character profiles ammended

Character Profiles for Music Video 

Main actor: The main actor will be shown as two different ages. The first will be a young boy, around 8 or 9, who has had a challenging life due to his abusive mother. This will be portrayed during the first scene of the video as he gets slapped by his mother and then decides to leave his house. this exit is accompanied with his mother making gestures behind him which show that is what she wants which may connote that leaving may be the start of a new and better life for both of them. Therefore by showing his mother being abusive, we will encode this idea that he has never been wanted within the household and he belongs somewhere else. We are then shown him later on in life as a teenager, around 17 or 18, and he is still living on the streets. This character will be portrayed as a timid, dirty and socially unwanted person as he wanders throughout the streets looking for work. This image will be shown via his costume as it will be ragged dirty clothes which mirror his surroundings. By showing this portrayal of a young boy we are both conforming and challenging youth and gender stereotypes. For instance we are conforming as the natural idea of a young male is scrubby and troublesome, which may be true within certain scenes of the video (the fight scene). However, we are also challenging the norm as it shows that the young male has taken life in his stride and has taken responsibility for his actions, which is often looked over by the public as their views are shrouded by the bad coverage of teenagers via the media. The clothes that the actor is wearing are also challenging the typical representation of these categories as the normal idea of a young male would be rather chavvy yet clean appearance which is the binary opposite of our character as the clothes that he is wearing are smelly, filthy and ripped.


Parent: The mother will be aged around 40/50 and will live in a normal house. Within the video she will be shown shouting and hurting the son who has obviously seen it all before. This behaviour connotes her un-parental characteristics and proves that she does not deserve to have this child. As the child leaves the house  it shows that she does not have any true feelings towards the child as they have not realised that their 8 year old child is leaving their house. We will show their true feelings via their facial and body expressions during the argument. As she is not seen throughout the rest of the video we need to make an impact straight away therefore she will be shown with sheer anger and frustration which will automatically create an image within the audience’s mind as it’s not right to fuel this anger on a child.


Young lad in fight scene: At one point of the video the main actor is beaten up by one lad around the same age for no reason. We have chosen one person to be involved as it will be much more realistic when it comes to the main actor getting up and getting revenge. We thought that having this negative image will have two main effects; first it will conform to the negative stereotype associated with youths through the media thus allowing for the audience to easily accept this behaviour. Secondly he will majorly contrast (Binary Opposites) to the main actor due to his difference in background and appearance. We will give him typical chavvy clothing i.e. a hoodie and tracksuit. This image will be easy to acknowledge as this is the normal iconography associated with modern youths. We will also show a form of hierarchy within the group by having the ‘leader’ as the one doing the beating. We will encode this by making him look dominant within the group by having everyone follow him and his actions. Also once he main actor knocks out the ‘leader’ the rest of the group flee as they have lost their main man and are now shown to be the sheep they really are.

'Whores on seventh avenue': There will be three girls who will all be dressed in provocative clothing as they will be the "whores on seventh avenue". At the point where these three girls appear in the music video, they will be representing the lyrics that are being sung as by doing this we can allow the audience to gain a better understanding of what is going on in the music video and it also demonstrates the illustrative narrative that we are trying to create. They are shown multiple times throughout the video with one of them becoming attached to the main actor who later on in the video becomes his girlfriend once their lives have improved. The girls will be representing gender through the male gaze which was put across by Laura Mulvey who used the theory that men only see women as objects and that they are only there for specific things in life. We will show this representation by the dress code of them as it will be rather provocative which will show that we have understood the theory put across by Laura Mulvey.