Trapped By Myself

I have always been a fan of surreal films or at least films that blend reality with the fantastical or downright unbelievable. When conceptualizing the story for my final year short film, I had made up my mind to tell a story that would not only be interesting to watch but to make a film that would recontextualize the viewer’s understanding upon a second viewing. In order to make this film truly great, and make it one I would always love to watch I decided to revisit an earlier student film I made in film school – “Two Sides of the Same Coin”
“Two Sides of the Same Coin” is a very short film I shot in my third year of film school. It was the first film I directed and it was where I began developing my style of film directing. In the story, which I did not write, the protagonist faced an internal battle between her positive and negative self and that idea sent me back to my physics classes. I decided to treat the characters as wires in a circuit and tell a story of a mind failing because it was out of sync. This gave me the idea for “Trapped by Myself” but rather than looking at the body as circuitry, I decided to tell a story that answers the two desires I started with by infusing a field of study I occasionally read on when I find some free time – Psychology.
Psychology has been of interest to me since my adolescence, although I never got the chance to properly delve into it. At the time of my conceptualization of “Trapped by Myself”, I had become mildly conversant with the psychology of Carl Jung. Ironically, it was through a different entertainment medium – A video game named Persona 5. Jung’s idea of “The Self”, “The Shadow” and “The Persona” in particular stood out to me as it spoke to a personal belief I had around the idea of having balance and acceptance of one’s identity, including the traits they found undesirable. At the point in time where I decided to lean into Jung’s psychology I had already decided that my message for the film would preach balance and facing one’s internalized demons. That was when the cogs started turning in my mind. I decided to tell a story of a person’s Shadow and Persona at war, creating a Self that was stagnant in life because he was at war with himself.
To this end, I decided to create a location set within the protagonist’s mind to serve as a dark prison where his shadow and persona keep trapping themselves and fighting for dominance. Additionally, I wanted an ambiguous urban setting that would still be Ghanaian but would also be relatable to a wider audience because the film’s message transcends borders. I decided to have the film end ambiguously, leaving the audience to determine what the story is telling them. This was my solution to creating a conclusion that recontextualizes the film with each viewing. By observing the characters more closely on each viewing, a different conclusion can be understood based on what clues are found.
The film was a labor of love but production was not easy on the minuscule budget of 216 USD (less than 3,000 Ghanaian Cedis) that I had to work with. Thankfully, I understood the limitations I had and took them into account when thinking of the necessary props, costumes and locations necessary. This film is very special to me because it is one that I saw in my head many times as I prepared to film it and now I can not only watch it unfold before my eyes, but I can share it with others and I hope that they will enjoy it and find the minute details the crew and I left in to help them understand the subtext within the scenes.