With reference to Emeli Sande's "Heaven", how realistic are the representations offered by the video? In your answer, you should consider the social and cultural context.

Neila Bazileviciute

With reference to Emeli Sande's "Heaven", how realistic are the representations offered by the video? In your answer, you should consider the social and cultural context. 

Heaven is the debut single from Emeli Sande, the Scottish singer and songwriter. The song was released on 14th August 2011 by Virgin Records, and was the first release from Sande's debut album 'Our Version of Events. This song was released alongside the Heaven music video, which was released onto Emeli Sande's YouTube account. The song was written about the younger generation and how they grow up too fast and are influenced by friends, family members, education and the media. Using Andrew Goodwin's music video theory of the 5 aspects of the music video; the music video is a performance video, as well as a narrative because the singer is seen lip-synching, and the music video tells a story.

In terms of representation in this music video, there are many. Firstly, we could talk about how street life and urban culture is represented. In the mis-en-scene, the video is shown in a montage of people within people, places and events shot in traditionally working-class areas of Bethnal Green, which is where the music video was originally shot. The use of the location Bethnal Green is significant because it's very naturalistic, as well as the people in it and it depicts actual reality and how people actually live; in poverty or under the influence of drugs, and we see that in Emeli Sande's music video. The idea that they used real people for the music video is significant because it can show the real naked face of the world, instead of everything being so perfect, glamorized and sugar-coated, it gives the music video a documentary-like style, which is not as conventional for a music video today and it can also be said that there is no particularly dominant race or ethnicity seen in the music video, it's all inclusive, which would make the target audience feel connected and positive about the message being spread; that everyone is equal. In terms of other elements like the costumes used, the people are seen wearing naturalistic and realistic clothes that everyone would wear in general, such as a hoodie and a pair of jeans with trainers, this is a contrast to other music videos, because usually the people would be wearing very high-end and fashionable clothes, but Emeli Sande's music video rejects this convention. Furthermore, we can see a lot of close-up shots, for example when the camera zooms in on the people; connoting their facial expressions, which makes the music video more realistic, because again, it shows how harsh the world can be. We can also see use of mid-shots, where we can see the people from waist up, as well as the background, which are mostly very urban areas, such as alleyways with dark lighting. The use of dark lighting could signify how the people on street are in a bad place, that they're suffering from either poverty or the influence of drugs, and the use of dark lighting is used a lot throughout the music video.

Another theme that's represented is spirituality and religion. We can see this element through her lyrics; "Oh heaven, I wait with good intentions" which could symbolise Christianity, as it is all about being good and doing good in life, including loving your neighbour and your enemy. Perhaps here, the artist means people are trying to be good in order to reach their destination which is heaven. The lyrics "something's gone inside me and I can't get it back" could signify sins and redemption, that perhaps the people who have committed sins, are trying to redeem themselves and wash away their sins, so that they're given the chance to reach heaven. An even more obvious point that it represents Christianity, could be the use crosses throughout the video as well. There's also an element of angel wings being used in the music video, which could symbolise the people with the angel/angel wing tattoos are the good people, and in terms of religion, angels are seen to be the messengers of God, and that they're beings of light and positivity. Moreover, the people are seen to be constantly looking up in the music video, which could symbolise they're looking at the Gods, even the artist herself is seen looking up at the sky. In terms of more mis-en-scene, the lighting is very bright and naturalistic, which could signify her lyrics "Oh heaven", as the lighting is heavenly and bright. In addition to this, the artist or anyone else in the video is not sexualised, which could relate to religion. 

The final theme we're going to explore is the artist herself and how she is being represented. During the beginning of the music video, she is represented as a sad and vulnerable person, which could be corroborated by the use of dull lighting in the mis-en-scene. She is also seen not making any direct address with her audience, which subverts to the normal conventions of a music video, as normally the artist in the music video would make direct address with the audience. However, at some point, due to the use of a close-up shot, she is indeed seen making direct address once, which could make the target audience feel connected to her. Furthermore, she is not being sexualised, the artist instead, is presented as a respectable admirable and elegant woman, which is not a common form of representation in the music industry. In terms of other representations of her like class, she is
being portrayed as middle class, whereas the man next to her at the end of the video, is low class and could possibly be poor.

In conclusion, Emeli Sande's music video of "Heaven" explores a range of themes which are interesting and deep to think about and explore.

Half term homework: Emeli Sande - "Heaven" lyrics analysis.

A.) Lyric annotations.

Will you recognize me
In the flashing light?

> The flashing lights could connote the paparazzi cameras that are pointed at the celebrities they're taking pictures of, so "will you recognize me" could perhaps initiate a change of her personality, as she could suggest that the flashing light or the paparazzi cameras are going to change her personality and who she is as a person. She's asking the audience if they'll still recognize her when she's drowned and consumed by the celebrity/paparazzi world. 

I try to keep my heart beat
But I can't get it right

> The heart could represent her soul and how now that she's wrapped up in the world of fame, she's struggling to be herself, struggling to revert back to who she was because she's being drained from all that culture of fame; "but I can't get it right" could easily corroborate her struggle for this. 


Will you recognize me
When I'm lying on my back?

> "When I'm lying on my back" could signify her death, and therefore she's asking her audience, or rather, her friends and family, if they will recognize her when she's dead.


Something's gone inside me
And I can't get it back

> In the consumption by the world of fame, she's again, struggling to find herself again, the real her and who she was before this world of fame, her true self is the thing that she refers to as "gone inside me", and she "can't get it back" because again, she's almost enslaved to this world of fame, enslaved to a contract and she can't escape from it and go back to her normal life. However, this lyric can also suggest  that many deep down want to do a good thing and become a good person but there is a theme of regret as people don't live to their own intentions; people want to do what other people do because they think it's "cool" and they'll get more respect in life out of it e.g becoming a celebrity instead of staying your own true person.

Oh heaven, oh heaven
I wait with good intentions

> From another perspective, this could be taken from a religious point of view; this suggest Christianity, these lyrics suggest that many try to do good things in order to become a good person in God’s eyes, allowing them to go to heaven when they die; it's about the younger generation and how they grow up too fast and are influenced by friends, family members, education and the media, how it's "cool" to become famous and that people would almost do anything to have a taste of the world of fame. 

But the day it always lasts too long

> This small lyric could suggest that the "day it always lasts too long" due to the mental drainage and toll it has taken by the celebrity world and she is getting tired of it, hence the day lasts too long; time is slow and she just wants it to be over already.

Then I'm gone
Oh heaven, oh heaven
I wait with good intentions
But the day it always lasts too long

Then I'm gone

> The repeated line ‘then i’m gone’ is ironic; if Emeli believes Heaven to exist, then surely her soul wouldn’t cease to exist – it would live on, so she isn’t gone. Or, from another perspective, it could also be a reference to the fear, that this cycle will keep on repeating until you die, leaving only the memory of your ugly actions.

Will you recognise me
When I'm stealing from the poor?
You're not gonna like me
I'm nothing like before

> Fear of irrevocably having become a bad person, feeling permanently ‘dirty’ and corrupted. whatever happens next you will have to live with, not always having been the good person you wished you’d be.

Will you recognise me
When I lose another friend?
Will you learn to leave me?
Oh, give me one more try again

> Due to having lost herself and who she once was, she's questioning whether people will still like her and who she is now, these feelings are stemmed from insecurity, regret and self-hatred, being disappointed or fed up with herself to the point of not understanding how any sane person could possibly see through her flaws and actually like her or want to be around her.

Oh heaven, oh heaven
I wait with good intentions
But the day it always lasts too long
Then I'm gone
Oh heaven, oh heaven
I wait with good intentions
But the day it always lasts too long

Oh heaven, oh heaven
I wait with good intentions
You say that you will wait
I try but always break
Cause the day always lasts too long

In depth analysis of Burn the Witch (with screenshots).

Burn the Witch (Radiohead song) "Burn the Witch" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead. The song centers around the idea that the band wanted to raise awareness about Europe’s refugee crisis and the “blaming of different people… the blaming of Muslims and the negativity".

Type: Narrative; during the video, an inspector is greeted by a town mayor and invited to see a series of unsettling sights, culminating in the unveiling of a wicker man. The mayor urges the inspector to climb into the wicker man, whereupon he is locked inside as a human sacrifice and the wicker man is set on fire. As the flames gather, the townspeople turn their backs and wave goodbye to the camera. After the song ends, the inspector escapes among the trees.

Camera: A lot of establishing shots to see the full scene and what the people are doing - we're seeing the full story. There's also use of long shots and mid-shots, which enable us to see what the characters are wearing, we can probably even tell who they are from wearing the costumes.  

Mis-en-scene:    In the music video, we can see the video open up with a bird scene and it also opens up with a traditional British village. The outsider, who is on the left, with the clipboard and suit, represents urbanism and central authority, whereas the insider, who is on the right, represents traditional authority and ruralism. Traditionally, women have no power, and if a woman does indeed have power, she becomes the 'witch' and therefore gets burned. We can see that they take on this traditional approach where they all wear traditional clothes and have the women tied up to a tree for being a "witch" 

Exploitation of foreign workers is represented by polytunnels of tomato pickers who appear to be different and don't feature in the visitation of the Mayor. 

Social exclusion is represented by the painting of the red cross, which back in the medieval times, it was marked to represent a plague victim

We can also see adaptations of different forms of intertextuality here, for example: the music video takes inspiration from The Trumptonshire Trilogy (1966 - 1969) Trumpton is a stop-motion children's television series from the producer Gordon Murray. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which comprised Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley. Trumptonshire was created using stop motion animation and actual 3D scaled down models.

Furthermore, the music video also takes inspiration from a classic horror movie The Wicker man (1973) which centers on the visit of Police Sergeant Neil Howie to the isolated island of Summerisle, in search of a missing girl. Howie, a devout Christian, is appalled to find that the inhabitants of the island have abandoned Christianity and now practice a form of Celtic paganism. Paul Giovanni composed the film score. This therefore creates intertextuality.

Postmodernism essay on Deutschland 83 & Stranger Things. (800 words)

Neila Bazileviciute

In this essay, we're going to discuss the idea of postmodernism and cooperate it the German tv series Deutschland 83 and Stranger Things, as well as Baudrillard's idea of Simulacrum, what it is and how it can be seen through the two different, yet similar shows.

First off though, what is Postmodernism? It's a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism. It's an idea represented by different images, stereotypes and art, it could almost be compared to the concept of surrealism. Postmodernism can be seen everywhere in the two tv series. What is Baudrillard's concept of Simulacra or Simulacrum? A Simulacra or Simulacrum, is a representation or imitation of a person or thing, in this case, there are imitations of the two shows. Deutschland's opening scene, as it takes on the appearance of a bricolage - a construction from a diverse range of available material; the process of adapting and juxtaposing old and new texts, images, ideas or narratives to produce whole new meanings. Which similarly, Stranger Things also takes on a postmodernism introduction, except that it takes more of a sci-fi approach. We can also see postmodernism take form in the idea of intertextuality, especially in Stranger  Things, it has many 80s references or in other words, takes on the concept of Baudrillard's Simulacrum, such as E.T, which is an indirect reference; the four boys and the alien, which in Stranger Things case, is Eleven, the mysterious girl with superpowers. In terms of Deutschland's 83 intertextuality, it can be seen through how the show uses brands and technology from the past which allows the audience to view it from a modern perspective, it creates a feeling of nostalgia and this again, denotes this idea of a simulacrum; an imitation of today's modern reality, incorporated within the 80s reality.

Furthermore, both of the shows do indeed, mask the basic reality of the two worlds, in Deutschland 83, the East and the West are divided and are both different; the West is more romanticised and is more positive, but unrealistic, for example the scene where Martin is in the supermarket where all the food and fruit look polished and untouched, where similarly, Stranger Things also represents a fake façade of the basic reality in the 1980s also; how the four kids are able to just stay out late at night, do whatever they want and how the parents seemed completely oblivious to their children's lives. That indeed is an unrealistic representation of an 80s society. It can be said that the two shows take on the factor of a pastiche - an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period, which both of the shows do, the history based show Deutschland 83 romanticises some aspects like the West, and so does Stranger Things, where the children are allowed to stay out late at night and wander about with the parents being completely oblivious to their children's lives. 

However, in terms of whether it truly masks the entire face of reality - no. There are some elements, aspects, that are realistic and factual - Deutschland's 83focuses on the two governments and the events of the Berlin Wall, which really did happen in 1961 and was finally destroyed in 1989 and in Stranger Things, it also focuses on the government factor, except its how the government did experiments, which again, also took place in real life, in the early 80s; the show was inspired by the Montauk Project, which was the US government experimentation in psychological warfare, and we can see that Stranger Things took this inspirational turn and adapted it. Is it purely Baudrillard's simulacrum? For both shows, yes and no, the ideas are based on representations of different images, connotations and ideas, but it's also based on facts, however, those facts are deeply embedded, especially in the Stranger Things show, where it's actually based on a real life experiment that took place in the USA during the early 1980s, whereas for Deutschland 83, the facts are more obvious and direct; the Berlin Wall and the division of East Berlin and West Germany.

In conclusion, both of the shows show a variety of similarities and indeed conform to Baudrillard's concept of Postmodernism and Simulacra. Deutschland 83 takes on an unrealistic but factual approach, just like Stranger Things does. In Deutschland 83, it's based on the events of the Berlin Wall and the two governments in the 1980s, where similarly Stranger Things can be seen to also focus on the government factor in the 1980s too. Both shows also adapt to the idea of intertextuality, where some are deeply embedded within the show and aren't as direct; Stranger Things and whereas some, are more obvious and direct, such as in Deutschland 83. In terms of masking the true reality of the 1980s era, yes, both shows mask some aspects, such as in Stranger Things, the four kids are able to just stay out late at night, do whatever they want and the parents being completely oblivious to their children's lives and in similar fashion, Deutschland 83 romanticises the West, where Martin for example, walks into the supermarket and sees all of these foods and fruits completely polished and untouched. 

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