Studio Shoot Synopsis

Synopsis:

We are taking inspiration from the photo ‘Untitled’ by Hannah Starkey (1997) looking at self-identity and mental health. The way the girl in this photo is holding the moth reflecting on it has inspired us to look into animal instincts, therefore bringing to mind the Freudian theory of the Id, Ego and Super Ego. We will start by having our actor/actress walk into the set which will have two sides to it. One evidentially good and one bad and the element that splits the two in half is the Mirror centered in the set about the size of a doorway. The character enters the good side seeming distressed for an unspecified reason. They walk past the mirror which is represented by an empty frame, at first it is just a reflection of the space and them. Then as they go to walk away they see a figure out the corner of their eye in the mirror. They will double back and go examine this figure which will be actor/actress 2. This figure is the Id but it begins calmly with them reflecting the movements of the character as if still a mirror. Then the Id will slowly get more distressed and begin to act out not exactly copying what the character is doing anymore. Then the character begins to realize this is no longer a reflection of their true self and will begin to fight back with the Id and control it. Things around the set slowly get more broken as the reality of the piece becomes broken. The fight is broken up by the two characters moving away from the mirror into their own space. Eventually the main good character decides to solve this problem by turning the mirror around so that they can be alone for a moment. When calm and alone they go back to the mirror and turn it back round again but just as they do this the Id lashes out and pulls them through the mirror to the broken side of the set. The Id then moves to the good side and walks away out of shot. The piece ends with what initially started as the good character in a heap on the floor in the broken side of the set.

Studio Shoot Initial Photos and Idea

We were given these photos to serve as a source of inspiration for our idea, and we spent a lot of time drawing different aspects from each of them that we liked before we narrowed it down to final one that we decided to use.

'Blind Twins' Jane Evelyn Atwood

This piece we really liked because of the duality of it. The relationship between the two women is that of twins, and they seem to be taking some kind of comfort from one another and the contact they're sharing. Their costumes also seem to be mirroring each others.

'Kind and Queen' 1970 Diane Arbus

We found this one the least inspirational, although we liked the framing and both the subjects have an interesting vibe - they're both wearing clothes consistent with royalty on top of normal every day outfits which is an interesting contrast.

Untitled' 1962 by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Most of all on this on we enjoyed the lighting of the photo. We thought it was really clever, and the way one child, older than the other one is looking into the room while the other hides in a dark corner, could be representative of the mind. Like an older version of yourself looking back at your childishness of previous years. But from this one we mostly drew the idea of using windows and doors as more dynamic ways of creating light.

'Untitled' 1997 by Hannah Starkey 

This was the image we chose as our main source of inspiration. We loved the woman's interaction with her reflection. We also found it really interesting how you view most of her environment through the mirror. There is a weird sort of connection between the woman and her reflection, like she's gazing through some kind of window, as if they're two separate people.

We used this photo as our primary source whilst stilling drawing on different aspects of the others. We thought about using 'identity' as our main theme, and wanted to incorporate mirrors into our film. We briefly thought about looking into mental health but that's quite an overdone theme (although still important) and we decided to look at it a bit differently. Of course, mirrors are often scene as vain or narcissistic and as a sign of obsession with physical appearance but we wanted to stay away from that, as it is a bit of an overused cliché.

From the other images we used as reference for our lighting ideas, as they used quite dramatic lighting and the misé en scene in the framing was also something that we wanted to incorporate into our piece.

With our idea of identity, we began to look into the idea of animal instincts, and the sort of base urges that most people suppress. Using Freud's psychological theory of the Id, Ego and Superego, we began to explore this idea.

The Superego is the higher level of our minds, and is based on morals and judgements, and our sense of right and wrong. The ego is the middle level where you recognise more primal urges and find civilised ways to achieve them - such as the need to eat, drink, reproduce, or respond to situations with violence. The Id is the level of our mind that represents the most basic part of our personality and thinks only of what we need and that we need it now. It is more primal and is purely thinking of survival, and functions on instinct. 

We had already decided we wanted to use mirrors in our piece, but the idea of the Id, Ego and Superego led to the notion of us using the reflection as a sort of alter-ego. Which is to say that we came up with the plan of having someone looking into a mirror and seeing the Id looking back at them. Like there is an alternate version of themselves inside the mirror being reflected back. We decided it would overcomplicate matters if we tried to incorporate all three parts of the Id, Ego and Superego, and narrowed it down to just the opposite two, and developed it from there.