What Does White Girl Say About Identity, Youth Modernism And Post Modernism Concepts Of Identity?

From the 'white girl' BBC television drama, the concept of identity is constructed from the main character, a young girl called Leah, being removed from her own society and being introduced to a new one from which she is not familiar with. Being in this unfamiliar place, she loses all the modernist concepts and sources that create her original identity such as geography, social class, and education. Now that she is living in a different environment from her previous, she finds herself as an individual trying to get to grips with the traits around here, she becomes an individual due to the fact that her mother is unstable and going off the rails. She takes it upon herself to find her own identity and to create a new one; thus becoming an example of the post-modernist concept of identity.
One theorists view on identity is that 'the self is 'made' already, rather then inherited'. This is recognised in 'white girl' as the character Leah, has to try and change her identity to be like the people in the ethnic culture around her.  Most of the traits she picks up for this identity she finds in Religion, changing from a regular christian lifestyle to an Islamic lifestyle. She shows that we all have a narrative of our identity's and this is mostly shown in Leah's changeful attitude, from keeping in her family, to finding faith in a religion and moving out because of her religious beliefs that her family does not agree with (which later changes), and then moving back in with family when the dad leaves.

Music Analysis - Seth Lakeman - Hearts and Minds

At the start of this video, we are greeted by shots of roads, signs and streetlights to obviously show that someone is driving down the motorway quite late at night travelling somewhere. We see choppy shots of all the places they go past, this is shown in a low ambient light to reflect that its crossed from late at night to early hours of the morning. It’s the artist and his band travelling across the country to gigs and various places to play his music. Quickly we change to a small glimpse of someone writing in a book full of pictures. We then see inside this book as all the drawings become animated and start moving. It’s a diary/a storybook of all the places Seth has played at and gives a little insight into his home and friends. We go from the ‘Seth’s kitchen’ in writing to us being shown the kitchen and him playing in it. The video itself has no real, deep meaning, its just a fun, happy, good time type of video, showing the audience, the bands journey from place to place, and give us a peek of the general day for the artist as if it were a homemade video. A clever spin that this video takes it shows a bit art and animation, giving it that ‘child feel’ to it, showing the drawings of certain places like the artists home and his specific friends, and the streets and towns he busks in. It’s telling us a story. It then shows these places and people in real life taking these drawings and animations and bringing them to life. We see the band and crew setting up stages or places that they are playing in rural areas and we get close ups of the violins and guitars they are playing to show the realness from the drawings in the book. They in places like Dartmoor and busk in places such as outside pubs and in docks just in front of fishing boat. The lighting here is higher ambient but this is because it is in the daylight. These places that he goes to, are in his hometown or near it in Dartmoor, so they try to establish a home feel to it. You get a real sense of this seeing the shots of people welcoming him into there homes, sharing tea and chatting with him and his crew. When he travels through the town, you can see the locals recognise him and talk to him and watch him play, you get the feel of how such a humble town that is and how everyone gets along with each other. The audience gets shown more connotations of the town and all the specific traits that the town has such as pubs (labelled Seth’s local), fishing boats, bed and breakfasts, bakery’s, while also being introduced to more of his crew his little book, such as his guitarist and his brother who also plays with him. Its like a little travel log showing all the things they do, shots of the landscape and trees to show the places they go past and everyone in the car admiring the scenery. We then go to the ‘busking in Bristol’ scene where we see the band arriving in Bristol getting there instruments out and start playing in the streets, he then starts to sing parts of the backing track while playing in the town centre with his friends to we can really see his performance. In this part they really start to get to grips with the song and sing and play in time with the song to also show them playing the actual song, we see a close up of Seth playing his violin strumming the parts where it does on the song. We also see the strumming of the guitar together with the song. You can see close up shots of people taking pictures of the event and also local people walking past and admiring the playing, and stopping and having a little listen and seeing there smiling faces. A local shakes hands with Seth to express how much he likes the song. This is to show his interaction with his fans and listeners and to show that he is humbled by their positive praises. This links in with the next few shots we see and we see him being solely interactive with his fans, talking, taking pictures with them and just having a good time. We see another travelling shot, I’ve noticed how we know when it switches to another scene, another performance, when we see shots of landscapes going past the camera, as if they are travelling in a car, but not actually seeing them travelling, this particular shot will always tell me that we are going to see a different performance. They are playing in a pub sitting around a table and everything is low ambient lighting, it being late into this evening probably is the reason why. We see a lot of close ups on them playing but this gives a real life aspect on it. The audience is shown a switch back to the book again highlighting the various places they’ve travelled to including where they are such as ‘Royal Oak’. The book is very colourful as if an artist has drawn out this people and figures, it also highlights in there what people do in these towns and what life’s like for them, we can see two people drinking at a restaurant table and then a shot back to the band. We see a drawn out building of a music venue called the ‘Komedia’ implying that we are about to go in there. The audience are shown the various crown members waiting outside and shown the classic music connotations of lights, big speakers and lines of people waiting for the venue. This switches back to the real life performance. We’re shown the band setting up and rehearsing before they perform, all the lighting in the room, is only given by stage lights. This is Seth’s last performance of the video and it is in front of a crowd. We can see views from the band to the audience, and the audience to the band, seeing everyone’s view of the gig and what each one can see. It cuts to the dressing room where everyone is getting ready and we’re shown shots of people doing various things like drinking water and looking at the camera. It shows they are all having a good time showing that they are doing what they love and that is playing music. This is before they all stroll down the stairs and onto the stage. The video fades out with the band and Seth, walking onto the stage into the bright lights and smoke greeting the crowd, about to perform, sort of taking a backwards spin on a typical video which would usually start with a band coming onto a stage, and the audience seeing them perform to the crowd.

