“THE THERAPIST” – Live Action

The idea of how malleable the mind can become through psychological manipulation has always been an intriguing topic I had wanted to explore for a while. I always aim to create something that is fantastical and unexpected with our given budget, timeline, and resources.

An opportunity to execute this topic came through Campus Movie Festival, a nation-wide student film festival where students are given one week to create a 5 minute short film. However before then, planning had already spanned two months in order to make sure that we can stick to that deadline.

Challenges that gave way to Creativity

5 minute time  led to writing an emotional drama where the audience can sympathize with the main character and experience his catharsis. Original script involved the main character being an anti-hero which is harder for the audience to understand relate to.

How does an old man relate to a young boy? I researched that play therapy, telling stories with toys, is very common in child therapy. Combine that with the classic set up of an old man telling fairy tales to a child, this sheds a light of innocence against the contrast of the tragedy and depression the old man himself faces. In a turn around of events, it is the therapist himself who gains the benefit of the therapy session with the child character.

Prioritize key shots led to only shooting the most important shots that carry the visual subtext for the whole narrative. Not one shot is wasted.

Small shooting space + 5 minutes of boring talking heads led to utilizing shadow animation as a way to bring the audience from the live action setting to something that is more fantastic.

Production 

1. Writing the script, major themes, and structure of the film in order to appeal to the empathy of the audience within a 5 minute time frame.
2. Audio read through to make sure that the script sticks to 5 minutes.
3. Cast and crew scouting: Sent out audition postings to local talent agencies and to our drama students. Crew was assembled from students and professionals who are affiliated with our film club.
4. Location and tech scouting. We found a professor at Emory who was willing to lend us his office for use and did a tech scout to find out if certain visuals were reproducible in the actual environment (ie: shadows of actors projected onto the wall). Checked out the kind of light setups we were basically able to do in a small office and shoot in one day.
5. Production design: Worked with production designer and gaffers to nail down the look of the office to match the vision.
6. Reworked storyboards and visuals to match our findings from the technical shoot.
7. Rehearsed with actors make sure the emotion was coming through.
8. Shoot it and hope for the best.

Storyboards

Behind the Scenes Photos

The limitations of time and resources stretched our creative muscles to the max. After two months of planning and test shooting, we were able to pull this off, shooting the entire film in 19 hours with a set of Carl Zeiss lenses, a Canon 60D, couple of lightboxes, a professor’s office at Emory University, and a smidgeon of luck on our side.

The Results?

This film has gone on to earn several honors:

2012 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner Screening

Best Picture at CMF Georgia Tech

Nominated for National Campus Movie Fest at Hollywood