Schizophrenia

This is still a very rough outline of this project.

Logline:

This Fourth-Wall-Breaking project follows a schizophrenic person, who believes they are being watched by an audience. Has this person developed schizophrenia or just simply, developed the ability to be self-aware?

Synopsis:

A camera tracks a smartly dressed person commuting while muttering to themselves as they believe that they are being followed. Their paranoia intensifies as they look over their shoulder and begin jogging while reassuring themselves that, “Everything’s okay”. Suddenly, the person confronts the camera (the audience) and interrogates it, (“what are you looking at?”) which reveals that the person is in fact aware that they are being watched.

Plot:

The protagonist readies himself for what appears to be a regular working day until finally on their way to work where they have an episode. They believe to hear the critical thoughts of pedestrians while seeing subliminal messages which encourage these beliefs but they doubt themselves into thinking they’re “being paranoid”.

These subliminal thoughts and texts become more intense and personal while being heard from the front, the left, the right and behind them as the camera cuts between each direction before spinning around the protagonist until they’re facing forward again and finally confront the camera.

The camera spins to reveal that nobody’s there until it zooms out to reveal a cinema screen or TV studio and it’s revealed that they were being watched the entire time. The protagonist collapses and receives a call from their doctor regarding the refilling of their prescription medication and it’s revealed that the protagonist is a paranoid schizophrenic.