little bit of love - representation

Dutch tilt/canted angle

Represents his life as chaotic and unstable

Cool blue tones

• Adds to realism and grittiness

• Indie genre often has gritty/real representations

Shots of the brothers

• Having fun, smiling, hugging etc

• Signifies their close relationship

• Challenges conventional representations of masculinity by showing men being emotionally close

Close ups of Tom Grennan

Represent him as being important and help to engage viewers

Locations

Urban, working class style locations eg block of flats, corner shops, create an image of people from a low income and adds realism

Facial expressions

Grennan’s anguished facial expressions represent him as angry and struggling emotionally (reflecting traditional ideas of masculinity)

Shot reverse shot of them watching swimming

Signifies that he dreams of sporting success

Training montage

• Shows the brothers’ financial difficulties, and also shows the older brother being supportive and caring, as well as encouraging

• Arguably shows toxic masculinity

• Low angle shots - we look up to them. Boys need someone to look up

Context

• 2021 - COVID

• People were struggling with mental health

• Post-‘me too’, the video questions what it is to be a man

• The director of the video said they wanted to tackle challenging issues such as masculinity rather than having a typical pop video

Violence between the brothers

• Shows toxic masculinity

• Shows turbulent relationship

Costume code

He wears pink, feminine. Challenging hegemonic views of masculinity

Canted angle, roll shot combined with low key lighting

• Link to his mental anguish and instability

Red low key lightning

• Polysemic

• Violence, anger

• Mental anguish

Economic contexts

• Relatively low budget, from when Grennan was less popular

• Avant Garde, experimental

Social and historic contexts - masculinity

• Mainstream media representations play a role in reinforcing ideas about what it means to be a “real” man. In most media portrayals, male characters are rewarded for self-control and the control of others, aggression and violence, financial independence and physical desirability: “for boys, violence and dominance are aligned with norms of masculinity”

• Little Bit of Love attempts to challenge this. It openly comments on mental health. He wears pink

Social contexts - Class and Age

• Working classes are often connected to crime with the suggestion that they must turn to crime to make ends meet. Aggression and anti-social behaviour have also been linked to a demonised working class. Young people have also been associated with these aspects in deprived areas. On the flip side of this, youth is often stereotypically as a time of innocence

• Tom Grennan turns to crime, reinforces this

• However he has character development

• The characters are stripped of their innocence and childhood

Dyer - Star identity

• A ‘star’ is a construct, not a real person

• Their identity is made from a variety of different marketing materials - adverts, music videos etc

• Their image is carefully constructed to appeal to a target audience

• Stars are constructed, artificial images even if they’re represented as “real people”

• Grennan tries to present himself as a real, relatable person rather than a ‘star’ in order to capitalise on this. He does this by showing his mental anguish and struggles as well as being in front of a council estate

Gauntlett - identification

• The construction of Grennan’s star persona makes him very relatable to his audience. In addition, we are often presented with a plurality of representations of masculinity, and audiences are encouraged to pick and mix from these

• We are arguably positioned to identity with Grennan

Levi-Strauss

Consider how meaning is constructed through binary oppositions: the difference between the relationship between Grennan and his brother which is shown to be tender and caring, and the fact that he also exists in a violent world in which he is trapped

Van Zoonen

• Men are represented differently to women

• Gender representations have changed over time, Little Bit of Love reflects this