Fatboy Slim, also known as Norman Cook, is an English DJ, musician, multi-instrumentalist and record producer / mixer. He grew up in Surry, and later moved to Brighton to study for a degree, which is where he began to DJ.
Fatboy Slim doesn't take music videos very seriously, and tends to leave ideas up to the producer. He first began making them when he was told he had to, in order to make money as he needed physical sales of his songs to be made due to steaming not being a thing then. The music video for 'Ya Mama' was produced by a group of filmmakers called Traktor, who came up with the idea and even shot the video is the Carriacou Island, West Indies without Fatboy Slim actually being there. In the music video, the main character plays a cassette tape of the song 'Ya Mama' and starts unwillingly dancing, as if he was possessed by the music. He then takes two other characters to a market with the idea of charging people to listen to the song and experience the same uncontrollable movements they had. Even though Fatboy Slim had no input in the video idea, the concept of charging people to listen to the song and dance uncontrollably as if they had been possessed by the music, could link to how he is a DJ as they are known for charging people to go clubs and dance to their music.
The song itself contains various samples. The guitar riffs are from 'The Kettle' by Colosseum, the "Push the tempo" vocals are taken from 'Let the Rhythm Pump' by Doug Lazy, the "Shake what ya mama gave ya" vocals are sampled from 'Shake Whatcha Mama Gave Ya' by Stik E & The Hoodz, and finally the majority of the track was taken from 'Block rocking' Bets' by The Chemical Brothers.
In the video 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, why would you describe the mise-en-scene as naturalistic? Why would you then describe the mise-en-scene in Fatboy Slim's 'Ya Mama' as less naturalistic?
Naturalistic mise-en-scene is a realistic style of mise-en-scene that appears natural and recognisable to viewers as opposed to a theatrical style.
In 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, naturalistic mise-en-scene is shown through the use of the continuous tracking shot and natural lighting. The video was filmed in the streets of LA, showing a diverse range of people in the background, representing the realistic street life. This helps the music video to portray the seriousness of the band, and the diversity of people living in LA in the 90's. This further shows how realistic the video seems by making it seem like they haven't even made a video. In 'Ya Mama' by Fatboy Slim, a less naturalistic mise-en-scene is portrayed through the cassette player and Tom and Jerry playing at the beginning. This gives the video an 80's feel, however these elements could have been used to show how dumbed down the society they're living in is, which in turn gives it a less naturalistic feel as "Unfinished Sympathy' does. This music video also sees to look very staged and story-like which again, causing it to seem less naturalistic.
In the video 'Ya Mama' by Fatboy Slim why would you describe the narrative as linear? Why would you not describe the narrative in 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack as linear?
Linear narrative is where stories are presented in a logical manner by showing you what happens from one point in time to the next without the use of flashbacks or other types of disruptions.
The video for 'Ya Mama' by Fatboy Slim uses a linear narrative as it shows the story of the main character progressing from listening to his cassette and causing chaos in his home, to bringing it to the market and causing even more chaos, and then to the police station and again causing more chaos. Whereas in "Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, the video is based on a woman walking through the streets of LA, and although she is progressing in terms of walking further down the street, there is no storyline that takes place throughout the course of the video.
At what point in 'Ya Mama' is there a narrative disruption? Explain the event and how this disrupts the equilibrium of the scene.
Narrative disruption begins in 'Ya Mama' when the song starts playing and the once calm scene changes into chaos. This disrupts the equilibrium of the scene as it goes from the main character painting ornaments and listening to Tom and Jerry to the music beginning and the main character acting like he was possessed by the music.
In Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy', what do you see in the video that implies a wold of different stories?
Throughout the entire 'Unfinished Sympathy' music video, as the woman walks down the street, there is a range of characters that are seen behind her. Each of these people all have different stories that are shown throughout the course of the video. These people include a Native American, gangs with young children who have toy guns, and a paraplegic man riding down the street on a skateboard.