The video doesn’t so much have all the connotations of a typical folk video such as a story behind something or the clothes that they were (they are wearing general everyday clothes) but it takes an alternative way, by just showing the band touring, travelling and performing, but not having any real deep, meaningful story or plot. It shows the band having a good time, and showing the audience the day-to-day life of the artist and the rest of his crew interacting with the public and still playing music. It does however have the typical instruments such as an acoustic guitar, a banjo and a violin. The scenes are filmed in rural landscapes, and areas near the coast, which does still give you that folk feeling to the song and video.

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Music Video Analysis - Kings Of Leon - Pyro

In this music video, there is a message that is trying to be shown across to the audience through the events and happenings that are going on.

The song and the video together are trying to tell the story about a man who thought that the world he was living in wasn’t the perfect world to him, and how he was fed up with it all. Its starts off with someone thinking they know how its supposed to be, but at the end the thought is ‘I cant even be that way. The other message that it shows is mostly directed at the audience and it shown during the fighting scene and the first scene as well that there's always that one person who needs help, and you see it, but you don't know how to react. You don't know what to do. But the main fact is "I may be the only person who can help."

It is set in a bar; more of an American bar, judging by the clothes the people wear, and how they act with each other. They look more like the classic ‘rednecks’ from the south of America, which is where this story is taken place and where the bands origin is. The most important thing that video is trying to get across to the audience is the subliminal message of how the band perceives this image of the world, and judging by the mood in this piece, its more of a negative view, and the places and actions that happen here do not appeal to the audience whatsoever. I think the video strongly shows this message through its various scenarios and its answers to these, and also shows through a metaphorical vibe then just showing to the audience plain on.

