Media Messages Music Videos

This is America is a song by Childish Gambino which has accumulated 635 million views for its music video. It gained so much popularity due to the graphic nature of some of the video as well as the message it provides about America and the issues within it. Gambino has the role of America in this video, and uses violence against black people as well as dance and song to distract people from what is going on around them. The dancing while there is chaos in the background reflects the ignorance of the media. When Gambino shoots the choir, someone takes the gun away in a red cloth, which represents that Red America value guns over human lives, with the gun being taken care of while in the background we see a body being dragged away which has also been 'taken care of'. Gwara Gwara is a South African dance performed during the video to link the racism in American and the apartheid in South America-










 Look at how I'm livin' now
Police be trippin' now (woo)
Yeah, this is America (woo, ayy)
Guns in my area (word, my area)
I got the strap (ayy, ayy)
I gotta carry 'em










-these lyrics represent how black people in America feel so scared that they resort to carrying guns on them in case they are attacked, it also shows that American's follow a herd mentality, and so if 1 person carries a gun, everyone will.










This a celly (ha)

That's a tool (yeah)








This lyrics refer to a man named Stephon Clark who in March 2018 was shot 8 times by police who thought he was responsible for a robbery, they believed that he had a gun (tool) on him but he only had a cell phone (celly).

Media Language: How the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meaning(s).

Emeli Sande – Heaven- feature their respective artist(s) and are a mixture of performance and narrative, and raise a number of similar representational issues surrounding ‘street life’.

Radiohead - Burn The Witch - does not feature the artist(s) but celebrates the power of narrative and signification and a postmodern emphasis on intertextuality. The video contrasts clearly with the representations featured in Heaven.

Narrative- a spoken or written account of connected events; a story

Intertextuality- the relationship between texts


Postmodern- a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions

Representation- the description or portrayal of someone or something

Signification- the representation or conveying of meaning

–ROCK- experimental, performance, singing to camera, close-up, instruments, flashing lights, mid shots, dark colours, grotesque dark scene

–HIP HOP- crowds, money, sunglasses, dancing, flexing

–POP- dancing, bright colours, expensive, CGI, bubbly/happy, elaborate costumes

This video contains both storyline and performance, it cuts between the band dancing and flashbacks to their career, with visual elements of them singing the song in an underpass. It is a storyline because it tells the story of their career and the success they gained from Britain's got Talent.

This is a reminiscent love song in which Adele stands alone in the house she once shared with her ex boyfriend, the music video is storyline as we cut to many different flashbacks of their relationship and the man is not actually her ex lover. It can also look like a short story due to the song not actually beginning until about a minute into the video. It is also a performance as we see Adele singing and there are several close ups on her face and midshots.

This is a very experimental music video as well as performative due to the band all standing on a float and playing their instruments. The skull is symbolic of death reflecting the black clothing they are wearing.

Camera- There are close ups on the poor and homeless people as well as close ups on Emeli to express the meaning that we are all equal, close ups on depressed people




Editing- The video has been edited so that there are equal parts performance and equal parts storyline, pink tint




Mise-en-scene- location is London, no costumes or props to demonstrate the harsh reality of homelessness and having no money, shots of families to show who is being hurt in the process, dark scenes have connotations ot the overwhelming sadness, prop crosses




Sound- Emeli lip-syncs the song and expresses emotion in the chorus of "then I'm gone" due to it being a powerful lyric, "will you recognise me in the flashing lights"-doesn't want fame to change her, double meaning with connotations to emergancy services sirens


Representation of CAGED
C- working class, unemployed, chav, B/C1
A- 0-80,
G- Both genders
E- all ethnicities, filmed in Bethnal green, mixture of ethnicities in the east end of London
D- no physical, potential mental such as depression

white 87.2%, black/African/Caribbean/black British 3%, Asian/Asian British: Indian 2.3%, Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%, other 3.7% (2011 est.) Christian (includes Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 59.5%, Muslim 4.4%, Hindu 1.3%, other 2%, unspecified 7.2%, none 25.7% (2011 est.)


