Update on Sleepless

Professor Peter Oliver and I have met in person and use an online continual feedback method, uploading work in progress to Google Docs or Pinterest, enabling the other person to comment and feedback as work progresses.

Peter has provided me with some key information about his research area, including books, academic papers and podcasts. A particularly useful current paper detailing the research and its results is ‘Evaluating the links between schizophrenia and sleep and circadian rhythm disruption’. The podcasts contain highlights of the academic work and easily digestible information on circadian rhythms. These include a Radio 4 interview with researchers from Peter’s institute and a useful TED Talk, which explains the wider subject of why we need to sleep.

One of the main developments in terms of the initial proposal is the shift in focus away from mental health solely and towards circadian biology and sleep science. The aim is to retain information about the effects of sleep on schizophrenia in the film by using it as just one example of how Peter’s research into sleep and waking patterns can improve human health.

The next steps are to create a visual language for the film and create some moving image experiments using live action and manipulated frames, exploring how to de-synchronise the image from its soundtrack. Peter is sourcing ideas for the soundtrack and the visual content is under development.

Ellie Land, December 2013