Ghost Town - language

Question 1

Who is Ghost Town by?

Answer 1

The Specials

Question 2

When did Ghost Town come out?

Answer 2

1981

Question 3

What is the genre of music?

Answer 3

A fusion of Jamaican ska and British Punk - a hybrid genre creating a postmodern feel. This was categorized by the juxtaposition of catchy, chilled-out reggae tunes with the lyrical intensity of punk music

Question 4

Which record label was the song released by?

Answer 4

the band’s own label: 2 Tone records

Question 5

What are the four main themes of the video?

Answer 5

Urban decay/ deindustrialisation
Unemployment
Youth Violence
Civil unrest

Question 6

Where is the video set and what is significant about the shots here?

Answer 6

-It’s set in the East End of London in a run down financial district. The fact it should be busy and it’s not creates an eerie atmosphere
-There was also a shot in Rotherhithe tunnel, which goes under the Thames. This lends to a foreboding atmosphere with low key lighting

Question 7

What is significant about the time of day of the video?

Answer 7

It’s set early in the morning and so should be peak commuter time meaning there’s many people on the roads. Instead, there is nobody on the road except for them.

Question 8

What element of the location helps to make the band feel confined? What does this reflect in terms of context

Answer 8

Being in a tunnel under the Thames makes them feel trapped in a confined space as well as narrow streets adding to the feeling of being confined on board. This reflects how they feel trapped in a spiral of decline in the city and with the current government in unemployment: leads to feeling hopeless

Question 9

Why does the video use London instead of Coventry?

Answer 9

Attracts a larger audience as it feels more relatable to many.

Question 10

Which shot in the video creates a feeling of abandonement?

Answer 10

The opening low-angle shots of high rise buildings. The buildings seem towering and intimidating, especially given there’s nobody there.

Question 11

How could the images of the high rise abandoned buildings be interpreted?

Answer 11

-The government has embraced capitalism making London cold and soulless
-The buildings themselves have no people, making us aware of the binary opposition of life and death. The buildings are lifeless and so seem like a ghost themselves. The video makes us feel like we are being towered by a ghost from the start: personification of the building

Question 12

What’s the dress code of the video?

Answer 12

Reflects what working class men might have worn on a night out clubbing: highlights how they want to go clubbing but ‘bands won’t play no more’. The clothes make them seem out of place like they should be in a bar, but instead they are in a miserable, abandoned place and so exaggerates the lack of social and economic activity

Question 13

What is the positioning of the frame like?

Answer 13

The 7 members of the band are physically crammed into the car. They are shown as an ensemble, reinforcing their togetherness, especially compared to the outside of the car where the space is empty. However, the confinement to the car, could signify overcrowding and tensions in urban communities (represented by the fact one member is ejected from the car).

Question 14

What is the equilibrium in the video?

Answer 14

The band setting off together looking for something to do, accompanied by the eerie diegetic sound and a green traffic light, an arbitrary sign that things are being set into motion

Question 15

What is the disruption in the video?

Answer 15

The bleakness and emptiness of the streets , because ‘bands don’t play no more- too much fighting on the dance floor’

Question 16

What is the recognition stage in the video?

Answer 16

Could be identified as the upbeat break in the middle of the song that contrasts time gone by

Question 17

What is the attempt to repair in the video?

Answer 17

The continued aimless drive, the shadowy figures and ghostly characters encountered in the car chase style scenes

Question 18

What is the new equilibrium in the video?

Answer 18

The bleak arrival at the river, having found nothing else to do

Question 19

Where did the song reach on the charts?

Answer 19

It reached number one by the 10th of July 1981

Question 20

What is the mise-en-scene of the video like?

Answer 20

Uses the style of British social realist films:
-sympathetic representations of working class men
-the highlighting of bleak urban environments
-a sense of hopelessness
Further reinforced by the fact it was a low-budget shoot

Question 21

Which shot particularly reflects British social realism?

Answer 21

The bleakness and hopelessness at the end where the band throws stones into the Thames

Question 22

What is the lighting of the video like?

Answer 22

Visual style of expressionist cinema:
-the band are lit eerily by limited interior light
-There is a low angle light source almost like a hand held torch to reflect the telling of ghost stories
-Car headlights reinforce ideas of torches for ghost stories
-use lighting available such as yellowy reflection of the tunnel
-grey skies are the only natural source of sunlight, making it feel black and white
-chiaroscuro lighting (sharp contrast between light and dark) adds to the eeriness

Question 23

What are the characteristics of expressionist cinema and where is this evident in Ghost Town?

