The Shutter is inspired by a nightmare I had while visiting home. With both of my parents working, and all of my friends at least three hours away, I felt alone in a way that I have not for a long time. This period of unrest forced me to confront the issues that we all struggle with: identity, loneliness, and anxiety. With this film I wanted to recreate the experience of feeling trapped with no way to progress. This sensation of trying to calculate unseeable change often feels like an endless repetitive loop, and I knew that this story would be incomplete without it. In this particular story, my main character Florence has a traumatic experience losing her cousin in a horrible accident. Within the framework I created, I wanted to tell a personal story of loss. The loop itself is structured around the five stages of grief and my own experiences of losing my cousin to a unexpected heart attack when I was a teenager. I want audiences to be able to connect with Florence by relating to the struggle of healing. It can feel repetitive and like you aren’t gaining any ground, and it is often unrepresented in stories of mental health and recovery.