Film about Aspergers.

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I plan to make a film about AS based on a film I wrote last year. I have Aspergers and have a lot of understanding of the condition. I wondered what sorts of topics would be most important in the film. I would like to cover as many aspects of AS as possible but it is difficult to remember all of the possible traits and aspects in one go. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Kempy. Could you give us a little more information about your plans?

I'm thinking it would be useful if we knew:

How long do you think your movie will be?
Who is it aimed at?
Have you got a list of topics you wish to cover already?
Will you be scripting it?
Will you be filming just yourself, or a cast of actors?
Are you making a documentary, or will you put some form of spin or style on your movie to engage a wider audience?

And many more questions besides.

I'm wondering where you're based. Perhaps a section on the relative attitudes of different cultures towards autism would be worth consideration?

The film will be fictional, although it will be based on my experiences, as well as the experiences of others I have spoken to.
It will be feature length and probably around 80 minutes long.
It will be scripted and I will be using actors.

I want to make my film stand out my showing an inside view of Aspergers, covering a wider range of traits like sensory issues and understanding others. Although everyone is different, I would like to attempt to show the way that I think in hope that it will help people to better understand the condition. The main character will be around 18 with other characters of a similar age. I would like to show the ups and downs of Aspergers in work, home-life and social situations.

I am 18 and will be funding the film from my own pocket. I have a rough story in mind but I thought it would be important to begin by listing topics and traits so the story can be structured around it.

I will be showing my film at a local independent cinema with proceeds going to a local charity. This aspect of my film has already been arranged.

Thanks for answering my questions. With respect to the above, I would try not to get too bogged down by a list of traits that you feel you 'must' include for the sake of a well-rounded look at AS. I would be far more interested in viewing your personal take on things, rather than a collection of symptoms dressed as a movie.

Have you seen Adam?Adam IMDB

Although I was pleased with the idea behind the film, it was a very extreme set of circumstances applied to a character who seemed to be a stereotype caricature of AS. The way his condition was revealed was much like reading a list of AS characteristics, and had a negative impact on my enjoyment of the story.

I would suggest that you take a broader view of AS, and try to communicate your main character's condition in a more subtle way. Perhaps you could have him stepping out of the scene to describe his interpretation of what's happening around him.

Example:

Your main character has been caught up in conversation with a casual acquaintance on his way to an important appointment. He's trying to find a way to politely tell the other person that he has to go, but the other person is overbearing and he's becoming visibly anxious.

You 'freeze' the scene, and have the main character address the camera.

"This is an all too common situation for me.... The more aware I am that my deadline is approaching, the more anxious I become and the more difficult it becomes..."

I think this would be far more satisfying than reeling off a list of symptoms over 2 hours, with a clinical definition and little explanation of how it affects him.



That's admirable of you. I hope you find the means to show it to a wider audience.

I have seen Adam. I also enjoyed it but noticed the use of stereotypes. I intend my film to break these stereotypes but I also need to keep it relatively familiar. I intend to make it a personal story about someone and not just a collection of traits. Ultimately, what I am asking is whether or not there is anything that anyone feels should be covered, that has possibly not been covered by other films, like bullying.
Thanks for your feedback

I havnt seen any AS movies but I would like to see

peer inappropriate relationships
solace in company of animals
uncaring society
honesty of aspies
family rejection

I support you on your endeavor to create a film based on AS experiences. I wish you well and hope it will make it to a larger audience.

I can envision a main character who makes inappropriate social interactions (totally messing up asking someone out on a date, bad dancing, etc) and NT people thinking its funny. In fact, you could write it in such a way that the audience will laugh. However, this would give an opportunity to demonstrate that the aspie does not necessarily find the humour and is genuinely confused. (I know this situation has happened to me many times at that general age.)

