Moon deconstruction

Moon Deconstruction

The 2009 Duncan Jones movie, 'Moon' concentrates with the isolation of character Sam Bell as continues with his three year expedition on the Moon. His isolation becomes the key theme of the film as he literally finds himself after recovering from an accident.

Talking to Eve

Camera Angles
An over the shoulder shot is used as Sam and Eve engage in conversation. The shot allows the audience to sympathize for Sam as we experience the call from his perspective. Both Eve and Sam are seen as a medium shot from the waist up although

Editing
An eye line match is used to as Sam directs Eve about the death of her mother, too jump cuts are used throughout the duration of the call- highlighting the detachment Sam has from his own family as even his own daughter didn't recognise him. 

Mise En Scene
The lighting in this scene seems to be almost a clinical blue possibly connoting the poor health that Sam faces a few minutes after the scene. The lighting creates horizontal and diagonal composition on the seat being Sam and across his - suggesting his lack of power in this situation and the corruption that his family has become as he only just discovers that his wife passed away a few years ago. Too, the darkness reiterates his social isolation at this moment in the film.

Sound
There is both digeteic and non diegetic sound. The non diegetic sound is composed of a violin that sustains a high pitched note throughout Sam and Eve's conversation soon hearing a motif from the piano imitating tear drops almost as they are played rather delicately. The music begins to build as Eve's diegetic dialogue brings another character into her conversation about Sam as she says " Dad? There's someone asking about Mum" to which the father figure replies "Who's asking about mum?!" the harsh tone then results to Sam Bell hanging up. 

Hanging Up

Camera Angles
The camera angle pans outward as Sam frantically ends the call. As the camera pans outwards the shot becomes long portraying his contorted position. The long shot also shows Sams surroundings and reiterates his isolation and the lack of  other life around him apart from technology as it does not prevail emotion - it's only programmed to do so (e.g Gerty). 

Editing
This is a continuous shot so there is not much editing used. A jump cut is used between the close up shot of Sam 

to the long shot reiterating his isolation and containment after receiving the news about the death of Tess (his wife). 

Mise En Scene
As the call ends, the lighting around Sams face becomes a lot more confined, creating tight framing showing his lack of power and inability to escape from the struggles that life brings him even though he's over a thousand miles away from his home. The tight framing around his face also draws close attention to his emotions as he buries his face into his hands. Too the light that frames his face leads off into a diagonal line down the side of the seat beside him, almost depicting how his life has been over the films duration showing the disequilibrium.

Sound
The non diegetic sound remains the same high pitched note from the violin and motif from the piano although it begins to grow with the foundation of a bowed bass line from the cello as Sam sobs whilst saying " That's enough, i want to go home" as his digetic dialogue.

Earth

Camera Angles
 A 360 spin is used circling the vehicle that Sam is in thus highlighting his loneliness in a moment like this as he is only surrounded by machines and equipment that related to his 3 year mission on the moon. The further the camera spins the further away it gets from the dominant of the shot (Sam's vehicle) before focusing on the sub dominant of the shot, the Earth and the fact that Sam's "so close but yet so far" from it again illustrating his isolation from society and life. 

Editing
 An eye- line match is used throughout this entire scene although it only becomes apparent up until now as the audience are shown Sam's positioning and location to where he is and also why he is there, allowing us to sympathise even more with him as he finds out about his wife's death as there is no way he can go home as we are constantly reminded about his "3 year contract".

Mise En Scene
The dominant of this scene is the vehicle and the sub dominant is the Earth showing Sams constant want to go home and almost his regret for taking on the mission. Too the composition is horizontal and this is seen from the lighting shadows that form on the ground just beside the vehicle, showing weakness and almost calamity in the moment as Sam pines over the death of Tess.

Sound
The climax of the non diegetic sound is heard here as this part reiterates Sam's isolation in the entire movie and consolidates his feelings as well as explaining his bitterness towards the messages he receives and Gerty. The texture of the non diegetic sound becomes a lot thicker and homophonic as all parts play together. In combination with the non diegetic sound, Sam's sobbing is still heard and almost acts as a sound bridge between this scene and the previous scene.

Countdown

Camera Angles

Tracking is used around the ship to show how little Sam has left up there with him again illustrating his loneliness and isolation with his huge lack of human contact as he is only surrounded by machinery. The tracking ends with a close up of the countdown that is fixed on a wall, stating that Sam has 7 hours left before beginning his journey back to Earth.

Editing
It is likely that continuity editing was used as this scene gives a sense of time moving forward, as there is a clear ending point as the tracking must stop somewhere. Too, it is likely that throughout the editing process parts of this scene were stabilised due to the spinning movement of the camera. 

Mise En Scene
There is no dominant in this scene as the tracking is going on, instead it gives the audience an overview of what Sam achieved yet lost on his three year contract to the Moon. The panels along the wall give off horizontal composition connoting peace and calamity that link with Sam's feeling of surrender as it's clear that he wishes to go home.

