This document discusses inspirations and context for the concept of exploring human psychology through an inhumane experiment. It references the Stanford prison experiment film and a Harvard study on boredom as origins of the concept. It discusses how removing the constraints of reality allows for more aggressive exploration of topics. Black Mirror episodes with similar concepts are mentioned. The document discusses how music, Quentin Tarantino films, and the short films of Acim Vasic have inspired the filmmaker's style and storytelling techniques without dialogue. It reflects on the filmmaker's own early work and how it has improved their skills and understanding of layered storytelling.

1. INSPIRATIONS AND CONTEXT
Samuel Schoettner

2. CONCEPT ORIGIN

3. ■ Before I talk about practitioners and work that has inspired me and creatively shaped my own filmmaking I
want to talk about the origin of where this concept came from.
■ The concept originated from two sources, the first source being the shivering accurate ‘‘recreation’’ of the
highly controversial ‘Stanford prison experiment’. When watching the film I found myself glued to the screen
highly anticipating everything and completely consumed by the story. This was my first introduction into
these drama/psychological thriller themed films.
■ The second source was a study conducted by the University of Harvard on boredom. Where they placed
subjects in a room and left them with only their thoughts and an electric shocker. Almost all the subjects
shocked themselves at least once.
■ I found this simple concept of an inhuman experiment quite fascinating as (most) humans would be
disgusted by experiments such as the Stanford prison experiment, however, if they could watch it from a
point of view where they know it isn’t real they will be extremely intrigued and interested. Simply by
removing reality as contributing factor you can explore any topic a lot more aggressively as I doesn’t have
an anchor in reality.
■ This is why I think the concept has potential for success as it covers these things. Its an inhumane and
immoral experiment that is very interesting to watch as we loose someone loose their mind and their sanity.
Interesting to watch, especially because if it was something we read about in the news it would be horrific
but if its just a film it is perfectly fine and audiences are willing to explore the idea.

4. Monotony Mind Map

5. Music
■ Music is a huge part of my creative process. A large majority of ideas and concepts that I
come up with are inspired or developed through music. Whenever I want to think of or
develop ideas the first thing I will do is start listening to the genre of music that I associate
with the product and then I start writing down the things that come to mind, slowly stiring
the pot and sparking ideas here and there. I’ve always found that for myself, it worked to
formulate ideas and placing an emotion behind it.
■ Often the first thing that springs into my head when I listen to a new song that I really like
is what type of scene or mood it would work with and then I go from there. If ‘x’ song was
playing what would I want to be on the screen. What type of editing would I use, what
would the colour scheme be, what type of cinematography would work. True cinema is a
marriage between music and moving image. I always find the films that I remember have a
good soundtrack. I won’t remember most action style films because the music used within
them is always the same and there is nothing that stays in my head, so I might remember
the overall plot but nothing will stick out because the choice of music doesn’t keep my
attention nor does it engage my brain. But for example in films like baby driver or
Kingsmen: the secret service, if anyone has seen the film, they will remember scenes like
the handbrake turn in the alleyway, or even just the intro scene where ‘baby’ is sat in the
car listening to ‘Bellbottoms’ by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, in Kingsmen the church
fight that works so perfectly thanks to ‘Freebird’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd which accompanies it. It
makes the scenes memorable, a film can look extremely beautiful, but if the soundtrack or
even lack there of, isn’t as good as the visuals then a film can easily be forgotten. This is
why I think music is so important and it really helps me to come up with concepts, inspire
ideas and develop a story, regardless of whether or not there will be lots of music in the
final film or not, but its getting the idea onto the page where music is important to me.
■ Proud by Heather Small, though the song is large seen as song for LGBT empowerment, it
was this the song that made me want to come up with and execute a good FMP, it made
me think, what will it take for me to make something that I can look back on and feel
proud of? Hence I want to push myself as much as possible with a realistic goal in hand.

6. BLACK MIRROR
Charlie Brooker

7. Undoubtedly this concept is comparable to some of the Black mirror episodes. Especially the last episode in
seasons 2 called ‘white Christmas’.
Within the episode there is a segment which is about the immorality of keeping someone in captivity without
having them giving them anything to do.
“For me the trick is to try to picture the finished film in my head, and describe what I am seeing and hearing.”
–Charlie Brooker (Inside black mirror, p. 13)
For anyone who was watched, heard of or even been in upmost vicinity of Black mirror will know how highly
acclaimed, and mind-bendingly well made the show is.
Black mirror often deals with concepts that are set in the real world and then have been added to or been
made larger than life. This is true for almost all of their episodes, whether it is a security robot dog willing to
stop at nothing to complete its task or a Virtual reality experiment that seems to defy time itself. Almost every
single episode seems to push at the edges of the society we live in, its beliefs, ideals and moralities.
Contextually I think this is very relevant as both within black mirror and my own work you will often find traces
of a world that doesn’t exist but it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to believe that something like this could
happen in the near future, is happening or has already happened we just don’t know it yet.
Even Charlie Brooker the writer of the show has said while interviewed about ‘Black mirror vs Reality’ and the
fact that ‘Black Mirror’ seems to be in the public vocabulary to describe things that are a bit off as “uh, this is a
bit Black Mirror” responding “Yeah they do.. Its terrifying because it seems to be happening a lot.” and stating
that “its alarming how many of the story ideas that we have covered on the show have either come true or
there is real world parallels.”

