White Girl and identity

The story of White Girl shows how the identity can be changed and adapted. The girl, Leah, moves to her new house with the identity built around her family, and heavily influenced by their beliefs. In the beginning we can see how Leah is incredibly unhappy strives for change of this identity, though is unsure how to come about this change. As the story unfolds Leah’s identity develops and changes, a change influenced by the Muslim community she is surrounded by. Paul Ricoeur’s idea that the identity is built from the narratives of a person is represented by White Girl, as Leah’s identity is changing as her story unfolds and new narratives are built.

In the same way, White girl is representative of the ideas of Anthony Giddens and Michael Bakhtin, who propose that we create, maintain and revise our narratives over time. Our narratives are never static, and are always changing. It is these narratives that shape and mould our identities, so, as our narratives are always being revised and changed, as are our identities.

Ricoeur, Giddens and Bakhtin all suggest that identity is post-modernist. This relates back to Leah, as she is shaping her own identity, moving it away from the modernist identity that was initially formed for her by her parents. This shows that identity is not inherited; it is made by the individual.

White Girl presents youth modernist identity as broken off and disconnected, mainly from past modernist identities and the family identity. Leah is moving from her modernist identity, which her father is trying to push upon her, where identity is stable and fixed, and the identity that has been given to her becomes who she is. She is moving away from that concept and adopting the post-modernist concept of identity. 

Ending plans

Ending plans:

Because my narrative throughout the music video goes from reality to day dream, I decided to end the video with a slightly ambiguous mix of the reality and day dream.
In the beginning of the video, Dan is seen boarding a train where he first sees the girl, Paige, and begins his day dream of them being together. I thought, to end, Dan should be seen exiting the train alone, so that the audience can identify this as the first location of the music video, the end of Dan's day dream about Paige. From here, I decided to picture Dan walking alone, to further help the audience identify that them being together was just a dream and this is the reality. Dan would then cross a bridge (I chose this location as it is scenic and is another metaphor of the journey, crossing bridges that suits the genre and would attract the artistic side of the audience) passing Paige who seemingly doesn't recognise him. The cut will then dissolve into Paige turning round as she passes Dan, showing that she does recognise him, and again this will dissolve into Dan turning round to look at her. This will happen as the final words "Oh my beautiful girl" play in the song.

This ending has an air of sadness to it, as almost all the video is of them being a couple, being in love and the happiness that brings them. This ending in some ways contradicts this, because the reality hits the audience that it may not have even happened, or maybe that the couple have had a fight and as a result are acting as though they barely know each other.

The ending could, however, be considered hopeful. The narrative tells us that Dan and Paige do not actually know each other, but that Dan wished they did. As they walk past each other in the end, the image of Paige turning and stopping at the sight of Dan gives the audience a spark of hope that they might begin the relationship they'd just witnessed and make Dan's day dream a reality.

Sam Riley as Ian Curtis:

This is a short clip from Control (2007 film) by Anton Corbijn. I will use this idea of the male character walking towards the camera to achieve the same sense of character's emotion and situation. Although in this clip, Ian Curtis is given the sense of attitude, rebellion and lack of care by the way he walks, his costume, the music, and his smoking, the continuous shot, with Ian following in the camera's tracks, is successful at reinforcing these connotations. I could use this idea with my video ending, except connoting the sense of loneliness and sadness, emotions that would be appreciated by the audience and suits the genre. 

Final scene from The Third Man (1949) by Carol Reed 

This ending, mainly the final shot, depicts very strongly the emotions felt by Anna simply by the length of the shot and her actions. The audience partly expects Anna to walk towards Holly, as he is waiting for her to the left of the shot, but she instead walks straight past him. This shot and her silence, more than anything, shows her feelings about Holly.
I will use this idea to capture the twist in my music video's ending. As Paige walks across the bridge, I'll use this idea to capture the same devastation the audience feels as the Anna walks past Holly and out of his life in this clip. I will, however, lift the spirits of the audience, by having Paige turn round and look at Dan which will be unexpected by the audience, like in The Third Man.