Film Influences.

With living in Barnsley and the surrounding areas. Elliott and I are up to date with the news stories and incidents that occur. Due to seeing the following incidents within local nightclubs, we felt we needed to raise awareness to our demographic of the dangers that can take place. 

Below, the incident describes how easy it is for underage people to drink alcohol. This is a ongoing problem throughout places within the UK and even the world. Due to this, including an incident in our film where consequences are shown from underage drinking was the perfect opportunity to raise awareness. We felt that we could class this as a moral panic. Moral Panics are when the media creates a scapegoat for problems in society, this then creates fear or panic for the demographic through certain events. 

We felt that the teenage demographic would change their outlook on underage drinking after watching our short film as they are able to view the consequences of actions which are similar.  This could help decrease the amount of underage drinking within the UK. After researching into the facts and figures of underage drinking, we were absolutely gobsmacked and this further ensured that this message needed to be included within our film. 

• More than 40% of children who start drinking before the age of 13 will go on to abuse alcohol or to become alcoholics at some point in their lives.

• Data released by the NHS reveals that 33 children are admitted to hospital each day in England, with drink related problems. The NHS figures also reveal that 7034 kids under 18 years old received treatment for problems related to drinking alcohol in the first six months of 2011.

• 1000 young people under the age of 15 are admitted to hospital each year with acute alcohol poisoning. All need emergency treatment and some die.

• Alcohol is now causing more DEATHS than heroin, speed, cocaine, ecstacy and cannabis combined.

• An individual who begins drinking as a young teen is four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than someone who waits until adulthood to use alcohol.

• Almost one in ten boys and around one in eight girls aged 15 to 16 have unsafe sex after drinking alcohol.

• The British Medical Association states that alcohol is the factor in 75% of stabbings,  70% of beatings and 60-70% of murders.

Another reason why we decided to involve the assumption of a sexual offence made on the protagonist is the vast number of rapes reported each year across England and Wales. Due to the age ranging from very young we felt it was necessary to raise awareness on this subject. Below is a news article of a 39 year old Barnsley civilian who worked as a Bouncer/ Security man for a nightclub in Barnsley. It was said that he forced her to perform a sex act on him whilst she the woman was highly intoxicated on alcohol and even possibly cocaine. From reading this, we both understood how easy it is to be in a dangerous situation and due to the increase of young teenagers' alcohol consumption the matter needed to be brought to attention. Because we were able to bring attention to this matter through our short film, we were able to include real life situations through the scenes in the nightclubs and also through our characters emotions on camera. Because of the realism of our film, audiences will be able to make a connection to the characters and at the end of the film when they understand what has taken place, they are able to feel fear and sympathy. 

• • Rape Crisis member Centres across England and Wales responded to 171,000 helpline calls in the 12 months to 31st March 2016, an average over 3,000 a week
  
  
  • 58,000 individuals received an on-going Rape Crisis service(s), an increase of 16% since 2014-15
  
  
  • Rape Crisis members provided in excess of 350,000 sessions of specialist support, including advocacy, emotional support and counselling, an increase of 17% since 2014-15
  
  
  • 95 per cent of all service users were female
  
  
  • Three-quarters of all adult service users contacted Rape Crisis about sexual violence that occurred at least 12 months earlier; 42% were adult survivors of child sexual abuse
  
  
  • The largest group that contact Rape Crisis Centres continues to be those who prefer to self-refer (44%), a pattern which has remained consistent over the past five years and continues to demonstrate the necessity for funded independent services
  
  
  • Where age is known, 1,700 were aged 15 or under, an increase of 13% on last year; those aged under 25 represented 33% of service users, an increase of 8%
  
  
  • Where ethnicity is known, 27% of Rape Crisis services users were Black or Minority Ethnic, an increase from 23% in 2014-15
  
  
  • 23% of all service users identified as Disabled
  
  
  • The increase in demand for Rape Crisis specialist services has led to an 11% increase in waiting lists of new service users. At the end of March 2016 there were over 4,000 service users waiting for a service
  
  
  • There was a 53% increase in service users accessing text and email support services on the previous year
  
  
  • Approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales alone every year; that's roughly 11 rapes (of adults alone) every hour. These figures include assaults by penetration and attempts. 
  
  
  • Nearly half a million adults are sexually assaulted in England and Wales each year
  
  
  • 1 in 5 women aged 16 - 59 has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16
  
  
  • Only around 15% of those who experience sexual violence choose to report to the police
  
  
  • Approximately 90% of those who are raped know the perpetrator prior to the offence.