How can I make it clear that my main character is paranoid in a silent film?
In the scene I'm most concerned about, he is sitting on a park bench, and I'm not sure how to make it clear that he is paranoid. He leaves the park because of his paranoia, but I don't know how to make that clear. He is a bit of an unstable character; mismatched shoes, buttons on his shirt misaligned, messy hair, and I was thinking I could show some of his anxiety through nail biting, fidgeting, etc.
Any suggestions would be great! The whole film is only going to be two scenes long, it's a film school project.
It has to be done with body language and facial expressions then...he believes others are harming him. He has problems trusting others. He is always suspicious of others without a reason and also if their partner. Won't forgive insults, He has eccentric thoughts and believes in flying saucers or feels he wants to join an occult cult...daydreaming in a way he can't distinguish between reality and fantasy...I am sure Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton could have used all those facial expressions to make it believeable and in a silent film .. it usually always has a few lines that explains what happens next.. so you can use that.. they did it in all the old silent movies.. There were always some written lines .. about what is going to happen in the next act...
Most likely the facial expressions will be more visible with the right stage make up and by underlining the eyes to make them look bigger ... make the face look somewhat more pallid.
To make this into a credible and scary kind of short silent movie.. someone should be responsible for making sound tracks.. .making the right noises at the right time and some hauting scary music that reaches a climax when the scene gets really scary should be added.. You see that in all of the old silent movies and with a paranoid person you would expect they hear strange noises or strange music... to make it credible they are paranoid.. which depicts the state of their mind.. that together with body language, cosmetics and facial expressions could make a great short silent movie about a paranoid person.
Just a short video to explain what might go on in the mind of a paranoid guy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObT7UY4l75Y
I think nickipet and some of the others have some good ideas.. you should keep it simple.. The man should look at the tree. There should be a tree near the bench. It should show the tree before and seen through the eyes of the paranoid man.. where he looks horror stricken at the ''harmless'' tree and sees a big white face in the leafless tree... to him it's a demonic face... but in fact it could have the features of a pale round moon.. that would show off his paranoia and would not need a lot of effort to get the message across.. and him putting his hands in front of his face, then looking once again at it in horror, then running away from it....with some sound and some dark eerie music as a background when the scene reaches it's climax of terror or the paranoia climax...and the sounds are important I think because he also hears threatening sounding voices... where in fact it is daylight and there are the voices of people and children playing and birds singing in the trees.