For my bridge 4 project I created a short film that acts as a visual representation of what sleep deprivation is like. My process for making the film started with researching the subject and gethering ideas on what the scenes should represent in terms of feelings. Then, I moved into the process of interviewing which gave thoughtful responses that I used to further my creation. Not only was fieldwork and research nessecary it gave me a foundation to work on. Many people I talked to gave similiar responses regarding the following questions:
- How much on average do you sleep every night?
- Out of the 7 day week which/how many days do you feel you are getting less than adequate amounts of sleep?
- Do you wake up in the middle of the night?
- What do you do to fall asleep?
- How often are you on your phone before bed?
- Can you describe reasons why this is so?
- Does your lack/excess sleep stem from personal issues/obligations/lack of free time
- Do you feel that everyday life affects your sleep schedule?
- What parts of your day have the biggest impact on your sleep schedule?
- Are there times you wish you slept less/more?
- Do you sleep in on specific days of the week?
- How does your body respond to less/more sleep? (feeling tired, anxious, etc.)
- Does lack/excess sleep affect your ability to function if so how much on a scale of 1-10?
- When did you start sleeping poorly? (Generally speaking. School, work, etc.)
- If you could shift around your schedule how much time would you dedicate to sleeping?
- Give a quote/drawing/word of what sleep deprivation could be to you
out of these question I thought that the most interesting was:
“Give a quote/drawing/word of what sleep deprivation could be to you”
Alot of people just explained what it was like to feel sleep deprived and how things like anxiety and restlessness were sometimes constant. When I asked people about how much sleep they often get the average was around 5-6 hours with some of these people sleeping as little as 3. Also most people felt that school was the most common factor affecting their sleep and during finals and midterms sleep was at an all time low. It felt important that school was where my film took place because of this. My film starts off with the Loeb hall dorms and makes its way to the University Center. Throughout the film I used a tripod and techniques such as playing with the focus and camera angles.
