My Final Film - Folie à Deux

Here is a reveal of my entire film, Folie à Deux, the final result of all my research and efforts. This movie was directed by me, written & storyboarded by me, filmed and shot by Arren, Danny and I, starring Natasha and I (with Frankie as an extra in a scene), sound arranged by me and finally edited by me using Adobe Premiere Pro. The total duration for the film is 4 minutes and 29 seconds, produced in 5 weeks.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/c3a0a6_f9e01a41d9ec43d083e81c192067a3d1/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

I struggled to come up with a name for the film. I really did. I didn't want it to sound too generic or too obscure. The film has themes of obscurity, paranoia, alternate dimensions, madness, mental health and mystery, with the genre being a sort of sci-fi, psychological horror sort of film - very unique in its own way - a film very very unlike any other sort of film I have ever watched. As you can see on my storyboard you can see how I've brainstormed potential names.

Eventually I settled, quite late into post-production, on the name 'Folie à Deux'. Folie à Deux is a French phrase translated as 'a madness for two' which essentially what this film is about, the unexplained chaos between mine and Natasha's characters. It makes reference to a mental disorder of the same name; a syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief, and sometimes hallucinations are transmitted from one individual to another (read about it/more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folie_%C3%A0_deux).

It is a very complex mental health disorder that is shared by multiple people, and although the film is not strictly about the disorder itself, it shares key ideas with it. The disorder itself is most commonly diagnosed when two or more individuals of concern live in proximity, have little interaction with other people, which is very much ties in with the style of film that was made, as there are essentially only two actors, creating a sense of isolation and loneliness.

Another reason I came up with this name for the film in particular is because it also the name for one of my favourite punk/alternative rock albums by Fall Out Boy, referenced before in my work. I believe that media we consume such as music, film, and entertainment is always inextricably linked with our creative work we produce, as a creative practitioner. I think the name is meaningful to me in this way.