Massive attack is an English Trip Hop group which formed in
1988, in Bristol. The group is made up of 3 members, who are Robert Del Naja
(3D), Grant Marshall (Daddy G) and Andy Vowles (Mushroom). they have released
five studio albums, that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide. This
particular song is from their first album ‘Blue Lines’, which was released in
1991. They first met when they were a part of 'The Wild Bunch',
where Daddy G and mushroom were DJs, and 3D was an artist / rapper. Once they
had changed their name to ‘Massive Attack’, the group decided to temporarily
shorten their name to 'Massive' whilst the first Gulf war was going on due to
the use the work 'Attack' being deemed unacceptable and would have been seen as
disrespectful.
Shara Nelson, who sang Massive Attack's 'Safe From Harm',
also sang 'Unfinished Sympathy'. This song is original and different for the
Trip Hop genre, featuring various orchestral elements, a string section, and
numerous layers of vocals. The song title 'Unfinished Sympathy' could be a play
on the term 'unfinished symphony' which would explain the string and orchestral
elements included throughout the song. The use of the word 'unfinished' could
provoke a sense of feeling incomplete. The lines 'how can you have a day
without a night' and 'you're the book that I have opened' makes you think that
the relationship could have been very one-sided and that although the
relationship consisted of two people, she was the one who was more devoted to
it. I think that the lyrics also hint at rejection through the line 'the
curiousness of your potential kiss', which seems to highlight how she has
feeling for another person but they don't feel the same way back. Although the
true emotion of the song isn’t strongly portrayed throughout the video, the
final line of the song, 'I'm missing every part', the lyrics seem to be helping
the whole song come together and make it known that heartbreak is the overall
message within the song.
The music video is filmed in one continuous tracking shot,
showing the singer of the song, Shara Nelson, walking down the street, with the
use of the tracking shot making it feel like you are walking down the street
with her. As Nelson is shown walking, her pace matches with the beat of the
song itself, which helps to tie everything together nicely. By using a
continuous shot rather than having multiple shots, the audience is able to have
a wide view of the many different types of people that are shown on the street.
The video is set on the street, using natural light, making the street life
represented in the video more realistic. There is little to no editing used in
this video, which again helps to maintain the realistic view of street life.
Nelson is wearing all black in the video with minimal makeup on, which not only
helps you to focus on the background rather than the foreground, but the black
dress could also emphasise the lyrics which focus on her heart break. She also
walks down the street like she is oblivious to everything going on around her,
which could be an emphasis on her heart break and that that's all she can think
about. Alternatively, it could also mean that she is so used to seeing these
things on a daily basis that she is no longer fazed by anything she sees. At
the beginning of the video, we are shown gang standing around which then cuts
to a child shooting a toy gun towards the camera. This could symbolise that the
child still has his innocence with having the toy, but it is shown that he is
being corrupted by the use of his clothing, the fact that his toy is a gun, and
that it cuts to him after a gang was shown.
During the video, it is mainly non-diegetic sound that is
heard through the song playing. However, at the beginning before the song
starts, there is diegetic sound showed in the form of a dog barking and the
Chinese stress balls, and then cars at the end when Nelson walks around the
corner. This could have been done so that even though the song would be the
main focus of the video, they have kept street life included by editing in
these diegetic sounds to again make the video seemmore realistic.
How have representations of the music video 'ill Manors' by Plan B been constructed?
In April 2011, Plan B released the album 'ill Manors' which went alongside the film he wrote and directed that came out later on in June 2012. The big record labels for 'ill Manors' the album are 679 and Atlantic records, which help to show how much the album was a hit with the public.
The Film portrayed the lives of people who live in council estate flats in London, and was set in Forest Gate, London, where Plan B (Ben Drew) grew up himself. The film follows 8 main characters, whose lives are all linked together in some way, with their stories all being represented by another Plan B song featuring Al Shux. The studios producing the film were Film London Microwave, BBC Films, and Aimimage, and was later sold to Revolver Entertainments in April 2011. It cost around £100, 000 to produce, and made £453, 570 from box office sales alone. To raise the funds to cover post-production, Ben Drew made the decision to go on tour throughout 2010 and 2011, where he performed his previous album 'The Defamation of Strickland Banks'.
