here are some stills of ideas on composition that I have being having for my movie.

Each personality will be introduced into the story line using the same composition. This is a still of the scenes where my character will be applying each of his 'tashes', therefore taking on the personality of that particular tash.

As the story is about Isolation, I want the scenes where the viewer first meet 'Tom' to be quite lonely shots that are all naturally lit.

I want to show 'Tom' doing everyday activities in his home:

Paul Auster- The New York Trilogy

I am currently reading this book, as it looks at issues of Isolation and characters with multiple personalities. As I make my way through the book I am going to keep updating this post with interesting thoughts and quotes from the book.

City of Glass

Quinn- The main character from the book. He is also known as ' William Wilson', an author & 'Paul Auster', a detective. 

Peter Stillman- Also known as 'Peter Rabbit', 'Mr White' (During winter), & 'Mr Green' (During summer).

Interesting quotes:

• 'I am new everyday. I am born when I wake up in the morning, I grow old during the day, and I die at night when I go to sleep.' (Page 18)

My research continued on social Isolation...

I sent an email to the following 2 organisations in hope that they might be able to help me with my research on the causes and effects of social isolation:

      http://www.bps.org.uk/

Cambridge Body Psychotherapy Centre - http://www.cbpc.org.uk/index.htm

Does the internet help or make issues of social isolation worse?

As my moving image project is looking at the issues of 'social Isolation', I set a small project for my friends. I wanted to find out about what they do online and how they portray themselves. Here is the brief I set them via Facebook:

Hi Guys,

I hope your all well and enjoyed the Christmas break! I am working on my Final project for my Moving Image part of my degree course and I was wondering if I could ask you guys for some help? 

My final projects looks at issues of social isolation and how people now more commonly communicate through social networking rather than face to face or over the phone. What I would like you guys to do is film yourself for 30 seconds to a minute through your web cams, whilst you are on your computer. You can do this in many ways, but I want you guys to show me 'how you want to be portrayed online'. Whether this be; sat doing some work, dressed up doing some online dating, chatting to your friends abroad. It is completely up to you! I want you to try and show me a side of your personality if you can. Or if you dare, a side of you that I have never seen before! Try and keep it as clean as you can, as it will be used and viewed by people at my university. 

If you are happy to take part, please can you send me your email address so I can email you a link to my dropbox where you can upload your movies. You can film yourself as many times as you like! 

It won't take up much of your time, and I would really appreciate your help! Thanks in advance. Also, if you know anyone else that would be able to help, then please let me know.

Take care,

Lauren xxxx

So far I have had a couple of friends that have responded and sent me their videos. I will upload these onto my 'You Tube' account as I go along. 

These videos will not really help me answer the question, but they will help me get a better understanding of what people like to do online. 

Here's one of the videos I have received so far: