“Work In Progress”

This short film was created with the purpose of helping the director explore the relationship between mental health issues in cinema in his dissertation. The goal of this short film is to justify how stigmatized films that feature a form of mental illness can be avoided by exploring the malignancy of negative depictions in cinema.

Work In Progress took a week of filming to complete; however there were complications along the way which limited the director’s vision. Nevertheless, the message behind the short film was successfully conveyed.

Thorough research has been conducted on the topic of negative depiction of mental health in film in order to gain an elaborate comprehension and perception of the concept. Articles, books, video-recorded lectures and short films have been examined. The most influential piece of research the author has come across was a short film based on a character’s inability to not think about death. Sometimes, I think about dying (2019) published by Short of the Week on YouTube is a story about a woman suffering from depression but finds comfort and support in the arms of a man who pursues her, despite her lack of social interaction and mental illness. The short film shows an accurate representation of what someone with severe depression and anxiety experiences at work, home and around others. This film makes a good stepping stone for the direction the author is trying to take.

Emotion and conflict play big parts in every film as they allow the audience to relate. The emotions in the film are displayed on the characters, they start deviating from the screen to the viewer, allowing viewers to identify, empathize and sympathize with the characters. The more character build, the more emotional the story, the better understanding of the audience. The director’s goal is to convey this emotion to show audience members that a film without dramatic and exaggerated characters can also create an emotional response. In the case of short film Work In Progress, the aim is to justify the unnecessary stigmatization presented in cinema.