Sound 
This last scene uses non diegetic sound only. It still uses the non diegetic sound of the strings and piano however only the strings are heard in this final section although there are more of them yet they play delicately to create more emotion within the scene. Too the non diegetic sound creates a sense of reflection for the audience allowing them to think about Sam's journey throughout the film.


'Moon' links well with our topic of social isolation within our research task. Sam Bell's character chose to isolate himself by taking a three year contract to launch a new space ship to the Moon however, by the end of the film we see him fall into the wrong paths and the corruption that his own company inflicted onto him thus making him regretful for taking on such a large expedition. The cases of Joyce Vincent and Michelle Conroy highlight the extreme consequences that isolation has on an individual after a certain amount of time. After 3 years Vincent's body was found, whereas after 3 years on the Moon the character of Sam Bell scraped near death experiences, the death of this wife and loss of his only daughter.

Film Poster Analysis

Film Poster Analysis

Les Miserables
•Les Miserables was already in theatres before it was made into a movie therefore it’s already well known.
•The poster uses the colours of gold, navy blue and white to connote a dark but hopeful storyline. The colours are not too extreme and almost connote some sort of patriotism, which is a key theme within the story.
•The dominant of the poster is a young girl, which the film is centred around - therefore allowing the target audience to be rather young as this is a musical after all. The emotion of the young girl also suggests sadness and loss withn the fim as she looks out towards us directly from the poster. In additiomn, she looks rather srcuffy so we only infer that she has been through a hard time or that she lives in poverty of some type.
• The four words underneath “Fight, Dream, Hope Love” consolidate the focus of the film and what themes are likely to be depicted. This way, there is not too much being given away about the story of the film.
•Just underneath the title the word “phenomenon” is used to suggest that the film is remarkable and it also helps advertise it. The release date is also placed underneath in a slightly smaller font and this is key to any film poster.

Jacob's Ladder

•From the name, ‘fatal attraction’ we can understand that the director, Adrian Lyne has a reputation for directing horror films.
•At first glance our eyes meet the blurred image of a face that remains centred but slightly to the right as if being pulled by something else, connoting possible disequilibrium in the movie.
•The choice of a black background depicts that it isn’t necessarily a happy, light hearted comedy but quite the opposite as black connotes death. The black also mirrors the hidden depth of the story line that is revealed as the story itself is unravelled.
• Similarly, the three colours used are black, white and red the traditional colours for a horror/ thriller movie.
• The writing at the top reads “from the director of ‘fatal attraction’ allowing the target audience to be able to have a reference to some of his previous work and make a knowledgeable suggestion about what this film entails.
•Without the text, the image would still be able to depict the genre of the film however the writing underneath that reads “The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer’s nightmare, is that he isn’t dreaming” reiterating the horror genre. The dark colours aim towards a must more older audience possibly from late teenagers and older as the image alone may be quite discomforting to a much younger audience.


World War Z
•Unlike the previous posters, world war z has a bit more of a complex image as its focus.
• The dominant is clearly Brad Pitt, the lighting directed towards him outlines his left arm, left cheek, left leg and the inner part of his right arm highlighting his strength and protection his character may bring.
• The rest of the image focuses on the destruction that has become already so the audience can already tell that the film will be action based due to the corruption that the poster illustrates.
• Similarly, to the Jacob’s Ladder poster the three colours, red, white and black are used, the traditional horror/thriller poster colours.
• Unlike Les Miserables, the target audience would be older, aiming it towards late teens and older although 50+ may find it distasteful due to the gore that horror movies do bring.
•Unlike, both Jacobs Ladder and Les Miserables, there is no tagline; instead ‘Brad Pitt’ is written across the top to draw people to watch it as he is a well-known actor.
•Although, for an audience without this knowledge, they could only assume that the genre of the film is action as nothing from the image really suggests that it is a horror film.

Research: Mental Illness

Since 1982, there has been at least 62 mass murders across the USA and acute paranoia, delusions and depression have been common mental illnesses among these killers, with at least 35 committing suicide on the scene. So what leads one mentally ill person to violence but not another? It may be the stigma of mental illness that provokes it, by increasing the existing symptoms of delusion, disconnection from reality and social withdrawal.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Delusions and auditory/visual, hallucinations.

Disordered thoughts and speech.

Sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgment.

Pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness.

Paranoia.

Social isolation.

Substance abuse.

Stigma of Schizophrenia

A survey of attitudes towards schizophrenia showed that:

80% expressed discomfort with the prospect of dating someone with schizophrenia.

77% would feel uncomfortable working with a schizophrenic person.

60% think that violence is a symptom of schizophrenia.

71% would be afraid for their safety around a schizophrenic person.

This leads to the exacerbation of the symptoms of schizophrenia, increasing social isolation and worsening paranoia and delusions.

