“We paid £45 for four. We went to collect them before Leah went to work” “we took the tablets at about quarter to eight” then we see these four tablets with a dove on them being switched hands, but then quickly the scene changes to Leah’s party where it looks like a young girls party. The film carries on to tell the whole story of what happened on the day Leah died. They done a reconstruction of what happened that night and they tell us all the pain and grief they went throught that night.
It appears to me that the purpose of this video is to inform you that Ecstasy is something very harmfull and very dangerous to your body it can be so severe as to kill you. I believe that Leah’s family and the filmmakers made this video to educate pupils about Leah and let them learn from Leah tragedy. This can be shown in the following quote “just let something good come out of this, don’t let my sister have died in vain, let people see it does kill you”
The video tells us about how dangerous Ecstasy can be once it enters your body, this was shown when Leah’s parents were telling us what Leah was like when the tablet enters her body. Her mother says
“I walked into the bathroom and when I saw her eyes I knew what she’s done. Her pupils were so big”. Her pupils were so big because they dilated due to the release of enodo morfean.
One good aspect of this video was all the different types of languages they used to keep the viewere interested but at the same time sending out the message about Ecstasy. When I say different langauges I mean many different people like people of the same asg as her, her parents and then proffessionals. People who are medical proffessionals and other authority figures speaking directly to the camara. I think the filmmakers to tell you that this was a real life event, that people like medical sciencists have come on this video to tell young pupils about what happened to her did this. They used simple langauge so that all pupils would understand what happened but at the same time not so simpleso that the pupils wont get offenedand feel like they are being patronized.
A further feather that will keep the viewere interested is the way the video is presented to the audience. The audience needs to feel that they can connect with the person who is taking. I feel the video have done this by doing the reconstruction of the day that Leah died and by having pictures of Leah and other people who have died from taking the drug Ecstasy. I also believe the scenes being shown aint too long and aint to short, they are just right so that the audience don’t feel bored. This way the audience can take in little bits of information and concentrate on one particular scene which could make the viewer frustrated and then they might not wanna watch the rest of the video.
The film finshed with silence and a large picture of Leah fading into black and white. Then aother ninteen other black and white pictures with names and ages were shown. I think this scene was very emotionally powerfull because I believe when the photos were shown in balck and white this means they have died and are so longer in this world because black and white are very dead colours. I also believe the ages were also writen to tell people that you can die from Ecstasy at any age and this can also emotionally hit people at different ages.
Althought there are many good aspects of this video, I also believe that there are parts that bring the quality of the video to a lower standard. What I mean by this is that this video it not as successful as it could be.
Untill the very end of the film the word ‘Ecstasy’ wasn’t used. The filmmakers and Leah’s family did not use this word once. Maybe they thought the word was too powerfull to say. I don’t think this was very effective because the audience might believe that they didn’t know that much about the drug. Therfore they avoid talking about it in much detail. The only time when the word ‘Ecstasy’ it mentioned is when Leah tells her family that she has taken the drug and the other time was when her mother called the 999 operator. I explain this in two word, ‘fear’ and ‘ignorence’. ‘Fear meaning that they are telling you about Leah’s life and how she died and ‘ignorence’ meaning they didn’t tell us what coused her to die and not telling us anything about the drug.
The video tells us that Leah died by taking one Ecstasy tablet, howevere we as the audience don’t know the full story. From other factual articals I found out that Leah also had several very strong alcoholic drinks and also smoked cannabis. I got this from the Nicholas Saounders article. Therfore Leah might have died by mixing Ecstasy with alcohole and cannabis and not from taking Ecstasy alone! Also they video doesn’t tell us that Leah acutally toke Ecstasy on four other occasions untill the very near end of the video. After this I thought the filmmakers and Leah’s parents were being very baised and were trying to make the audience seem like fools! Prior to the event when Leah died they were trying to make Leah’s party look like a young childs party, like a normal party but what is a normal part for an eighteen year old? They tried to make it seem like an innocent girl’s party, however it was like any other eighteen years olds party; it had alcohole!
Another thing which doesn’t let this video be as successful as it can be it the fact that many other articals contradict the film ‘Sorted’. For example the article by Nicholas Saunders who says the risk of dying from Ecstasy is almost the same as fishing and horse ridding! If there are twenty-five millons tablets taken a year and five Ecstasy related deaths this this compares favourable with 10 fishing related deaths per yaer which is done on fourty millon occasions a year. So after reading a number of different articals im not sure if I truly believe the story shown on the video ‘Sorted’. I believe this is a major downfall for the video.
We also have many reports that say that Leah died actually from ‘water intoxination’ and not the reaction of the drug. This can be shown in the following quote
“She died because the brain became swollen” this means Leah died from actually drinking too much water and not from taking the drug. Leah drank water because she had heard that if u take Ecstasy, you should drink water so you don’t dehydrate. However Leah’s body was not allowing her to get rid of the water so it started to get absorted by the brain and as the brain doesn’t have space to expand, her brain died, this is said in the following quote
“It appears that one of the effects of taking the drug is to stop the brain controlling water balance within the body”, I noticed the proffessionals were using words like ‘could, seem, appear’etc. Whereas her family uses words like ‘will, does’ etc. I believe this is very important note because the proffessionals are trying to saying that it could have been a mixure of different things which may have killed whereas her family is saying that Ecstasy will you and it does kill you!
Thus I think that is quite an effective video, which gets across the point that Ecstasy is a very dangerous drug and can easily kill you. I also believe that it raises awareness of the drug. However it also lacks information on the drug Ecstasy it self and all the facts that we are given are all baied and I believe this is the only downfall of the video. I believe we, as the audience should have been told more knowlegde about Ecstasy. This video has effected me because it tells me what ‘could’ and what ‘might’ happen if I ever do decide to ever take the drug Ecstasy! Overall I believe this was a good video about Ecstasy but also with room for improvement.
By Kulvir Chana
11CL – P
Mr Masterson