'ill Manors' is a hip hop protest song, that was written in reaction to the 2011 riots across England. The lyrics in 'ill Manors' portray a dominant ideology in terms of what people think of council estate kids. The song is about how the media and society perceives working class youth and how some people play up to that stereotype, with 'ill' meaning antisocial behaviour, and 'Manors' is street slang for the area you grew up in. They challenge society's interpretations and tell people that not all kids that live on council estates are violent criminals. By challenging these dominant opinions, it forces people to think about their own views on the matter and helps to reinforce their ideas. The lyrics "little rich boy" and "you bloody rich kids never listen" help to reinforce the idea that the upper class was disliked by the teenagers shown in the music video. The hatred they have for politicians is also shown through the lyrics "he's got a hoodie n give him a hug, on second thoughts don't you wanna get mugged" which hints at the 'hug a hoodie' campaign that David Cameron instated in 2009 in an attempt to try and tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour in cities. These lyrics portray the kid's ideas about the government and how they'll never understand the problems of living in a council estate and why these kids sometimes have to turn to violence because they have no other option, they just see the people living there as the problem with society.
The 2011 riots began in Tottenham, sparking riots cross the London districts of Brixton, Enfield, Islington and Wood Green and in Oxford Circus in the centre of London. They began after police shot and killed Mark Duggan, who was under suspicion of planning an attack. The riots began as a peaceful protest, of people demanding answers for Mark Duggan's death, before a full-scale riot began with teenagers looting and committing arson. The music video was then later filmed in the estates that the riots took place in, to give a continuity between the actual riot footage used and what Plan B's crew filmed. Plan B made the song and music video as his perception of 'society's failure to nurture its disadvantaged youth'. An establishing shot is used at the beginning, showing the poverty side of London, and then after shows another shot which shows the 'poverty' side in the foreground, and the 'nice' side of London in the background, with the two separated by smoke. High angles, mid shots, and long shots are used regularly to show the riot that and violence that was going on, the use of a high angle could also represent how these kids involved in the riots are viewed by the rest of society. The jump cuts used to switch between different scenes gain speed and become faster as the song continues and the beat picks up.
Although Plan B himself is white, a large proportion of the actors in his music video for 'ill Manors' are black. Race was a key issue in the 2011 riots as many people believed institutional racism was the cause of the shooting and killing of Mark Duggan, which raised many questions about the police's decision to shoot him.
We were given the task of producing a
simple video, using a song and different clips, produced on Premier Pro. We
were given clips of different water sports and reactions from the crowd
watching them, and the audio clip 'Oops Upside Your Head' by The Gap Band. We
edited both the video and audio clips on Premier pro, while also adding in a
title screen and fading out the music, creating the finished video.
I started by uploading the "Oops
Upside Your Head" audio, and the video clips we were given into Premier
Pro, and then I looked through all the clips to decide which ones I wanted to
use. I then moved the audio into the audio slot, and began trimming down the
video clips I had decided to use to the size I wanted al began fitting them all
together to create the final video. While doing this, I created jump cuts and
cut scenes to make the overall video seem more put together, while still using
the video clips we had been given, which included many different shot and
camera movements such as establishing and tracking shots. Once, I had finished
editing my video, I trimmed the song down to end at the same time the video
did, and I used a fade out transition effect on the end of the song, to give it
a smoother and more seamless finish. I also added a title screen into the
beginning of my video saying "fun in the sun". Then, I rendered and
exported the final video onto my desktop, and uploaded it to YouTube so that I
could then embed it into my blog.
Overall, I found adding the audio and video
clips into Premier Pro relatively easy after a couple tries due to the system
being quite simple to use once you have a basic understanding of your way
around it. However, it was quite difficult to match the video clips to the beat
of the audio which is why there isn't really any evidence of that in my final
video. I think that the overall video turned out well, but if I were to improve
on it, I would try to match the beat of the song to the video to help it flow a
little better.
