After our discussions about the narrative our decision was to go along the lines of a mental health storyline; deciding to focus mainly on depression. We wanted to represent how it can affect a relationship, a person and there life. We knew that we had to betray the topic right as it’s a topic which touches so many people in this world; research was the best way in which we could make sure that we were representing the subject correctly. This is my own independent research on the topic so when developing the narrative I could make sure we are betraying the subject with respect and factual knowledge.
According to the mental health foundation anxiety and depression are the most common mental disorders in Britain; with 4-10% of brit’s experiences depression in their lifetime. The statistic itself is worrying, what’s even more concerning is that according to Young Minds nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer from severe depression, more than a 63% increase in the last 10 years. After personal experiences with mental health issues the question has to be asked; is society doing enough to be combatting what seems to be an ever growing number?
Mental health research
We don’t want our video to have a down mood about it; we want to represent as best we can how depression affects a relationship and how it could affect a person’s ability to be themselves. We will do this through mixing hard times were the girls behaviour is of depression like in the column above but also mix in some scenes with underlining messages of how she is feeling. Using different tones and editing techniques we want to try and represent her mood, one Idea we had was to place a slight black and white filter over the memory to represent her feeling empty, down and worthless.
I wanted to just look at how mental health is represented in the media today. Although still be a subject in society which people shy away from talking about some celebrities have been extremely honest and open about their experiences with mental health; many want to raise awareness. Cara Delevingne is a younger celebrity who has come out and spoken about her depression. After taking a pause from modelling she took to twitter (a social networking site used by millions) to speak about her mental health issues. Quote from twitter published by ENews "I suffer from depression and was a model during a particularly rough patch of self-hatred."
Celebrities coming out and admitting there issues with mental health has helped slightly to break the silence about mental health and to break the idea that celebrities don’t feel emotion. Many songs have meanings; whether close to the artist heart or whether they are writing to attract a specific audience. Mike Posner has written songs for many different artists and he’s had many number 1 singles both here and in the US. His song ‘Save Your Goodbye’ on the surface could be preserved to be about a relationship breakup but actually is about his battle with depression, breaking the stigma around having mental health issues is one step in the right direction to making society understand.