Unfinished Sympathy - Essay

Explain how representations in music videos are chosen to promote the artist(s). Refer to one of the music videos you have studied to support your answer

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy

The purpose of music videos is to promote the artist to their audience. The representation of Massive Attack in the music video Unfinished Symphony is clearly linked to some sort of heartbreak experience. In the music video the vocalist (Shara) appears oblivious to her surroundings, despite them being shocking. This is attained by filming the vocalist walking down the very urban streets of Los Angeles, along with characters such as paraplegics, gangs, homeless, drunks and vandals. We are presented with a close up at the very beginning of the music video, this then pans out to show a gang following Shara down the street, interestingly on the wall behind the gang is a graffiti tag (PBS). I did some research and found out that PBS stands for Playboys 13 and is a violent, predominantly Hispanic street gang in West, South and East Los Angeles, California. They align themselves with the Mexican Mafia and are notorious for crimes including: Class B Drug Sales, drive-by-shootings, assaults and arms trafficking murder. This emphasises the fact that Shara is heart broken, as she appears to have no cares for the danger around her. The representation of the artist through the production values used in the music video is another way in which the representations of Massive Attack can project the message of the video. In reference to the way the video is filmed, there is only one-shot the whole way through the scene, the purpose of this being that its Massive Attacks's way of portraying how Shara being in her trace like state, is permanent. That there is no changing it and the one shot allows them to show the extent of which she is affected. This suggests that the artist is concerned with issues surrounding relationships and the hardships caused from breakups/ heartbreaks. Interestingly, as the video progresses, first Daddy G, then 3D, having finished making a call on a public phone booth and then Mushroom, who was pushing a cart. Can be seen walking several paces behind her, slightly out of focus This representation is also achieved in a number of ways. The whole scene in terms of mise-en-scene (costume) depict Shara in a full black dress. As we know, black is symbolic for death and mourning in many cultures including our own, and Shara is wearing black to symbolise how she is almost dead on the inside, this is further justified with the song lyrics "How can you have a day without a night" this tells us that she feels incomplete. And the dress shows us her mourning for her loss. The use of camera, in terms of almost the whole music video being a mid shot. The mid shot is chosen because the purpose is to allow the viewer to begin to create a connection with the character and understand them and their motivations.

To conclude, the representations in the music video is directed towards heartbreak. This is apparent in a number of ways in Massive Attacks music video, including the name "Unfinished" which makes a connection to the way people feel after a breakup, almost not whole. As well as "sympathy" which suggests people feel sorry for the time she's going through.

Never Alone - Media Short Video Project

Ill Manors - Essay

What representations of society are constructed in this music video? How does the use of camera, editing and mise-en-scene help to construct these?

What representations of gender, ethnicity and social class are constructed in this music video? How does the use of the camera, editing and mise-en-scene help to construct these?

What representations of the artist are constructed in this music video? How does the use of camera, editing and mise-en-scene help to construct these?

Plan B - Ill Manors Essay

Society is represented very strongly in the music video. We are lead to believe that society is very harsh and aggressive, this is backed up with the use of camera, showing close up shots which portrays the aggressive nature of the society, they get up in the viewers face to intimidate them. There is also the use of point of view camera shots which portrays the violent nature of the society, the camera shot makes you feel as if you are one of them and the images of violence represent the way society is portrayed. To further back up the point on aggressiveness, the used of editing further emphasises the society's aggressive nature. Fast cuts and transitions mean that at some points in the video there is almost no scene longer than two seconds. The fast, frantic flow of the editing gives the feel of violence and represents the way the society is. Mise-en-scene elements such as setting is used to construct beliefs. Within the opening shot we see rows upon rows of council estates and because of this we form a negative belief on the type of people who live there. We also form this negative belief on the sort of clothing they wear, tracksuits in full black, the covering of the face, the covering of the fingertips with gloves. It forms a negative image of who this person may be. We perceive that they are up to no good because they are hiding their identity, and because they are all dressed like that we perceive the whole society to be the same.

As well as society; gender, ethnicity and social class are also represented in this music video. Gender is not strongly represented in the video however, we see that the majority of the people in the video are young, males. Ethnicity in the music video is not a key factor, however, Plan B has used a mixture of people with different ethnicity's to highlight the point that ethnicity is not a key role in the behaviour of these people. It is instead the background they were brought up in, along with their environment.

