Firstly we used conventions from typically British film, This Is England, to create the sense of British identity for our media product. This can be seen from our eye catching opening of myself throwing the Union Jack flag out to an open field with the view of the Norwich city skyline. This was inspired by a very similar scene at the end of Shane Meadow's 2006 film 'This Is England". The reason for this was that the scene in This Is England displays the protagonist Shaun casting away the lifestyle he had involved himself in represented by the St. George's Cross.
The use of The St George Cross by English Nationalists is described as "the flag of England does not figure in any official legislation, and its use by English nationalists was for some time limited to the "far-right", notably the British National Party" [1]
The notion of far right prinicples being connoted to the English flag come around in the 70's and 80's when a large amount of migrants came to the British Isles. This was proceeded by 2 decades of anarchy and racially motivated attacks from white british nationalists and has symbolised the countrys change in demographic and evolution of the tolerance and social norms of the country itself.
The cross of St George is not the first flag to have it's representation change due to use in society however; a prime example of this is the Swastika, once used as a symbol of peace in Hinduism has now become the symbol of far right German nationalist party the Nazi party.
Nazi Swastika
Cross of St George
Hinduism Swastika
The reason Fred and I used this convention was to illustrate the protagonists branching away from the right wing beliefs of the current UK government under the coalition where the conservative party has a stronger say in the running of the country and to identify with what Barnaby Rein is saying in his speech that is then used in our track Fight Back.
We also used this convention to reach out to our target demographic of adolescnets aged between 17 and 20 who were effected by the student cuts, what our music video is mainly about.
The demographic I am aiming to appeal too is young (17-20), white-british, males. This is because I feel that our music video will relate to white males most as they can identify with the protagonist who is also a white british male. Therefore we used conventions that would appeal to this demographic; however, we also wanted to target a more niche audience who will be interested in the causes and concerns of young people today and more in particularly students. Examples of how I used and developed conventions to match this demographic can be seen in my digipack which I made using inspiration from artists such as John Lennon and The Arctic Monkeys to intertwine old and new to appeal to a niche audience of young, white, british, males.
We challenged conventions, however, via the locations we used. For most would expect a music video about demonstration and bringing down the man to be set in a bustling city centre, I feel we managed perfectly well with the locations used in our music video, given the local history. For example the use of Ketts Hill, otherwise known as St James' Hill or Mousehold Heath, for what looks like a peaceful spot with breath-taking views is actually the front garden of Norwich Prison what was used as a HQ for Robert Kett during the Kett revolution in medieval Norwich.
In contrast though, we have also supplemented generic conventions to show the demographic we are aiming to reach out too and the genre of the song, by using images and clips of "J-blocks" notorious around Norwich for being a dangerous place after dark; and Anglia Square, what was once Norwich's prime market square is now considered also a dangerous place, marked with history of violence and crime and painted from head to toe in graffiti, some of which is breath-taking. I feel that this was an effective use of location as it makes the music video all that more interesting. This is because the generic location for a genre such as ours would be in a tower block or council estate or outside a political building, rather than hills, parks and rural areas. For example in Plan B's "Ill Manors" music video.
Screen shot of Plan B's Ill Manors music video
Plan B on the cover of NME magazine
Applying Goodwin's Theory To My Media Product:
"Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics"
Our music video demonstrates a difficult genre to pin point into one category; however has a mixture of genres that inspired it. The music video genre has derived from my own personal tastes; Alternative, Britpop and Ska to name a few. I have tried to intertwine these genres to give the music video a heavy sense of "British-ness". The ideals of an Alternative Rock genre that can be seen in our music video are for example Alternative Rock music videos use rather abnormal locations for their music videos, this can be seen in Stereophonics' music video for Dakota or The Killers' Mr.Brightside music video. The videos are set in a deserted American road and a Victorian burlesque house respectively. Similarly our music video has some obscure locations for the genre, by this I am mainly identifying the park. The effect I feel using the park as an obscure location connotes to the viewer a place of isolation and tranquility as though it was another realm, it also allows the viewer to understand the Alternative Rock connotations to the music video.
Mr brightside 1
Mr brightside 2
dakota 1
dakota 2
mr brightside 3
Similarly I used different genres to my own tastes to help give our music video an identity. For example the music video to Ill Manors by rapper Plan B.
The effect this has upon the audience is that they can connote the two music videos; this then leads them to receive the same message from the videos, one of rebellion and protest.
* Barnaby Rain's speech at the Coalition of Resistance conference in 2010 that inspired the track Fight Back.
The ideology behind this large "double panel" was to create an image of careless teens relaxing; yet to create the now standard epitome of troubled, dangerous and angry youths.
I feel this works rather well as the image is enigmatic and enchanting, the subtle filters create an ore of dynasty around the character's and the ambiance of the surrounding area make the park seem like something from a medieval fantasy film; for example "The Shire" in Lord of the Rings or "Field of Fire" from Game of Thrones.
Field of Fire "Game of Thrones" (2010's medieval fantasy TV drama)
The Shire, Lord Of The Rings
The inspiration for the use of this image was it's resemblance to the front cover of The Verve's 1997 album "Urban Hymns". The reason I wanted to replicate such an iconic album cover is because it is strikingly bold; allowing for a higher chance of an iconic status for our own album artwork, but also because the album was The Verve's real breakthrough into "the lime-light) of mainstream media with such hits on it as "Bittersweet Symphony" "Sonnet" and "The Drugs Don't Work". Therefore I wanted to use this image to connote such commercial success into Adolescent Manifesto and also the cult status The Verve then received from it, as it had been a long time coming. The Verve's story connotes well with the Marxist ideals of class struggle that have achieved the birth of such things as the NHS in Britain. Similarly The Verve had been signed to their record label and producing records and albums for over 5 years before the release of Urban Hymns yet only received the plaudits for being one of the great bands of the Britpop era of British music only a year before the bands ultimate demise and break up. Ironically enough Urban Hymns was the group's penultimate album before they released "Forth" 11 years later in 2008. This is discluding "This Is Music 92-98" the bands greatest hits album in 2004, 4 years after their split.
The way this connotes to Fight Back and Adolescent Manifesto is that it shows how greatness comes after years of effort, protest and struggle for what you believe in. This is why I wanted to connote such figures in the music industry as John Lennon who have done just that and Adolescent Manifesto's hidden message to let the fan know that they should stay true to themselves, stand by their beliefs and, to quote Gandhi, "Be the change they wish to see in the world."
For our music video we suffered terrible technical difficulties with the computer that we were working on; which is why the music video was completed and uploaded later than expected.
