Emily Smail
Think you know what mental illness is like? This is not your typical social realism film. Hitting cinemas April 2015, Denial is a five minute short film conveying the journey of a schizophrenic teenager. When seventeen year old Lucy Miller starts to indulge in the excitment of dating we see how she is dragged under a sea of paranoia and terror as she struggles to cope with the idea of being stalked. Lucy then has to fight for her life in hospital and come to terms that she is sczhizophnic.
"Briliantly shot and well editted"
-Kris Ebbs, Film Editor
Film directors Molly Middleton and Kris Ebbs described Denial as must see and outstanding. "You really get an idea of what it must be like for a schizophenic sufferer. Even with exciting things like dating, Denial gives a fantastic insight of how a mentally ill person would struggle with things that most people don't." -Molly Middleton, Film Dirrector. "Brilliantly shot and well editted" -Kris Ebbs, Film Editor.
Director Emily Smail stated that she feels that the film sends a strong message to the public, implying that mental illness can effect anyone, and can have life threatning consequences.
She went on to say that the purpose of her film is to challenge the typical expectations of a scizophenic person. She stated as many as 51 million people suffer from schizophenia worldwide but it is only reported that the odds of a schizophernic person killing a stranger was 1 in 14 million per year. Miss Smail stated "I think the media paints a very cruel image of schizphenic people. The only headlines you ever see of them are those of violence and terror and aren't usally justified with the fact that being schizophrenic is a traumatic and terrifying experience"
The director went on to say that she was also disgusted to discover how much money has been cut from the NHS mental health services. £2.3million was cut in 2014 and the director described this as "absolutley ridiculous. As a result this financial cut there will be less staff to help with mentally ill people. This will lead to an increase in waiting time for things such as councelling. You would not have to wait for three months to be attended too if you had a broken leg. How has it come to be that mental pain and physical pain are attended too so differently by our goverment."
BBC Director and 3times ltd owner Jo Sutton described Denial as a "very well put together film" The camera work used in the film is that of a very proffesional nature and I would expect nothing less from the proffesional camera man that was used. David Smail has a reputation for delivering excellent camera shots and I think Emily Smail should feel very priviledged to have such a talented camera man delivering her shots. I think that the woods scene was very well shot and editted. I thought the reoccuring use of wide shots were very effective due to the fact that wide shots are a code and convention of social realism films.
Another thing the BBC director found interesting was the use of editting. "From the use of font to the way Lucy was hit by a car, the use of editting in this short film was absolutley outstanding" Jo stated how she liked how the shots were cut quicker when tension was building up and also went on to say what an excellent choice of music Emily Smail had selected for the scenes. They really "fit the scene" she stated.
"Outstanding actors with a clear storyline"
Jo Sutton - BBC Director & Owner of 3times ldt.