Author: kobylanska1

https://vimeo.com/200272664

The Reebok video is an advertisement that has an empowering an motivational role. It focuses on hands of different people and how they reflect who they are and what they do in life. It highlights the importance of hands and could be referred to the notion that hands can say as much about a person as a face does.

Even through the Reebok film is a marketing tool and therefore has a different role than the video I am making, it still relates to my work on a number of levels. It has a big emotional impact on the audience and has an intimate and personal feel. The message of being ‘more human’ is touching and adds meaning to the commercial. The shots and how hands are portrayed have inspired me when creating a storyboard for my film. Hands can be a tricky subject to portray, so seeing how other creators have handled it was very helpful.

The fim I am making is an attempt to represent Obsessive Compulsive Disorder through visual means in an artistic and unusual way. I will be orienting the whole piece around hands and how they are crucial in the anxiety relief achieved through different compulsions.

When doing research about OCDs and ways in which they have been represented in art, I came across a Polish filmmaker- Kat Napiorkowska, who mainly focuses on  mental disorders. The video she has made on OCD is not only highly insightful, accurate and relatable for anyone who suffers from the disorder, but also well-edited and aesthetically pleasing. I really admire the narration, although I do not think I will be using any in my own video.

The film seems very intimate and personal, and that is an effect that I want to achieve in my work. Similarly to Napiorkowska’s film, I will be doing a lot of close-ups and detailed shots, trying to keep them short and simple. The frames will be well-balanced and I will possibly use some symmetry to reflect some characteristics of the disorder. The cold, almost monochromatic colours seen in the video are a good representation of the topic and create a slightly tense and anxious atmosphere. I am considering using a similar colour palette.