Another possible issue to address is the challenge of being properly diagnosed and trying to educate others on accepting that we're a little different. Much of the problem with bullying and with becoming a social outcast/shunned is that people don't understand AS people can feel the emotional pain. We may not be able to express the pain or even talk about it, but that doesn't mean we don't feel it. Far too often, and I speak from experience, we end up having meltdowns or other "inappropriate" reactions that just makes the matter worse for us.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

i like everything that was suggested before. what i would like to see is a good depiction of what sven2 said about emotional pain.
actually making the viewer understand that the AS person cannot show any hint of pain for fear of a meltdown in public, for example. i can picture a scene. where the person would be standing there blamk faced, and the camera does a close up to the eyes, where pain is obvious. i can't picture the picture of pain but you might think up something.Could be just a sound. the kind of sound that would make even an NT shudder....

Take a little bit from each of the regular posters.

Thanks for the feedback. Another aspect of the film I would like to focus on is whether or not to involve love. The character is an 18 year old boy so being unable to find a girlfriend will effect him. It's debatable whether or not I should involve something like love because it has become somewhat cliché, being covered in 'Mozart and the Whale' and 'Adam', however, this may keep popping up simply because it is such an important topic. I was thinking that the character could seek the help of an NT to help him pretend to be normal after he unintentionally pulls a girl who he fancies. After a while this pretence can break down revealing that the girl he fancies is also an aspie, trying just as hard to impress him. On the other hand, something this romantic might just make people gag.
Should love be involved, or should I leave it well alone?

Well, here's an idea inspired by the latest round of documentaries where a handful of people are followed around by cameramen for a period time having their experiences filmed. That way you can get several different perspectives on ASDs at once and you don't have to limit it to Asperger's. That would be a fun film to make! It could be sorta like the documentary Waiting For Superman.

How about the inability to read people and the misery that it brings being constantly misread by authority figures....and the problems that can cause.

There are alreadly quite a few movies, tv shows, novels, etc that portray aspergers. However, very few of them actually have well written asperger characters. A lot of them are just tokenised. So here's what I suggest; get the script right before you do anything else. I know that seems obvious, but you really have to nail the script extremely well. You especially need to focus on the story and on characters. I think people try too hard to "educate" people on aspergers when making a movie or a book (or worse, they exploit it to ham up the drama). You should not be too concerned with trying to make the movie relate to everyone who has it. You should write what you know but remember to write a character and not a list of symptoms. You could even try to make a film that is more of an allegory of aspergers (similar to how 'Edward Scissorhands' was an unintentional allegory for Aspergers).

Personally, I'd like to see/make a movie about Hans Asperger. The said thing is that there is isn't that much literature out there on the guy and apparently, not many people know what he was doing during the second world war (besides research). I suppose it could be made like the film "Carlos" ( which had a disclaimer at the beginning explaining that the film shoukd be taken as a piece of fiction because they pretty much had to fill in the blanks).

I also want to say that I hope you can get your film made and shown to as many people as possible. I also want to work in the film industry, so knowing that there are other aspies who are/want to be filmmaker's makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Good luck!

Thankyou MindBlind for some brilliant advice. You have pointed out the major flaw in my film. As you can see, I titled this thread 'Film about Aspergers'. You have pointed out that I should not be making a film about Aspergers, but a film about a CHARACTER with Aspergers.
I actually wrote a script for a film a year ago, but I was unable to finish it because my cast were incredibly unreliable, but also because I had no idea how to correctly organise shooting it. Now I'm back with more help and more confidence and I hope to be able to re-use the ideas from my original script whilst adapting it so that I can film it with the resources I have available now. I will begin to work on my character, probably basing them on myself so that I understand the character inside-out. In the meantime, any other suggestions will be highly valued. Thanks.

On the subject of should love be involved or left alone... I may be speaking more about myself than perhaps I should, but from everything I've read about aspies it doesn't seem like we're particularly good at the social interactions necessary to create healthy long-term relationships. Particularly at the age of 18. I could definitely see the character have a strong desire for a NT woman only to see her be involved with an NT man if for no other reason than your character is unable to overcome his fears of social interaction and is not well adapted to even establishing communication with her and expressing feelings. I am aware this scenario is anything but a novel idea. But I do see the challenge and the emotional struggles aspies have overcoming fear and even talking about emotions.