For the storyboards I wanted to do them digitally this week and start to think a bit more about what will happen. I know I want to not be stuck to the storyboards and be able to change and add but I like to have some sort of a storyboard in the beginning.
I decided that at the beginning I would have the feet of someone stand on a ledge and step off and then fall into the water. The woman figure would splash into the water and the bubbles would appear. She would then be floating and see the light coming through the water. She would reach out for the light and it would start to go round her. She would then be pulled down and you see the black creature engulfing her. she would then become black herself and until the light came back and you think she is going to go to the light to be helped but she is then pulled back down again.
I din't manage to finish them all this week because of concentrating on the essay, but I wanted to put it into a moving storyboard to see what it would look like and how it would in with the voice over.
moving storyboard 1 from Summer Davies-Newton on Vimeo.
Feedback off Sam -
The feedback I got off Sam was that i needed to work on the timing of the piece and make the beginning faster.
She also still thinks that I am being too literal about the voice over and I need to be more abstract, the audience is going to here it they don't need to see every word.
Sam also suggested that I got my Mum to look at it and see what she thought about it. This way my mum could say if things don't look like what she imagines them too.
Sound -
Sam also wants me to look at sound and what kind of sound I am going to have with my animation.
Thinking about it I want sound affects for parts to tell the audience things and I want to look into musical scores and whether it will go with the voice over.
Essay Structure and First Draft
For the first draft I wanted to send as much I had done in, even if that meant that it was slightly confusing at parts. Below is the draft and I have tried to write what I want to include in the essay as well as starting it, so although parts are not written correctly they were thoughts at the time and I thought it better to but them down now.
I will wait for the feedback and carry on from there, in the mean time I will carry on to read the article I have and make notes.
How is Mental Health Portrayed in
Hollyoaks?
Introduction –
This essay
will look into and discuss the way the soap Hollyoaks (1995 – 2016, created by
Phil Redmond) portrays mental health and the characters in the show that have a
mental illness. It will look at whether the show has used negative stereotypes
to portray mental health or if it has accurately portrayed them. The soap
Hollyoaks was chosen as the case study as it is a contemporary television show
that is very popular in today’s society and is watched every night by a wide
variety of people of all ages. This essay will look into whether the
stereotypes of mental health and how the public sees mental health as something
negative and how soaps like Hollyoaks have helped to show the audience what
mental illnesses there are and how not to be afraid of them, along with how to
talk about them.
Paragraph 1 – Contextualisation of the
topic, key terms, ideas, questions and motivations –
What the most
common mental health illnesses? (facts)
Which mental
health illnesses have been portrayed in Hollyoaks?
What are the
main stereotypes of mental health and the mental health illnesses?
Include facts
– How many people have a mental illness in the UK?
Chapter 1
What is meant by mental health?
There are
many mental health illnesses, that range from more common e.g. depression,
anxiety, OCD and phobias to more rare illnesses e.g. bipolar disorder,
personality disorders and psychotic experiences. As said by Mind “Mental
health problems can affect the way you think, feel and behave.”(mind reference) Mental health illnesses can affect
people at different times in their lives and can last for short periods of time
or last a life-time. Statistics Mental Health.org states that “One
in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their
lives.” (mentalhealth.or – stigma and discrimination) This show just
how common they are and how anyone can have a mental health problem.
What is a stereotype?
A stereotype
is “a
fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.”
(Cardwell.1996) It is when people define a set of characteristics to a
certain group of people. They are not always made on purpose and can be a
subconscious act.
In the case
of mental health, people often stigmatise people who have a mental illness to
be: dangerous, unpredictable and incompetent. But in actual fact “according
to data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related
Conditions, only 3% of people with mental illness are violent. That means 97%
of people with mental illness are not violent.” (scatter good foundation)
There are cases of extreme and rare mental health illnesses that do have
violent tendencies but that does not mean that everybody who has a mental
health illness is the same. So why does society see mental illness as negative?
The stereotyping of a mental illness can affect the person with the illness.
This can include getting the help they need and so can lead to not being
diagnosed, the not getting the proper treatment and in some extreme cases
suicide.
An example of
stereotyping is in the film franchise Batman (add director), Dr Peter Byrne, a
psychiatrist and film expert says, “Batman describes the Joker as schizophrenic
clown…” (time to change) The Joker in the franchise is an evil
character who is depicted as being a crazy and mentally ill and because of this
is a violent, killing character.
Chapter 2 – key points and case
studies
One of the
main character from the soap Hollyoaks this essay will look into is the
character Cindy Cunningham, who is played by Stephanie Waring. Cindy has
bipolar disorder in the show and although suffers from further problems has
used the character to gain awareness for the illness.
Stephanie
says, “ Mental health can be difficult to diagnose and recover from, which is
why support is so essential and why we have to stop the stigma surrounding
mental health problems, because being able to talk about it is the first
step.”(time to change)
Need to go
into more detail about how her character is depicted in the show (RESEARCH)
There are
many negative depiction of mental health and the media and television show have
had a massive impact on this and are also now a day trying to turn it around by
having a positive impact. The more it is publicised the more people react to
mental health, so it is portrayed negatively, people react negatively. On the
other hand if they are portrayed positively people will react positively, which
is what a report by Time to Change, working with the Glasgow Media Group found.
The report
found that: (time to change)
• Over half (54 per cent) of people
say that seeing a well-known character on screen has improved their
understanding of mental health problems.
• 48 per cent said it helped to change their opinion
about the kind of people who can develop these problems.
• 31 per cent said it actively inspired them to start a
conversation about the storyline with friends, family or colleagues.
These
findings back up the fact the television shows affect the way the audience see
mental health and that if the show speaks out about it and depicts characters
with mental health illness accurately and properly that it impacts society view
of them.
More
Hollyoaks characters: need more research on these
Hannah
Ashworth played by Emma Rigby – Eating disorder – anorexia
Lisa Hunter
played by Gemma Atkins – self harm
Anita Roy
played by Saira Choudhry – skin bleaching
Newt played
by Nico Mirallegro – schizophrenia
Chapter 3 - Why this is related to my
project?
I chose this
topic to write the extended essay on because I feel it will help me develop my
final film. In the essay I have researched and discussed stereotypes and what
stereotypes there are for many mental illnesses. I can then use this to make
sure that my final film does not use the typical negative stereotypes and uses
accurate portrayals of depression. It is a very interesting subject and is
something very close to me and so it is interesting to see what other people
think about the subject, it will broaden my research and understanding of
it.
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