In the first few scenes (and the most important) we are introduced to the outside of bar down a hallway, and an old man struggling to walk. A young man comes into the shot from the right hand side through an over the shoulder shot beginning to help the old man up as he falls There is a specific red glow that surrounds them. Red usually signals danger, which is ironic, as he gets badly hurt in the fights in the bar, that happen later on. The camera follows him as he walks through to the bar, leaving the low ambient lighting behind him, and introduces the bar to him and the audience. As the string plucking at the beginning of the song ends, we hit the high tempo part of the song as he enters the bar. The camera pans around slowly at all the people that are in the bar and the protagonist walking and looking at all the different occurrences between them. The messages behind all these specific people, are that they have some sort of issue and are all pieces to the ‘world messed up’ problem. We see a woman helping a very hold man who cant walk or do anything for himself, some of the people we can analysis in this piece are, a depressed woman who could be having some sort of life problem, a pole dancer who appears to be on drugs, and an older man coming onto slightly younger woman. The camera does a pan of the room focusing on these people and we can see that it is a slow movement to go with the track and to highlight the gloom and misery that surrounds the bar and keep with that mood. The camera goes back to the main character relieving a sceptical look for the bar man to suggest that the bar man things that this young guy is different from him and to show the small tension between the two. There is a lot of pan shots in this piece and is the transition from going to all the other characters back to the main character and to the band who are playing in the corner and singing the song. The band are represented in a big way, as they are spectators watching the goings on in the bar and there reactions to it, even though they are just singing the backing track to it mostly they also take on the ‘guru’ role, of knowing what’s going to happen and how it will all turn out. This is to show that the band are not only still playing the track, but that you feel that they are still apart of the story that is going on in this video. As it pans round again we can see another man shouting at another woman and our young main character comes over to confront him but the shouting man turns around and quickly swings a punch at the young man. They emphasis this confrontation here that the pace of the video then quickly slows down and goes into slow motion. With this being at this slow pace we can see all of the small details of everyone’s movement, even when the young man is pushed, we can see a little of saliva jump out of his mouth just as he is punched in the face. When this happens it grabs everyone’s attention in the bar, and we see the quick, choppy transitions of all there reactions. It quickly changes back to the young man once again being punched in the face by a friend of the shouting man. We can see that both the man are enjoying punishing our main character here, and again putting the emphasis on the punch by changing the pace slower as is thrown into the air by the punch. Now a lot of his friends get in on the action by coming and kicking and punching this young man, just for fun. There is a low angle shot from the young mans point of view, making all the “rednecked’ drunks, enjoying beating down this young man. A good shot here is when one of the rowdy rednecks throw the young man into the glass mirror behind where the other woman is dancing, but she has not care in the world because she is on drugs so doesn’t notice. It emphasis its point more, here, because in the slow pace movement of the man falling onto this glass not only shows the glass coming down on him, but his world falling down on him as well.
As the man continues to be beaten up we see a shot of the woman he was trying to save fall to here knees in a low angle shot showing her pleading for the man to stop, and to see her emotion – this makes her look smaller then the rest of them. The camera does go back and forth to the other characters with there story’s and seeing it develop more and there reactions to this beat up and as if they are trying to avoid it in some way. Still in slow motion, we see the barman throw a baseball bat to one of the rednecks from under the bar, and the redneck runs over from another low angle shot from the beaten down young man, running over to hit him with it With all his friends cheering him on, and in particular one, who we can see emphasised through a close up. They all abruptly stop as the beaten down man rises in the air and continues to go up in some ‘godly act’ with the rest of the rednecks in shock as to what is happening. We see a close up of the beaten down man as his scars heal and the blood slowly disappears from his face and the cuts disappear also. We then see shots of the other characters who has a story behind them or an issue with themselves also rise up into the air such has the poll dancer, the old man, and the vulnerable woman. We see close up shots of their feet rising up and the song gets a higher tempo and more instruments are introduced to the ending of the song. There is low angle, long and medium shots of the band playing and looking up at the people rising. This rising represents hope for these characters and this ‘godly act’ sees them being saved from there given situation and escaping from it. Then the rest of the people in the bar get raised as well to show the split between them and the rest of the characters. We see a close up of the drummer looking up at the young man and a response shot of the healed young man coming into shot with his arm raised and moving and rising towards the bright light. This light being an escape route for him as this scene fades out.

Music Video Analysis - Mumford And Sons - Winter Winds

Throughout the video of Winter Winds by Mumford and Sons, the video evokes a folk feel to it and there are various elements, which give it this feel.

When it comes to the camera angles and movement the pace is very slow but not too slow that it is in ultra slow motion. The movement and transition from one shot to another is very ‘choppy’ and most of the scenes cut back and forth between the different scenes evidently shot at different times, whether it’s the band members running down a road or specific things happening in fields. This is reflecting the convention identified by Goodwin's theory that music videos exist outside of time. When we are seeing images of the band together it’s trying to reflect its genre at the same time. Here, we’re getting a lot of close ups of either two or three people switching back and forth, and slow movements between the two. Towards the end of video we’re seeing a lot of close ups of particular people performing, mostly on stage, whether it’s the guitar players or the person who’s playing the banjo and singing at the same time. This emphasises the importance of music. This is to create a lively feel to it, as we can also the audience dancing and the band dancing as well to show people are having a good time. It also shows the audience what the atmosphere and happenings are at a Mumford and Songs gig and generally putting the band in a positive light to the audience. It also invites the audience to go and see the band perform and to persuade the audience how different it is to another genre of band playing.

