Experiencing Interruptions?

Down Not Out

Who's in your corner?

  • Jake Polonsky
    Director
  • Caswell Coggins
    Director
  • Jake Polonsky
    Writer
  • Kat Armour-Brown
    Producer
  • Ohna Falby
    Producer
  • Lesley Sackey
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 16, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    4K digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Jake Polonsky, Caswell Coggins

Jake is an award-winning cinematographer and director. As a DP, he graduated from working on 100s of commercials and music videos – picking up a CADS music video award on the way - into the world of film and television, where he has worked on varied projects including the first three seasons of Billions for Showtime with directors ranging from Reed Morano to Neil Burger and John Dahl.

He shot two Emmy winning episodes of Black Mirror, ‘National Anthem’ and ‘Bandersnatch’, as well as working on many other tv shows including ‘The Great’ and ‘Doctor Who’. He recently completed work on The Sparks Brothers documentary for director Edgar Wright. Jake has extensive 2nd unit credits on movies including The Mauritanian, The World’s End, Divergent and Enduring Love.

As a director Jake shot for Billions as well as making several acclaimed short films, including School of Life – winner of a British Independent Film Award – and another recent collaboration with Fujifilm, 2020 Vision, featuring poet Hussain Manawer.

He was elected a member of the British Society of Cinematographers in 2015.

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Director Statement

I’d been talking with an old friend who’d recently been diagnosed with Bipolar 2 spectrum disorder. They commented that not many attempts had been made to explain what bipolar feels like in images. Plenty of people have described it with words.

Down Not Out is an attempt to explain how the experience of bipolar can feel to someone who hasn’t yet been diagnosed. The key image for me was the final one - of someone fighting imaginary opponents in a ring. But the whole story - of one person’s progress through the cycle of moods - and how to explain what that feels like - was vitally important to us.

We have attempted to show a visual metaphor of how random rapid cycling of moods can feel. The sudden appearance of a new opponent was a way of showing how quickly depression can give way to mania or hypomania. We hope that the film may help you if you or someone you know has been struggling with undiagnosed bipolar.