Jeannie D Digital Story Treatment
From LIS5313
Contents |
[edit] Summary
Title: The Manic Me
Image:
Description:
This is a story of my life. I have bipolar disorder and living with the disease matters a great deal to me. Getting people to understand and not be afraid of mental illness also matters to me. I hope by telling a little bit of my story, it will help some people understand that people with mental illness are not people to be pitied or feared. We are just people.
The point of view is what is going on inside my head when I’m in a manic phase. At the behest of my friends and family, they asked me to explain visually so they can better understand me. I thought this the perfect venue to teach both the outside world and my loved ones about bipolar affective disorder.
[edit] Media Assets
Images:
My primary images will come from several copyrighted sources, a few pictures taken by me or my friends, and mostly flikr. I began to collect images at the start of the class. I received permission from all the people I asked for copyrighted images with the purview that I send them a copy of the final project.
The primary image is “And this is my brain on drugs” by Dr. Sven Geier, used with permission. It is a fractal that shows the swirling mass my brain becomes when I’m in the midst of acting bipolar. I would have preferred to Kandinsky's Yellow Red Blue because this image more accurately depicted my manic head, but I couldn't receive permission to use. It literally depict what happens in my brain while I'm manic, which is the current tail I'm in.
Sounds:
I got my main audio track from ccmixter and the sound effects from Freesound. I had to edit the music to fit the video and the sound effects to fit the section they were describing. I did this in Audacity.
The sounds and narration had to be completed in Audacity because it was nigh on impossible to create the effect in Adobe Premier Elements. Consequently, I had to complete the sound first, then pace the images around the sound.
[edit] Pacing, Rhythm, and Juxtaposition
I had to mix the sound in Audacity and lay the single track into Adobe Premier Elements. This affected the pacing of the images. I also had to purchase a new video card to handle the amount and size of the images with the sound. The pacing of my images will move with the narration, especially when I discuss the symptoms. One of the symptoms is talking very fast and repetitively. I plan to show an image of a 45 rpm and use the sound of a broken record to illustrate the concept. I will use sequence to show my creativity by showing a collection of my cross stitch projects moving very quickly to show the idea of how fast I make them.
I juxtapose the symptom section with music, narration, and sound effects to amplify the confusion caused by each symptom. I used a train whistle to illustrate the noise obsession causes and debated to use the whistle though out that segment, but decided it would detract from the narration.
I tried to keep the narration calm, except when I discuss symptoms, to show my acceptance of the disease. I wanted the images to reflect the actual portrayal of mania rather than my words. I made the images fast paced to show how quickly my brain flits from one thought to another.
The sequence and juxtaposition of images and sound create meaning in the symptom area because it further illustrates the massive confusion I encounter on a daily basis.
[edit] Narration, Dialogue, and Text
Dialogue:
Brains.
We all have them.
Some are more normal than others.
I have bipolar disorder and my brain usually looks like this.
It’s basically a neurotransmitter problem.
When my serotonin and dopamine go haywire the whole world just seems to be about me and my issues.
When I'm in the midst of mania, I'm not in control of my emotions of behaviour. I'm always right and I don't listen.
This is my manic brain now: noisy, colourful, swirling, ever whirling. A mass of confusion. Never stopping.
My symptoms are:
- Elevated mood
- Talking too fast. Sometimes I sound like a bro –bro-bro- broken record
- High anxiety
- Irresponsible money spending
- Reduced need for sleep
- Obsessive thoughts-sometimes my mind will hang on to thoughts for months and months or even years
Another symptom is that I’m really creative.
It takes a lot to keep me stable.
Yes, I do take that many pills.
But most important, I can behave like a normal person and unless I told you I had bipolar, you would never know.
Use:
I plan to juxtapose each statement with a collection of images.
[edit] Reflection
Since I found out about the assignment, I've been conceptualizing a way to convey how my head works. I've been searching for images to make how I think and feel. I also wanted the music to be soft and to mildly enhance the narration. If I had my choice I wouldn't have included music, because I think the music detracts from the point I'm trying to make. I liked adding the sound effects. The sound effects underscored the confusion I feel in my head. The video conveys what goes on in my mind. I purposefully made it so and made it stronger as Dr. Tripp suggested. I can't think of one more image or way to convey my mania. I have looked through flikr several more times to find additional images and I couldn't find any that made sense to the narration. The one aspect of the assignment I couldn't think of a way to convey is no matter how much I struggle with life, most I'm quite a competent, strong person. I decided that it would detract from the mania component of my life.
[edit] Draft Media
Final Draft (March 25th):Final
Draft No. 2 (March 18th):4th time's the charm, maybe? I haven't fixed the credits yet. I just want some more feedback on this version.
Draft of Story: The third go around
Tentative Story Board: Story Board The second image didn't come through because I ran out of server space in my Comcast account. I didn't include the music because I'm still finalizing it.
[edit] Copyrighted Materials
I chose to use some copyrighted materials because they conveyed the exact image I wanted to use. I asked for permission before I continued my planning. Every person I asked for permission, with the exception of Mark Dow, requested a copy of the final project.
I received permission to use the image “And this is my brain on drugs” by Dr. Sven Geier via email on 1/22/08
I received permission to use the image “The stained glass brain” by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor via email on 1/17/2008
I received permission to use the image “The knitted brain” by Dr. Karen Norberg via email on 2/12/2008
I received permission to use the image “slide 8” by Dr. Cecil Greek via email on 2/12/2008
I received permission to use the image “Rotating Brain” by Mark Dow via email on 2/12/2008
All other images came from flikr and are under an attribution license.
