https://www.facebook.com/reel/778946158550594 Renowned Wolverhampton film maker Graham Everitt (GapintheMind) has made an excitin new film to promote positive mental health in the community. Graham has previously collaborated with The Good Shepherd in Wolverhampton to promote mental health and his films have been shown in Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
"The concept was to digitally project a reaction to depression" said Graham "using light to project something about darkness. It initially related to Blue Monday - the 3rd Monday of the New Year, a term coined in 2005 by Cardiff University health psychologist Cliff Arnall, and by broadening it we captured personal responses to mental health affecting issues."
Most peope will associate the term with a certain song by New Order but it has much deeper roots in science.
"We put together a set of contributing statements from local creatives and one night drove around projecting it out of the side window - as you do, whilst filming it so a movie sequence could be made. It was very experimental, freaking out a few taxi drivers and passers-by in the process. The images were projecting through windows, illuminated across facades, billboards and vehicles, flickering against railings and hitting building surfaces in the distance" explained Graham Everitt.
"Notwithstanding the link to the New Order tune of the same name, I wanted to try and work with a less obvious type of soundtrack for it. The song "Sound the Wheel" by the Sandkings was already in my head and I'd been working with them on stage projections. It has a dreamy, ethereal feel to it and whilst running it during editing, the song seemed to compliment the drifting, ephemeral imagery. In fact, their projected logo opens the film sequence almost like an apparition."
Local creatives who took part in the project to promote positive mental health in the community are Saida Chowdhury, Jack Sparra, Jayne Phidd, Glenn Sandking, Matt Lay, Shaun Perry, Brogan, Jay Darby and Beau.
"The light - delicate and transient also had a strong presence about it - like us; humans beings, people, souls." said Graham Everitt. "The journey - the moving imagery is time, we change, we come, we go, nothing is static or still for very long. We are fragile and Glenn's projected statement onto (the forthcoming closure of) the brewery captured this.
We received a variety of contributions, some taking specific personal viewpoints such as the recently diagnosed ADHD musician - Shaun. It might be like having a new set of pieces to assemble in your world jigsaw. They disrupt the existing image and arrangement, yet could provide greater clarity - a bigger picture of you as a person. Experiences can do this. The changing backgrounds, light and conditions during the projections sort of ends up being a visual metaphor for this - nothing is permanent. I've projected like this before, it's always a fun and intriguing experiment; to see what happens, how it resonates, and with this specific project - does anyone feel a connection between the visual qualities and the statements ?"
Commenting on the project, community entrepreneur Jack Sparra, who has voljunteered with Wolverhampton mental health services in the past and appeared in other films with Graham Everitt said "Let`s make Blue Monday into new Monday shall we?"
"There is another other point, that being how the world is right now" explained Graham. "We are in a precariously delicate situation, peace is under threat, terror is reigning, democracy is being ripped up, they're even trying to stigmatise empathy, it's become 1984 - brutal and inhumane - mainly due to one orange narcissist. I sensed some of these statements, in particular Brogan's, were a reaction to this. It is all too quickly forgotten that we are spirits, temporary fragile beings, and the projected light and transient images are metaphors for this. For our short time on earth we can be light. "
