M2 - Ethical

Stereotypes
As our character is of ambiguous gender, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity and background, we have minimal problems with representation as everything has been purposefully vague. These things are not relevant in our video as it does not focus on this. Throughout our music video, the character will be wearing a rabbit mask along with baggy and unisex clothing.

Our other character will be just shown through a close up of a man's mouth, and hands singing along and playing the guitar. His face is never shown explicitly and therefore is an ambiguous and mysterious figure, not representative of anything.

Symbolism
Rabbits

The rabbit is the largest running motif throughout this entire video. They are in near-to every shot and the viewer will follow them through their journey.

Typically, Rabbits have always been a symbol of prosperity, abundance, and fertility. Rabbits are stereotypically representative of innocent and purity, a main reason why we chose them. They bring along a journey and experience for the characters, bringing joy and luck to wherever they hop along to. If you have the rabbit totem in your life, it could mean that you have no problem expressing happiness and affection when it comes to people you love. They are trustworthy and loyal for everyone, not discriminating as they have no capacity to.

Rabbits also represent innocence and childish nature.

The rabbit spirit animal represents perception and awareness which goes along with our lyrics and message of the video itself; to look out for the world and each other.

*Rabbits and hares are common motifs in the visual arts, with variable mythological and artistic meanings in different cultures. The rabbit as well as the hare have been associated with moon deities and may signify rebirth or resurrection.

*www.wikipedia.org

Graveyard

The symbolism of a graveyard is a little self-explanatory but our group has decided to take it further. Instead of primarily focusing on death, we are showing a character who is intrigued and inexperienced, much like a child dealing with the subject matter.

They are also associated with Christianity, we wanted to make it clear that this is not a religious video, nor is it focused on that side. The graveyard is often seen to be in the horror genres as they are uncomfortable, mirroring the subject matter.


STUART HALL'S REPRESENTATION THEORY -

This theory shows that all we know, all stereotypes that we might hold against people, are down to influence of all forms of media, from the internet to newspapers. Majorly in modern terms, this could also be known as 'fake news'. As much as everyone likes to think that they can see through fake news, they can't as there is so much bias floating around, no one can be objective.

Take either Trump, Brexit or Boris Johnson, we all have very passionate views about them, for the majority of us, we aren't exactly indifferent. But can you really say that you've ever talked to them, had a conversation in any way? Did you Skype Boris during the Brexit negotiations? The answer is no. This is where we have an issue. The media is the most influential force in our modern day, using fear tactics such as bold threats of near terrorism to make us fear minorities. Scary, isn't it? The media enforces and creates preconceptions about certain groups, in psychology, these are called schemas. They're stereotypes based on past experiences for any groups of people, developing into bias, discrimination and fear for them.



Fear evokes an interesting emotion within all of us, which steers us to avoid and to not change our minds. This could contribute to why people don't change their political views; of all the fear from the other side.

*'Stuart Hall argues that representation is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our mind through language. The link between concepts and language enables us to refer to either the real world of objects, people or events, or to imaginary worlds of fictional objects, people, events.' 

*www.creativewritingnepal.com/stuart-hall-representation-meaning-language/