Within the first minute of the video we’ve have already seen classic iconography and representation of the folk genre, for example, at the beginning of the video we see the band running on the side of and on the road. The road promotes the journey of the band and the road trip itself. Members of the band are dressed in waistcoats, shirts, boots and baggy trousers, which are what people in the folk stereotype, would wear.

The next scene has one of the band members in a long shot carrying a musical instrument and dragging a chair through a cornfield. The cornfield itself is an iconic reference to the folk genre. We also see a low angle shot of another person walking through the cornfield again but only focusing on the legs and feet. This also happens when the camera focuses on another individual at the side of his body, but this person has a spade in his hand, carrying it through the field. Another shot is when the camera has a high angle shot of a person walking through the cornfield with the bits of corn brushing past the camera. This references the iconic rural shot screen in films. In between the focus of the man and the rest of the field, we can see the sunset in the background, which is exposed in-between the band member’s body and left arm. The sunlight here also contributes to the lighting of this shot, which then makes the ambience very low. These are all specific conventions of the folk genre, which help the video grab the folk aspect of song using these tools.

The band is represented in the specific way trying to show the audience the lifestyle of which these guys live and how it differs from an ordinary lifestyle to the typical folk way. It’s also represented through their image in the mise-en-scene as well; the specific clothing that they wear and how they’re presenting themselves as quite ‘scruffy’ and ‘messy’ and how all they’re clothing is quite similar so they all match each other. The narrative structure in this piece is the ‘journey’ of the band, especially of the shots when the bands on the road, and they’re singing to the camera and singing the backing track at specific times, when the words match what it is that they are doing. We see the band touring whether they’re backstage preparing or performing on stage in front of an audience, or when they’re performing in the cornfield. It is all represented and shown through their music and they’re performing when it cuts back and forth between each one of these scenes. When it does get to this the pace speeds up a lot and the speed has changed from what it was right at the very beginning of the music video.

Apparantly Our Target Audience is a 'Grunger'..

Apparantly I'm An Indie Scenester...

Indie Scenesters occupy the space previously inhabited by Trendies (and Ravers before them) – people who want to be ahead of the crowd and are willing to invest time and effort into the paraphernalia and detail of their sub-culture. A decade ago they may well have been Ravers and a couple of years back they were listening to bands like Klaxons, the pioneers of nu-rave. Indie Scenesters exist thanks to the fashionable status of guitar music (though for them it’s often about mixing it up with more electronic sounds) and are linked to the general rise of instant fashionability – of fashion and music trends having much faster lifecycles thanks to the commodification of cool. Scenesters don't mind bands achieving mainstream success, but prefer them before the masses cotton on – their own version of second album syndrome. There is significant role reversal in the Indie Scenester Tribe, with both boys and girls dressing in tight fitting clothes and often sporting make-up and accessories. The relatively recent return of the Ray-Ban Wayfarer (in all colours) is big with this crowd as they love to be the first to pick up on the rebirth of a once popular fashion item.

Scenesters are festival goers – if they can blag it. The real action, though, is in small, sweaty, adrenalised clubs. Scenesters are more bothered about iPods and drinking than phones or conscious materialism. Online communities such as those found on drownedinsound.com are important as they allow visitors to discuss, diss or discover the latest cool bands.

The list of bands they like is ever changing. TV On the Radio, The Vivian Girls, Vampire Weekend, Spank Rock and Shit Disco are some of the sounds they like, as is hip French label Ed Banger Records, the home of Justice.

The look – skinny jeans, Converse, stripes and Americana T-shirts – shifted for a while when nu-rave came on the scene, but has come full circle as the genre became too mainstream, reflecting the fickleness and speed of quick changing trends in music having an impact on fashion. Currently labels such as American Apparel, Topshop/Topman and Uniqlo are high street staples, with House of Holland appealing to more affluent members of the Indie Scenester crowd.

The Connotations And Ideologies, Meanings And Target Audience - Lattitude.

