Mental Disorders Research

The definition of Mental illness on Google is = psychological disorder or psychiatric disorder, is mental or behavioral pattern that causes either suffering or a poor ability to function in ordinary life. 
Mental Disorder or Illness is a fairly new word, however since it has been more well known it has got more attention then expected. Songs by popular artists including 'Give it all' by Train. 



Since Mental Disorders have been established, there has been very different types of approach to it - here is a comic strip that I found showing awareness of mental disorders but along with how people react to it. They are trying to justify that mental illnesses are just as important as physical. This first comic strip post is about how people react to mental illness, and the second is on physical illness.

Physical illness -

If you would like to see more of this comic strip on how we react to illnesses then click on this link; http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/have-you-tried-herbal-tea#.pm6Q01MAa

We have chosen specific colours to throw at Jamal to illustrate our meaning and genre =

• Red - this represents anxiety as this is a very common mental illness for this time that could affect everyone. There is also a number of illnesses that can come from anxiety so it is very relevant. However, the thing behind mental illness is that it is not noticeable to the naked eye as it is inside the brain. By us throwing red paint at Jamal we are representing that even if you can't see something, it still exists. 
• Green - this colour portrays the mood of a person, This is because a lot of peoples mental illnesses can shine through using their moods. For example, if people have depression then their mood could come across sad, and if they were to have bipolar, there changes in moods could reflect their mental illness. 
• Blue - Eating is presented by the colour blue. This is because a lot of mental illnesses can revolve around food and eating, this includes anorexia and bulimia. Therefore, I think it is a good reason to include this as this could affect everyone. 

Some research location shots

George, Tom and I went to Henley-on-Thames last Saturday to get some location shots, these are a lot of rough shots however that we will change into more professional looks soon. However we are going to use some of these locations and poses for the digipak and poster. I really like some of these shots as they are quite original and also quite suit the genre of the song as they are quite simplistic. In addition, my favorite shot is the one in the field. This has a calm and relaxed vibe.

Most of these shots were just for varied research of which shot looked best.

Risk Assessment

Hazard	Cast/Crew that may be harmed	Property which may be damaged	Risk controls already in place	RISK ASSESSMENT – low, medium, high, EXTREME	Further action to control risk
Paint being thrown	Jamal (cast) and crew throwing the paint (Bethan and George)	The room we are using which is in college. We do not want to ruin the paint on the wall so therefore using protective sheets.	Testing Jamal with the paint to make sure he is not allergic and not to get it in his eyes because it could affect his eyesight.	High	We will do a patch test on Jamal and the crew to make sure they have no allergic reactions to it.
The Public	The public, cast and crew	We want to make sure that none of our equipment or the public are damaged through our settings or unknowing public.	We are going to make sure we send out a relevant email to staff making them aware of the parts of school we are filming in, this is to make sure we get limited people walking through the scenes, this is to make the shots better and control danger	Medium	Along with the email, we could put up signs to make sure that people are filming.
The River	The cast and crew	We have to enable that none of our cast and crew will fall in the river. Because this would mean possible danger for the person (drowning) but also ruining our filming equipment like cameras and possibly lighting.	Risk controls in place are keeping a certain distance away from the river during filming (2m at all times). This will be kept in place when we are near the river.	Medium	We will inform all of the cast and crew of this rule of not going within two metres to stop danger.
Falling off the bridge	The cast, crew and equipment	The camera and tripod could fall of the bridge as there is holes in the bridge along with not very stable completely cover sides. Along with this we want to make sure the bridge is safe enough for our cast to use when filming on it.	Checking with the groundsmen to make sure it is very safe for our cast and crew to use. I think this will be most effective as we can have their permission as well.	Medium	If we were going to go into depth, we could get the groundsmen or teacher to be present when we are filming on the bridge.
Weather disruption	All of the equipment	This is because we are in autumn season the weather will be very temperamental. Therefore it could rain or be sunny. If it is raining the equipment will be damaged.	Risk control would be to check the weather report and possibly have a plastic bag ready to protect the equipment.	High	Checking the weather report

Shooting Schedule

This is the shooting schedule with all the cast and locations included. I think we have a very reliable cast who are all our close peers whilst being very talented. Also we have built our timings around very reasonable times. Hopefully it will plan out how we want it too. Our equipment is a tripod and a camera, we have made sure they are available to us but along with this, it will not take a long time to set up it all. All of our equipment is basic but I think this is good because we do not have to complicate it. All our locations are very accessible as well. 

