Concept
Discovery Channel is creating a 3 part documentary on mental disorders called “”. The focus of the 3 episodes will be Schizophrenia, Manic-Depression and Anorexia Nervosa. The client requires 3 TV spots introducing each segment that should run between 20-30 seconds.
The intention is to present a serious issue within a contemporary motion graphics setting. The client wants a visually creative concept that visualises the debilitating affects of mental disorders and allows the audience to imagine what having a mental disorder can feel like, and causes the audience to empathise and feel the need to know more about these issues.
Schizophrenia - (split mind) is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia)
Hallucinations appear in the form of – Tactile, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, Visual experiences.
Manic Depression – Manic (severe elevated mood), Depression (sad, low)
Person affected shows significant disturbance in mood. A change of mood from high to low occurs intermittently. 
Anorexia Nervosa – Persons affected has a distorted body image of themselves. Individuals with anorexia often control body weight by voluntary starvation, purging, vomiting, excessive exercise, or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs.
Production techniques
Media used will include simple 3D objects and 2D art. All components will be animated to give a sense of growth whilst filling up the space. Each segment is to be kept short and concise and will have a similar style.
From the research done the 3 disorders seem similar in experiences in the sense that they appear to be apparitional experiences. Meaning that although nothing has changed, the environment one is surrounded by seems to manipulate itself.
For this reason it is decided to present each spot as apparitions that come and go while interacting with the main character. Videoed ink and smoke will be used as masks for the fade in/out of apparitions throughout the sequence.
The idea is to force the viewer to focus on the main character, with the surrounding space growing in colour and life and then emptying the scene to complement the apparitional experience.
The main character and the immediate surroundings will be modelled and animated in 3d for more control over camera angles. Animations will be rendered with minimum colour as colour grading and hue adjustments can be altered with more control in After Effects.
All other components will be created in 3d and combined in AE.
1 comment:
Feedback: This is a difficult project, for a number of reasons.
You are proposing to create works that deal with very sensitive and subjective topics. I feel there are problems associated with trying to represent topics that are: very likely different for each individual, easily over simplified and also being done in a cliched way. For example I would certainly not recommend someone who has not experienced anorexia to endeavour to represent it.
Motion Graphics are often used in exploring things on a rather superficial and visual way. This should not be the case with your work and you need to honestly assess your ability to manage this.
Another aspect worth mentioning is that you are planning to use a 3D model as a central character. I would mention that where a 3D human is it will be very difficult to create a character that is able to express numerous and specific emotions in a subtle and serious way that is clearly understood by the audience.
Rather than covering 3 quite different and sensitive psychological disorders, I would consider focussing on ONE of them. Or reconsider ways by which you might avoid these issues and make something which is a PERSONAL exploration of the psyche rather than an informative one, that can be judged as being incorrect or insensitive.
Post a Comment