Old Fashioned Rooms
When I watched the documentary on mental asylums through history, they stated that after years of awful treatment and locking the patients away from society, they made an effort to make the rooms look more homely and well kept and an open door policy was put in place. This inspired me to consider using a less run down and deteriorated location and a more inviting setting. These are images taken in someone's house, with the old fashioned decoration and basic beds. They gave me permission to both take these photos and use the location if I wanted. Both bedrooms have twin beds, with very basic furniture and decorations. The walls are both very dingy colours and the windows are quite small with old fashioned pull curtains. I particularly like the second image because the beds have a white metal frame with bars running down them, making them look very simplistic and cold. The beds remind me of hospital beds because of the clinical looking white structure. I like that the bed covers are very simple, but it looks like they have tried to give them slightly patterned sheets to make them look slightly more appealing. The only piece of furniture is a very small bed side table which I like because it still makes the room look very empty, but shows they have tried to make it look slightly more homely. There are bars across the windows which I love because it reminds the viewer that the patients are trapped, just like a prison. I really like these rooms; however I think they look too pleasant and my aim in my fashion film is to show people and to make people think twice about how to treat mentally ill people, so I think this location is too neat and well kept.
I liked these features in the house because they looked very creepy and haunting. I like the twisting staircase because it reminds me of the twisting stairs in a castle, but it could also represent the mentally ill patient's twisted minds. The banisters on the stairs almost look like bars on a cage, giving a trapped and slightly claustrophobic feel. The winding stair case also reminded me of a maze where you enter but can never find your way out, representing how the patients must feel trapped and confused in the asylums. The image on the right shows a very empty room, with just one chair at the end. I like this because it doesn't feel homely at all, but instead feels very eery and isolated. I like that the only light source is coming from the window because it makes the room looks dark and the light creates dark shadows. I can imagine placing a model into this scene, sitting on the chair, possibly just rocking back and forth starring out of the window. The windows have bars running across them which I like because it reinforces that they aren't there out of choice, but because they are trapped there. There is an image of a person on the window sill which could be a family member. I really like that there is a small door slightly hidden in the shadow because it makes the viewer ask themselves what could be hiding in there. This adds a mysterious and tense atmosphere as anything could suddenly break free from there or some dangerous surgical instruments could be locked in there.
Below are both features I found in the house that I could include in my fashion film. The giant clock is very old fashioned and dominating and could represent that time is just passing leaving the patients behind. The clock making a very distinctive sound which I could include because it is very slow and consistent, perfect for building tension. I also really like the door in the right image because the mental bars running through the windows in the doors make it look like a locked cage or prison bars. I like that the windows are frosted because it shows vaguely what is behind the door, but the image is very hazy and distorted which could create scary images of people walking past or towards it. I also like that someone could be hiding behind the door and then suddenly appear which would be very scary, especially as you wouldn't be able to completely make out their face.
Small Deteriorated Window
I found this window in someone's house and thought it would be perfect for a scene in my fashion film where the mental patients looks outside and sees something horrific. I love that there is some damp on the ceiling because it makes the window look more run down and mouldy. I like that there are bars across the window because it makes it feel like a prison window and like you are trapped. I also like that there is a plant growing across the window because it makes it feel like they are being forgotten and will one day have no view of the outside world at all because the window will be completely covered by branches and leaves. I also like that the person doesn't have a clear view of outside because it gives it a more claustrophobic look. I can imagine there being a scene where the patient looks out of their window and sees someone trying to escape or seeing a new person be taken in, or maybe their family walking away and leaving them etc.
Giant Cage
I was inspired by Rihanna's music video Disturbia with the very dark and dungy looking setting. The image below is a screenshot from the music video and I love this setting because it looks like she has been locked in a cage like an animal. This reminded me of how the mental patient was locked away in a cage in Sanitarium (image below) because he was locked in a small cage with metal bars because he was so dangerous. People with mental disorders weren't actually locked away in giant cages; however this must have been what it felt like emotionally because they were trapped in a room, hidden from society. I think having a cage would represent how the patients in mental asylums in history felt like they were kept captive, with no freedom. I like that the bars also give the scene a animalistic look because it is somewhere you'd keep your vicious dog or our of control animal in.
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| Rihanna Disturbia Music Video Screenshot (RihannaVEVO, 2009.) |
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| Insanitarium Screenshot (Insanitarium, 2008.) |
Abandoned House
Another option for the location of my fashion film could be an old, abandoned mental asylum to represent that society could have just forgot about all the people with mental illnesses and left them to rot and deteriorate, just like the asylums themselves. I could use an abandoned house or building as my background because it would definitely add a scary and haunting feel to the film. I looked at images of how some mental asylums look today and was horrified by some of the images.