Experience of Schizophrenia

Here is a quote from someone's experience of having schizophrenia in a discriminative society which does not understand the symptoms. After the school shooting in Northern Illinois University on 14th February, surrounding areas and also the nation as a whole increased their suspicious attitude towards schizophrenia sufferers. He documents the behaviour which was conducted towards him, all of which explains why schizophrenic people can feel isolated:

"I was diagnosed with schizophrenia just a month after Steven Kazmierczak (quickly identified as “schizoaffective”) shot six people to death on the campus of [Northern Illinois University] … Undoubtedly primed by this shooting, wary, uncertain, without enough time to think, my doctoral adviser suspended my graduate assistantship, banned me from the university, and alerted all faculty, graduate students and staff to forward all emails [from me] to her and, under no circumstances, respond."

This quote portrays the thoughts and feelings of a schizophrenia sufferer after finding out about their illness. This explicitly shows how the stigma of mental illness can have the effect of worsening one's own perception of their illness, and how it can cause sufferers to feel as though there is no hope for them. I thought the language in the passage could be used in our trailer to express the sheer hysteria and depression of someone after being diagnosed with a mental illness:

"Everything I have ever been told was a lie. My one way out — of poverty, desperation, madness — was never more than an illusion. And then disbelief. And then, how will I ever explain this to anyone, to family, to old mentors? And then betrayal. No language this time, no thoughts; crying, crying for hours. Alcohol, unconsciousness, unbidden dreams.  Even there: repeating their words, over and over and over again. Isolation so intense, there is no way I will ever bridge it. I am lost. Days go by, weeks."

The quote goes on to explain how they are forced to feelings of violence and murder, using graphic imagery which we could replicate in our trailer to display the harrowing thought process:

"I fixated on a single vision, me, sometimes hanging, sometimes with gun in hand and a pool of blood on the floor, outside [her former adviser's] office. Suicide, yes, obviously, but also something more: revenge."

Living with schizophrenia

Watching this documentary, named "Living with Schizophrenia" helped me understand fully the illness and many aspects surrounding it. It featured four characters, three with Schizophrenia and one with schizo-affective disorder who each in turn spoke about their experience of the illness. It taught me many different things which previously I may have not thought to explore. Firstly, the interviewees spoke about medication. They discussed how the usual perception of society is that by taking medicine one is instantly "cured" however, one character in particular discussed how mediation was only one answer for her, and that many other processes had to be undertaken before she was able to feel stable in her daily life. They also expressed how they felt that doctors and psychiatrists did not understand them, and how they felt too insecure to ask questions about their medication and the side effects attached to them, which were abundant.

Many of them spoke too about how the stigma surrounding their illness was almost as horrific as the symptoms themselves. One discussed how the internalisation of stigma was extremely dangerous and that it caused incredible despair, confessing to the audience that he has had a multitude of schizophrenic friends who have been led tocommitting suicide. In fact, 15% of schizophrenia sufferers will commit suicide in the first five years of being diagnosed. The character said how he believed that the lack of someone to talk to was one of the major causes of this.

The many stages of acceptance after diagnosis, including anger and denial, were discussed profoundly in the documentary. One showed the audience how drawing was a  method of catharsis for him, allowing himself to express his complicated and sometimes dark emotions. Another spoke about the negative social effects the illness caused, saying that the memory problems which came with it meant he had increasing trouble getting jobs. It was also obvious that sufferers found getting back into relationships and work a lengthy and enduring process as isolating themselves from society seemed a much safer and more appealing option to them.

Child Schizophrenia

This documentary was about a rare case of childhood schizophrenia, found in seven year old Jani. The illness causes the young girl to hallucinate, and she is constantly telling her parents about her imaginary friends "Wednesday the rat" and "400 the cat", both seeming scarily real to her. These delusions and also voices inside her head cause her to be violent and sometimes disturbed.

The illness is very rarely found in children, and a doctor from UCLA psychiatric hospital claimed to have only come across a handful in his lifetime. However, it is extremely crippling for Jani's family and forced the parents into buying two apartments, one for Jani and another for her younger brother in fear of the violence she could be capable of inflicting upon the toddler. The parents were insistent that they did not want Jani taken away from them, and put into special care. However, Jani's illness makes her incredibly tiring as her parents must engage with her at every moment during the day or else she may slip into psycosis and her hallucinations will overwhelm her.

Ideas for our trailer

• We could include many aspects of this research in our trailer for instance by having:
• One main character with a mental illness.
• Character suffering from discrimination.
• Character forced to violence by stigma replicating that quoted earlier.
• Complex fractured editing to illustrate the mind of a schizophrenia sufferer.
• Graphic dramatic shots to mimic the horror of mental illness.
• A Link with social isolation research on Joyce Vincent and give character a morbid end somehow.

