Project Proposal

Finding Serenity

Prepared for: Bipolar

UK

8 August 2013

Lauren Howard E laurenjay90@hotmail.co.uk M 07842946732 Lauren Woodfall E lwoodfall@hotmail.com M 07854609213 UNIVERSITY FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS

Finding Serenity
Our idea
We would like to create a documentary lm on people from all walks of life who live with a bipolar disorder. The style of the lm would include an experimental approach to imagery and expressive visual art in the aim of showing the viewer how it feels to live on an emotional roller-coaster. The experiences of each contributor will told by a combination of storytelling devices, one of which will be by voice-over, which will be interweaved between these metaphorical images. We would use actuality, or real-life, segments following the lives they lead in the hope of getting to know them on a personal level through intimate shots within their environments: their home, their personal spaces and hobbies, or through visiting support groups.

The style
We would like to use the combination of powerful images involving objects in nature and the weather to explore the mood swings associated with bipolar disorders. Our experimental approach would involve creating elaborate time-lapse pieces to work within the lm, along with subtle changes in editing, lighting and colour balance. We aim to maintain a polished a professional look throughout the lm with thoughtful shot compositions. Wed like to create a specially shot piece involving dancers to place emphasis on the title of Finding Serenity.

What we have
A title Finding Serenity Four months to shoot and edit A crew to produce, write, direct, shoot and edit Industry standard equipment A sense of style we want to achieve

What we are looking for

We believe the Stephen Fry documentary was a real turning point in peoples lives, and helped them to review their own mood disorders, and perhaps seek help for the rst time. However, we believe it would be fantastic if non-celebrities had the chance to tell their stories for the rst time on camera. Therefore, we are primarily looking for people from all stages in their lives that have been diagnosed with bipolar and would like to have their voice heard. We would like to work with them, and perhaps their families, to provide an insight into their lives and allow viewers to: gain a better understand of the illness, break the stigma and stereotypes, and provide comfort to other families and those that have been recently diagnosed and those who fear it. Ideally we are hoping to concentrate on 4 to 6 individual stories, so we are looking of ways to nd them. We are also looking for environments to lm in, a support group or other places we could meet with people and discuss bipolar. Perhaps we could get involved with the pilot youth scheme in London? We are exploring the idea of having a one of our contributors meet with a counsellor or psychologist on lm, who would help them to cope with the diagnosis, and explain a little more about the mood disorder. We would like to concentrate as much as possible on the positive aspect of diagnosis, and would like to lm people doing creative things and perhaps showcasing talents. As we are at the start of our journey, we would like to start wide, and narrow down as we go along. Therefore the greater the access, number of stories, sequences, scenarios and segments we can nd to include, the better. Then it would be a case of selecting what would work best for the lm and the style we are hoping to achieve.

Finding Serenity

Working together
We could work together in several ways: The lm could be a collaborative piece, with the charities needs and ideas shown, which may help with your campaigns, but will also be used on other platforms, to help meet some of your aims: To develop an effective voice for people affected by bipolar To increase our inuence with national government and the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland To increase our inuence with local authorities, both to support our service delivery and to be a voice for change at a local level To be the lead voice for people affected by bipolar, advocating for new developments to tackle key issues To raise public awareness of bipolar and of our role in supporting the many thousands of individuals affected by this severe mental illness To develop a dedicated communications & policy resource

If you are unsure of our idea, you could perhaps commission us to do a lm solely for bipolar UK? Using your own stories and ideas, which we could develop. Finding Serenity could still be how we rst envisioned, with our own creative ideas and storytelling, but we would be more than happy for bipolar UK to use it and have your name added. Could we use your facts and information? We could include a small segment of the lm that focused on the charity, to help promote the organisation?

Questions
What would you like from us? How can we nd individual stories, through a call out on your website or social media? Perhaps using the 30 stories people you used for your 30 year celebrations? Meeting people ourselves at support groups, or asking support workers in the South East to nominate people who may want to share their experiences? What sort of sensitive areas should we be aware of when we are approaching people, are there any subject areas we should avoid? If we are to collaborate, what sort of legal problems/ consent etc would we need to be aware of? Do you have a media guidelines that you work with? Looking at our interview questions, what is your opinion? Is there anything we should focus more on or avoid altogether? Are there any events, campaigns, projects or groups you would like use to look into and perhaps use within the lm? We would also be interested in the contacts you may have outside the charity, to do with research and the other documentaries you have been involved with?

Deadlines
We are aiming to have the main stories and contributors conrmed by the end of this month, to begin shooting in September and into October. We would be editing for a minimum of four weeks, nishing on the 28th November. After looking through your website, there are a few dates we could try and coincide with, such as the National Bipolar Day.

Finding Serenity