Textual analysis of a music video - The Beat - Mirror in the bathroom

The Beat - Mirror in the bathroom

This was written by The English Beat singer and guitarist Dave Wakeling. He told us the story of the song: "I was working in construction at the time, and it was the winter. I had forgotten to hang my jeans up to dry overnight, so when I got into the bathroom to shower up, I noticed my jeans were still on the floor, soaking wet, covered in sand. So I hung them up thinking well, it's probably best to have them steaming hot and wet. I went to shave, and it was snowing, and I really, really didn't want to go. So I started talking to myself in the mirror as I was shaving up. And it was weird, because I looked deeper in the mirror, and I could see the little caption on the door behind, and I said to myself, Look, David, there's just me and you in here. The door's locked. We don't have to go to work. Of course we did. Got on the motorbike, and I just started pondering as I skated my way to the construction site on this motorbike. And that's how it started. It was thinking about how self-involvement turns into narcissism and how narcissism turns into isolation, and then how isolation turns into self-involvement again, and how what a vicious cycle that can become. So then I just started thinking about different situations where people would ostensibly look like they were doing something, but in fact they were checking their own reflection out. And you'd see it perhaps on Saturday afternoon with people window shopping, half the time they're actually just looking at their own reflection. Then this restaurant opened, and it was a big deal at the time because it had glass tables, and I was like, oh, you can watch yourself."

This was one of the first big singles of the early '80s UK Ska revival. This genré borrowed heavily from the Reggae rhythms of Jamaica. The premier band in the movement was The Specials, and this song lifted The English Beat to that same level.

The music video contains several generic images of the ska genre. The images shown illustrate the genre to be lively, there are several close ups of feet dancing, heads bobbing, and also medium shots of the band members dancing. The performers are very lively, they are enjoying themselves, and this again reflects the upbeat lively generic atmosphere of ska music. The images used also illustrate ska as a genre to passionately involve a variety of musical instrument most importantly of course of which is brass instruments, close ups of the saxophone player whilst doing his solo parts indicate this. The costume worn by the performers is generic of the ska genre, the trilby hat, sunglasses, suit jeans and t-shirt. The costume indicates a mixture of a relatively smart look and casual.

There is an illustrated link between the lyrics and the visuals, the majority of the non performance shots are located in a bathroom and reflection of the performers, reflective surfaces are used throughout. There are close up's used of taps, performers reflections in mirrors. The presence of reflections illustrates the songs theme of narcissism, the performers staring at their reflections. For example when the line ''Can I take you to a restaurant that’s got glass tables,'' there is a shot of the reflection of one of the performers in a glass table, the camera then pans up to the performer. Another example is the line, ''Mirror in the bathroom just can’t stop it every Saturday you see me window shopping,'' and a performer walks past a shop window looking at his reflection in the mirror.

The visuals are the cut become faster in the performance elements of the video and slower in the narrative. The visuals are cut faster in the performance element of the video, which reflects the music’s lively beat of the music, energetic dancing and enjoyment of the performers making music. The faster cuts amplify the sprit of the performers and there passion for music, as well as reflecting this on to the fans/audience, almost making you get up off your seat and be lively too.

The costume worn by the performers in the video is generic of the ska genre, and reflects what fans of the ska genre would wear; this becomes appealing to target fans/audience. Close ups are used to indicate costume, for example there is a close up of the drummers face wearing sunglasses. Generic costume signifiers worn in the video are sunglasses, trilby hats, suits, polo shirts. The lively dancing of the performers is also generic to ska, ska is a lively, upbeat energetic genre, made to get you on your feet dancing and enjoying yourself. Another generic signifier in the video is the presence of brass instruments, a saxophone in this case. Ska is heavily based around brass, trumpets, saxophones, trombones; ska bands are generally larger than average bands and have a wider range of instruments. Performance, instrumentals and dancing are significant aspects of ska.

The music video is performance based, with a slight narrative element; these shots general link the visuals to the lyrics. The abundance of close ups of instruments, dancing, hands and feet illustrates a strong sense of performance

There is a strong sense of looking in the video, created though the repetition of images of reflection. Throughout the video mirrors and shiny reflective surfaces are present, these images illustrate the songs lyrics and message of narcissism. The strong presence of reflect portray vanity, egotism; the images used reflect the lyrics. In the narrative section of the video the performers represent these egoistic characters; they are shown to look at themselves in every form of reflection. The theme of narcissism in the song and video represents a wide range of messages and issues about society and possibility Western culture, a reflection itself on contemporary. The song talks about vanity, the lyrics could be said to personify the mirror, "Mirror in the bathroom you're my mirror in the bathroom", and this suggests ownership, selfishness.