Research: Social Networking

Online activities
When researching social networking in more depth, it became clear that there are a lot impacts stemming from our online activities. I used the episode of Black Mirror called 'Be Right Back' to help me investigate further. The idea of the episode it to remind us how much information we post about ourselves onto the internet. Every tweet, every status update, every Instagram photo, it's all there, forever. It is important to address this when thinking about social networking as a cultural influence for our trailer, as we could focus on how our lives are saved on the internet, and all these virtual moments will last longer than us.  The program uses technology that we do not have, but it is a good way of demonstrating how in the near future, technology enabling us to 'talk to the dead' via an app, or other means of communication could become widely available, especially with our internet history - forever 

expanding everyday. 

Privacy

We can also link this idea to privacy.  In the last post, I mentioned how nothing is really private, as everything is uploaded onto the interent and is available for anyone to see. In the program, this can be identified as the character 'Ash' is drowning in social networking. He is obsessed by sharing things he encouters, and even admits he does he because it might be entertaining to somebody. On a daily basis, we share comments on Twitter about what we have done, or our opinions on a 'trending topic', this has become addictive for many, as we don't do it for a reason, it is just a long time habit.

Who are we talking to?
Another point which is interesting to point out is the idea that we never really know who we are talking to. There are multiple profiles which can be made to look realistic by having a picture and a few pieces of general information, almost like the episode when the protagonist uploads all the data so a fake profile of Ash can be created. We never really know without talking face to face about whether their profile is real or not. This could cause concern when thinking about privacy as we share information online with our friends. This can allow people to steal infornation and also make our profiles vulnerable to being faked too. 

Social Networking

Social networking can also make us neglect events in the real world. We become so immersed in the virtual world that we forget there are things happening around us. This is seen when Ash is paying so much attention to his phone he doesn't even realise his girlfriend is trying  to get in the car. We should consider thjs when thinking about ideas for filming because we could use it in a scenario about a character who is so oblivous to their surroundings that they are in trouble and have lost sight of what really matters. 

Combining research ideas

Combining Research ideas

Social Networking
 Pros:

• It appeals to the vast majority as most of us that own a social networking account e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. With 1.06 billion monthly users recorded on Facebook.
• Due to the large audience we can easily pinpoint the dangers, deterring them from actions that may be wrong on social media sites.
• There are a lot of cases that can be linked into it (e.g. the lack of privacy we have, the phone hacking scandals)

Cons:

• It may not cater for an older audience (e.g. the use of technology may be too advanced).
• The lack of privacy and safety on the internet is something that we are all reminded about on a daily basis, therefore a lack of originality may come across. 

Social Isolation
Pros:

• It doesn't affect too many people, in the case of Joyce Vincent the case was extremely covered up in terms of details therefore we would be able to illustrate the problem that social isolation creates.
• The are many extreme cases that are censored by the media; by taking social isolation on board we may also be able to link in the censorship of cases that arguably should be heard of.

Cons:

• It's not hugely focused on, even in the media therefore there may be a lack of interest in these sort of moral panics.
• The background of the individual may be too complex to fit into a trailer - in the sense that Joyce Vincent had problems, health, family, relationship and money wise. 

Drugs

Pros:

• It's a worldwide problem.
• Use of extreme cases can be used as a deterrent for those who do use drugs.
• Too, it's also a moral panic that many people are aware of - due to the widespread use of drugs, it would be easy to look into the lack of control that we seem to have over the selling and use of drugs.

Cons:

• As mentioned in the previous bullet point, drugs as a moral panic has been highly evaluated and we are all aware of the increase of it lately therefore the originality of a trailer focused on drugs may be diminished.
• 
  

Crime and Punishment

Pros:

• Again it can make teenagers aware of their actions and the consequences that may follow.
• It can highlight the distinctions between countries as some still permit punishments such as the death penalty (such as some states in the US).
• It would open an opportunity to see crime and punishment through the perception of a teenager (e.g. their thoughts/fears etc).

Cons:

• It's a controversial issue: can create an uproar with the audience (discussion of morality within the death penalty, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth")

Mental Illness
Pros:

• We can see the contrast from what they think is acceptable against what we deem to be acceptable - this could be linked closely with the documentary regarding the mind of a serial killer and their motives.
• Similarly, to social isolation, mental illness is too a case that it likely to be censored as either the antagonists motives may have been beyond their control so the verdict of the case could be extremely controversial.

Cons:

• It also can be seen by some as being controversial as the killer may be unaware of their actions.

CCTV & Privacy

Pros:

• CCTV is everywhere as we are all aware but the fact of us being watched every moment is something that we don't tend to remember half of the time. Therefore the lack of privacy that we don't have may be a shock to some, although we know it's for our protection in most cases.
• We can make teenagers more aware of their duty to behave morally right and take into account their responsibilities as young adults.

Cons:

• Charlie Brooker's White Bear focuses introduces the lack of privacy that we have but it's taken to an extreme, as all bystanders monitor one individual as she is released from prison. Therefore some ideas may have been pitched already through this series.
• It would be hard to not illustrate high authoritative figures (e.g. the police) in a negative light therefore posing some difficulties. 