Extreme long shot (ELS) - A shot taken at a distance, usually taken to establish the location or scenery.
Long shot - A shot that shows the person's whole body, while also showing their surroundings.
Mid shot - A shot taken from the waist and above, while also showing the person's surroundings.
Two Shot - A shot taken of two people, which shows their relationship and surroundings.
Close up - A shot taken from the shoulders and above.
Point of view - A shot taken from a person's point of view.
Extreme close up - A shot taken from up close, usually of a person's eyes to help show emotions.
Basic camera movements:
Tracking (in / out) - The person moves away from or towards the camera while the person holding the camera moves in the same direction. This can be taken using a dolly.
Sideways tracking (crab) - The person walks in one direction with the camera moving at the side in the same direction as them.
Tilt (up / down) - The camera moves up or down.
Zoom - The shot gets closer without the camera physically moving towards anything.
Arc - The camera moves around he person, from one side to the other.
Crane - The camera is put onto a crane, and the shot is taken from high above.
Panning - Taking a panoramic shot of a scene by only moving the camera from one side to the other, without moving your body.
Basic camera angles:
Over the shoulder - A shot taken of a scene from over a person's shoulder.
The radio has changed and developed majorly over the years, including my experience with it. I used to listen to the radio while I was in the car when I was younger, however now we tend to play music through our phones as there is much more choice in what you get to listen to. My grandparents still listen to the radio in the background when they are at home, but they use it more as background noise than to actually listen to the news. I think that the radio plays both a positive and negative role in today's society, as it gives us instant news, however the person speaking can be very influential and could very easily say the wrong thing. If I was ever going to listen to the radio, it would be Connect FM due to the type of music it plays.
Newspapers used to be extremely popular, however due to the rise of social media where you can get news in an instant at the touch of your fingertips instead of reading yesterdays news, their popularity has diminished. Personally, I don't read newspapers because I find them quite boring and they only have a couple articles I like and I can much more easily just go online and look at the articles I find interesting. When I was younger, my dad and grandparents used to read the newspaper each morning, but now they all use the internet to find out the news too and only occasionally red newspapers. Newspapers tend to be quite biased, and each one will usually have different or conflicting opinions on the same topic.
Music Videos Music videos are still
around today, however they aren’t quite as prevalent as they once used to be
with the rise of streaming sites like Apple Music and Spotify. They tend to be
used for promoting the artists song and to get more people to buy it, however
they can also be used to promote different lifestyles or brands that the artist
could be getting paid to advertise in order to make more money. This is usually
done by making the video particularly shocking or attention-grabbing so that it
becomes memorable. Some artists also use music videos as a way of expressing
themselves rather than doing it just doing it for the money and increase in
sales. One if my favourite music videos at the moment is ‘Honestly / Honestly
(encore)’ by Gabbbie Hanna due to how she portrays herself and attempts to show
the meaning of the song through dance. She is trying to get across the message that
you shouldn’t blame yourself for the toxic and manipulative people in your life.
I feel that this is a good message to put out there as Gabbie herself has been
in in one these toxic relationships, and many of her followers would have been in
or still is in one too, and it will help to make them feel less alone and like it’s
not their fault that they are being compulsively lied to and manipulated.
Video Games Video games are incredibly
popular, and is continuing to grow through the use of the internet. Video games
can be played as online games such as ‘Fireboy and Watergirl’, as apps on phones
or tablets, or as the classic consoles like a Nintendo DS, a PlayStation, or an
Xbox. When I was younger, I used to play online games a lot with my sister or friends,
I also used to have a Nintendo DS where I could play games by myself or play multiplayer
games and link up with my friends to play the game with them. Nowadays consoles
like the PlayStation can be easily connected to a TV, and are very popular to
play, in fact they have become so well liked that there are thousands of YouTubers
that film themselves playing video games and are able to make money off of it. There
is a gender bias against video games, with most people believing that the
majority of the video game popularity is made up of males, when in fact there
is an almost even split between the males and females in the community. Video games
can play a particularly positive role in society by giving people a good way to
meet new people and socialise online. However, as with anything, there are also
negative aspects to playing video games as they can sometimes become quite addictive
and get in the way of school work. There is also this false idea around games
and that anyone who plays them or watches people play them will become violent,
but if people become violent, its because of their nature and has nothing to do
with video games.
