Formation music video revision

 How do the representations in Formation reflect the ideology of the producer?

Plan:

New Orleans flooding

Representation of black women

Working class settings

Used footage from 'that BEAT' documentary

Atypical subversive song

Small black kid dancing in front of the line of white police binary oppostioion

Its a typical and subversive music video

Binary opposition between old VHS effect and modern high quality high quality cinematography

Tilt shots

Establishing shot of the flooding in New Orleans

MES of slave owner era - Antabellum era (just before the american civil war)

Powerful message through Beyonce wearing an Antabellum dress

Reappropriation 

Taking the power from white people

Gospel church setting

Wig shop which is a steroetypical black setting

News footage of Hurricane Katrina 

Theme of violence used throughout

 Choreography associated with afro culture eg, twerking 

Community and empowerment

MES of beyonce sinking into the water

Symbolic codes, referential code

Beyonce is challenging representations

Bricolage is a combination of different forms of media it combines film, video, news report footage this is used to create a complex and confusing representation

This video is a Representations of working class black people to draw attention to underrepresented issues 


There are many references to the police and police brutality for example the close up shot of the back of a police officer, the flashing lights of a police car. Beyonce is also sitting on top of a police car in the flood. Other shot that shows this is when the black kid is dancing in front of a line of white police, this creates a binary opposition and anchors the theme of violence. 

Beyonce wears a dress from the antabellum era. These dresses were worn by slave owners 


The setting of the abandoned swimming pool is symbolic of the black community drowning under the influence of poverty and racism. Mid shot of MES and graphity reading "stop shooting us" drawing the audiences attention to a significant issue faced by the black community in America. MES of hoodie is symbolic of the stereotypical way in which young african american boys are represented as troublemakers and criminals.


Paul Gilroy and postcolonial theory - black and white people are represented differently in media

Black people are powerful but also vulnerable

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