Plan B

Deos the video fuel negative representations of youth collective identity?

Or does the video and lyrics together attempt to challenge these negative views?

Can you offer textual examples of how young people are represented in the video?

Are there any instances in the video which show authority abusing their power?

What was Plan B trying to challenge through his lyrics and videos for Ill Manors?

What does Plan B hope to achieve through his music and film?

Ill Manors (unfinished)

Ill Manors (Film)

Ill manors was directed by the rap artist Plan B (Ben Drew), and it follows the lives of four drug dealers, a user, two prostitutes and a young black boy from the Forest Gate area of London. Each story of the characters weave their way into the stories of the other characters linking everyone in someway. Every now and again a song written and performed by Plan B would overlay the video which talked about what is going on with the character.

The film starts off with Aaron and Ed drug dealing, an undercover cop comes and asks Ed if he is selling. The cop calls for back and Aaron and Ed flee, they come to a fence which Aaron manages to climb over but unfortunately for Ed the police get to him too quickly and he is arrested. A second before Ed is arrested he passes Aaron his phone, Aaron takes his phone to a well known drug dealer Kirby who keeps his phone at his house. We then see a flashback of Kirby making drugs in a basement with his partner while a young boy (Chris) is sat in the corner. Kirby goes upstairs for a second and his partner steals all the drugs and takes a razor blade to Chris's eye.

Chris grew up with drugs and crime all around him, his mother was a user who overdoses and dies before local drug dealer Kirby acts as a father figure to him and looks after him. However in Kirby's act of kindness leads to Chris being around more drugs and that could be a factor to him becoming a drug dealer murderer.

1. Analyse the images and sensationalist/emotive language used.

If we take a look at the image on the front page of every single newspaper there is one clear similarity in every paper and that is there is a hooded youth in front of some chaos. This is clearly suggesting that the youths are the cause of all of the riots and that they are the ones who are doing all the looting, it shows no older people on the front of the papers. 

2.How does this article construct representation of youth identity?

3.Are youths given a fair voice or is this article biased? 

London broadcast news

1.     Who do the reporters interview during the broadcast?

The reporter is interviewing three different people on Newsnight; one is David Starkey who is a historian who believes that the rioting is because of some black cultures. The other two people are authors who completely disagree with David.

2.     What images are used in the news broadcast? What do they suggest about the representation of young people in the riots?

There is a lack of images on the screen it is all just the debate, however there are some in the background that stay the same throughout the entire debate. These images are pictures of the riots looking through broken glass, this may suggest that we are in a state of ‘broken Britain’ which is a term used by both ‘The sun’ newspaper and the conservative party that describes a perceived widespread state of social decay. Owen Jones (The author of ‘Chavs’) expressed that young black people were rioting because of how the police treats them and how the society is now. He goes on to say that black people are 30x more likely to get searched by the police simply because of their skin colour. This is saying that it is young people rioting (focusing on the black community) but they are doing it because they are sick of being harassed.

3.     Is the broadcast biased in any way?

Yes, they are mainly focusing on the black youths that are rioting. David who implies that it is the black youths that are causing all the problems and then later goes on rap and certain black cultures are the cause of the looting brings this on. It is all biased because whether David’s opinions are right or wrong, both the other guests and even the host is ganging up on him.

4.     Are youths given a fair voice within the broadcast? 
     There are no youths in this broadcast, however Owen is sticking up for youths claiming that it has been society that has pushed them to the riots. Although there are not actual youths there so even though Owen is sticking up for them he may not be portraying what the youths want the people to see and hear.

Questions

Key Theory summary

1. Offer a brief summary of Dick Hebdige and his idea of 'subculture'.
2. Discuss Stan Cohens ideas. Define what is meant by a moral panic & deviance amplification.

Quadrophenia (1979) dir. Franc Roddam

1.Discuss the representation and ideological values of Jimmy, Steph and Kevin. Use textual examples to back up your point made.
2.What examples of mise en scene reinforce the idea of youth culture?
3.What ideologies are present within the film?
4.How can Dick Hebdige and Stan Cohen’s theory be related to this film?

Link to Blog Hub

http://g325hsfc.blogspot.co.uk/

Exam Dates

10th June 2014