Advertising is a great
way for brands to sell their products or services to a wide audience. Adverts are
seen everywhere on TV, on YouTube, on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook,
and through celebrity endorsements. TV adverts are not the best way to try and
sell your product or service anymore due to being able to easily skip through
the breaks, however it used to be popular for children watching TV to sit through
the adverts and point out everything you wanted and everywhere you wanted to go
when it popped up on the screen. Celebrity endorsements are an incredibly
popular way of advertising. They are used by either putting celebrities in
adverts to get sales up, or by sponsoring big YouTubers to review their product
or service in a positive way to influence their viewers to use or buy whatever
it is that they are trying to sell in order to promote their product or service
to get sales up. YouTube also puts also puts adverts in front of some videos or
part way through them, which not only helps that YouTuber to make money, but
also helps to promote the company whose ad it is. Social media sites like Instagram
or Facebook are used a lot for promoted ads, they personalise these by looking
at things you’ve previously searched for and putting them into your feed so that
you see them periodically throughout your feed when you scroll through it.
personally, I like adverts that my favourite YouTubers make because I trust
that they will only accept a sponsored ad if they actually like what it is that
they will be promoting. This is a video made by the YouTuber ‘Dodie Clark’ who
made a cover of the song ‘I want candy’ by MIKA as a sponsored ad for the
company Chupa Chups. This is one of the sponsored video ads that I like on
YouTube because she took the time to make a video and record the audio of herself
covering a song that is related to the product she is promoting. I like these
types of sponsored ads because they are different and creative and more enjoyable
to watch than just listening to someone talk about it for a minute or so.
Film
Film is a very popular and current form of media, with a growing rise of actors, actresses, and directors. Films tend to be quite prevalent in most peoples lives, and they are a good way of immersing yourself into another world, much like books. A lot of books are also turned into films, like the iconic Harry Potter series, which can help bring the story to life for those who aren't too keen on reading. There are many different genres of film, the main ones are: action, adventure, comedy, crime and gangster, drama, historical, horror / thriller, science-fiction, war, and western. All films will fit into one of these broad genres , however many of them will be a crossbreed between two or more genres. Cinema's are a great way to show films on a big screen before they come out on DVD, which also means that they can make a profit by charging high prices to see before it comes out in shops for the public to buy. My favourite movie genres are either psychological thrillers or comedies.
The popularity of television has decreased due to the rise of sites like YouTube and Netflix. Not many people have the time or want to wait until the shows scheduled time and then watch it at that time. Now people have the opportunity to be able to record whatever shows they want and watch them at a time that it convenient for them, with the exclusion of certain events like the World Cup or a Royal Wedding, which you would have to watch it its scheduled time otherwise it would ruin the atmosphere. Similarly, with streaming sites like Netflix, you are able to watch anything that is on there at whatever time you want, and although a show might release a new episode each week, it is available for you to watch at any time you choose. Personally, I like watching shows on Netflix because of how easy it is to use, however if I do watch scheduled TV it is usually reality TV like 'I'm a Celebrity'.
Magazines
Magazines popularity have decreased, however they are still quite prevalent in today's society. Magazines tend to use lots of pretty, skinny women, who all have seemingly perfect lives. This gives viewers the image that they have to be an look exactly like those models, which in turn can lead to serious mental illnesses like depression or anorexia being developed. The magazine company Cosmopolitan have released a magazine which displays a 300lb woman showing off her body on the front cover. While they were trying to promote body positivity, the company has ultimately received a lot of backlash by putting model 'Tess Holliday' on their cover. The main criticism they received was about how they were promoting obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle, and has been compared to the dangerous and misguiding size zero models that are usually plastered all over magazines. However, as much controversy as this image has had, the rest of the magazine is filled with the same thin, flawless girls it usually is. Personally, I don't choose to read magazines, and would rather look at anything I would see in a magazine in my phone.