Overall, our ideas all lean towards a large target audience, with a moral panic of say, mental illness we can open our ideas to a younger audience as well as an older audience as it's a relatable subject. On the other hand, we can choose one target audience and suit our trailer to their tastes such as the moral panic of drugs, similarly, we can always take drugs as a social issue but apply it to an older character subverting viewers' expectations. In terms of a final idea, narrowing our research ideas to an issue that has already been heavily documented on may seem a bit too repetitive, so perhaps choosing an issue that has not been touched on a lot by the media will be a better alternative.

Research: CCTV and privacy

CCTV and privacy

Statistics

The UK is the country with the most CCTV cameras per person in the whole world. We therefore thought we could comment on the current situation at the moment, as many people are realising that we have less and less privacy. This is because according to the guardian 'CCTV increases people's sense of anxiety' and actually doesn't make people feel safer.

We are also getting less and less privacy through the fact that we can also be tracked through social networking.

Our idea

The idea of constantly being watched is a particular favourite to the group.

In order to exaggerate this idea we were thinking of using other means such as having cameras on mobile phones and computers/laptops always on, giving the impression that the government or the police have completely taken away our privacy in order to maintain a safe country.

The development of our idea

We thought of this idea very early on and since then it has adpated. To being with we thought we would just track a girl through different means (CCTV, mobiles, laptops, cameras) however we soon realised that this would prove to be a rather boring movie. Therefore we are now building on a different idea by creating an exciting and crime related plot line for this girl to have, combined with her every move being tracked by the police. We all quite like the idea of having her realise at the end that she has always been watched through technology, with this the idea of zooming out of the frame she is in to reveal more people around her was another favourite as we'd be able to show that everyone was being watched.

A final thing we were considering was including social networking and showing how the girl was traced through that, there were many ways we were thinking of doing this, one being a timeline of all the different websites she had joined and all the activity she had done on them. This would show that nearly all the gaps of her life would be filled in by using technology.

Research: Mental Illness

Since 1982, there has been at least 62 mass murders across the USA and acute paranoia, delusions and depression have been common mental illnesses among these killers, with at least 35 committing suicide on the scene. So what leads one mentally ill person to violence but not another? It may be the stigma of mental illness that provokes it, by increasing the existing symptoms of delusion, disconnection from reality and social withdrawal.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

1. Delusions and auditory/visual, hallucinations.
2. Disordered thoughts and speech.
3. Sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgment.
4. Pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness.
5. Paranoia.
6. Social isolation.
7. Substance abuse.
8. Stigma of Schizophrenia

Discrimination 

A survey of attitudes towards schizophrenia showed that:

• 80% expressed discomfort with the prospect of dating someone with schizophrenia.
• 77% would feel uncomfortable working with a schizophrenic person.
• 60% think that violence is a symptom of schizophrenia.
• 71% would be afraid for their safety around a schizophrenic person.

This leads to the exacerbation of the symptoms of schizophrenia, increasing social isolation and worsening paranoia and delusions.

Experience of Schizophrenia

• Here is a quote from someone's experience of having schizophrenia in a discriminative society which does not understand the symptoms. After the school shooting in Northern Illinois University on 14th February, surrounding areas and also the nation as a whole increased their suspicious attitude towards schizophrenia sufferers. He documents the behaviour which was conducted towards him, all of which explains why schizophrenic people can feel isolated:
• "I was diagnosed with schizophrenia just a month after Steven Kazmierczak (quickly identified as “schizoaffective”) shot six people to death on the campus of [Northern Illinois University] … Undoubtedly primed by this shooting, wary, uncertain, without enough time to think, my doctoral adviser suspended my graduate assistantship, banned me from the university, and alerted all faculty, graduate students and staff to forward all emails [from me] to her and, under no circumstances, respond."
• This quote portrays the thoughts and feelings of a schizophrenia sufferer after finding out about their illness. This explicitly shows how the stigma of mental illness can have the effect of worsening one's own perception of their illness, and how it can cause sufferers to feel as though there is no hope for them. I thought the language in the passage could be used in our trailer to express the sheer hysteria and depression of someone after being diagnosed with a mental illness:
• "Everything I have ever been told was a lie. My one way out — of poverty, desperation, madness — was never more than an illusion. And then disbelief. And then, how will I ever explain this to anyone, to family, to old mentors? And then betrayal. No language this time, no thoughts; crying, crying for hours. Alcohol, unconsciousness, unbidden dreams.  Even there: repeating their words, over and over and over again. Isolation so intense, there is no way I will ever bridge it. I am lost. Days go by, weeks."
• The quote goes on to explain how they are forced to feelings of violence and murder, using graphic imagery which we could replicate in our trailer to display the harrowing thought process:
• "I fixated on a single vision, me, sometimes hanging, sometimes with gun in hand and a pool of blood on the floor, outside [her former adviser's] office. Suicide, yes, obviously, but also something more: revenge."

