COLLECTION OF WORK
Healing: A Manifesto
DELIVERABLES
SHORT DURATION FILM
STUDIO
TMA1431 - CREATIVE STUDIO
ROLE
DESIGN ASSOCIATE
SERVICES
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Produced as a cinematic advertisement — consistent with my practice as a commercial graphic designer.
[ PROJECT OVERVIEW ]
A 90-second cinematic manifesto on how houseplants help immigrants navigate the mental weight of living far from home — conceived, directed, shot, and edited solo over a single weekend.
Originally designed in 2016 & visually refined in 2026 to align with modern design & UI aesthetics
Year: 2024
Tools: Adobe Premier Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Lightroom
[ A PERSONAL STORY, TOLD CINEMATICALLY ]
“I bought plants when I arrived in the UK. It helped.”
As an immigrant myself, I arrived in the UK and found something unexpected: a few houseplants in my room made a tangible difference to my mental health. That personal truth became the core of this project. Healing: A Manifesto is structured as a cinematic advertisement — moving from depression and isolation through to connection and peace.
The manifesto grew from lived experience, not just research.
"The piece conveys the contrast between the serene and the tragic, the joy and the sorrow, the life and the death — a natural arc from isolation to belonging."
On the music — Nemo Egg (Main Title) by Thomas Newman · Finding Nemo OST
[ VISUAL DIRECTION ]
FRAME LAYOUT AS EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE
The video uses asymmetry and symmetry as active storytelling tools.
The shift between them is felt before it is consciously registered — one of the core cinematic decisions of the project.
SEGMENT 01–02 · DEPRESSION & LONELINESS
Asymmetrical layout. Two cameras filmed simultaneously from different angles. Unbalanced compositing in After Effects mirrors the subject's inner disorder. Desaturated blue-grey palette reinforces isolation.
SEGMENT 03–05 · PLANTS, FRIENDSHIP, PEACE
Symmetrical layout. As the first plant enters the frame, the layout shifts to perfect balance. Full cinematic colour washes in, depicting the vibrancy of life with good mental health
COLOUR GRADE ARC — THREE EMOTIONAL STATES
[ CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS ]
MAKING EMOTION VISIBLE
Challenge I
Translating psychological imbalance into frame composition
How do you show that a person's inner world is fragmented — without
dialogue, without voiceover?
Solution : Two cameras filmed simultaneously from different angles.
Footage was composited into asymmetric, unbalanced split-frame layouts.
The viewer feels the dissonance spatially before consciously registering it.
Challenge II
Building a three-act emotional arc without dialogue
The narrative needed to move from depression to hope to peace — purely
through image and sound.
Solution : The entire editorial structure was derived from Thomas Newman's
Nemo Egg — a piece that naturally moves from sparse and melancholy to
richly orchestrated and resolved. Every cut, transition, and grade was
mapped to the music before a frame was shot.
Challenge III
Solo production of a cinematic shoot
No crew. No production budget. A professional camera package to manage,
cast to direct, and a 90-second timeline to fill.
Solution : University equipment loan (Canon 5D MIII, C100 MkII, tracking
dolly, gimbal, lights). Cast from close friends — all immigrants from India —
who understood the subject personally. Shot entirely in my own room over a
single weekend. A hand-drawn timeline chart managed 43 After Effects
layers across five segments.
[ PROJECT MAP ]
FIVE-SEGMENT TIMELINE
The video was divided into five segments before shooting began, each with a defined layout logic, colour grade, and emotional purpose — mapped directly to the arc of the music
[ Final output — storyboard frames ]
