Athlone Institute of Technology

A report on The Drink Aware Brief in partial fulfillment of the

requirements of the BA in Design in Digital media (4º)

Title of Project: “Orion”

Student’s Name: Álvaro Gómez Gracia

Lecture’s Name: Carmel Joyce

Paul O’Neill

Tara Cullen

Introduction

Alcohol is very important in many European cultures, but in Ireland plays an important role. You can see in all of its cities a lot of places to have social gatherings where you can drink, a lot of Pubs. Even two of the most visited sites in the country and almost national heritage are two important museums of alcoholic beverage in Dublin. It’s an important sociological factor and you can see, every day in a lot of pubs, many parents drinking in those pubs.

The different between Spain and Ireland is that in Spain alcohol is one of the most important mortality factors in the society. Every year, the Government makes new law about that, but the problem doesn’t disappear and it remains one of the biggest Spanish drawbacks. Here in Ireland that is less, but actually is increasing: “Almost one in three crash deaths in Ireland is alcohol-related. The latest available statistics show that on average 120 people - drivers, passengers, pedestrians - were killed in alcohol-related crashes each year. Behind the statistics are brothers, sisters, sons and daughters…”

My drink-aware video talks about the family relationships and about this, Ireland data are troubling: “Between 61,000 and 104,000 children aged fewer than 15, in Ireland, are estimated to be living with parents who misuse alcohol”. This is terrible if you think that Ireland has nearly four million and half people. So we can say that the alcohol influences totally in the family relationship. Even a study of women who attended the Coombe Women’s Hospital found that almost two thirds (63%) of the 43,318 women surveyed said they drank alcohol during their pregnancy. This is a direct influence.

Nowadays, the alcohol is not just a social way, also is necessary in a youth fun. Is impossible to see a group of young people on the weekends without drinking. And they buy a lot of alcohol in the shops, because is too expensive in the pubs. For this reason they have an alcohol abuse.

The purpose of the drink-aware project is precisely this, to educate the new generations. With the expressions and feelings of young people reflected in their videos, you can get social awareness, because these young people are a strong part of a any society.

Main Body

The initial idea or main subject of my video comes from a series of feelings and morals that I wanted to show people. I think that to make an aware video, first you have to think about this and then you can show that feelings through your audiovisual.

Always I liked astronomy and its legends about the constellations. And one night here in Athlone I saw one of the best night skies in my life, it was my inspiration. From there, I began to think of many asks that the universe make us.

One of the most important things I wanted for my video was trying to get a drink-aware video with another point of view, I mean, without pubs, pints of Guinness, drunken people…and I wanted to make that, through to people impact.

I was watching some of the winning videos from past editions to know what the storyline that followed was. And for this reason I decided to make something different, something new.

To know what was the way to impact the people I looked on the Internet the statistics of alcohol in Ireland. And it was shocking. Many drink into the young people, many bad examples of parents to children, and the worst: many deaths from alcohol when driving:

“Ireland continues to rank among the highest consumers of alcohol in the 26 countries in the enlarged EU. We drink about 20% more than the average European.”

“The average amount of alcohol consumed by every person in the country aged 15+ was 12.4 liters of pure alcohol. This amounts to 490 pints or 129 bottles of wine or 46 bottles of vodka per adult.”

With the young people is worst:

“In the most recent survey of drinking among European 15 and 16‑year‑olds more Irish girls (44%) than boys (42%) reported binge-drinking”. “Over half reported being drunk at least once by the age of 16.”

These are some examples of the alcohol consume in the country, but the problem is very serious. And it’s well embedded in the society.

To refining my idea I was inspired in some films and serials. Many movies have used that game between life and death, The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999) and Los Otros (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001); but my idea is different from that game. And the serial “Six Feet Under” I was used to analyze the feelings and

behaviors of people when death occurs in their families, because it talks about one funeral family.

This death relationship, the discuss about the religious debate of the existence of life after death, the possibility of ascending to Heaven, and the alcohol in the family were attractive subjects to explain through the eyes of a child. And for this reason I chose this script.

But my idea is different from that game. My intention is to show how we are able to deceive ourselves and we can see what is really happening. And how what is important to us can be destroyed in one second if we fail to see the consequences of alcohol in our lives.

The genre of my drink-aware video is too dramatic, but I chose this subject, because I think that to impact the people is necessary show the worst consequence of the alcohol in the culture or society, death.

I was always interested in the constellations and their legends, but to make this project I had to investigate about this in some websites and books. For the script I chose two of the most important stars in our universe: The Great Bear and The Orion Belt and is the last where I decided the title of mi video, because it makes sense of the relationship between the children with their father. And I chose the Great Bear because is the brightest in the sky.

As the most important element of my script was the dialogue between the two children, I had to work on it. First of all I did the script in Spanish and then, with the help teacher I adapt the conversation to a child's language.

My experience with this drink-aware video is really positive for many reasons. I never wrote about this subject, about alcohol in a society and I think that it’s a good way to transmit many feelings to people through the audiovisual media. Also, I never wrote an English script, it was difficult, but I learned a lot of, because it’s different with respect Spanish script. Other interesting thing was to make an audiovisual project in this country, because you can see other point of view and other working method.

I chose the JVC HD100 camera to make my drink-aware video. It was a nice experience, because I think that it’s a good camera and I needed it because its lens is the best for my video. For sound, I used an audio machine called Dictaphone. It record sound through a microphone and then with a memory stick you can pass the information to PC.

I worked with two software, first of them; the edition program, called Adobe Premiere and the second; the special effects program called After Effects. I used

the first to cut and to make the shots and the sequences and I used the second to make the effects of my video.

I had many problems when I did my drink-aware video. One of them was the weather. I wanted to do my main shot outside, a typical Irish picture, with a green field, but few days before my recording time, snowed in Athlone, I couldn’t record outside and I had to change my story board.

Another big problem that I had was my actors. I get in the first time two children of a friend, but they would not act at the last moment. So, I had to cancel my recording and to get other actors.

Evaluation

My satisfaction with my outcome is really positive. I think that this brief was very interesting, because it’s one of the best ways to express your feelings to society.

I have learned a lot of. It’s a nice experience to know different point of view, different working methods and the most important;; it’s a big opportunity to know very thoroughly the culture where I have to pass one year, the Irish culture.

I think that this project serves to raise awareness of Irish society. To awareness to drink responsibly and to get decrease the alcohol abuse in the society, especially in the young people. Sociologically, young people have a very importance, so for this reason I think that people can awareness if they see these young people expressing their feelings in their drink-aware videos.

I think that should be changed the competition feeling to improve the work. I mean, I don’t like to mix the academic work with an economy competition, because, although my classmates are nice persons, I think that if you want to learn to work in groups, you can’t do an economy competition.

References and Bibliography

Books

Chris Sasaki, “The Constellations: Stars & Stories”. New York. Sterling Publishing Company 2003.

Gregory L. Vogt, “Constellations”. Minessota. Capstone Press, 2003

Websites

http://alcoholireland.ie/?page_id=110

http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/bestprice/alcoholdrinkconsumptionpriceseurope.

http://www.alcoholinformate.org.mx/estadisticas.cfm?articulo=80

http://alcoholireland.ie/?page_id=66

http://wikipedia.com

http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/educontinua/conciencia/fisica/astronomia/mitologia/mitoconste.htm

http://www.mallorcaweb.net/masm/conloc.htm

http://personal2.iddeo.es/santimizar/constela.html

ÁLVARO GÓMEZ GRACIA

10/12/2010 Athlone, Ireland