How kleptomania works

This article can be found here. 

How kleptomania works

While shoplifting has been a problem for centuries, kleptomania was first described as a psychological disorder in the early 1800s and has been only intermittently recognized by the American Psychiatric Article System Association as a type of mental illness since the 1950s. Psychiatrists continue to debate whether kleptomania is a distinct mental illness or a manifestation of some other psychological disorder. Although there has been little research on the neurobiology of kleptomania, some studies have provided biological clues, and some have attempted pharmacological treatment of this condition.

There are many reasons for shoplifting: resale, supporting a drug habit, personal use and "just for the thrill of it." However, most of these reasons fit stealing, but not kleptomania. Kleptomania is characterized by an impulsive need to steal, and many kleptomaniacs are first discovered in the act of shoplifting. The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) has outlined the following criteria for a diagnosis:

1. The individual repeatedly fails to resist the impulse to steal items that are not needed for personal use or monetary value.
2. The individual experiences tension before stealing.
3. The individual's tension is relieved or gratified by the act of the theft.
4. The theft is not due to anger, revenge, delusions, hallucinations or impaired judgment (dementia, mental retardation, alcohol intoxication, drug intoxication).
5. Other psychological disorders can't account for the individual's stealing behavior (like manic episodes and antisocial behaviors).

Often, the stealing behavior of kleptomania occurs along with other psychological disorders, like obsessive-compulsive, personality and mood disorders. This observation has led some psychiatrists to question whether kleptomania is indeed a true psychological disorder or a manifestation of some other psychological disorder. Generally, kleptomania has been classed with other impulse control disorders, such as pathological gambling, pyromania and trichotillomania (chronic hair-pulling). Impulse control disorders are those where the individuals cannot resist the impulse to commit some behavior, criminal or otherwise.

Pencil Face

Looking at other short films on Youtube, I came across Pencil Face. This is a drama with morals in the narrative. The caption for this video was "He'll help you draw, he'll help you erase, waste not want not, he is pencil face". This short video basically shows the audience how you should not take things for granted. The girl thinks that know that she has this magic pencil, she can get everything she wants and throw it away when she is done; this is what you see when she draws the kite. However, there is a sense of karma in the plot and she gets sucked into a black hole when Pencil Face notices that she has discarded the kite.
Watching this helped me come up with ideas for my narrative. I wanted to make my plot as realistic as possible, so instead of going for the fantasy approach with something magic happening, I based the plot around someone with a mental condition. Therefore, there will still be a moral in what my short film is portraying, but it will also educate my target audience about the mental condition and what the effects are. Moreover, the slogan for my film would be "the more she gets, the less she see's" basically implying how greed can make you take things for granted and that you never realize what you actually have until you stop to appreciate it.

Synopsis

Short film project --> Rachael & Maia Rose

Genre- drama

Synopsis: 
A teenage girl suffering from Kleptomania; whenever something catches her eye, even something with no value, she can’t resist the urge to steal it. Once she has stolen something her mood changes and she feels satisfied at first. This feeling of satisfaction begins to disappear, the teenage girl starts to believe she doesn’t have enough and begins to steal more to try to regain the feeling she once had. Unfortunately, she can't see how much she actually owns from all the stealing, but we as an audience can. There is a voice inside her head that is telling her that she needs more. It is a violent addiction which she cannot overcome. The addiction begins to take over who she is and she slowly becomes panicked, isolated and depressed. She fears admitting to people that she has stolen which is why she doesn’t seek advice or help about her condition. But she can’t handle the effect it has on her by herself.

25 word pitch

A girl has Kleptomania, the more she steals, the less she thinks she has. Eventually, this idea takes over her life, she slowly becomes insane.

Initial ideas

Our initial ideas: 

Rachael and I first came up with an idea to make the narrative about a teenage boy being bullied at school. The secret behind it was he was a werewolf and he manages to get the main bully when he is alone and kill him. This narrative wouldn't just end with him dying though. The end would be a shot of more bullies abusing him and the guy being bullied silently waits until the next full moon to strike again. 

However, after a 1-1 meeting, it was decided that this idea was too complicated and after looking at other videos and getting more ideas, we chose to base or narrative on Kleptomania. 

Aims and Context

Aims and Context:

Rachael Rogerson and I will be creating a short film called "Greed". We're focusing on the drama genre, as our narrative is based around kleptomania. We hope to create an empathic emotional response in the audience.

By creating a sense of empathy in the audience, we hope to explore the depths of mental illness, and enhance the understanding of the matter.
We will be using micro features such as props and colour to help structure and develop the storyline.
Our target audience, mainly, is teenagers and adults, men and women, with an interest in mental disorders and experimental short films. 

Conventions of Drama genre

 Conventions of the drama genre

In the drama genre, meaning is created through the use of micro features such as editing, mise en scène, cinematography and editing, among others. These features  are used to create a specific meaning to the spectator through dialogue, facial expressions, location, types of angles, non digetic sound, etc.

One of the key themes in a drama film is realism, in almost every case, the story will focus on real life problems, such as racism or alcohol and drug abuse (instead of dragons and unicorns), and the characters in it will be people the audience or spectator can relate to. To achieve a realistic sense, a drama film will normally have very long shots, and a very slow pace editing, in contrast to the fast editing in, for example, action films. This can also build up suspense.

Drama films and short films  are based on the character’s own emotions towards a situation or situations. This is interesting, because in almost every other genre, it’s the other way around; the characters will go through something, which will make the film, and then they will feel different. Or not. Whilst in drama, the main focus is on the character and what they are feeling. This is why lots of drama films will use  close and extreme close-ups to let the audience or spectator see the emotions the character is feeling. This is why, normally, dramas will develop the characters’ emotions more than any other genre of film.

In a drama film, lighting is often used to create a certain feeling in the audience or spectator; low key lighting may create an unsettling or confusing feel, whilst high key lighting might be used to accentuate a certain location, or to create a sense of happiness among the viewers or characters.

The use of non digetic sound is not so popular in drama, as it is in, say, a fantasy film, or a romantic comedy. The reason for this, is that background music makes the film less realistic, which contradicts the first statement about the drama genre. A lot of drama films will avoid, or get around this problem by using music as a digetic sound, for example, when a character turns the radio on, and a song starts playing. Sound in the form of music, in a drama, can be used to add emotion or rhythm to a specific scene or even to portray an aspect of certain character. This also can be used throughout the film, once the viewer can associate a musical theme with a character or situation, to give the audience a hint of what might happen to that character in the film.