Ill Manors Essay

How have representations been constructed in the music video 'ill manners' by Plan B?

In Mach 2011 the rapper Plan B released an album called "Ill Manors" to go alongside the film which was then released in 2012 portraying the lives of different characters living in council flats in Forest gate, London. The film was directed and written by Ben Drew; also known as Plan B. Ill manors is a hip hop protest song of which it follows 8 main characters and is a multi-character based story. The film shows one perspective of their lives which would not be shown normally due to the media having such a negative view on the youth of London council estates. It shows how they fight for survival and how they gain respect where they’ve grown up.

In the music video for "Ill Manors" different forms are used to engage the audience in the song and this therefore, makes them want to watch the film. Drew used specific shots like a long shot for example which was effective and enabled the audience to see the background and notice the setting the characters are in. The very first shots that are shown is establishing shots of London looking from the council estates and in the background you can vaguely see the tourist hub of London. Plan B effectively used mine en scene to highlight the rich area of London and make the front, worse part of London seem darker and less desirable. In one of them you can see Drew looking down into the council estate areas. The area is more shrouded with sunlight of which contrasts the dark, run down estate. 

The background scenes involve a lot of violence and typical "gang" behaviour and this draws in the teenage demographic. There is lots of fast pace editing and this emphasises the violence which appeals to the audience. Another camera angle used is point of view. This is used to make the audience feel as if the violence is aimed at them. It also could be used to show the anger the council estate kids have for society for portraying them in such ways, breaking the windows of protection we have up against them, isolating ourselves from them. The kids are portrayed as cruel and rebellious through these different camera angles and the effective use of mise-en-scene which really emphasises the feelings of the council estate kids and how fed up they are. Other elements of mine-en-scene such as setting are used to construct beliefs. The first shots we see are rows of council houses and because they look quite run down and not as nice as the tourist ridden parts we he form negative mindsets towards the people who live there. The negative views are also formed by the clothing the characters are wearing; all black tracksuits with their faces covered. We automatically assume they are suspicious due to them hiding their identity. 

Establishing shot of London

The representations of the music video and its lyrics portrays a dominant ideology in terms of peoples views on council estate kids. Ben Drew was suspended from school in year 10 and got moved to a pupil referral unit. He had no respect for authority and felt ignored by society along with hundreds of other kids in the same position as him. The only people they would listen to was rappers and this causes some issues due to the lyrics of many rap songs romanticising street life like gangs and drug deals. Drew believed he could "father"the unfortunate kids who grew up believing they could amount to nothing. Drew believes that the media has demonised the youth and that anything to do with kids from council estates have a negative view. Even the word chav has now got negative connotations due to the media and Drew believes that it now stands for "council housed and violent" rather then its original meaning which was just another word for a child. Plan B's lyrics challenge these interpretations and tell people that not everyone who lives on a council estate is an evil criminal that is heartless and brainless. In his lyrics he refers to the city as a 'concrete jungle.' the connotations linked with jungle are dense and overgrown. The word 'overgrown' gives a sense that the estate has been left to rot and die along with the people who live in it, as if they never existed.

Point of View Shot

The music video included scenes from the 2011 London riots. Although the London riots started because of the police shooting Mark Duggan, who was under suspicion of starting an attack due to him carrying a firearm. It had massive repercussions and triggered numerous riots across different parts of London and even outside of London.  Many people saw it as a chance to prove a point to people by burning buildings and cars. There was also looting of shops and robberies of innocent people. Drew said that  "The point being made in my song 'Ill Manors' is that society needs to take some responsibility for the cause of these riots." He was not trying to promote violence nor rioting and he was just highlighting them both. He feels society is to blame for the kids feeling like they can amount to nothing and that they don't care about having a criminal record. He believes that there's a lot of pubic prejudice towards the lower classes and they're ridiculed in the press because they dress and talk in a different way to the social "norm". The kids don't care about society because they feel society has made it clear that they don't care about them. 

The music video was filmed in Forest Gate, London where Drew grew up. He did this not only because he was on a low budget of £100,000 but to really show the points he was trying to get over in the video and also to give the kids in the community a chance to feel special. The gender most commonly shown in the video is young men of which are presented in a violent way giving them a negative stereotype to young men making the general public weary of them. There is few women shown in the video and Drew did this deliberately to show the dominance of the young males. There is a wide range of different ethnicity's and ages used throughout mainly aged (16-24).