essay

this essay will be comparing the meanings and messages being conveyed in the two music videos of Afrika Shox including Afrika Bambataa and the other music video is of Like A Prayer, by Madonna. Afrika Shox is a music video set in New York city, the appearance in the video of Afrika Bambataa is important as the word Bambataa means glorious leader in Zulu which strongly links to his role in the video. In the other video, we see Madonna playing a good samaritan and a witness, Madonna is a worldwide known figure and is a role model to many people. She is so powerful in the eyes of many because of her many accomplishments, and in forbes magazine she was likened to the best businesswoman in the 20th century.

Both music videos convey a similar but distant message from eachother. Both videos try to raise a large and very present point which is racism. In Both music videos, there are several examples of racism, in the first video of Afrika Shox, the racism is towards a Blackman who is dressed in poor clothes and the white community is breaking him to pieces. A different message is conveyed in Like a Prayer, by Madonna, when the Blackman is captured and made to be weaker just because of his race.

Although these two examples of discrimination are different, they are still internally linked by the problem that goes with racism.

The music Video Afrika Shox has many micro elements that fall into the category of mise-en-scene. The actual music video is set in NewYork City. It starts off in a dark alley in the side streets of the city. In this dark miserable alley, we first meet the black man who acts as though the area is a completely new territory to him. The man is dressed in scraggy clothes that look like they have been worn for a long time as they are ripped all over. Through the mans eyes we guess that he has been in the dark alleys or in darkness somewhere for quite some time, as in hiseyes, the cataraxes have gone white which is a side affect of being in the dark without the light on your eyes for a long time. As he leaves the alley, we see him walk along the streets in a busy new York creating a lot of disturbance as he is bumping into lots of the general public and grabbing onto them as though he is making a plea for help. He then goes to a square in the middle of a business district

intro

this essay will be comparing the meanings and messages being conveyed in the two music videos of Afrika Shox including Afrika Bambataa and the other music video is of Like A Prayer, by Madonna. Afrika Shox is a music video set in New York city, the appearance in the video of Afrika Bambataa is important as the word Bambataa means glorious leader in Zulu which strongly links to his role in the video. In the other video, we see Madonna playing a good samaritan and a witness, Madonna is a worldwide known figure and is a role model to many people. She is so powerful in the eyes of many because of her many accomplishments, and in forbes magazine she was likened to the best businesswoman in the 20th century.

In conclusion, I believe that through a good use of camera shots, angles, mise en scene, editing and finally sound affects, empathy and a general feeling of sympathy for the weakened Blackman are created as in both like a prayer an afrika shox, as we feel that they are both helpless and despite all of their pleas for help, there is no one except for Madonna and the witchdoctor who is black who are both portrayed as good Samaritans and as good people.

One of the ways in which the two music videos are different is that in LAP we are offered a representation the black community that is positive, supportive and embracing of other cultures. One section that illustrates this point is when we see Madonna's dream vision of the black gospel choir in the church; they invite Madonna to join them on the altar and she is symbolically baptized. This section has been skillfully constructed to position the audience as cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing have all been used to great effect. If we look closely at this section we can identify that the camera angles are key to the general feeling of the area in new york. we see the black man at 1.48 minutes, there is a low angle medium close up of the black man who seems to be in a bad state, the low angle shot looks as though it is showing the man who is reading the newspapers view which is below the black man who is standing on a set of stairs,

At this point, the camera zooms in to a close up of the black mans face after a man who is walking by knocks his arm off. The close up is so effective because it shows his facial expressions and his general distress.

At this point in the video, there is almost completely non diagetic sound, apart from the sound of cars and sirens and the surrounding city. The reason why non diagetic sound is so effective in this scene is that we can feel empathy through the surrounding music which links to the distressed black man, and the background sounds help to create the harshness of the environment in the city. There is absolutely no dialogue in this scene.

In terms of mise-en-scene, there is the city block for the setting, which has a large square in the middle of the high rises, there is a newspaper in one of the white spectators hands, there is a yellow taxi in the background and there is a flock of birds, e.g. pidgeons. In terms of costumes, the black man is wearing army green coloured shorts and a short sleeved shirt. All of the people around the black man however are wearing suits and ties as though they are ready to go to work in a banking style profession.

The editing is not very complex in this scene, as the camerawork makes us feel empathy and disgust at the same time as we feel empathy because the black man is helpless and onlookers just ignore him even in a time of distress, we feel disgust however, as we witness the black man lose an arm e.g. he is being broken down and the white man who commits this incident/ crime just ignored what he inevitably did