Social class is something that is more prevalent throughout the video. We are exposed to many different types of camera shots throughout the video, a key shot i want to talk about is the few establishing shot used at the very start of the video. We are shown an establishing shot that depicts the area/ location that the video is filmed in. We can see that Plan B is standing on a block of council flats in a lower class looking area/ estate. Mise-en-scene of the lighting means that we can see the more desirable location of London in the far distance with tourist attractions such as the London eye. That area also seems to be shrouded in sunlight directly contrasting with the dirty, dark estate area.  The way this video has been edited and put together has ended up with these establishing shots at the very beginning. This is to set the scene and also give an idea of what the video will be about. We have been lead to believe certain stereotypes about the lower class and their violent tendencies. This taints our perception on the sort of video it will be. During the video we hear Plan B refer to the estate as a "concrete jungle" we definition of a jungle which reads "an area of land overgrown with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in the tropics" the language used to describe the jungle includes words such as "overgrown", "dense" and "tangled". This language creates an aurora of negativity around the estate. We hear the word "overgrown" and it gives the sense that the estate has been forgotten and left to rot along with the people in it. The word "dense" and "tangled" makes it feel like the area itself is actually overpopulated, and the people included with the term "working class" have run of out room meaning that life there is much harder. Overall this represents the social class in a negative way for the viewer.

The artist of Ill Manors is Plan B, his real name is Ben Drew. Ben Drew is an extremely successful singer/ songwriter however, unlike some artists who are brought up in privileged family's, Plan B was brought up in an underprivileged home in an underprivileged area. Born in Forest gate, which is an area in London that is known for not being the best part of town. Plan B was suspended from school and an early age for bad behavioural issues. Due to this he was sent to a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). Due to his place of birth he grew up surrounded by crime, violence and other negative influences. He also didn't have a stable family to nurture and care for him properly. When Plan B was five months old his dad walked out on the family, this was followed by when Plan B was 6 years old his father disappearing out of his life, permanently. This was a traumatic experience and could have contributed to the way Plan B's delinquent early life panned out. In reference to mise-en-scene Plan B is wearing similar attire to those seen in the video, this is because he wants to show how he came from the same background as them and hes been in situations they have too, he believes that the some of his audience wont be able to hear his message and be inspired unless he acts like them and talks like them. The opening shot features the sound of a violin, along with the visuals of Plan B miming the playing of a violin. This has a hidden symbolic meaning of how Plan B who is an activist for social justice and equality of the working class. We know that violins can symbolise serenity, calmness and peacefulness. This is directly juxtaposed with the environment around him, however, this is to show how he believes that things can change and we can make a better lives for those who are underprivileged. He wants people to see that they can do things to change. During his TED talk he talks frequently about how people who have made a change to better the lives of the unprivileged, he mentions Andrew Curtis who set up an academy where he teaches disadvantaged kids on how to cut hair. Plan B believes that we can make a difference to these peoples lives and the video which is classed as a protest video is made to create awareness of this.

Editing Using Premiere Pro

Explain the task that you were given to do

We were asked to create a music video. We were given a few clips of water sports and the song (Oops Upside Your Head) and had to edit, cut and transition them all together, it was composed of purely non-diegetic sound resulting in a music video.

Describe the way in which you went about completing the task

• What did you find easy?

The general understanding of the layout I found quite easy because I have used Sony Vegas Pro, a similar editing software to Premiere Pro and they have a similar layout so I found it didn't take me long to fully understand the concept.

• What was more difficult?

In terms of using the timeline, it was slightly different to Sony Vegas Pro and therefore I had to re-learn certain aspects of the timeline and how it is different.

• How did you overcome any challenges?

During editing a file that was in use became corrupted, this was not due to my own error, however, I got around this. What I did was copied and pasted the file onto my desktop and replaced the file in Premier Pro with the new file. This was a temporary fix but it worked and allowed me to continue with the project.

Evaluate your finished movie

• What do you think is successful?

One thing that I feel I did successfully was sync up certain clips in time with music. I find this is very effective and makes the video much more exciting.

• What do you think could be done to improve it?

To improve the video, I would add in more transitions, because I have overused the dissolve transition and should be more creative with the transitions.