The Happy Film. A documentary that follows the life of Stefan Sagmeister- a well renowned graphic designer that uses himself as the subject of his own experiment of training himself to be happy by using three methods of inducing happiness.
Meditation. Therapy. Drugs.
Method and process
Before starting his project, he stated that he needed to do thorough research regarding happiness. After all, that is his main subject for the film. His first research was by meeting multiple psychologists. These meetings allowed him to work on a movie script but to which he find that making a movie talking about happiness was simply too broad once he finished making plans and mind-maps to help expand his research better. This led to him narrowing down his research scope to one particular topic, which was to talk about his own happiness.
One thing that particularly stood out to me was the usage of mind-mapping in his research.
As a student, I hear time and time again since the beginning of my college years about how mind mapping is very beneficial in helping one expand their ideas. This is because its a very free-flowing type of information development and it also helps in categorizing your ideas into certain sections as you tend to match similar ideas together before further expanding on them.
It's also a way to draw ideas out of you. As the bigger empty space you have, the more inclined you are to fill in those blank spaces with writings since they tend to look so empty and incomplete if they're not filled. Which is probably the reason why my lecturers always ask us to use a huge piece of paper as that will encourage you to write down your ideas more.
I admit, I quite dislike mind-mapping because I hate how all over the place my lines can be when I'm writing them down and how much thought and planning I put into positioning the words so I have enough space and all that. But nonetheless, I was slightly taken aback when I see someone, especially a very well renowned graphic designer like him to be using one of the most basic and simple idea-generating method that's usually taught to graphic design student during their first week of class.
Moving on, he then had Jonathon Haidt, the author of a book titled "The Happiness Hypothesis" to be his scientific advisor during the whole duration of the film. Jonathon suggested the three methods than can be used to induce happiness in oneself and those are meditation, therapy, and drugs. The duration of using each method was to last over 3 months with a one-month break interval before starting a different method.
This segment alone and Stefan's willingness, combined with his dedication of subjecting himself to undergo methods that each has a different type of effect on one's brain simply to find which method works best in attaining happiness is what I find that helped set the initial direction of the documentary.
As each happiness-inducing methods were documented, I noticed that each time a method started, they had almost the same sequence to it. It often starts with him starting over with a blank slate, followed by talking about the hollowness of his feelings, falling for women, getting excited with the thrill of it, arguments, breaking it off, and then a long melancholic reflection of what he got right and what he got wrong. It's almost entertaining to watch because as a viewer, you somewhat can guess that neither of the romantic relationships he pursued throughout the whole film was ever going to last. In a way, it was sort of a trainwreck waiting to happen and I couldn't wait to see how it'll happen each time.
Visual Communication of his research
In terms of his visual communication, he uses a lot of slow-motion shots, typography as an added visual assistance, and close-up shots of himself when he talked to the camera.
Speaking of shots, there were a lot of scenes that I find to be visually entrancing. Some scenes that I particularly liked were the dancing shots, the usage of wayang kulit animation, and slow-motion part of capturing words using food. I like these scenes in particular because the context of the visuals tends to correlate with the location he was in and his relationship with the people around him.
He used wayang kulit to show his short-lived romance with this ex-student Tania. I find this usage of it to really fit in with the location he was at which was Bali. Wayang kulit is a traditional form of puppet -shadow play that can be found in the culture of Balinese people. This usage makes sense as he was developing this relationship at Bali where they both were at that moment. I also find wayang kulit to be an especially delicate form of art and personally, I think that it reflects the delicate nature of his relationship with Tania as he was evidently still in an unstable state of mind when it comes to relationships since he only broke up with an 11-year old long relationship a few months prior.
And their short-lived relationship was very delicate indeed as they argued frequently despite only being together for a month. In the end, the relationship got broken off as they both had opposing ideas regarding the thought of having a child. He felt like starting a family while Tania was opposed to the idea of having a child. I guess the takeaway is to not propose the idea of kids so early on into a relationship with someone that you barely know of?
Moving on, I mentioned earlier that his usage of visuals usually correlates with the setting that he's working with and a reflection of his relationship with the people around him. I think that statement also shows in these particular shots.
During this particular time of his research, he was doing therapy as his method of inducing happiness and during this film period, it focused a lot on his work development. He talked about his employee, Jessica Walsh. He described her as a very creative and smart individual. He also admires how her skills as a graphic designer are quite exceptional and she always managed to deliver the ideas that she conceptualises.
The reason why I'm stating this is because, out of all the method he tried, I find the therapy method to be the time where he seemed to be the most level-headed and serious in some sort of way. He started to reconnect with an old friend back in Austria who he calls as Ms.Private. He spoke about how he always had a thing for. The way he described the relationship as a more of a slow and familiar romance rather than a passionate love that he had experienced earlier with Tania makes this segment feels very calm and somewhat mature. It didn't feel as rushed and hectic as the first segment did. Combining this scene along with him asking Jessica to be his business partner, it really contributed to the calm and mature feeling of this segment.
The usage of easily obtained food that can be found in offices sort of encapsulates the feeling that he is having a good relationship with the people he's working with and he's more grounded as he's connecting more with those around him. He was also invited to set up an exhibition which would be shown later on in the movie. Thus, making this part of the film feel very relaxed and more mature as he is searching for happiness but at the same time, the topic of work was quite prominent at that time.
Moving on, I also really liked his usage of typography as a way to give more insight into his mind and to add on extra details to the movie. It is very enjoyable and it allowed you to understand more about the message that he's trying to convey.
He also uses these scribbles as a way to emphasize certain points by writing what he's talking about to give an added layer of emotion to what he's talking about.
His usage of this typography style makes the whole film feel more personal adds an extra layer to have it feel like a long video journal.
Outcome
Overall, the outcome of this movie was a mixture of emotions. It covered very deep topics in certain parts from the fear of commitment, mental health, and even death. I think this film can really make you re-think about your own happiness and whether you're happy with the things around you and how good your relationship with the people that you surround yourself with.
Personally, I never expected to find myself relating to this movie at all but at certain parts of the movie, I somewhat did. The part where he talked about the types of romance that exist and the part where he spoke about how if you were having children just for the thrill of it, that's probably not a good reason as to why you should have one. And I think it's true. I feel like some people have kids because they are expected to have it and just for the thrill of it rather than actually being able to commit to it.
Him talking about the struggle of forming a companionate love and the reason why his parent's marriage probably lasted that long was because they didn't have high expectation when going into it. I personally, really relate to his statement because I tend to have a highly outrageous expectation when it comes to romance. I'm not talking about having my partner constantly professing his love to me every hour of the day and writing me sonnets and all that. But it's more of wishing they acted in a bit more certain way, wish they did some small insignificant things more, and those small things slowly adds up. I think the more small minuscule thing that you find to pick apart, the higher your expectation of romance will be. I know I'm probably going off a tangent but I think having a good relationship with your partner is one of the ways that can contribute to your long-term happiness.
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