"But the day, it always lasts too long"


Bethnal Green Demographics- C1= 31%  DE= 25%  AB=23% 

 
Screenshot 1: Camera- midshot    
Editing- contrast between the harsh black inside and the bright outside to suggest that there's always something better waiting for you on the other side
Mise-en-scene- in an appartment

Screenshot 2: Camera-wide shot of a man on the streets
Editing- No editing in this shot
Mise-en-scene- A dodgey area of London with a warning sign

Screenshot 3: Camera- close up of an old man looking sad
Editing- The lighing emphasises how dark his life has become
Mise-en-scene- London location

Screenshot 4: Camera- facing a window which has 'fear is your only god' perhaps to signifiy a loss in faith that comes with losing everything, homeless people could have the mindset of where was god when I needed him.
Editing- unedited, focuses on the dirt of the window due to the poorer areas of London being forgotten

 Screenshot 5: Camera- a shot of two young girls smiling and having fun in a park, could represent the positives that are left behind when someone turns ot drugs, with this shot acting as what they could have if they put the lighter down
Editing- a pink, warm and happy tone to emphasise the previous message
Mise-en-scene- in a park with bright and fun clothes

 Screenshot 6: Camera- we have a perspective shot of Emeli looking at an unknown figure in an underpass, showing awareness as well as how many people end up taking drugs on the street who aren't given a name
Editing- the alley has been edited to look even more dark to emphasise how dark a drug users life can become when they take it too far

Screenshot 7: Camera- hands passing a lighter








Newman
Butch
Gilroy
Alvarado

Burn the witch

This was sent to Radiohead fans to make them anxious, it is recognisably from the band due to their logo at the bottom, but 'we know where you live' is intended to be creepy.

 This shot shows the town people gathering and the major standing above them to physically demonstrate his leverage against them and assign them roles to prepare for the inspector's arrival. We also see religious imagery of a cross above the major to suggest that they could be a religious town.

 This shot shows the major looking suspicious once everyone has walked away, which foreshadows that they are plotting something, but doesn't reveal what. It gives the viewer a small clue that the video may not be innocent.

 This shot appears seemingly innocent upon first glance, with it showing just a man painting a postbox, which is assumed to be done to impress the inspector. However, we have more foreshadowing here of the town's dark intent due to the paint being red which has connotations of danger and it also looks like blood.

 This shot builds upon the previous shot in creating a innocent and unsuspectful atmosphere, with a man building an unknown structure in attempt to please the inespector. This later turns out to be the wicker man they burn the inspector within, with the nail sticking out of the wood acting as a clue to the danger.

 In this shot two women decorate a pole with ribbon and flowers, therefore giving men the more physically demanding jobs whilst they try to make the town look pretty for the inspector. We late discover that they are decorating a noose which is done to represent how the media hide serious topics behind colourful and pretty imagery. This also gives the impression that women are subserviant due to doing what the major has said.

 The only 2 people in the video with different noses are the men in the car, who presumbly are from the city due to their clothes and car. They look differently to show that they do not belong in the village. There is also a village person very creepily staring at them as they drive towards the town, almost acting as a warning for the eerie place they are about to enter, it also suggests that the major has eyes on the inspector at all times, foreshadowing their plans to kill him for being different, just like how Muslim immigrants are being slandered for looking different, which is the intended message.

 In this shot we see the major attempt to be friendly with the inspector and shake his hand, but the inspector makes it clear that he is there purely for work and makes notes on this checkboard, which makes the major said; reflecting how politicians have made people of upper classes look down on lower classes and not be friendly with them, due to the associated stereotypes

 In this shot we see the only other person in the video expressing their emotions and pulling a face due to their shock. This represents that those who express themselves are silenced, and is a reference to the plague during which if an X was painted on someone's door they had the illness and were isolated to die alone.



