'Fake it' presentation

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Transcript of 'Fake it' presentation

Page 1: 'Fake it' presentation
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‘Fake It’ Bastille and its application to Goodwin’s Theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIwyqsqHsic

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Mise-en-sceneThis music video starts with a TV, with this motif being carried on repeatedly throughout, implying voyeurism.  The in comparison to the dark, dim, wooden themed background. This set up also indicates the time main focus for the first few seconds of the video is this image, which indicates that the director wants the viewer to recognise the image and think about it. The viewers would notice the bright blue colour on the screen with a strong symbol of the music video be around 50/60s era, whilst the high quality of televised equipment and picture quality suggests a more 21st century era.

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Rather than the audience experience 'a notion of looking' upon people in the music video, the audience themselves feel watched. This installs fear or uncertainty into the audience. However, it can be a quick set up for the news report style that quickly follows. Whilst it is typical that in 'Goodwins' theory that the notion of looking is men watching sexualised women, in this case it is non-gender specific viewer watching businessman-esc character. Furthermore, Goodwin's notion of looking includes screens within screens, which is a feature highlighted repeatedly throughout the music video, which once again backs up the notion of looking and voyeurism, as well as running with the motif of television.

We quickly understand that this is the central character to the music video, a businessman, looking like a typical televised news reporter. The costume includes a steel grey suit with a white shirt and striped tie, a clean and polished style, implying that it is particularly constructed for an audience to have a specific view. Typically a news reporter would present themselves in such clothing to highlight the importance of topics they talk about on TV, which is mirrored in this music video. It can be said that this follows Goodwin's feature of intertextual references and the typical news report is constructed exactly the same, and it is a format that people globally know.

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Multiple times in the music video, as it progresses, this character shows multiple facial expressions, including that of worry, anger, mockery. This can imply that this man is angered by his need to keep up pretences to the camera, indicating how media falsely influences viewers. The change of colour fits in with the facial expressions, with red symbolising evil, black with anger, white with trepidation and blue with worry. All this suggests the many different layers to media corporations nowadays, which are controlled by a capitalist hierarchy, with the news reporter in this case represented all those feeling of people involved in media consumption. This links with 'Goodwins' feature of relationship between lyrics and visuals, as the title 'fake it' very much mimics the visuals presented to the viewer, showing how much news reporters have to fake happiness and portraying horrible news has negative impacts on the soul and society.

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At the end of the music video, the news reporter is shown to leave the studio and go out onto the balcony with the backdrop of London. The setting of London implies importance, power, political inferences and pretences in relation to news reports and media. As the news reporter fixes his tie and faces the camera and smiles, this shows that despite his lack of enthusiasm as being controlled by the media, he still keeps up appearances.

The only other character that is seen in this music video is a brief interaction between the news report and a make up artist. This includes both characters happily having a conversation as the make up artist applies powder to the news reporters face before he goes on air, but as soon as the woman leaves the mans facial expression goes completely dead pan. I think this gives the indication of the male hierarchy in the media industry as well, which is a continuation of the ruling class power theme in the rest of the music video.

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SoundThe music video opens with a voiceover sampled from a 1971 short film called "Social Seminar: Changing":And I don't think that that's a selfish want, I really don’tI'm not saying that I have this capacityBecause it's hard to develop that capacity on your ownWhen you're being stopped at every turnThen the song starts. I think this voiceover is used to link with the theme of media input into society and controlling/changing the way people think.

The main character in the music video tends to create thought beats, a feature following Goodwin's theory, as when lyrics like "still want to waste all my time, I want to waste all my time" the character uses hand motions  mimicking time passing. This is further used when lyrics like "oh my lover my lover my love", the character uses fist hand gestures as if he is making a point to the audience which coincides with the harsh drum beats and when "destroy each mistake that we make" is sung, the character is shown scribbling out words on a piece of notes, indicating that news reporters can easily structure their words and that they can be easily erased if a mistake is made. Notably, when the title "fake it" is sung, the character smiles, indicating smiles on television are fake and are not to be trusted due to the media easily being able to manipulate emotions.

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CameraThroughout the music video, there are many shots that gradually zoom in, giving the effect of focusing and also the theme of voyeurism. There are also many extreme close up shots of the character to enhance his facial expressions in relation to his 'job' and the questioning of his own morality.

There is a low angle of a shot of a television, implies that this is from a child perspective who is watching this news broadcast, suggesting that children watch the news and are vulnerable to current affairs that may affect them negatively.

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Editing A news banner is added onto further the storyline of a newspaper report, with credits like 'LIVE' on the banner, which gives information for the viewer on the storyline. Additionally a visual effect is added when the news story is happening which once again implies an older era, suggesting that whilst technology has grown, the media and how it is distributed is lacking in honesty and manipulating like it always has. The use of slow motion reoccurs throughout the music video, making the viewer focused on the character and his facial expressions in a sense of understanding.

Cutaways are also used, notably at the start of the music video when the news reporter approaches the stand and centre screen in preparation for the news broadcast to start, then cuts away to a shot of the camera then goes to the television that begins the music video with the news reporter becoming live on air, allowing the viewer to comprehend the storyline a lot better: