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Family Portrait : A short animated video about mental health and hope.

I watched for video 3 times. The first time, I felt that the boy was upset because his parents were always fighting. The second time I felt the same thing, but upon the 3rd viewing I felt the boy was suffering from schizophrenia. Nobody was fighting. The harsh voices were voices in his mind along with paranoid thoughts. As he reached out to his father and mother for help that was not to be given, he felt helpless. He was going to end his life. Whether my interpretation is correct or not, that doesn't explain the ending. He was going to hang himself, then, for some reason, he decided not to. The moon was full. Birds were chirping (at night?) and the tree began to blossom. Maybe the lifeless tree that blossomed was symbolic of his state of mind. If so, what suddenly changed for him. Maybe ending his life was a passing thought that he entertained for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn't the way to go. I didn't like the ending. You brought us to a dark and dismal place, then gave us an 'everything is going to be fine now' ending. What's going to be fine? The video would make a good public service tv commercial if at the end a card faded in stating something like "Do you know how your kids are doing? Talk to them".

Very good job! I think you need to define your message better though.
 
I watched for video 3 times. The first time, I felt that the boy was upset because his parents were always fighting. The second time I felt the same thing, but upon the 3rd viewing I felt the boy was suffering from schizophrenia. Nobody was fighting. The harsh voices were voices in his mind along with paranoid thoughts. As he reached out to his father and mother for help that was not to be given, he felt helpless. He was going to end his life. Whether my interpretation is correct or not, that doesn't explain the ending. He was going to hang himself, then, for some reason, he decided not to. The moon was full. Birds were chirping (at night?) and the tree began to blossom. Maybe the lifeless tree that blossomed was symbolic of his state of mind. If so, what suddenly changed for him. Maybe ending his life was a passing thought that he entertained for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn't the way to go. I didn't like the ending. You brought us to a dark and dismal place, then gave us an 'everything is going to be fine now' ending. What's going to be fine? The video would make a good public service tv commercial if at the end a card faded in stating something like "Do you know how your kids are doing? Talk to them".

Very good job! I think you need to define your message better though.
James, thank you for your wonderful feedback and I am so happy to know your perspective about the video. According to me, the fight indeed happens. The sudden change of the location (from house to mall) is to indicate the sudden attack of PTSD on a person. As a person who has dealt with it, I know it can hit anytime, anywhere. Because of this reason, his behaviour changes, which the world is not able to comprehend and hence they start treating him like an outsider. Like someone who is abnormal and is weird. Since he couldn't get normal childhood it was difficult to deal with all the forces working against him, since he had no one to fall back to.
Now coming to what changed his mind and why he didn't proceed with the suicide. It was just the hope of witnessing a different tomorrow. The thought was ' I still have some fight left'. Because of this reason, he chooses to keep on walking. The final feeling that I wanted the ending to have was the simple feeling of 'life continues'. We have no idea if he fails to do the same thing 1 or 10 years down the line. The point is that at that particular point, he chose life.

I thank you again for taking your time to watch my video so many times to break it down. This is the best part of this wonderful medium. The complete subjectiveness allows the brain to construct your own thoughts and ideas, and all of them are correct. No idea or no door is wrong.
 
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