8. Concepts explored in Black mirror, or even some of Quentin Tarantion's work (Django Unchained springs to mind)
are so complex that trying to explain them through dialogue and text would be like shooting yourself in the foot.
Explaining and wrapping your head around these concepts is much better done through showing the audience
something. For example, rather than telling the audience how horrible and violent Calvin Candie is, show them
how two black slaves beat each other to death with hammers for his entertainment as a laughs and spurs them
on. That conveys far more too the audience than words ever could.
The reason why film is one of the best mediums in which you can convey complex ideas and messages is because
you have so much creative control and you are not limited in what you can do. Unlike music, books or theatre,
where there are always grand limits to the ability of exploring ideas.
These concepts have all affected us in someway or another, whether we’ve thought about them or they were on
the news, and boredom has definitely effected all of us at some point, whether that is as a child on a car journey,
or as an adult who is bored at work. At one point in our life we have all been bored.
However, in this day and age instead of having to revel in our boredom we simply look at our phone, turned on the
TV or read a book. We don’t spend time alone with our thoughts. This is why I think the idea of exploring this
concept is interesting. Looking at what happens when you are just left with just yourself, for hours, week, months
on end.

9. “Project Socialize” Documentary
This documentary talks about and explores how humans are social animals and rely on
other humans to grow. It explores how social media constantly gives people
‘FOMO’ (Fear of missing out) and to oversimplify it talking about how social media has
caused people to be more connected while creating more distance between people as
what they are portraying themselves as online compared to reality. Now while my film is
not a documentary and it is also not about the anxiety related to social media there was
something in the documentary that I found very interesting.
It made me realise how absolutely connected we are as a species, I could contact
someone across the globe and talk to them in Realtime. So it allowed me to expand and
think more about what it would be like if a person was completely removed from society
and any form of social connection whether it is a real person, or a little black screen.
And what it might look like when this character is then returned to society, or what they
will do to themselves if they have no idea when or even if they will ever see the outside
world again.
https://vimeo.com/169384713

10. QUENTIN TARANTINO

11. I often appreciate Quentin Tarantino films for his tendency to go lager than life.
Tarantino has often been criticised because his films have extremely and unnecessarily
violent and bloody scenes. However, I disagree completely. While it is true that his films
have extreme violence and bloodshed, they are not worse than real life, and even if they
were, why does it matter? He’s selling an experience not reality, the world he creates is
his own and it is not supposed to be a reflection of reality. It’s a reflection of the idea
that he created in his mind.
As he himself said “Violence in real life is terrible; violence in movies can be cool. It’s
just another colour to work with.” It doesn’t need to be 100% real, it just needs to be
real enough to feel real. We know that violence is bad, but we enjoy watching it,
because it is wrong. Similarly in black mirror, we know that certain concepts talked
about in the episodes, for example in an episode called ‘Nosedive’ where everyone is
rating each other through technology and constantly trying to have a higher status.
Though this isn’t real yet, we are starting to see a glimpse of what a world like that
might look like, with social media and online appearances.
Film is about pulling the audience into your world, therefore I don’t think it matters what
you’re world entails, so long as you know your world better than anyone else ever will.

12. 8Acim Vasic
Acim Vasic

13. Acim Vasic
Both “8” and “Prey” are short films directed by Acim Vasic and I have absolutely fallen in love with
them because they have taught me so much about short filmmaking.
I will constantly be looking back at these films for ideas and guidance as they simply have so
much useful information and techniques.
The most notable about these films is that they have no dialogue, everything that needs to be said
is said through cinematographic language, composition and the actors expressions. I love that I
can watch these films and fully understand the story and the characters without a single word
being uttered. Even in the short film “8” the director decides that rather than the soldier choosing
to speak or use some sort of language to tell the other soldier to halt. He makes a noise with his
mouth, yet we perfectly understand what it means. Everything that needs to be conveyed is
conveyed through sounds and cinematic language, no dialogue or text is necessary.

