I personally haven't been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder but I definitely have had my fair share of extreme panic, near certain death feelings. The feeling that the word "anxiety" describes is undeserving of just one word to describe it. I think we'd be able get anxiety disorders the help it deserves if only we described it as what it is. "Anxiety" is a sort of a euphemism for "I'm suddenly, intensely panicking for no good reason and truly believe that right now is when I'm going to die." Sudden. Intense. Panic. Death. If they wanted your attention in a news headline, they'd certainly use those words.
BREAKING NEWS: INTENSE PANIC AND ABOUT IMPENDING DEATH
You'd stick around to watch that right? I don't want to get to deep into euphemisms or distractive language but I really think that if the perspective was changed to describing it exactly how it feels, something might be done to help all mental health disorders.
George Carlin has a great bit about euphemisms and uses PTSD as the example. First it was 'shell shock'. "Almost sounds like the guns themselves", Carlin says. Then it was softened to 'battle fatigue'. Then 'operational exhaustion'. Then, finally, 'post-traumatic stress disorder'.
The word becomes dehumanized, therefore the condition becomes dehumanized. Like those voices on the Emergency Broadcast System. Except this is not a test.
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I won't get into too much detail with how this was done. I did get to a capture nice, simple analog texture to use for this film. I made circles by adhering coins to sheets of acetate. Then painted the acetate black and removed the coins, revealing some cool little textured circles:
Then I threw a light behind it and did a quick photo shoot with these backlit circles:
I really wanted these to express INTENSITY. That was the guiding word. INTENSE. I kept thinking of the Star Gate sequence in '2001: A Space Odyssey':
Also, those nerve rattling Emergency Broadcast System interruptions:
Here are some images from the final film that mix all of the above together:
