Under the Influence

- a video by the Drug Education Team, sponsored by the City of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire County Council

A group of friends prepare for a night out. They are about fifteen years old. One of them is filming the others with a video camera. Anticipating the conclusion of their evening, they are coming up with synonyms for drunkenness – the girl who offers "under the influence" is ridiculed by the others. One of the boys, Dan, assures everyone that he will be able to get them into a club, despite their age. As part of their preparations, he and Mason fill up a large half-empty coke bottle with vodka.

Two of the girls are putting on make-up and speculating about the evening. The Asian girl, Jaz, is worried about her parents' reaction but is persuaded to go along. A couple of bottles of an alcopop and they are ready to face the world. The four friends meet up with another girl, Charley. It is clear that there are sexual tensions within the group: Dan fancies Nikki, but she prefers Mason, who is keen on Jazz - the usual teenage complication.

When they reach the night club it becomes clear that they will not get in. Besides the bouncers, police are present. Dan is in danger of losing face – his claim to have connections which will gain them entry was clearly bogus. They are faced with a problem – how to keep the evening going. They have had a few drinks, the boys want to make progress with the girls. No-one can contemplate the awful fate of a quiet evening at home. One of the group knows somewhere they can go and have a private party. It turns out to be beneath a bridge by the canal. When they get there, the girls are unimpressed but Dan, who has gone off to acquire some more booze, returns with a large supply of strong lager. He is keen to restore his credit and brags that he had met with no difficulty in obtaining the supplies. Someone has brought a tape deck and they play music while swigging the beer. The game is to see who can get the most down in one.

With inhibitions relaxing, Mason begins to dance with Jaz. Nikki resents this and attempts to cut in, having rejected, none too gently, Dan's advances. The painful emotions of adolescence bubble to the surface: the drink, which loosened their tongues and gave them the courage to approach the girl or boy they were attracted to, now takes them into dangerous territory. Nikki, disappointed and humiliated at Mason's clear preference for Jaz, drinks some more and finally decides to dance with Dan in an attempt to show that she doesn't care. In the way of teenage boys, Dan misinterprets this and attempts to press what he believes to be his advantage. Inexpert gropes elicit only angry rejection from Nikki and Dan, in turn, aggressively pushes her away. She falls to the ground. Charley, the sensible one, intervenes. Things are getting out of hand.

Mason has been making much more progress with Jaz. But she has had her share of vodka and lager and, after a lingering kiss, the world begins to spin. Poor Mason – he has been making headway with the girl he wants and now she is throwing up. Jaz is in a very bad way, half-conscious and tearful. Dan, with the optimism of youth, sees his moment of violence and Nikki's clear indifference as no barrier and tries it on again. Nikki wants none of it and, whilst the others are distracted by Jaz's state, goes off. Jaz wants to go home. She is dreading the reaction of her parents.

Nikki drunkenly wanders the streets. She is becoming frightened. A car kerb crawls alongside her and she begins to run, losing a shoe in the process. The car continues to follow her.

In the mean time, Charley has noticed that Nikki has disappeared. She points out the dangers of that part of the town at night. Dan is ashamed at the part he has played. He and Mason set off to look for Nikki, whilst Charley takes the drunken Jaz home – her reception is all that she expected.

Dan finds Nikki's shoe lying in the street. The possibility of something dreadful dawns on him, despite his condition. He ends up at the bus stop and, the booze overcoming him, he falls asleep on a bench, as vulnerable and afraid as Nikki.

What happens to the young people is left unclear. Things might be all right – they often are – but, on the other hand, they might not. The evening began full of promise for these young people: it ended in a sordid and terrifying mess.

The story of these five – Nikki, Dan, Mason, Jaz, and Charley – is told in a video produced by the Drug Action Team in Nottingham in attempt to reach teenagers who, of course, can be impervious to straightforward messages about the dangers of misusing alcohol. It is, after all, cool to drink. It helps you to be grown-up. You're not a kid if you can swig vodka with the best of them. Anyone who has taught this age group or attempted to talk to young people about drink and drugs knows the problems. The video is an attempt to allow five teenagers to act out a story line of their own making. They are not professional actors, which is a strength of the film. Their awkwardness and the often disjointed story have a genuineness which a more slick production could not have achieved.

The real judges, however, must be young people themselves. We gave the video to a PSE teacher in a large comprehensive who showed it to two groups of pupils, one in Year 8 and the other in Year 10.

The Year 8 students, aged 12 to 13, offered trenchant opinions and good insights. The realism of the film was commented upon and the children felt that they had been shown the consequences of drink (although one, with youthful bravado, believed that the quantities consumed were unimpressive). The basic dilemmas of anyone presenting an accurate picture of a dangerous activity – how not to glamourise and how not simply to pass on useful tips – were spotted: "It should not have shown you how to conceal alcohol and how to obtain it cheaply."

Whilst accepting that the film showed some of the unpleasant consequences of drink – vomit and violence – the pupils also said that it "showed that you can't keep your children away from alcohol. Keeping your children away can make it worse, like Jaz's parents who didn't want her to drink or go out".

An interesting insight of one Year 8 student was that the film "shows that alcohol can be addictive when Dan drinks when he's upset". He goes on to say, "If adults watch it, it shows them what their children might be doing after school and in the evenings." Another pupil says, "It showed you what you could lose while drinking, e.g. friends."

As might be expected, the Year 10 students (14 to 15) had a slightly different slant on things. "I didn't think the acting was very realistic. However, I don't think that matters because of the point that they are trying to get across. It was up-to-date, but I think it will go out of date as the 'trendy' drinks will change."

There are stark contrasts between the reactions, which might say more about some of the students than the film itself. Some are dismissive and totally resistant: "Not realistic at all. Makes people switch off. Boring. Out of date. Poor acting. The film looks cheap and unprofessional."

On the other hand: "It gets the point across though the acting is unrealistic." Someone else says, with a measure of uncertainty, "It grabs the attention, but isn't realistic enough for people to take it seriously. It gets the point across." And again, "It was fairly realistic and that matters. It's not really up to date, but it's much better than other films." Another pupil comments, "It raises awareness of alcohol poisoning and people do end up sleeping rough They didn't actually drink enough to be very drunk."

Not surprisingly, there is a tendency from some pupils to concentrate on superficialities - the appearance of the actors, the quality of the music, the brand of drink – and there is a division between those who want to ignore the whole thing and those who are prepared to be engaged. Whether discussing King Lear or Under the Influence, most pupils need to be guided and a useful teacher's pack accompanied the video. According to the teachers who used the video, this "had some good lesson ideas in it; the questions were appropriate and well-directed I would be prepared to purchase material of this quality for use with our Year 8 pupils. It complements our current work which focuses on facts and also peer pressure."

Implicit in many of the comments is the sad fact that educational material is never going to match the quality available to those setting out to promote the drink industry and its products. Inevitably, there is a vast imbalance between the resources available to those who want to sell alcohol to young people and those who want to warn them of the dangers (see page 8). Whilst attempts by individual small agencies to produce good material are highly commendable, considerably larger resources need to be made available if alcohol education is to have a real impact in our schools.

Under the Influence is available from the Drug Education Team, Nottingham City Council.