This shot is a big forshadowing for what is later to come due to it being a refrence to the film wicker man, in which there is a distinctive shot of men in masks pointing swords together. This gives a viewer the first good idea that the town is actually quite dark and not innocent.



 The prop in this shot is a dunking chair, which was used during the 17th century for the witch trials, at which a suspected witch would be drowned and if she survived she was later burned at the stake. The fact  that children are playing on such a fatal machine as if it were a see-saw suggests that the town are very careless towards health and saftey, which begins to give the inspector doubts.

 This is another clue about the wicker man that shows up at the end due to a woman in the film making cow pies, it also represents the ruthless slaughter (killed immigrants). The blood once again foreshadows the danger that the inspector is in and there are several food props to suggest that the pie is ignored amoung other foods and is considered harmless.



In this shot we see the two girls showing the inspector the decorated gallow with complete disregard of the noose, instead they appear proud of how pretty they have made it look, demonstrating that this town are completely desensitised to all violence and dark things. The inspector is the only person showing shock towards the noose while the others are trying to show it off as though it was normal. This shows that the inspector is not from this area due to his lack of disregard, and shows that they have oppositional thinking.

 There are some people in this shot that have different noses, which make them stand out as minorities, which is presumably why they are behind a gate and under a polymer tunnel. Jobe also has relgious connotations, suggesting that this village are also potentailly discriminatory towards religious people.

 The man holding the bottle has a rice hat, giving him Asian descent. This shot gives us the most diversity in the entire video, with everyone in the main town looking the same but more diversity being hidden away and given the hard jobs. They are identified as a group of exploited fruit pickers, who wave when threatened with a sharp stick to show that they have no power and are lower class.

There are several shots in which the major pats the inspectors shoulder, acting as the global symbol of everything is fine, despite it not being so. The major is trying to reassure the inspector that although he is seeing distrubing things. It also foreshadows that the major will keep pushing the inspector to go up the ladder and burn.

In this shot we see the white fence in the background acting as the last source of normality left in the village disappearing whilst the major leads the inspector to his doom. The bunting also suggests that the village are celebrating, which we later be discovered to be due to the killing of the inspector, and they are therefore celebrating the desrtuction of the law.

In this shot the inspector is given the rope to pull and reveal the wickerman, which is quite disturbing once the viewer sees him be trapped inside and burned, and the major insisting that he reveal his own death. The towns people are also gathered in atnicipation, and due to the previous towns meeting it can be assumed that they know the inspector's fate, and are all as dark minded as eachother, gathering to witness him burn.

 Second intertextual link: Wicker man

 First intertextual link: Blue Velvet, the opening shot is of a bird peacefully singing on a branch to suggest that all is peaceful and fine, but the recalling of the bird at the ending of the video is done to show that the supposed innocent was a facade.

Summary of media representation and media language in burn the witch: In this music video there are edgy connotations of persecution which is put within the context of a 'normal' society. 'Normality' is shown throughout the video in examples such as the stop motion animation and bright saturated colours and lighting. These colours act as a call back to the 60s childrens tv show Trumpton and the perfect, safe world is shows. The mythical connotations contrast with the paranoia in the video; all of the towns people are wearing traditional clothes and the sets were deliberately built to have connotations of stability and tradition through the white fanec and towns market. The inspector brings a strong 50s vibe through the car and the clipboard. The video was edited intentionally slow and the camerawork is static, the video is also shot in 4:3 to appear like a classic tv Trumpton would've appeared on. The narrative of the video is the inspector being shown around the village and being shown increasingly disturbing things until they reach the climactic wicker man, the video ends with a coda in which we see that he's escaped.  The entire video carries the message that in Europe we possess too much collective xenophobia, and are ignoring immagrants because they are different to us, which is the song's message that this needs to stop; the only minorities in the video are hidden away from the main part of the town by a white fence which represents the loss of hope, and they can be seen doing manual labour while someone threatens them with a stick to wave, demonstrating that they have no freedom whereas the whites in the village are allowed to decorate nooses and are praised. This links to the nationalism which can be seen in the music video, with people from other nations being hidden away and threatened, and living opposite lives to the locals from the villiage. Individualism is euqally apparent due to the village being self reliant, eating their own grown tomatoes and killing any outsiders that visit.

