Ghost town

• Context


  -1981, Britain was in a state of crisis:

  -Government was unpopular since war

  -Unemployment was rampant

  -Riots breaking out across the country

  -Highly political song

  -Peculiarly unsettling record

  -Punk inspired

  -Reggae, jazz and easy listening

  -Formed in Coventry

  -Margaret Thatcher close down coal mines

  -The National front:

  -Fascist movement in Britain

  -Association with hooliganism

  -People were getting angry

  -Racism was rife

  -Corruption

  -Fear of the unknown

  -The Specials go to no.1

  -Ghost Town was the music of that era
• Brixton stop and search system

  In Brixton, Police would start a 'stop and search' policy named 'operation swamp' after Margaret Thatcher said Britain "might be swamped by people of a different culture.

  -In 6 days, 943 people arrested

  -350 arrests outside the capital
• Social, Historical and cultural contexts

  -Prime Minister- Margaret Thatcher

  -What happened in British cities in the summer of 1981- riots about racism

  -Unemployment rates at the time- unemployment was at the highest is had ever been- tight monetary policy in an effort to fight mounting inflation

  -Attitudes to diversity and multiculturism- high rates of racism towards people of colour
• Different connotations of the title


  -Supernatural beings

  -Deserted town

  -Abandoned

  -Social injustice

  -Political

  -Uneasy/eerie
• Video creating a sense of unease and disorientation


  -The use of camera- handheld, not still, always moving

  -Low light levels- always dark, low levels of light

  -Town of no people- looks deserted, looks like a ghost town
• Two-tone logo:


  -1981- Ghost Town became a hit

  -Number of inner-city riots based on racial tensions

  -Rise in far-right political activity

  -Mass unemployment

  -Manufacturing industries closing

  -Margaret Thatcher proving to be divisive figure
• Mise-en-scene:


  -Uses the style of British social realist films

  -Genre is characterised by sympathetic representation of working class men

  -The highlighting of bleak environments and sense of hopelessness

  -low budget shoot

  -Social and political nature of video and song all reflect the codes and conventions of this film genre

  -The bleakness of the final shot is very powerful and nihilistic
• Lighting:


  -A visual style that borrows from expressionist cinema

  -Low angle

  -Low budget filmmaking technique

  -Chiaroscuro lighting
• Props, non-verbal codes and dress code

  -two-tone culture

  -dress code

  -Non-verbal codes

  -Direct mode of address
• Location:

  -On-board vehicle shots
• Sound and lexical coding of lyrics:

  -Diegetic sound

  -signifier
• Editing and camera work:


  -Shot duration

  -Handheld

  -Camera work

  -Whip pans

  -Canted angles

  -On-board travelling shots

  -Establishing shots

  -Low angle shots

  -Super imposition

  -Cross-dissolve
• Narrative:

  -Todorov's theory

  -Performative

  -Narrative

  -Concept

  -Hybridise

  -Expressionist cinema

  -Social realist
• Reception theory:

  -Preferred reading

  -Negotiated

  -Oppositional readings
• Gender theories:

  -Collective identity

  -Negotiate identity
• Judith Butler:

  -Theorist

  -Performing

  -Structures of patriarchy
• Post colonialism:

  -In-groups

  -Out-groups

  Double consciousness