Ill Manors MEST1 Questions

Media Forms: What techniques do the video use to establish the setting and engage the audience?

The music video starts off with an establishing shot of an urban council estate in East London. This connotes an immediate impact on the audience as it makes them remember a stereotypical view of council run estates. An example of a stereotype from the music video is the long shot of the groups of teenagers in covered up clothes hovering around in the area, looking shifty. Furthermore, there is animation of a tour bus with Plan B and passengers going on an ‘Urban Safari’. This is symbolic as it recreated the representation of them being animals and a form of entertainment for the intelligent higher class. The lighting in the video varies from hi-key and low-key lighting. At points where Plan B is presents in the beginning there us typical British weather, goes on to night scenes where filler lights have been used to present the emotions of the teenagers through Plan B’s expressions. The expressions and body language of Plan B and the teenagers presents a replication of reality and how they have been said to act. In addition, the music video uses a lot of animation to simultaneously mock and put out plan B’s points of his dislike of the media demonising youth. This is especially effective in engaging the audience as it presents the points of the movie in a smaller and simplistic way. There are many uses of props that help engage the audience. For example there is a glass piece that is smashed by Plan B which is largely effective as it the glass represents the stereotypes created by media and the smashing represents them being broken. Another prop that is used is the car being blown up.  This connotes that the teenagers are fighting back and want to have a better representation in the media and not be out casted by society. Another technique that is used is flashback. There is a repetition of flashback in the music video of the riots that had taken place in 2010. This connotes the retaliation of the teenagers being suppressed and denied by society. This engages the audience as it makes them form an opinion on the controversial case.

 Media Representations: How is gender/ethnicity/age represented in the video?

The representation of gender in the video is all male. This presents that they are all anti-social and outcasts from the society built by the media and authority/government. These lead them to do more destruction, than production and are more likely end up working against the machine. The ethnicities that are presented in the video are also stereotypical views of criminals and the undesired masses of blacks and whites. This supports the dominant ideology of Britain as they are presented as the main criminals of the country and are most likely going to steal. The ideologies of Plan B present evidence for the hypodermic needle theory. The theory states that information is directly injected into our brains by the media, which has happened in the case of teenagers being attacked by the media and being presented as the villains. There is a dominant representation of youths that live in council estates supporting the theory of Levi Strauss. The theory stated that representations of things, like the youth, are created by dominant ideologies. The main ages are mainly adolescents being presented as violent and bent on destruction.

Media Institutions: In what ways is the video typical of music videos and what values does it promote?

Gillian Dyers theory of the lines of appeal attracts their target audience. The music video for Ill Manors utilises the traits of self-importance and pride, this is used to deal with the needs of the audience. This video is a typical music video as it narrates a story like most music videos and has a deeper message. The riots add factual evidence and more realistic for the audience, making them considers it to be a real story, which it is. On the other hand the lyrics of the music video paint another more moral story. The lyrics connote that teenagers have been out casted by society and are being view in the negative light of the media.

Media Audiences: Who does this text/artist appeal to and why?

This artist appeals to his fan base, this is mainly people who like and listen to his genre of music and people who relate to his lyrics of the song as the can identify where he comes from. The artist acts like a beacon of light for them as it is an escape from the barren dusk land that they have been placed in by the media and their stereotypes. The demographics that are going to be attracted to the music and artist is the D and E group this is because they are made up of the lower class and the unemployed/low income people.