Harrison - Emeli Sande - Heaven Exam Question

Harrison

Emeli Sande - Heaven Exam Question

In the music video, representations are shown and seen throughout and are a big part to the way the music video is presented. One example of this is ethnicities and the presentation of different people with different ethnicities which shows the multicultural aspect in the video with a number of both black and white people that are shown in the video. Another example of the kind of representations could be class and status which is presented with the filming in Bethnal Green which is known to be quite a run down place and consists of mainly council houses which is focused in the video in that lots of the pictures are of these run down parts emphasising the poor area and the level of homelessness which is also shown by some of the photo's shown in the video, for example the man sleeping in the doorway clearly shows how run down the area is and the level of homelessness that it brings. The majority of camera shots are focused on houses, people and the run down parts of Bethnal Green, for example, the final shot shows some children standing in front of a broken fence, showing how run down it is and shows the impact it has on the area in that things are broken and damaged, but people still have to live there. 

The video includes a number of photos that presents the level of homelessness and people that aren't so well off at all, and example of this is the man standing under the bridge, giving a hint that maybe that's where he stays. The camera shot in the photos of him are long shots that definitely bring out the run down area by the view of the surroundings and where the man lives. The shot is also very dark and proves to show maybe the place that the man is in, where he is in a run down area and it living on the streets which may be an indication of the darkness of the world.

The song is called Heaven, which to a watcher or listener would usually indicate something positive, as it is a Christian related place for good people to go in the after life, showing hoe the main theme of the video could be that everyone, whatever their background or ethnicity, has a chance to go to heaven which has a big link to the representations of class and status and that anyone however poor or whatever their class is can still make it to heaven, and whatever colour or ethnicity you are there is still an ability to go to heaven and to be accepted in the Christian religion. This could also be backed up in that Emeli Sande is a Christian, and during the music video it begins with the dark and ends with the light maybe showing that they are in the dark now but they will end in the light of Heaven.