The images below are of Trenton Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey where some parts of the building are still in use, but parts have been abandoned and left to deteriorate. I found these images quite disturbing as I knew that they held so many stories of mental patients and their traumatic treatment. It looks like the walls have started to go damp and the paint has peeled off and flaked onto the floor. All the images look very dirty and unloved, with clearly no attention been given to them for years. This could represent how alone and forgotten the mental patients must have felt, being separated from their families and society. The emptiness of the room make them look very cold and eery because the space clearly hasn't been lived in for so long. If I made the setting of my fashion film an abandoned house with my model in a abandoned room it would show that the people running the mental asylum don't care about her or her well-being because she has a mental illness. Another idea would be that a modern day mental patient has been locked away in a former Victorian mental asylum to experience the pain and torture the patients went through, both emotionally and physically.
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| (Davies, L., 2013.) |
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| (Davies, L., 2013.) |
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| (Davies, L., 2013.) |
My Own Images
Option 1:
I could use this outside toilet, with the overgrown ivy engulfing the doors and deteriorating paint, because it looks very run down and old. I love that in one of the doors there is a mesh grill for ventilation as it previously had a gas boiler installed. This would be perfect for the mental asylum setting because it reflects the animalistic caging I look at previously which would have kept the mental patients trapped. I like that there is only one hole the patient would be able to see out of because this is very common in jail cells etc and because it limits their interaction with others, keeping them very isolated. The small caged window also creates tension because it looks very dark and you have no idea where the mental patient may be lurking; are they about to jump up at the window and make you jump? I think this small caged whole also makes the setting look more like an animal cage because it is so low down, meaning the mental patient would have to crouch right down to be able to see anything, making them feel vulnerable. The interior is very small and claustrophobic, with a cold cement floor and flaking paint. I would remove the pink fluffy rug and sparkly toilet seat to give it a more rustic and old fashioned look because these features make it look like someone is trying to make it look homely and presentable. The toilet could easily be made to look old by taking the seat off and temporarily giving it a stained colour, and I would make the floor look slightly more grubby to give a lived in look.
Option 2:
I have two joined sheds in my garden that always used to, and still does, scare me as a child. There are no lights or electricity, making them look very dark and dingy. I like that the only light coming into the rooms are from the patchy roof, the side door and them the front light because it reminds me of the cage in Insanitarium where the mental patient is kept in a cage with only the front of it in light and then the back kept in darkness. I think this is effective because anything could be lurking in the darkness, creating a lot of tension, especially if you can't already see the person.
All the walls are crumbling and the cold, cement floor is beginning to crack, giving the rooms a deteriorated look. The roof looks very flimsy, with sunlight coming through, which I think makes it look abandoned as no-one has bothered to fix it or make it look safer. There are ropes tied up on the walls and rusty building tools hanging on the walls, making it almost look like a dungeon. There is so much clutter in both rooms so if I choose to use one of them I would have to remove a lot of the stuff because it wouldn't fit in with my mental asylum theme, for example, the tractor, bikes and roll of insulation. I like that the spaces are so big because I will be able to get extra lighting if needed and it will give me lots of options for angles and zooming etc. I also like that I could create different back drops for different scenes in the same area because it is so big, using different walls or the corners to create different effects. I like that this would also keep the consistency of back drop, to make it look more coherent.
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| Insanitarium Screenshot (Insanitarium, 2008.) |
These are close-ups of sections of the rooms I may want to incorporate into my fashion film. I could make the image on the left look like the mental patient's room, by possibly adding an old bed in the corner, as the walls look very run down and the floor gives a very cold and empty feel. I could also use this location as a doctor's laboratory or medicine cupboard because of the shelves. I could put lots of empty and full medicine bottles and jars on the shelves or used syringes or surgical tools like scissors and white gloves. I really like the natural lighting set up in this corner of the room because there is a window to the right letting in some light across the front of the section and there is light coming from a crack in the roof which adds a glare to the camera lens, giving it a more hazy and masked look.
I also really like the window in the door facing a fence because it makes the room feel very claustrophobic as it has no view, only a close wall. I like that the wall surrounding the door looks very dark, because of the natural lighting facing the camera, because it puts all focus on the 'view' from the room. The darkness also creates a sense of tension and mystery as nothing is clear. I like that there are trees outside because they create harsh and scary look shadows into the room, that could be interpreted as anything. I think I could use this location for a possibly hallucination where the patient thinks they see a strange figure walking or floating past. This could create a very haunting scene as you are never quite sure what could be lurking outside.
After looking at different location options I have chosen to use the abandoned and forgotten about house because I think it is the most shocking and disturbing place to see someone living in and it is the most true to what mental asylums look like now. I also like that it represents how people with mental illnesses were forgotten about and banished from society where they weren't taken care of properly and were put in awful conditions because I think this will shock the viewers and horrify them. I am so excited to start designing the characters' outfits and makeup and hair looks so I can begin making my visions become a reality!
References:
RIHANNAVEVO, 2009. Rihanna - Disturbia [viewed 23rd January]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mU6h4Xdxc
Insanitarium, 2008[film]. Directed by Jeff BUHLER. USA: Stage Six Films
DAVIES, L., 2013. Six Abandoned Asylums with Genuinely Chilling Backstories [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://io9.gizmodo.com/six-abandoned-asylums-with-genuinely-chilling-backstori-512154481
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