Initial Ideas Part 5

My final idea is rather more serious than the others. It centres around a subject I have had first hand experiences of and I feel I could make a really worthwhile film that could help people understand it.

5. Quirks of OCD

Genre: Drama

The idea in a sentence - A woman with OCD explains her daily life to her therapist.

The film would start with the main character entering a therapists office. The therapist asks how she is and the patient sits down and says "I'm...well, it's tough" (or something along those lines).
A montage would begin depicting the situations the woman is describing as a voice over on top of the visuals.  This would show how she is misunderstood and highlight many peoples ignorance or misconceptions of Obsessive compulsive disorder.

Possible situations in the montage

• Main character not being able to shake someone's hand. The other character thinks she is just being rude. 
• Washing her hands a lot. 
• Using anti-bacterial gel to enable her to use things (like door handles for instance).
• Having a cup of tea from the same mug at the same time every day -A daily ritual where she becomes distressed if she can't do it. 
• Having labelled tooth brushes, one for each day. 
• Having a bowl of mixed cereal but sorting each component into groups.
• Keeping things on her desk straight. 
• Taking prescribed medication whilst she explains that she doesn't think it helps.
• People telling her to pull herself together

The end of the film would feature no resolution reflecting that there is no cure. The main character would just be sitting in the chair, still with the therapist and say something like "And it's just really hard, I'm so tired..." before the screen fades to black.   

Character representation 

The main character - Its important the she is presented as a usual person with no outstanding differences from anyone else apart from her behaviour in the montage. This is due to the nature of the disorder - the symptoms aren't clear. This is why so much stigma surrounds the disorder; people don't understand it because they can't see it. 

Possible problems 

• The biggest problem would probably be me. I think throughout the process any criticism received may come across a bit personal making it hard for me to focus on the film from a media point of view rather than a personal one.