Copyright

Today, I sent off a request to Down Town Records company (distributor) for copyright of their song so we can use it for our A2 media coursework. This is because they own the right to the song. I think in this email it was important to be polite and informative of what we are using there music for. My group and I are hoping to get a reply in the next few days to have permission to use it. As you can see, I gave my email for them to reply to me. I have also included Mr Milburn's (my Media teacher) email if they have any more questions or additional information.

Time Lapse #3

This is the third part of the story boards that George drew! More to come soon

Time Lapse #2

This is the story boards that I drew, as I wrote out all the story boards I think i had a good understanding of the visual image I want to see in the video - Story boards to come soon!!

Costumes

Outfits for music video inspiration

These pictures of a white and black outfit our inspiration for our music videos which we have been doing research on; we have used different colours for our different scenes. We have done this because we think it expresses different emotions within our video. The black shows a more dull and harsh feeling whereas the white is a lot more light-hearted and dreamy. I think due to the similarity of the actual clothing style works very well as well as it  makes a clear change between reality and dream, which is our initial idea. 

We chose our colours by choosing complete opposites of colours, I think this contrasts very well especially in the actual filming. I am playing also to use this on the front of the digipack, comparing both colours together. 

Also with the white, the paint will be easily seen on the colour so makes the image look less of perfection. Which is the message we want to give. 

Black Outfit - this will be worn in the reality scenes with extras, to give the harsh reality of life. 

White Outfit - this will be worn in the white room scenes, and hopefully this will give the image of perfection as it is all clean. 

The research I have done into outfits is that in many videos to show a pure look they have featured in more white outfits -

This is a scene of Beyonce in Destinies Child, her previous band, however this song shows her in a very pure light because of the colour of her outfit. She also hasn't got very over powering makeup on which makes her show innocence. This is the same for her hair. In addition, the lyrics in this song are about Jesus, and this white outfit could also present her as song of Angel, or in dreams. 

This is very similar as well, Taylor Swift is wearing white and also giving off the impression is innocent and helpless. I personally think the white gives off this impression as white is linked to children and vulnerable. Which is another impression that I want to give off in the White room scene. 

This black outfit contrasts a lot with the actual background image, along with her pose, This outfit is also very revealing which makes her look darker and evil, Along with this her make up is a lot more powerful with red look which give her a provocative look. 

This is Eminem, he is seen in a lot of videos wearing the colour black because it represents the 'harsh reality of life', and he always sings about current relevant issues. This is another reason why we are showing Jamal in the colour black because mental health is a current issue and this links back to it. He also has a gangster, standard rapper look. This is also a very mainstream popular look at the moment. The global fashion is relating back to black at the moment. 

Therefore these are the reasons I have decided to use costumes like the above. I got a lot of research from music video and magazines adverts as well, as in what stands out when watching a video and looking at a poster. 

Time Lapse

This is the time lapse of my group working during today's lesson! We were completing our shooting schedule.

Time Lapse - Story board

This was a time lapse video by Tom Riches, I had written out the story boards and he followed this by drawing out the scenes and doing a time lapse. This means our story boards are complete and we will be putting them on our blogs soon!

Location shots

Location Shots - 

This is where one of our scenes will happen, it will be used for the establishing shot and scene between Jamal and extra. 

This is the shot from the classroom we are using. We think this had the most classic classroom feel with good lighting. 

Bridge from a different angle with people, showing what the lighting picks up

Classroom from different angle showing lighting on actors

Different angle of bridge 

Close up shot of actors on bridge - shows lighting

Different angle - Classroom

The river near the bridge. Shows the natural lighting and landscape

Treatment Video

I have recently posted my treatment presentation which was done on Prezi, my class presented it earlier this week to the rest of my class. I think this was very good as we got some interesting feedback from our class which has helped us to developed our idea. I think by doing this treatment made it very easy to put down all the relevant information down about our music video ('Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley)