A-Level Media Studies
Mental Health Research;
Throughout our whole planning process we have always wanted to follow a hard hitting narrative, following ideas such as a breaking down relationship, class issues and sexuality problems. After many group discussions we decided to go down a mental health route, we are very aware that mental health as a whole is a difficult subject to approach. We decided to ensure that we were sensitive around the topic, to do some research into mental health and how it is portrayed in the media in order to create a realistic but non- offensive portrayal.
I have chosen to look at a couple of music videos that are based around mental health issues to draw inspiration and to ensure that our ideas are not too bold.
Pinks 'Fucking Perfect' music video is based around a teenager struggling with mental health issues. Throughout the narrative we see the girl in her highest and lowest points ranging from looking after her little girl to partaking in dangerous behaviours due to her illness. The general message in this video is that you should be happy with who you are, and we watch the main character go from being depressed due to her appearance to accepting herself and finding happiness. In this video there is a scene where we see the character self harming due to her mental health issues. The camera work in this shot kept modesty so we weren't able to see what was happening but we were able to make our own inferences due to the camera angles themselves. Our music video is not going to contain any physical acts such as that one but we are taking inspiration from this video and using a variety of over the shoulder shots in order to display disturbing behaviours without actually showing them to the camera.
Ed Sheerans 'A Team' has a narrative based around a woman struggling with substance abuse issues. Throughout a large portion of the music video a black and white filter is used to create a lonley feeling, we are using an idea similar to this but in our happier moments where we will be using a sepia toned filter. During the sad moments we will be draining out the colours post production in order to make the characters look more depressed and sad.