Yestadays media lesson - filming and further planning

Stop motion animation
When we first began to put ideas together for our music video at the start of term we knew we wanted to feature some kind of animation, the animation being a concept aspect of the video. Our soundtrack having the theme of money we thought about doing some kind of animation with money.
In yestadays media lesson we used to the monopoly money to spell out the title of the song, 'money grabber'. Having thought of using monopoly to do so in an previous idea brainstorming lesson. We placed one note at a time to for the lettters of the words, we spelt one letter out at a time, then moved it to start the next letter, creating a stop motion affects. We left 2seconds between each movement, when sped up we think this will look very affective. This is a picture of all the letters laid out to see how effective it would look. Having took this picture Andy said that the money looked like it had eyes on it, we thought this was interesting and could manipulate this idea to converse the idea of materialism etc. We first considered using monopoly - money for a number of reasons, firstly it is an iconic British cultural signifier, futhermore it ties in with the songs theme of money, materialsim, ownsership. Also having looked at other ska videos most of them seemed to have a fun, comic, not-too-serious tone/ element to them, so by using monopoly money it could be considered mocking, make fun of, cosumerism etc.

Identity

'Find your tribe'

'Find your tribe' implies that we all belong to a social tribe, group. These tribes are based on our choices and preferences in life, our ideological influences which we our subjects of. As subjects we are influenced and led by ideological apparatus, things like family, culture, media and religion. We are all subjected to these apparatus, some of which influence us strongly for example family, which provide the base of our socials norms and values, they are part of our grand narrative, path determined by ideological system. Identity is translated into tribal groups, and we proliferate an identity from these standings they form social structure, but are themselves constantly shifting, blurred as we pick n mix from all different aspects of social structure and influences. The fragmentation of society and proliferation of social tribes has led to a new age of freedom in social culture, creating a new level of subjectivity in social standing, changing the face of social existence.

Access and communication has altered social standing massively, from social networking sites to the digital audio revolution, we can now access information that before would have been harder to communicate. ''Social media revolution has played a part in ensuring that everyone has a voice - and a place for their voice to be heard ... technological advances mean that people are more connected than ever before''. Taken from an essay on what is changing for young people, this explains how the 'social media revolution' has structured the desire for numerous ways to express you.

Speech using the ideas and concepts of Michel Maffesoli

“The time of tribes is now!” Mass culture has disintegrated due to the proliferation of fragmented social tribes. The forthcoming and proliferation of fragmented culture has been lead by the development of the technology, and rise in consumer culture. Today social existence is constructed and based upon these fragmented social tribes, micro tribes are groups of people who share common interests, but they are not permanent groups, they are always changing, as social groups are influenced by consumer culture and pick and mix from aspects of social culture created complex combinations. The mass media is a powerful and firm base of fragmented culture, and provides a great deal of influence of social tribes, inducing the rise of identity politics. The fragmentation of society and proliferation of social tribes has led to a new age of freedom in social culture, changing the face of social existence.

These social tribes have resulted in a new direction in social history, it is clear that social tribes both lead and lean on the mass media, consuming and providing. With the growth of technology has come a growth in social proliferation, the development and growth of diversity. This growth has contributed greatly to social freedom we now experience today; it is what has had a massive part in leading this social fragmentation and the proliferation of social tribes.

Ideological apparatus 

An animation of the diagram we used in class ( I spelt my name wrong DOH!)

Ideological apparAtus is a term used to denote institutions such as education, religion, family, media, education, family etc which serve to transmit ideology to subjects. Everyone is subject to these apparatus and our path is determined by this ideological system. 

This diagram explains the level of subjectivity we have, what level of choice ' agency; exists within these apparatus. The stick figure represents me, a subject. Modern thought Said that identity was given, and fixed, for example we are born into families, who then in some way influence the way we behave, are morals and beliefs. Our family teach us how to behave in society and for some maybe pass on religious beliefs.

On the other hand the collage represents post-modern thinking, that identity is about choose, it is ever shifting and multiply we pick n mix from ideological apparatus. Post-modern thinking says that we don't have a fixed identity but are constantly flowing from thing to another, being led and shaped by these apparatus throughout our lives, this could be said what has lead to the proliferation of urban tribes.

Brainstorming notes from today's media lesson

The main theme of the song being money this lead us to think about the topicially issue of the recession, bankers, etc. Third wave ska - Madness, The Beat was born under the age of Thatcher, and money, current politics was a large inspiration and part of the songs. Ska as a genre is generically fun and is about having fun, we thought about thinking these two ideas together, the topical recession etc with the fun, mocking element of the genre. This lead us to look at comedy stetches and silent movies, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy etc, situation comedy, simple but some of the funniest comedy stetches ever created. There was one sketch that we found on Youtube which was really good :

A Night At The Opera: Crowded Cabin Scene - The Marx Brothers.

Having watched this clip we imediately thought about how we could cross refrence / re-act this scene by using a red British phonebox.

At the end of the sketch all the people in the cabin topple out of the room as a lady opens the door. This lead us to think about how we could cram people in a phonebox and then have them falling out when someone opens the door to use the phone. The Red British phonebox is a Britsh cultural image, a generic object, adding image of the British culture in our music video. Images of the red telephone boxes are used in 'Madness' - One Step Beyond' video, having watched this video before are inspiration was drawn from this image from the video.