14. I find that when trying to create something that carries some sort of depth or something that
should evoke emotion and allow the audience to thing about something and contemplate it. (not
always) but often when you limit the amount of auditory stimulation such as dialogue in can allow
the audience to explore the concept more by themselves.
People often say ‘the book was better’ when talking about a film because it had more information
and it allows the reader to create a world around the words written on the page. However in film if
there is less words or dialogue, it allows the viewer to create meaning from the visuals and
interpret it in their own way.
A prime example of this is the Kuleshov theory and effect was developed by Lev Kuleshov.
By showing the audience an image of some sort and the a reaction, the viewer creates meaning
and emotion based on the visuals they just saw, however if you change the image and show the
same reaction the audience will create different meaning based on the new images. This tool is
extremely powerful and I will definitely be using it in my project to create meaning and emotion
without having to completely rely on the actors skill to show emotion.
The Kuleshov Effect

15. The
Kuleshov
Effect

16. My own
Work

17. My own work
My first attempt at making a film that completely lacked dialogue was during my first
year at college. It was the 90 second short film we had to produce.
While the product itself was not really as good as I wish it had been. I think some
cinematic story telling devices had been used. I think it was very easy to tell that the
Protagonist was had a task to do and that he was waiting for someone to leave the
house. It was clear how he managed to get into the house as well as selling us the idea
that Protagonist was a ‘bad person’ through costume and props.
The overall ‘story’ I will admit wasn’t great but contextually I think this fits very well and I
will be taking some of the things which went well, and learning from the things that were
quite poor.
If this is contrasted to short film I made back in 2016, for my GCSE, there is clear
improvement in knowledge and techniques deployed that make for a better more
informative experience.
But this isn’t just about technical aspects, so how has this work affected my creative
thinking, and changed the way I approach my work?

18. What both of these projects are lacking is story depth and continuity as well as development of the story.
The stories are very two dimensional, they don’t give the audience anything to learn about or any
revelations throughout the plot. Granted the films both had a very snappy time limit of 90 seconds and
two minutes, which doesn’t give you a lot of time to let the audience learn new facts and information
allowing the story to unravel. However, this is greatly beneficial as I now know how extremely important it
is for a story to be layered and unfold over the course of the film, rather than setting up a concept and
spending the rest of the film unpacking that concept.
I have also learned the value of using different equipment. For the two minute GCSE short film, I used my
camera a microphone and a tripod, my editing skills were very limited and I was not very skilled with the
equipment or software, I learned as much as I could to create as good of a product I could at the time.
However, you can instantly feel that 1 minute short film I created in 2018, just by using a light reflector,
better costume and a slider as well as a tripod. The product looks and feels vastly better and more
professional as the camera isn’t just something that is capturing the story that is happening in front of
the lens, it is becoming part of the story, evoking more meaningful subtext trough its creative use,
movement and composition.
As always the best way to learn is by doing. So having spent the past nearly 3 years of my life indulging
purely in media and tis creation and consumption, making short films, doing photography, Photoshop
compositions and more. Which meant that over the the course of those years, I have been able to get
closer and closer to producing what my initial idea was and converting that idea into reality.

19. Bibliography
1. anon. (.). David Slade Biography. Available: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1720541/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm. Last accessed
21/01/2019.
2. Acim Vasic. (2010). 8. Available: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592502/. Last accessed 21/01/2019.
3. https://vimeo.com/49319171
4. Aćim Vasić. (2018). “Prey” (“La Proie”). Available: https://vimeo.com/275113239. Last accessed 21/01/2019.
5. https://vimeo.com/acimvasic
6. Charlie Brooker, Annabel Jones, Jason Arnopp (2018). Inside Black Mirror. Manhattan: Random House, 2018. 1-71.
7. Good Morning Britain. (2018). Charlie Brooker on Black Mirror Vs Reality | Good Morning Britain. Available: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Na-ZIwy1bNI. Last accessed 22/01/2019.
8. Timothy D. Wilson,1 * David A. Reinhard,1 Erin C. Westgate,1 Daniel T. Gilbert,2 Nicole Ellerbeck,1 Cheryl Hahn,1 Casey L. Brown,1 Adi
Shaked1. (2014). Just thinking the challenges of the disengaged mind. . Availaible: https://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~dtg/WILSON%20ET
%20AL%202014.pdf . Last accessed 22/01/2019.
9. Cade Huseby. (2016). “Project Socialize” (2016) | Award Winning Short Documentary by Cade Huseby | Featuring Casey Neistat and
Cesar Kuriyama. Available: https://vimeo.com/169384713. Last accessed 27/01/2019.
10. Lev Kuleshov (translated and edited by Ronald Levaco) (1974). Kuleshov on Film: Writings of Lev Kuleshov. London: University of
California Press. 1-29.