Unfinished Sympathy

What representations of the artist are constructed in the music video?

From the start the scene is set with a quick juxtapositions; the video starts with the relaxing view and sounds of Chinese stress balls, then quickly transitions to a Pitbull terrier, not only a violent breed but owned by a gang, this juxtapositions helps to show us how dangerous this area is going from relaxing to dangerous quickly. This is needed in order to set the scene of a dangerous city in which this women is in. Yet when we see the artist for the first time in. the establishing shot of her, she doesn't care about what is happening around her she is just focusing forward; therefore to me the fact that she is able to ignore this gang which is abnormal to me it shows a representation of the artist as being used to this kind of behaviour suggesting her locality to LA and particularly the street she is on.

The music video is filmed in one long continuous shot following the singer/actor in the video as she walks around the streets of LA, as with the example of the gang lots of other things happen around her which she is oblivious to. The reason why she is oblivious to it is because she is obviously heartbroken; the reason why I think this is firstly due to the music, its tone is sad and depressing as well as the lyrics displaying heartbreak and the ending of  a relationship which this woman really cared about. secondly she is dressed in full black which is typically a colour worn when sad and depressed, this is the exact impression which it gave me that she is so lonely she wears black just attempting to display her mood through clothing.

Not only does the artist wish to represent this in the video they also want to bring a voice and start a conversation in the real world over issues happening in the background of the long continuous shot of this woman walking about; what I'm talking about is a few different stories being told in the background; one story is of a native American man on the street having to dress as his ancestors to raise money and awareness because as he stands there evil people are attempting to take his ancestral

homeland for corporate uses, the video is attempting to voice this, as well there is a man with no legs riding around on a skateboard it is assumed he is a veteran who does not even have support of the evil corrupt government and health system to even afford a wheelchair.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes is a French Scholar; he was well known for his work on semiotics Revolutionising the world of media by establishing the  'New Criticism' as revolutionary, The new criticism had the idea that all texts were 'closed' meant to mean that no outside sources should be needed in order to understand the meaning of text, that all you had to do to understand is analyse that text.

I believe that the new criticism to be  great way in which texts can be broken down and understood; the use then of the codes is an essential part of taking apart the small connotations and meanings which are hidden behind texts, not only texts but also now meanings behind movies, by studying the signs in them, the use of connotations and denotations is an important part of what Roland Barthes using the new criticism does. The use of codes under the new criticism are what writers and other creators of media use  in order to portray to the audience the message which they want to be in the text hidden behind different connotations, denotations and codes in words. The reason for why I see the new criticism as the best way in order to understand meanings behind texts is because you are directly taking word, sentences furthermore whole pages to decipher hidden meanings therefore not taking anything out of context, if it happens that something is written inside the book with connotations, then it is meant to show the writers meaning that it is indeed intended to be there. Were as analysing outside sources from the book will not portray the true meaning which the story entails.