Living with schizophrenia

• Watching this documentary, named "Living with Schizophrenia" helped me understand fully the illness and many aspects surrounding it. It featured four characters, three with Schizophrenia and one with schizo-affective disorder who each in turn spoke about their experience of the illness. It taught me many different things which previously I may have not thought to explore. Firstly, the interviewees spoke about medication. They discussed how the usual perception of society is that by taking medicine one is instantly "cured" however, one character in particular discussed how mediation was only one answer for her, and that many other processes had to be undertaken before she was able to feel stable in her daily life. They also expressed how they felt that doctors and psychiatrists did not understand them, and how they felt too insecure to ask questions about their medication and the side effects attached to them, which were abundant.
• Many of them spoke too about how the stigma surrounding their illness was almost as horrific as the symptoms themselves. One discussed how the internalisation of stigma was extremely dangerous and that it caused incredible despair, confessing to the audience that he has had a multitude of schizophrenic friends who have been led tocommitting suicide. In fact, 15% of schizophrenia sufferers will commit suicide in the first five years of being diagnosed. The character said how he believed that the lack of someone to talk to was one of the major causes of this.
• The many stages of acceptance after diagnosis, including anger and denial, were discussed profoundly in the documentary. One showed the audience how drawing was a  method of catharsis for him, allowing himself to express his complicated and sometimes dark emotions. Another spoke about the negative social effects the illness caused, saying that the memory problems which came with it meant he had increasing trouble getting jobs. It was also obvious that sufferers found getting back into relationships and work a lengthy and enduring process as isolating themselves from society seemed a much safer and more appealing option to them.

Child Schizophrenia

• This documentary was about a rare case of childhood schizophrenia, found in seven year old Jani. The illness causes the young girl to hallucinate, and she is constantly telling her parents about her imaginary friends "Wednesday the rat" and "400 the cat", both seeming scarily real to her. These delusions and also voices inside her head cause her to be violent and sometimes disturbed.
• The illness is very rarely found in children, and a doctor from UCLA psychiatric hospital claimed to have only come across a handful in his lifetime. However, it is extremely crippling for Jani's family and forced the parents into buying two apartments, one for Jani and another for her younger brother in fear of the violence she could be capable of inflicting upon the toddler.
• The parents were insistent that they did not want Jani taken away from them, and put into special care. However, Jani's illness makes her incredibly tiring as her parents must engage with her at every moment during the day or else she may slip into psycosis and her hallucinations will overwhelm her.

Ideas for our trailer

• We could include many aspects of this research in our trailer for instance by having:
• One main character with a mental illness.
• Character suffering from discrimination.
• Character forced to violence by stigma replicating that quoted earlier.
• Complex fractured editing to illustrate the mind of a schizophrenia sufferer.
• Graphic dramatic shots to mimic the horror of mental illness.
• A Link with social isolation research on Joyce Vincent and give character a morbid end somehow.

Research: Drugs

This video talks of the severe drug addiction in Afghanistan and how it is used as a painkiller as they cannot afford anything else. It is also used to stop hunger so people eat less and therefore are able to survive for longer. 

Many of these addicts are at a very young age, sometimes as young as three years old, and due to the horrendous poverty many children have to work to get money for the drug. In this documentary there is a young child who is working as a child prostitute in order to fund for his habit.

This video talks of a new drug called Krokadil which makes the skin scaly and start to rot. The drug is named Krokadil because it resembles the skin of a crocodile. This drug can easily be made by legal products from the pharmacy and is extremely dangerous. 

After seeing many clips I have noticed that the boom in herion and opium is due to the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, as the Afghans started growing opium in order to fund for the war. This has now led to a widespread drug addiction in many areas, especially Afghanistan itself and Russia. 

Trainspotting

This movie follows a group of friends all addicted to heroin and shows how deeply the drug has affected their lives. Renton, acted by Ewan McGregor, is desperately trying to unhook himself from the drug in order to restart his life and apart from showing the horrible side of heroin he also explains the reasons why people get involved in drug use and the difficulty of stopping. (This can be seen in both the scene when he is preparing to detox and when his parents have locked him in his room) the poverty in Edinburugh in the 1980s is also demonstrated thorough this film and the desperate need for money, usually to purchase more drugs. 

 

Dead Baby Scene

I think by far the most horrifying scene in this movie is when Renton awakes to Allison's heart broken sobs when she discovers that her baby Dawn has died due to neglect. This scene harshly demostrates the serious effects of the drug as it shows that when you are high you think of nothing else, nothing around you matters and you are living in your own world. However when you return back to your life there is much pain and misery, usually much more than a person who doesn't use drugs. This scene suggests it is a huge cycle as straight after discovering her baby's death Allison then goes on to ask for a hit for the pain she feels, so that she can forget everything that happened and keep her eyes shut. The fact that she does this shows that she hasn't learnt from her mistakes and that when it comes between heroin and her life she will always choose heroin. This is one of the main messages at the beginning of the movie:

'Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing ga me shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your futu re. Choose life. I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who need reasons when you've got heroin?'

