Asperger Syndrome Film

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Hello!
I am a Film Studies and Psychology student and for my practical Film Studies coursework, I decided that I wanted to make a film on something different. I decided to make a short film on Asperger Syndrome, showing what it is like to have the condition. As the maximum time limit is five minutes, I knew that I could not cover the all the aspects of the condition in that time, so I decided to focus on one aspect that causes many aspies problems. In the film, Kevin is an aspie school boy who arrives at his school bus stop, eventually realising the uncomfortable truth that his bus has arrived early and that he has missed it. He has an 'Asperger meltdown'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzNew4jJVw

The only criticism I can think of is that it looks like a shutdown, not like a meltdown.

Simplified: Meltdown - explosive, loud, active. Shutdown - falter, loud or quiet, passive.

The meltdown would be to scream, attack your environment or yourself in some way whereas a shutdown would include such things as dropping the the ground after having been active and curling up there, too non-functional to do something different.
I think it's very problematic to confuse those two, because people then think violence and throwing stuff can't be a meltdown (because they think meltdowns are shutdowns from having seen shutdowns called meltdowns) and must mean that their behaviour is not related to their autism.

This is exactly why I don't take a bus anywhere! Cool video, well done.

A meltdown can be as simple as crying uncontrollably. It doesn't have to involve violence towards others or self.

A shutdown is an absolute withdrawal.

Hiya, georgetheaspie

Great video!! Thanks for sharing!
I choose to comment on your film in a filmmaking aspect. Just some ideas in how I would have made a video of the same concept and use all the five minutes. its not critism for a bad video, just suggestions. I cant, as the above poster do, define whether its a meltdown or not.
I have never heard about that before I entered this forum. To me it looks like anxiety and panickattack but meltdowns and shutdowns might be just other words for that I dont know...

First I think you have managed very good to bring the viewer into the feeling of the character. The music is coming in slowly and gets more twisted and the briefing towards the end is brilliant!
The meltdown is comming on too fast I feel like. But I think I get that impression because I see much of the same and only views.The views when he walks forward and back and when he look at his watch.

You could have started the video with showing a close up on the busstop and seeing the guy coming there. When the video starts I as a viewer have no clue how long time he has been there and how long it takes before he starts loosing track of himself. You could have put the camera in the field behind, and further down the road and a bit above to get a few more short diffrent angles of the scene.

I would have told the story quite slow and relaxed first, to then show the complete opposite clearer when the inner chaos of the character is most intense. Its a calm and beatiful environment around. You could have highlightened this more in the beginning to give the video in full more effect. Showing that everything was just normal to then be an nonunderstanding chaos to a bypasser.

Then when the anxiety is growing, you also speed up with shorter frames like you do. Its good with the editing program effects you brought on but you could also used more actual camera technique, such as walking around the person a few rounds with the cam to then speed it up in the computer. The problem with that might have been the shadow of the cameraman.. You could also end it with letting the camera leave the scene less abrupt, maybe as a car passing by.....The black end is good and its a reflection feeling as I as the viewer see my own face and wonder "what did I just see" ...but the black part was maybe a bit too long...

I consider that a shutdown still, a loss of functional ability followed by passiveness.



Would withdrawal serious equate to sleep? Because extreme shutdowns can result in sleep as a total loss of functionality.

But then... I guess I forgot that emotional stuff supposedly makes people meltdown/shutdown too, not just overloads. Maybe that's where withdrawal and passiveness even in a meltdown come into play, when people have emotional issues they can't cope with.

interesting.. honestly i am also making movie about AS atm. this is my diploma project on Graphic Designing - i decided to make a cartoon movie.. which is a videoclip for a song of my fave band (the people from this band know about it, they agreed ). for me the most difficult task was when i decided to show the street seen with main character's eyes... i'm going back to work, i've already drawn 3 minutes of the movie..

I just had a meltdown, followed by a shutdown yesterday, so I can easily relate to this video.
I'm still recovering after that, mostly because the stressfactor is still there.
Thanks for posting, it's always interesting to see something new. Whether the subject is new or not.