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.

Sequence 01

Fat Boy Slim- Representations of the artist. Yo Mama

FatBoy Slim is a Dj with a very specific style of music video; His style is complete randomness, every single music video for each of Fatboy Slims songs is diferent with no similarities other than being completely different, in different locations, with different actors with lots of random scene changes and camera shots which make the videos opposites. However one similarity which is shown in each video is the fact that there is someone dancing; the reason for this is to show the dancing style which Fatboy slim is known for, that all his music is specifically for dancing and dance music therefore a small similarity between each video is the fact that his music makes you want to dance.

At the start of the music video Yo Mama there is a calm atmosphere  created through the men who we assume are hilbillys, who are painting and watching cartoons and in general just relaxing. Through mise en scene of the characters I could tell that they are hilbillys through stereotypes of that type of people; the stereotype is shown by them wearing scrappy clothes as well as the look of their teeth and how they do not take care of themselves, also the way that the house is set up in the music video implies hilbilly behaviours of not having too much money sleeping is ramshackle abodes as opposed to usual houses.

From behind the scenes footage we know that the actors playing hilbillies are in fact just that; as well the fact they are on a tropical island, these together do in fact show a representation of Fatboy Slim and this presentation being the complete randomness which he creates, his life is a party and all sorts of crazy mental things have happened around him, I believe that these crazy mental things follow in his music and furthermore the music videos, such as the hillbillies do not make sense being on this island yet it is so due to the power of his music, as if the complete crazy music brings about the chain of events which happens within the video having turned everything on its head and just completely switched everyone to being weird, or at least weird when seen by normal people.

There is a large comedic element which the director has attempted to capture in the video; this comedic element is the thrashing fits which people apart of the video have when listening to the Yo Mama, these fits a funny because they are completely random and are an attempt by the director to show a comedic representation of Fatboy Slim. The way that the actors go into thrashing fits of dancing is not only funny but intended to represent the raves which this type of music would typically be played in and the dancing which would happen in them, where it is not really dancing but as I said thrashing fits.

60 Second Short Film

Ill Manors

How representations of the artist are shown in the video?


How Plan B Shows the representations of the youth in the media to be a joke.
The representations of the youth in Ill manors at first glance does seem to be a horrid account of how all they want to do is nothing all day, and they crave to steal, do drugs fight and frankly just be no good for society; however he uses these examples of stereotypes of people living in those places to display his point on how the government is wrong to treat them as so.


In this GiF you can see groups of youths Beating up other young people on the ground whilst the group films the abuse. The use of the phone filming in this GIF and the point of view shot, is used by Plan B to show a representation of young adults being extremely violent and disturbed so that they will just beat people. This representations is used almost to insult the media how they represent the youth like this but don't care for why, and that is the meaning of Ill Manors which is that the government doesn't understand the behaviour of the youth and therefore shouldn't just report the side of the story that these people are violent; they should report why they are.

In this Photo/ screenshot from the Ill Manors music video there is a divide of two parts of the city with the light of the sun shining down on the known and tourist areas of London in the background which should show how that is all that is seen when people visit London, the good parts. Then compare that light to the darkness of the Gheto area of London where this video is set; the reason I believe the video is people filmed like this is to show a metaphor that these people are left in the dark and ignored, their issues are not bothering the government which is later shown with the riots. these riots being Plan B showing that they were to get the governments attention to sort out the system therefore to help these people with very little.


'What needs fixing is the system
Not shop windows down in Brixton'
This lyric in my opinion is the most hard hitting; that the government give so little towards these people in the way of fixing the places they live and reduce crime, rather than doing this they are focussed on the damage done by youths. The Context for this lyric Is the London Riots when all the news stories spoke about the damage done to shops and the city of London rather than speaking the reason why these riots occurred was an unjust killing by the police on a youth. Therefore what plan B is saying is that they should help these people less fortunate so this doesn't happen again in the long term as opposed to fixing the windows for the short term.


Throughout this video the focus stays on a purely urban Environment almost as if you can't leave from that place, the grey bleak backgrounds of tower blocks, car parks, and council estates also match perfectly to the grimy lyrics and way the song is sung as if the city itself is singing the colour grey. and This city of the colour grey traps you, traps you into a life of poverty and fear over the constant crime taking place.








           

Editing using premiere pro

Explain
The task you were given to do?
The task we were given was to create a 30 second music video using videos of people fly boarding and over the music 'Oops Upside your Head' we had to ensure that the clips transitioned well and the music was clear and audible with no random cuts as well.

Describe
What did you find easy?
I found easy transferring the files into the program, then cutting and placing the clips where I wanted them in order to match with the music, for instance making the fly boards sync taking off and landing on certain beats.
What was more difficult?
One of the more difficult things was adding a few transitions going form scene to scene in order to smoothen the flow of the piece where some cuts were to sharp.

How did you overcome any challenges?
I overcame the challenge of not knowing anything about premiere pro to being able to import audio and video files as well as use them to create a small music video clip; the fact I was able to create the video was something I thought I'd be unable to do but have done.

Evaluate
What do you think was successful?
I believe that my finished product was quite well cut and I was successful in putting together the clips and to create a flowing video from start to finish, this was successful because there were no bad jumps with moments of darkness in-between any clip and the transitions where they were made the piece better.
What do you think could have been done to improve it?
To improve the piece I made I believe I could have made the Video match the music a lot better, for instance even though I hit some of the boards on the water in time with the beats I could've cut more clips in and done it more regularly, especially I could've on louder beats when the music changed in some way. Something I would do to make in better is speed how quickly the boards landed so the slow board clips matched the fast pace of the music.