Treatment

Treatment for Media – Teenage drama/schizophrenia

Title:
Genre: Teen drama

Duration: 5 minutes

Audience: This film will be aimed at teenagers as it is centered on a teenager’s life and is a teen drama. Adults may be interested in it also however this is not our main audience. There is not a particular gender in which we aim this short film at.

Synopsis:
We are introduced to Kate, a teenage girl who is laid down on her bed, with eyes wide open. Her hair is slacked back and she looks tired/down. She has a secret that only her family, and her doctor know about.

Her mum shouts to her, from downstairs, to take her tablets for today, as she is a paranoid schizophrenic and has been for the past 2 and a half years. She was sectioned with the disorder a few months after symptoms started showing and has had to take tablets ever since. Kate takes the tablet from her mum and goes back into her bedroom. She opens her jewellery box, where we see a pile of tablets; she throws the tablet in to join, shuts the box, and lies back on her bed.

Her phone rings and she answers. She begins talking to her friend and her friend asks her what is wrong, but does not get a helpful answer.

After a while, her friend shows up at the door. She and Kate’s mum have a conversation about Kate. Kate hears this, and goes downstairs to confront them, with the encouragement of her imaginary “friend”.

Kate’s mum and friends continue to worry about her and go upstairs to find she is not in her room and nowhere to be seen. Kate’s friend goes home, and Kate’s family have a serious discussion about Kate’s behaviour and maybe that her schizophrenia has returned. Worried, they go out to look for her, to find her talking very loud to herself and standing on a high hill, looking reckless and uncontrolled.

We then hear the voice of Kate’s hallucination and change to see and hear from her point of view, and it seems that her schizophrenia has returned, with nobody knowing except but is it too late? Her family realise they haven’t been watching over her as carefully as they should have been and start to blame themselves. Although will they get to her and save her in time…

Suggested elements:
Paranoia
Schizophrenia
Unawareness