On the homepage of the latitude festival the main colours that are here are green, blue and yellow. These colours create a bright and bold/fresh feeling and represent the colours of the environment. This shows the festival specialises in its happy-nature festival. Around the page it has a lot of drawn plants and flowers to create an arty effect which relates back to the 1960's hippy era which the festival is known for. This style is known for creating the sense of peace and freewill and, the homepage itself reflects the art, poetry and literature which is included in the festival as well as popular music.

The website also represents a fairground especially how the writing is in a wavy style, and the circus feel you get off the various banners on the page. The word 'Lattitude' is shown in a font with flicks and waves which shows the ideology of a fairytale theme.

The target audience of this festival is aimed at families especially with the slogan 'its more than just a music festival', which suggests theres more activities, not just watching music bands.
The festival is also aimed at teenagers and adults between the ages of 16-28, as the logos of Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify are advertised in the right hand corner of the page, and these young adults are the major groups of people who use these websites.

Treatment For The Music Video.

Our music video is a take on a contemporary love story, the video takes on the plot of a modern couple living in a modern environment. Our video portrays a young 17 year old male who makes a journey from his home in a rural are to his 'other halfs' home walking through agriculture area, focusing solely on his journey. The audience will be aware of this by our first shots of the protagonist receiving a message on his mobile phone. Part of the video is inspired by The Wishing Well's busking performances that they do. They provide an urban setting in the city streets, amongst crowds. On his journey, we will combine both the scenarios of both city and countryside areas, as an opportunity to show the importance of life in both the settings, giving the video a subliminal message of lust in this video. The video is more of a focus on the journey he takes and the self reflection of himself and the relationship he is in.
Our protagonist's clothing will be arty and have a very folk feel to it (shown by a floral shirt) - this is inspired by the Wishing Well's performer's choice of clothing; that is niche, wearing the classic waistcoats and baggy trousers.
The video will begin with shots of the male protagonist lying in bed, waking up, and receiving a message from his other half. This will be shown with the intention of showing the audience that video is from the protagonists point of you. The male character will then embark on a journey, with the first shots of him walking and miming the lyrics, initially, to show the audience that he is part of the band who is singing the song, giving the video a 1st person look on it. In the first few scenes of the video, the protagonist will be walking past large buildings, to show the urban areas he is walking in. As he slowly gets out of these areas he will move into slightly more agricultural areas, shown by the long fields and much more nature. This will show the momentous side of the video. We will also include scenes with him and his lover to show that he is reminiscing about his partner and shows the times he has had with her. This will also give a glimpse to the audience as to what his partner looks like as earlier in the video she is not shown, just referenced.
Our target audience for this music video is more to 16 - 22 year old males and females who fall under the D and C1 categories; people who are primary workers, who aspire to be in the class B categories later in their life. The target audience are aspirers and therefore, because they want to be middle class and be the highest they can be in their profession, i.e managerial positions. We will be able to reflect that in our music video through the music genre and the visual dress sense.

Our Chosen Track For Our Music Video.

Lyrics.

Paper people walking through streets of fire
Looking for a taste of love
Growing hard of hearing you were losing touch
All the while a deeper fire

If you lie in the eye of the storm
The wild heart is born
So there lies a distance in between you and I
You know that I can feel it well

When I go looking you are hard to define
Fortified inside yourself
If you lie in the eye of the storm
The wild heart is born

In the falling light
Bring your love and your desire
On a road back through the night
There can be no denial

If you lie in the eye of the storm
The wild heart is born

Some of the verses in this track hints at the variety of people who live in the world today. The 'paper people' walking alongside each other through their unique lives, represented as "streets of fire".

Amongst these people are a couple, the male being the singer and the woman being his other half. He expressed how he feels towards his girlfriend and how she's slowly moving away from him, and how he potentially plans to do something about this. He, however sees that there is something deeper then this 'drift' between them. Be it a strange stage in their relationship or possibly a message from his his loved one through these particular signals.

A way to portray this 'love story' would be to have a male protagonist character who goes on a journey, from where he lives to his other half's home. It will be interesting to see how we construct the two characters lives, with   one being in the urban are of norwich and other person being surrounded by rural settings. This will help us to show the protagonists view over the 'paper people' of the urban area; as he slowly begins to move away from these people and reach further out into the rural scene.

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