It is likely that Trainspotting was written as a reflection of the moral panic at the time, as the emergence of HIV/AIDS occured in the 1980s, when this book was set. This moral panic was used by the media to create a stereotypical image of herion users and it led to press sensationalism which gave the public incorrect information. The image people think of when talking of heroin addicts seems to be an ill, skinny and deciteful user who lives a life of crime and poverty. Many campaigns utilise heroin in order to shock people, such as the campaign in 2000 which shows a baby injecting himself with heroin and sitting on a pile of his own waste. This means that unhelpful information is being given about addiction and drug use, and there isn't enough proof to say that these campaigns actually scare people away from the drug. In fact it can be seen that these campaigns have actually increased experimentation. This is because creating a taboo around the subject therefore increases curiosity and also encourages teens going through a hard time to rebel against society and opt for the worst option due to the reactions of others.

If we were to use drugs and HIV/AIDS as our moral panic we could demostrate the causes of drug use and might dwell more on how the boom of drug making came about. An idea could be about the use of drugs as a terrorist attack on Russia, by exporting tonnes of heroin over the borders they both gain money from it and slowly destroy the country. The drug Krokadil could be used to create a horror movie about how people's skin turn scaly, and could be exaggerated for dramatic effect. We could also have a specific focus on terrorists and different methods used to slyly destory other countries.

Research: Social Isolation

Research: Joyce Vincent - Dreams of a life

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dreams-of-a-life/4od

Joyce Carol Vincent was a Londoner of Caribbean and Indian decent. She died in 2003 in her bedsit in Wood Green and her body lay undiscovered until 25th January 2006 even though her neighbours did smell her decomposing body. 

 Upon the discovery of her body, details were extremely 'hushed up' as not even her photograph or any background to her life was mentioned in articles.
 The case of Joyce Vincent is an example of social isolation, a complete or near complete lack of contact with society. Channel 4'd documentary on her life before her death revealed her secrecy and lack of contact with her small group of friends and her family.

Similarly, the death of Michelle Conroy (21 years old) has direct links to Joyce Vincent's death as they both seemed to be victims of social isolation. Michelle Conroy was found dead after a tree fell on her tent whilst she was sleeping rough in Exeter. Michelle was often described as locals as "a lonely soul, with a sad, broken childhood who couldn't sustain an independent life". Like Joyce Vincent, Michelle Conroy spent time "sofa surfing": the invisible homeless person staying with friends when they can, maintaining human connections and temporary shelter. Michelle and Joyce both lived in poor conditions, Michelle was homeless and Joyce lived in council housing as depicted in 4OD's documentary "Dreams of a life". Similarly enough, they both had very little money yet their appearance never seemed to be at fault  "Michelle has been coming to us for over a year. She was a lovely, polite girl, always well turned out with her hair brushed back in a ponytail. You wouldn't know she was homeless if you bumped into her." Rev Canon Anna Norman - Walker. Joyce Vincent was too always pristinely presented, therefore unlikely for anyone to have known of her isolation. Many critics link Joyce and Michelle's deaths with their housing and the isolation that it brought unto them. Joyce lived in a council flat alone, after "sofa surfing" for 6 months at an ex-boyfriends house. Michelle Conroy lived alone but the only difference being that she was homeless - she lived in shelters and was found dead in her own tent after sleeping rough in Exeter, after a tree fell. Both individuals isolated their selves to an extent, either due to a darkened childhood as discussed in 'Dreams of a life' or just pure social isolation such as Michelle Conroy. It was discussed that Joyce Vincent was left scarred after her mothers death when she was younger leaving her in the hands of her father who was illustrated as a rather irresponsible character, thus leaving Joyce to be raised by her older sisters, who remained anonymous for the documentary. Joyce was said to be of a 'secretive' nature, allowing others to find it hard to obtain information of her whereabouts or her early life. Her ex-boyfriend Garry Crystal allowed her stay with him for 6 moths after losing contact with Joyce for many years - upon her stay he noticed that she had multiple bruises that signified an abusive relationship that she may have had or may have been having at the time.

Today, we still deal with the risk that social isolation creates: "Social isolation is associates with a higher risk of death in older people regardless of whether they consider themselves lonely," BBC News have reported. Evidently, social isolation affects all no matter the age, gender or background. 2013 has seen a 26% increase in social isolation and the last 15 years has seen a 50% increase.

Research: Social Networking

We decided we wanted to look into the influences of social networking and how it effects society, therefore giving us potential ideas for our trailer. When researching social networking, I decided to watch the episode of Black Mirror, called White Bear. During the watching of this episode, I noticed several recurring themes linking to social networking, they were lack of privacy, similarities to internet trolls, and the general public acting as bystanders, which helped give me different areas to focus on in this investigation.