The Internet
The internet has become probably the most used source of media in recent years with it being used for just about anything, including research, chatting, and entertainment. It has become hugely important in most people's daily lives, with a record number of 90% of adults in the UK using the internet on a daily basis as of May 31st 2018. The internet can be used for many things, such as doing research for school or jobs, or as a source to be able to talk to family and friends no matter where in the world they are. It can also be used by celebrities to heavily influence the receiving public, as well as by companies in order to promote them, their product, or services. I tend to use the internet a lot on a daily basis for researching things for school or things that I find important, to chat to my friends, to watch videos on streaming sites like YouTube and Netflix, and use use social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat.
As a teenager today, it’s clear to see that the impact media is having on myself and my peers has both positive and negative effects.
Media is the main means of communication nowadays and can be broken down into three categories: print; newspapers, magazines and leaflets, broadcast; news bulletins and current affair programmes, the internet; online news sites and social media.
It is estimated that about 7,500,000 newspapers are sold in the UK each day. The most popular newspapers are The Sun, followed by The Metro.
Regular News bulletins are shown on the main TV channels each day. The most popular shows are BBC news at 10 and ITV news at 10. The BBC pulls in on average 4.8 million viewers compared to ITV who has 1.2 million.
Media influence on young people can be deliberate as advertising can be directed at young people due to them being conscious of brands and images. For example; a popular media site, YouTube, features many bloggers, who advertise products and brands to their followers. One of the most successful bloggers is called Zoe Sugg, also known as Zoella. She has amassed over 6.5 million followers and as a net worth of £4.5 million.
However, media influence on young people can also be indirect. Examples are the increased sexualisation of content in media products such as magazines, television shows and music videos. Reality tv programmes also play a role. Programmes like Big Brother, Love Island, X factor, Britain’s got talent and I’m a Celebrity all feature adverts in their breaks aimed at young people.
There are plenty of articles online about both the positive and negative effects the media has on us, particularly social media.
A negative example is this, the case of Jessica Cleland, 19, who tragically took her own life in 2014, as published by The Daily Mail.
The night before Jessica took her own life her social media accounts were flooded with horrible messages & sentiments, two teenage friends of Jessica were identified by the coroner, however, they were not investigated by the police.
Coroner Jackui Hawkins said that Jessica’s death highlighted the impact social media could have on young lives “easy access to the internet on her phone meant she was exposed to potentially upsetting communications 24 hours a day; and she was able to return to, and re-read the upsetting messages at a later time & therefore appears to have continued to ruminate about them” the coroner reported.
In comparison, this Australian article from November 2017 highlights the positive impacts social media can have on teenagers.
The article suggests that 68% of teenagers claim that social media provides them with support during difficult times. 46% of teenage girls agree that social media empowers them to speak out about things they care about. 83% of teenagers say that social media makes them feel more connected to their friends.
In addition, the article identifies the following as being benefits of social media on teenagers: spreading kindness and social awareness, educational Benefits, real world skills, enhancing creativity, confidence and independence, interconnecting and identity, tolerance & diversity.
Clearly there are many articles & views both positive & negative concerning the impact of media on young people. From my perspective I believe the rise in social media is a good thing, although, there should be a degree of caution & some responsibility put on the social media providers. I’m also certain that having parents who are aware & understand social media can only have a positive impact. One thing for certain is that social media is here to stay & the impact on our lives will become greater over the oncoming years.
In conclusion, media influence can be powerful if a celebrity role model says a particular lifestyle, product or behaviour is good. There are plenty of examples of celebrities whose lifestyles, values and behaviour provide positive examples. The hard work and success of these role models can be inspirational. I believe that the rise in media is a good thing, although there should always be a degree of caution with whatever you see online, on TV or in newspapers as not everything you read or see is true.
![Plan B - ill Manors [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-17-2018/JziwZY.gif)
