The ID Girl

After a course of hypnotherapy, I wanted to make a film based on the experience, but one in which the unlocking mechanisms within the treatment would backfire and cause the patient to digress into some hidden horrors. It was the first in my trilogy of “obsession” movies of which Can You Survive? is the last. Exploring the psyche of a very disturbed individual, we find a romantic heart, plagued with pain and of zero confidence, resulting in a belief that his beloved is telling him to kill.

Filmed throughout the summer of 2005, taking advantage of some glorious sunny weather, The Id Girl was an experiment in lighting and colour. I felt that to tap ever so slightly into the storyline and almost swerve around the plot, would give the film a slightly surreal and dreamy atmosphere. Whether I fully succeeded only time will tell, but I do revisit the film occasionally and I am pleased that, in loose terms, I achieved the intended effect.

Despite criticism of its ambiguity, I see The Id Girl as a colourful attempt at video art, which to me has a clear and simple plot outline leaving the viewer to interpret - just as art intended. The main lesson, in hindsight, perhaps, is that it may have needed more clarification theatrically.