CCTV Issues
At the beginning of the episode, we are introduced to a girl who has no recollection of her identity, this is gradually revealed through a series of clues throughout the program. From the outset, we notice that the public follow her wherever they can and are glued to their mobiles or camera. They are filming her. This links into the idea of no privacy in our present day, a prominent issue relating to our sharing habits on social network sites, and the idea that we are being watched on CCTV cameras as we move about our daily lives. In this episode, we are given the impression that some kind of symbol and the mobile transmitters are to blame for the public filming the girl's every move, and this reflects what has become a seemingly normal habit in today's society. Not only are we constantly captured by CCTV, but there are huge numbers of people who make YouTube videos, containing footage of events they have encountered, a few examples of this could include racist remarks on public transport, of which there have been a few cases in recent months. It is this idea that we are constantly being watching which creates an element of fear in the protagonist of the episode, this combined with her lack of identity make her scared, and wonder what it is they want to see. This can be linked to social networking because people are constantly being judged, whether it be their latest facebook profile picutre, or a YouTube video, people like and comment on video and often have little disreguard for the effects of their judgements on the indivual it is directed at, resulting in disastrus consequences at times.

Lack of Privacy
We can also look at the lack of privacy encountered in social networking websites. The most popular websites such as Facebook and Twitter allow you to post your location in a matter of seconds, letting anyone on the internet know where you are. Facebook has received bad press about this in the past, because it was believed their privacy settings were too complicated for user's to understand and not accessible enough. At least with Facebook people have some control, yes, you in theory could just be speaking to somebody who has set up an account under your friend's name, but you can choose whether to accept their friend request in the first place. We can link this to the Black Mirror episode by looking at how the protagonist's location is always known by the public, because of cctv cameras and the footage captured by them, which we assume are shared on social networking sites within the program. Twitter on the other hand encourages users to be much more open, and although they do allow users to 'protect' their tweets, it is often felt that with more followers, you are more popular. People set out to get more followers just so they have a bigger number next to their name, there is evidence of this in the number of 're-tweet this to get 100 followers' tweets which appear on user's timelines frequently. There is no consideration of the people which may follow you, and this allows people's information to be read my many, perhaps this is not such a good thing but highlights how we are so used to this habit. In the episode, we can see that the protagonist literally is always being followed and has no escape or privacy, whereever she goes, she is being watched and monitored, perhaps this could be viewed as a representation of how we are in society today, constantly posting updates of our daily lives on the internet, for the enjoyment and entertainment of others.

Spectators
Another way in which our privacy in society today is under threat, is by spectators, people are just watching others when they are need, this is evident  in the episode when everybody is not helping the protagonist, despite her previous actions, you would expect some sympathy, however the public just film the entire event instead, so that it can be viewed by there on the Internet. This is not an effective way of dealing with the problem, because not only does the covarge escalate the problem and make it appear much bigger than it really is, but it also allows people to anaylise it afterwards, when it could have been stopped straight away. This is important when looking at the influences of social networking because on various websites, it is common for people to just watch horrible or inappropriate comments be made directed at an individual and allow it to happen, nobody tells them to stop, and in many cases it is actually considered to be a joke. There is evidence of this in the episode when the audience laugh at the protagonist tied up on stage, they want her to suffer because of her previous actions.

Internet Trolls
Unfortunately, internet trolls are a large issue in today's soceity, especially when it comes to social networking. On Facebook, it is common for RIP pages to be set up to remember loved ones who have passed away, sometimes they can follow unpleasant events, such as a murder which has been featured in the press, drawing more attention to it. It is this attention that internet trolls crave, they seek a reaction from those in mourning, or those who feel strongly about the person the page is set up for. Internet trolls will post harmful messages on the pages, since they are public and accessable by anyone, and this causes distress for the family of the deceased. Some internet trolls will post horrific pictures, perhaps of photoshoped images, they believe to be 'funny' which sparks a reaction. It is this reaction they seek, and for them, it makes them worth it. In recent years there has been a huge issue with internet trolls, as there was no consequences for the people behind these dispicable acts. This not only allowed them to do it annonomously, but without having to serve any punishment otherwise. Thankfully, in society the police are now trying to crack down on internet trolls, however it still occurs. When viewing the episode of Black Mirror, I though that the 'hunters' were like an internet troll type figure. They did what they liked, no matter how bad, and had an audience, they were getting a reaction. This is like trolls because they feel they can post whatever they like, and their audience is anybody who reads that page. The reaction to the 'hunters' in the episode was quite positive from the public, at points even making them laugh, this is perhaps a reflection of how people may see internet trolls but do nothing about it as a preventative. They are once again, a spectator.

Another characteristic of internet trolls is the idea that they have no compassion or sympathy, they are simply attempting to make something humerous, trying to gain something, a reaction - or possibly some kind of acceptance? This can be seen in the episode when the other characters do not express sympathy for the protagnosit, despite her confusion about her identity and cries for help.

Overall, by using the episode of Black mirror as a basis for this investigation into social networking, it is clear there are three main areas which we could use as an influence in our trailer. All three would present opportunities for filming and I think we should strongly consider this topic.