Research into themes

Because I'm going to be making my video with a sensitive subject as a main theme, I want to ensure that I portray it correctly and sensitively so as to reduce the chance of offending people who decide to watch my music video.  I understand that there's the potential that people who have been affected by drug use may watch this, not forgetting those who are vulnerable and sensitive such as younger people.  It's important to consider this because media texts can influence people.  I don't want mine to be likely to have a bad influence on watchers.  I also want to be sensitive to the experience of those who have actually been in this situation or know somebody that has.  Furthermore, I want to make the video obviously anti-drugs, so I want to portray the negative effects, however I don't want to make the video too offensive and explicit or people won't watch it.  I also don't want to be too 'soft' in this portrayal as this may appear as romanticising drug use.

First of all I looked at the actual effects of heroin use.  I know that heroin is a class A drug and has serious effects on users.
The image of the boy in the screen shot above is an extreme example of these effects.  My protagonist has become addicted to heroin but the point of the plot is that there is still hope for her; she has started her downward spiral not hit rock bottom completely.  This will be apparent by the fact that she's pregnant as it says that long term users have reduced fertility.

The short term effects mentions a 'rush' and 'drowsiness' but nothing about hallucinations.  I want hallucinations to be included in my video because they are key to the plot.  Therefore, there will need to be a separate cause for these, such as a hallucinogenic drugs e.g. LSD, ecstasy, cannabis or magic mushrooms.  The easiest and most realistic one to recreate in my music video would be ecstasy.  This is because ecstasy isn't as much of a psychedelic drug as LSD and magic mushrooms (this would be too unrealistic as my protagonist's hallucinations are based more on distorted reality rather than a dramatic 'trip').  Ecstasy and cannabis cause more 'mild' hallucinations, rather than psychedelic trips.  However, it would be more difficult to recreate the smoking of cannabis because my actress doesn't smoke, and I wouldn't want to make her do so unnecessarily.  To replicate taking a pill is easy, as all my actress has to do is swallow a sugar pill or a sweet that looks like an ecstasy pill, for example an antacid.

ecstasy pills

antacid tablets