Reflections Film Idea

Concept

An observation of optical illusions and how they lie to us reveals how little we actually perceive correctly in our day to day life.

This films lacks narrative, and focuses solely on our perception of the world around us by the re-creation of various optical illusions, and revealing how they lie to us or rather how our brain lies to us.

The concept originally came from my exploration of why we remember, which led to scientific theory behind false memories that people may have and from that, how we actually perceive the world around us. It would seem that we have a selective perception, and we rely on our memory and our imagination to fill in the gaps of our perception, and so it's very easy for us to miss important details. 

Videos such as the one above demonstrate this idea very well, with about 50% of people being fooled by it.

Structure

The film will be shot using a variation of split screen, and mirroring to show the illusion, and also different perspectives of it that will reveal the lie of it.

The variety of optical illusions used will include;

• How you can look very large next to something bigger than you from far away (the moon, landmarks etc.)
• When a mirror looks like it goes on forever.
• When reflections on water seemingly reflect something perfectly.
• When a 2D object is made to look 3D
• The effect of looking through a kaleidoscope.
• Distorted vision, such as looking into a spoon/through a magnifying glass

The simplicity of the optical illusions means that it won't take too much time to set up, and will still be effective. However, revealing the optical illusions through a split screen is the most important part of the film, as it brings across the meaning of the film.

The inspiration for doing this film in this way comes from an exploration of how other films have handled this similar theme:
I came across a Honda advert that used optical illusions for a commercial use, also revealing the illusion.

I also came across a film from 1972 which deals with optical illusion in a digital, and hypnotic sense called Matrix III by John Whitney.

Overall my style looks to reflect the collage and collective style of Christian Marclay’s ‘Telephones’, but more upbeat with a use of split screen to demonstrate multiple perspectives on the same event.

[Updated] After kind suggestions from the comments below, I have had a look at the kind of pacing and visual style I want to have. Someone I knew at college made a film for his foundation in Arts & Media, and I really see the film holding this kind of style and pacing, and the use of mirroring gives it a kind of dynamic I want to get across in my film:

Also, with sound I was considering using vocals from clips discussing the theory behind perception and memory, as I know there are a lot out there overlapping one another in the background. However, I'm aware there's a danger it could become quite uneasy in doing so, so I might have to think about how I go about that quite carefully.