Another image used in this video we really like is at the begginning of the video where the band members sit on stairs and bob from side to side comically. These images are really comical, and fun, they establish and proytay the fun generic feel of ska. We had thought about ways in which we could re-act these images / section on the music video, maybe using stairs in Norwich for exmaple the stairs outside/ near city hall.

Norwich City Hall, and steps near by. Making a cross reference to the images in the Madness video, by using this step scene and re-acting it in are video, in Norwich, aswell as the images of the iconic red telephone box

.

'This is England' 'This is England '86' - Youth Culture and identity

'This is England, This is England '86'

'This is England'

Director: and written by Shane Meadows, This is England was released in 2006. This Is England is a 2006 British drama film written and directed by Shane Meadows. The story centres on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates that skinhead subculture, whose 1960s roots include elements of black culture especially ska, soul, and reggae music,became adopted by white nationalists, which led to divisions within the skinhead scene.

Mods, New Romantics, and Skinheads are the major youth sub-cultures of this very English summer of 1983 and young 12-year-old Shaun is left wandering aimlessly alone and lost during the start of his school holidays, until his chance meeting with Woody and his fun and friendly Skinhead pack. Finding a new lease of life; girls, parties, Ben Sherman shirts, Doc Martin boots and shaven hairstyles young Shaun is welcomed, life during this summer holiday has got a whole lot better.

 


'This is England '86'

This is England '86 is a new drama series continuing the story on from the film  in 2006. The drama series is set 3 years on the the first epsiode was aired on channel 4 on the 7th of September. The culture (music, fashion. locations) of both the film and T.V series are relavant to the culture and generic images if ska. The film illustrates that skinhead subculture, whose 1960s roots include elements of black culture especially ska, soul, and reggae music.

Youth culture in 'This is England'.













'This is England' explores youth culture at the time, and how politics lead these movements. The skinhead culture explored upon youths during this time of political unease.

Image of skinheads in the opening of the film.

Initial ideas for performance aspect of the narrative

Locations
Performance outside - urban locations
Chapelfield band stand

Inside

Issy's house
Issy has a large back room, we think this would make a good location for the preformance aspect of the video. The room has several lamps in it, these could aid us in lighting the prefomers. The room also has lots of music posters on the wall and instruments in.
The weather is begginning to get bad so this may be the best location for the preformance aspect of our music video.
Arrangement of band members

Camera angles

Close up's of singer/ band members
Playing instruments and instruments
Close ups of dancing, feet, hands illistrate and amplify feeling of preformance and energy.

Instruments

Guitar, keyboard, saxophone, trumpets / trumbone

Low angle shot
This angle is used in a way which is powerful, the cospostion of the shot is diagonal which makes it feel energetic. The angle makes the performer look powerful as a result but also energetic.

Mid shot, the depth of field focuses on the preformer (lead singer) drawing the audiences attention to the lead singer. This could be a good way to drawn the audiences attention to the lead singer in our own video.

Another low angle shot, the use a low angle shot compliments the brass playing band members well, and seems to be a popular angle used when filming brass players in a band.

Stills from 'Madness - Baggy Trousers' music video Compositon on the band in the mise en scene is important in this example the lead singer is at the front with the other band members around of behind him.

Stills from 'The English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom. Close up of performer dancing. I think it will be important to include close ups of dancing in the performance aspect of the video as dancing is a big part and generic to the ska genre. Close ups of feet hands facial expression will create a feel of performance, and bring the audience into the enegetic action. Another generic aspect of ska is that it is meant be fun, enegetic and get you on your feet! Close up of instrument, bring audiences into mise en scene and again enhances the sense of performance.

The close up determines the generic signifier - the boots. Close ups can be effectively used in the preformance aspect of the music video to show dancing, emotion, and generic signifiers / elements of the genre like costume and location. Example of a low angle shot below, makes the perfomer look powerful, and energetic.

Storyboards

Stills from the shoot/ location ideas

Location hunting and shooting


Today we went out and looked for locations and tried out costumes with the actors. The costume works really well, and we found loads of good locations, one of which was the car park at Anglia Square, the graffitti provides an interesting and colour backdrop and fits the urban theme of ska. We did some filming today to see how the costume and location looked, overall a practical planning session, with costume finalised and some good location ideas. As a group we felt the session went well and we came up with ideas together as we where out, we had fun trying out different camera angles and taken 'photo shoot' as part of our reseach into costume, and identity.

Issy, Jack, Ben and Andy in costume, with the graffitti background. The compostion of the photo makes them seem as a group and a band. The urban location and costume and generic of the ska genre. Tribly hats, sunglasses, braces are all iconic images of the thrird wave ska.

Experimenting with camera angles and prospective.
Above : we had a go at doing a Madness style walk - cross referecing to Madness. The walk is used in several Madness videos, and has become a signature/ iconic part of Madness.