Exam Questions

Exam Question

• Is the way the artist is portrayed in the video really how that person dresses and acts in real life?

  In Little Mix 'Black Magic', each girl from the band have to take in a role of being the stereotypical 'geek' and dressed in preppy, dirty clothes who act nerdy and weird but then towards the end they  magically change into these beautiful, cool 'popular girls' that wear revealing short outfits. The role they have taken on is to get get a point across but also make the video entertaining so it isn't an accurate representation of the way they are or dress in real life.

In the Vamps 'Somebody to you' the band is portrayed as a chilled out group of boys who are just having fun at the beach. There is no real story behind this video but just about the young boys constant laughter, having fun and trying to get the girls. This video shows a sense of realism which could be a real representation of the band.

• What is the benefit for the musician to portray him or herself in the ways they are shown in the music video?

Little Mix  portray themselves as kind hearted when they help the geeky boy being bullied by the popular girls. The benefit from that is it gives the audience the impression that the artists are kind

and they all gain more money from their viewers becoming bigger fans and buying merch and tickets to see them live. The artists could be considered role models for the target audience because 

The Vamps portray themselves as fun loving, cool boys who can make the audience who follow those characteristics think they're actually cool in real life making them want to see them live which gains the band money. 

• How are the elements of the theoretical framework interpreted by the audience?

In Black Magic the mise en scene in the video can be portrayed as highly sexualised, giving the audience a sexual pleasure from viewing and watching how the artists are dressed (when the girls are shown as ‘popular’ in short clothing). The use of the close ups on each of the members in the group can reflect to the audience the different personalities in the group and how they dress/their style as the camera shots of them in their clothes suggests to the audience that they are showing off their fashion. 

In S.T.Y the mis-en-scene of the artists are rocky, cool looking giving the audience an impression of how you should dress if you want to be ‘cool’ implementing this style on teens. The representation of the girls in the video  are shown as happy, youthful teens and the focus is not on their body image therefore is mainly focussed on the music and the video of the artists instead of the other characters.

• How are the elements of the theoretical framework used to construct representations?

In B.M the artists are portrayed at ‘geeks’ providing characteristics of how geeks are un cool and portraying them in a negative way (wearing clothing that is preppy and oversized) to show the realism of the narrative of the video. The video relates to teen culture which makes the video inclusive as there is many different characters in it, not only the main artists. The camera angles in the video may reflect how the artists are represented as the movement of the camera is stable towards the start of the video however gets closer and personal (close ups) to reflect on the insecurity of the characters before they change to ‘popular’ girls. The artists transform into likeable characters as the ‘popular’ girls in the school, gaining attention from boys portraying the positive representation of people who uphold these characteristics (use of outfits that stand out to the audience). The artists are shown as dominant representatives of women in society by portraying the 'star image' of the artists throughout the video.

In S.T.Y the representations of the artists are reflecting on societies ‘cool’ look nowadays. The positive representation lets teens dress like the artists giving an impact on how they look and may change their styles. The quick cut pace of the editing reflects on the representations of the characters as it may reflect there fun,enjoyable personalities. The use props (amplifier on stage, guitar, drums) shows that the artists are represented in a dominant way conforming to the genre with the props - shown as positive representations.