Summary of media representation and media language in heaven: A song of contrasts, the lyrics contrast the desire to change and be better with the dissapointment that comes when that person succumbs to temptation. The upbeat sound of the song also contrasts against some of the negative lyrics, the media language also reflects these contrasts due to the videos gritty social realism which link to the negative lyrics. This also reflects the images of transcendence throughout the video which directly link to the name heaven. The idea of documentary realism is created through the hand held camera work and at times out of focus shots, emphasising the gritty feeling and reflecting the location which is the East End. Despite Emeli's glamorous appearance, she can be seen singing out of a window which contrasts her appearance and seems quite low budget, demonstrating that she has not let the fame change her, she also does not dance or address the camera, which keeps the realism. The frequent cuts in the video to different people and locations shows that it is telling a story of their lives, we also see a lot of juxtaposition, with one being a cut from the street to a cross. Connotations of joy and freedom are created by the fast pace, a medium shot of a man dancing and a wide shot of a flock of birds flying away. The lack of resolution fits with the theme of the video as well as the enigmatic ending, which feels very unfinished. There is no xenophobia in this video because we see all ethnicities being portrayed in the same light and no one is being particuarly looked down upon. There is individualism seen through the close ups on severl people, showing that Emeli wants the video to be in a documentary style where she shines light on individuals and their own struggles. The consumerism comes from Emeli trying to seel viewers the message that although people with drug abuse are trying to move on, they keep being caught by temptation and its not always a happy ending. The video is only filmed in the Uk and therefore it focuses on the negative stories of people in the East End struggling to get back on their feet. There is also no populism due to no one of higher class looking down on the struggling east enders, Emeli is in the middle class but she films in areas that are dingy to show that she doesn't consider herself above them due to her wealth. There are many very gritty shots of homeless people living in poverty to show that Emeli refuses to shy away from it and instead wants to draw attention towards how inhumane it is. Finally, hedonism has involvement due to the drug user's desperation to feel the pleasure of being high to the extent where they give up everything else and end up living rough on the street.

Viewpoints and ideologies for burn the witch: A critical viewpoint opposed to enforcing community and solidarity by exclusion and explanation, created by incongruity in the media language- the disparity between the narrative and mise-en-scene tries to create shock to establish critical distance from the fictional world. The contexts of this video are social anxiety about immigration and postmodernism which is shown through intertextuality.

Viewpoints and ideologies for heaven: Celebrates the desire to be better and could possibly be a religious message due to the name and religious lyrics and imagery, created by social realist media language that depicts the sorrows caused by temptation but also suggests power in redemption. The context for this video is celebrity culture for which the video focuses on Emeli singing.

Intertextuality for heaven- "street life" in film and television paired with the idea that street life is rich in character and variety.

Individualism is the social theory favouring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control

Naturalism is a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail.

Social realism is the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment

Intertextuality for burn the witch- wickerman, blue velvet, trumpton, nursery rhymes, politics+trump+immigrants, witch hunting, plague

Nationalism is identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

Populism is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.


Expressionism is the opposite to naturalism, media language that draws attention to itself and expresses emotional states, an example being harsh lighting to express alienation


Postmodernism is a general set of ideas about culture after modernism, it uses conventions in a playful and ironic way to create something new out of intertextuality (Trumpton has a playful and newly created link to wickerman). It reacted against the dogmatic ideals, truths and revolutionary breakthroughs that characterise modernism by adopting a cretain fuzziness and adding elements of humour.