africa shox analysis

One of the ways in which the two music videos are different is that in Afrika Shox the representation of the black man is only ever negative, as a weak character who is a victim. One section that illustrates this point is when we see the man in the parking garage when he is offered help by another black man. This section has been skillfully constructed to position the audience as cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing have all been used to great effect. If we look closely at this section we can identify that the camera angles and positions are very important to establish the power relations. At 4:26 minutes, there is a high angle pov shot looking directly down at the weak black man, then there is a reverse shot where there is a low angle pov shot looking directly down at Africa bambaataa which translates to affectionate leader in Zulu. Finally at 4:18minutes, there is a mcu, which looks as though it is linked to the black mans view. The lighting is important as well. There is heavy lighting from above left behind the witch doctor, this light is similar to the ones that a patient looks at when they are in a hospital. This effect creates a semi silhouette, the composition of the scene is that there is a dynamic use of diagonals in the background, it is generally dark and shadowy and the only real sight of light is through reflections, the effects of the camerawork makes s feel that Bambaataa isa strong and powerful man who helps as opposed to the black man who needs help. The sound is also important, with the wiktch doctor intr scene, there is a non diagetic, where the sound track stops  and we begin to hear a siren and diagetic sounds and then after the witch doctor say’s “do you need a hand”, the sound becomes a mixture between diagetic and non diagetic sound. The no reply from the weak black man shows and emphasizes the weakness and the helplessness of the man. The mise en scene is also very important, this includes the location, which is a multie story car park. The concrete of the car park makes it seem cold and an unforgiving environment. The costumes are key =, as the weak man is wearing a dark green pair of shorts with a short sleeved shirt which is like they wear in the military links to how soldiers are injured and broken like he was. The witch doctor wears big chunky African clothes which link back to Africa. With the props, the aren’t many but one that evidently stands out from the few other is the witchdoctors staff, staffs are usually linked to leaders and are important signs of power, which also links back to his name in Zulu which translates back to affectionate leader, also his jewellery which also links to power but also wealth, there are signs of NVC which are the posture which with the weak back man is bent over, almost crippled as opposed to the witch doctors posture which is upright symbolizing his power. Also the facial expressions, firstly the witch doctors, where we see him wearing his glasses which makes him seem more mysterious., where as the weak black man has a distressed facial expression, as he has an open mouth , with a sign that it is difficult to breathe including his rolling eyes making him seem very weak.

One of the ways in which the two music videos are different is that in LAP we are offered a positive representation of the black community from the scene in the church where the choir are singing and Madonna joins the in with their dancing and singing. One section that illustrates this point is when we see Madonna having a baptism style ceremony performed on her after she has been dancing with them to the choirs songs. Through this baptism, we gather that the black community are a positive and embracing group of people who no matter what colour of skin or whether or not you are an ethnic minority or superiority. This section has been skillfully constructed to position the audience as cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing have all been used to great effect. If we look closely at this section we can identify that.

One of the ways in which the two music videos are different is that in LAP we are offered a representation of black men that is positive. One section that illustrates this point is when we see Madonna's flashback vision of the attack on the young woman and the young black man acting as a good samaritan when he selflessly comes to her aid. This section has been skillfully constructed to position the audience as cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing have all been used to great effect. If we look closely at this section we can identify that There are a range of shots used,a below eye level shot is used to create the effect that we as an audience look up to the character for his courage and willingness to go and help the girl who has been stabbed, even if it means that he is arrested in the process. There is also a medium close up, this hot is used to show more of the black mans emotions and general remorse for the woman, this shot also allows us to see that when the man is taken away by the police, the woman falls which shows that without his helping, the woman fails and will eventually die. There is also a medium long shot. The reason why this shot is used is that it shows the surrounding background which shows that it is a low rent area but it also enables us to see some of the mans facial emotions and his clothing. finally there is an eye level shot used, this is used because the sight of his sad eyes and distressed face help to create empathy and sympathy towards the character.

the sound used in the music video is almost completely non diagetic. What is meant by this term is that the sound that is used in a video is edited in to a film clip and the actual singing or speaking occurs somewhere else. The reason why they have used non diagetic sound in this music video is because it creates the effect of all of the focus being turned to the visual dialogue instead of the dialogue between characters. The lyrics in the music video have a loose link towards the occurances in the video, an example of this is like a prayer, this is emphasised early on in the video when we see madonna going to the church and praying for the black man who is behind bars to be let out.

in this music video, there is a quite diverse analysis of the mise-en-scene. we first realise that the music video is set in a low rent area which is possibly quite dodgy and overall it has quite an eery feel to it. We also see that the costumes are plain and the gangsters are wearing shabby and cheap looking clothing which you wouldn't expect to cost very much, whereas the black man is wearing a white collared shirt with a smart jacket and black working trousers but they are not steriotypical clothes for a young black male of the time to be wearing, also the fact that he is wearing smarter clothes than the gangsters helps to create a contrast between the two as we as the audience from the veru beginning feel that the gangsters are up to no good plainly down to the clothes that they are wearing and at first sight, we get the feeling that the black man is good and when he goes to help the woman we are not at all surprised by thes actions as we are hinted at what his personality is like through the clothes that he wears. We soon after meet the police man who is wearing a common police officers uniform of the time, this outfit is representative of the law and how the law back then was prejudiced against the blacks at the time. the first prop that we see is the back car seat which symbolises again that the area is low rent. We also see that there is a knife which here represents death and the police car later helps to show that bad things clearly happen a lot in that area as the police car was obviously travelling around slowly enough to see the black man holding a stabbed woman. We also can see his posture and facial expression, he is kneeling on the ground holding the stabbed woman who is lying in his arms. We can see that he is sad, shocked and confused about everything that is happening but when he is hand cuffed by the policeman, he dos not look at all suprised and the only sign shown is when he looks to Madonna to help him out of this bad situation.

In this music video, in terms of Editing we see that there is quite a quick pace between the shots, this is proven when we see that there are 14 short shots in the space of around 30 seconds. In the scenes, we get a chronological flashback to the stabbing and the arrest but after this scene, the story runs on in real time. The extremely quick pace generates energy and shows how quickly things can change as the black man goes from the good Samaritan to a supposed murderer in a very short space of time. The flash backs link the story to the church where the music video eventually ends.