Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our chosen track for our music video; ‘Fight Back’ was one that was hard to specifically define as it includes several aspects from different genres. The vocals in Fight Back are taken from a speech from a 15 year old boy named Barnaby Raine who was speaking at a conference based around education cuts and the controversy that surrounded the riots across the UK in 2011. Therefore this allows the song to be put under the spoken word genre, however accompanying these vocals are a trip-hop and electronic instrumental thus combining several genres together. Fold as a band are currently and aim to in the future keep on making music that tackles and raises awareness for social issues across the world and striving for equality as well as raising money for a number of different charities through their music. A renowned and iconic music video which similarly reflects social issues and focuses on the war on drugs, the treatment of black people by the police, and the difficulties of life in the ghetto. "Changes" remains one of 2Pac's most notable and popular songs. The speech used by Fold in 'Fight Back' focuses mainly on police brutality and unfair policing alongside the main topic of education cuts and repressing the bourgeoisie therefore relates closely to Tupac's song changes, we focused some attention on this music video when making the music video for 'Fight Back' in order to gain and insight into how it portrayed and expressed social issues. I felt it important to reflect and portray the artists interests in the music video therefore focusing on education cuts that have been made by the government and the unfair treatment of the public by the police force.  

Furthermore we tried to include a sense of 'Britishness' within our music video, this can be seen from our opening scene to our music of the character hurling a St George's Cross into the Norwich skyline on top of St James's Hill in Norwich. This shot was inspired by Shane Meadow's 2006 film 'This is England', this opening shot establishes the genre early on as it could connote a sense of lost hope and frustration towards the characters country.

John Fiske defines genre as 'attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of of both producers and audiences'. In response to this theory our music video uses some generic conventions in order to enable the audience to relate to the narrative and issues being covered in our music video, as well as the character and the locations. For example during the protests that took place across the country in 2010 a total of 153 arrests were made, reporting just under 3/4 of these arrests were made to white British males so that by using a white British male as the main character in the music video it connotes a sense of rebellion and identifies an individual who may well have attended these riots.

   

Location.

St James's Hill, Norwich. 

The locations we used for our music video mainly challenge generic conventions of locations used for a music video based on tackling social issues. The song 'Fight Back' captures a social nature exploring amongst other features how blatantly students were being robbed of a future in the name of so called austerity. This all stemming from the London Riots in 2010, our music video challenges generic conventions as an audience would expect a track about demonstrations and oppression to be set in an urban surrounding surrounded with vast amounts of people. The locations we used were mainly isolated and open, displaying views of countryside and tranquility. We thought it may be effective to challenge generic conventions of locations of a track that covers social issues as it may not be easy for our audience to identify the genre of the track intially until it becomes clearer by the shots of the protests through London emerge. This may furthermore create a confusion with the audience and leaves them guessing and wanting to know what the genre of the music video is and the issues it covers.

Painting of the Kett Rebellion ,1549.

The location of St James's Hill located at the top of Mousehold Heath in Norwich lies just in front of the Norwich prison. Back in 1549 this was the location for the famous Norfolk revolt against the up rise of the wealthy under the reign of king Edward V1. It began at Wymondham on 8 July 1549 with a group of rebels destroying fences that had been put up by wealthy landowners. One of their targets was yeoman farmer Robert "Ben" Kett who, instead of resisting the rebels, agreed to their demands and offered to lead them. Kett and his forces, joined by recruits from Norwich and the surrounding countryside and numbering some 16,000, set up camp on Mousehold Heath to the north-east of the city on 12 July. The rebels stormed Norwich on 21 July and on 1 August defeated a force led by the Marquess of Northampton that had been sent by the government to suppress the uprising. This uprising can be linked in closely with the London riots in 2010, in that the everyday normal public felt they were being oppressed by those higher up the social spectrum and those who had greater social power and weren't going to sit back and take it, instead rise up and fight back. I feel the background information about this location used in various scenes in our music video makes it interesting and an ideal location to film a music video about oppression.

 However, we have also included some generic conventions associated with locations, seen by the urban, tattered looking surrounding of Anglia Square in Norwich, which was once a thriving shopping destination now an almost derelict (in some places) and considered a considerably dodgy place to go. Anglia Square has in the past been marked with a history of violence and criminal damage seen in the panorama image above of broken window panes and graffiti. Using such surroundings as this one gives our music video a more urban feel and allows the audience to see it may be similar to the locations in London that were destroyed in the riots. The bleak surroundings of Anglia Square closely relates to the locations used in Plan B's 'Ill Manors' music video, perhaps suggesting its the home to those of the lower social class and a place where violence occurs.

 

Bleak urban location in 'Ill Manors'

Similar shot to that used in 'Ill Manors' music video in the music video for fight back.

Costume.

The choice of costume in the music video had one main objective which was to make the character look like a normal protest character which was based around largely what a majority of young people in society would wear on a casual basis. This allows the audience to identify with the character as his clothing may be similar to the clothes worn by an average individual who would attend/attended the riots. This therefore means that the costume of the character is generic as it based on what a large amount of what teenagers wear in today's society. Music videos such as 'Steal my girl' by One Direction is a prime example of young males wearing casual everyday clothing as all are seen to be wearing plain t shirts and shirts along with plain denim jeans.

Although when researching music videos based around social issues and protests many artists tend to focus on the minority who choose to cause mass criminal damage and display aggressive behaviour such as in Plan B's music video for 'Ill Manors' thus meaning we drifted from generic conventions as we aimed to display your average, everyday protester. An alternative objective for costume for us was the dress the character in clothing so he represented a stereotypical British male youth you would expect to see in some areas of London where the social class is around C. This clothing would be informal and very casual, with the costume consisting of a hoody, tracksuit sweatpants, sneakers and accessories that hides the individuals identity to an extent like a cap or a balaclava. By choosing to dress the character like this we would have been conforming to the generic conventions of costume within a protest related music video. By dressing the character in these clothes the audience would have been able to identify the characters social class and what type of approach they would have had towards the education cuts and mistreatment of individuals by the forces. 

The music video for Chase and Status' 'Time' shows all characters to be shown in everyday, casual clothing with an average individual who be most likely dressed in. 

Hooded 'streetwear' clothing shown in Plan B's 'Ill Manors'

 

 Print Production

 

Within the print productions, it was decided that the costume of the character should be changed. Although the characters face takes up most of the frame, a polo shirt accompanied by braces or 'suspenders' are also visable. The costume used in the print production also uses rather than challenges generic conventions due to use and slight popularity of braces in music and film. The braces are an iconic accessory due to their popularity in films such as 'This is England' making them a commonly used accessory due to the majority of characters in the filming wearing them. The Braces serve a purpose within their background, braces were a common accessory among White British males in 1980's England and those

who labelled themselves as 'Skinheads' who were famously right wing and aggressive, relating to many rioters in 2011 who displayed a lot of aggressive and criminal behaviour. These braces therefore may portray to the audience that the character has an aggressive side amongst his normal casual clothes that he is also wearing. Many famous artists within the music world also wear braces such as Alex Turner (main singer from the Arctic Monkeys) and most famously Ian Dury yet again making this accessory a generic convention.

 



SchoolBoy Q seen wearing sunglasses.

Sunglasses are also an iconic accessory within music, with a vast variety of artists wearing them such as Kanye West, Noel Gallagher and SchoolBoy Q. Yet again this uses rather than challenges generic conventions and also provides a subordinate purpose, in the fact that it hides a percentage of the characters face therefore hiding his identity to an extent relating closely to the London riots of the individuals who chose to hide their image in order to stop themselves getting caught and arrested by the authorities. Aswell as representing the character as the minority who cause havoc and criminal damage, the character is also represented as an average, peaceful protester.



Ian Dury wearing braces on his album cover.