Answer 23

-High/low angle shots- band looking down on us or us looking up at the buildings- creates a sense of feeling overwhelmed
-Deep shadows- Shadows of infrastructure in the windscreen, shadows around the band members (creates the feeling other band is squashed as the rest of the car is engulfed by shadow)
-Extreme Camera tilting- angles of the building

Question 24

What is significant about the name Ghost Town?

Answer 24

It’s an oxymoron: ghost has connotations of being lifeless whereas a town should be full of life

Question 25

What is significant about the cutting between day and night?

Answer 25

It feels disorientating and plays with the audience timeframe to make the ghost town seem scary both at day and night

Question 26

What is the car they’re in?

Answer 26

Vauxhall Cresta

Question 27

What important non-verbal codes are used?

Answer 27

The singing of the song with expressionless faces and direct mode of address with zombie/ like stiff body movements. They are suddenly relaxed in the middle section to create a binary opposition of the boomtown and how relaxed and relieved they feel to have some escapism from the ghost town

Question 28

Which key is the song played in?

Answer 28

It’s all in minor key apart from the section about the ‘good old days’, which is played in a major key

Question 29

What changes in the middle of the song to create a more relaxed feel when talking about the boomtown?

Answer 29

-Relaxed faces that are more full of emotion
-Change to a major key
-Use of colour other than grey
-All the band are dancing together which contrasts the ‘fighting on the dancefloor’
-The fact the colour is in the back shows it’s like a flashback in narrative

Question 30

What binary oppositions are used in the music videos?

Answer 30

-The name ‘ghost town’
-Past V Present of the boomtown
-Inside the car v the outside of the car
-Life V Death: buildings should be full of life but instead they are empty

Question 31

What is the sound at the diegetic sound at the start and end of the video and what could this refer to?

Answer 31

It sounds a little like a wail and a little like the wind blowing or even police sirens which adds to the unnerving atmosphere and brackets the songs hopeless narrative. The sirens adds to feelings of anti-establishment, while the wind adds to a sense of emptiness

Question 32

What creates the feel of a car chase and what is the significance of this?

Answer 32

The short duration of shots with whip pans and canted angles. This is alongside no seatbelts and reckless, fast driving. This makes us feel like they are going to crash and yet they don’t which reinforces the quietness on the road and the abandonment of the city, yet the internal chaos people feel they experience in their lives. It creates a simulation that there’s nobody in the town at all
It also shows they don’t care for their lives even if they were to crash

Question 33

What are the hermeneutic codes in the video?

Answer 33

Whose car are we in? Where are the band going? Why does everything seem to be shut down?

Question 34

What are the action codes in the video?

Answer 34

The car travelling from location to location, the throwing of stones and the pushing of one person out of the car to highlight the context of people being forced out of society or employment because it’s too crowded

Question 35

What are the semantic codes in the video?

Answer 35

the band is dressed smartly, connoting their intention to go out and the car steering widely connoting danger from an unseen presence

Question 36

What are the symbolic codes in the video?

Answer 36

The contrast between past and present

Question 37

What are the referential codes in the video?

Answer 37

The lyrical references to historical/social contexts such as joblessness and urban decay
‘government leaving the youth on the shelf’
‘no job to be found in this country’

Question 38

How does Ghost Town conform to Neale’s genre theory?

Answer 38

The video hybridises two cinematic influences- expressionist cinema of the 20s and the social realist mode of film making which began in the 60s. It also hybrids the two styles of music: punk and reggae

Question 39

What is the significance of the spinning rotation shot of the lighting

Answer 39

Its like the rest of their life is flashing before their eyes, contrasting how much more positive it has been up until this point. Could potentially signify that they’ve died- common myth life flashes before your eyes when you die

Question 40

What are the different interpretations of the scene at the end?

Answer 40

Throwing rocks into the Thames could be seen as having no respect for the city or it could be seen as nostalgic trying to have fun like when they were younger

Question 41

What can we say about the album cover?

Answer 41

skeleton playing the piano could suggest its still alive or even that the skeleton on the piano reflects the upper class, who are priviliged even in death, while the hunched over skeleton reflects the poor

Question 42

What type of music video is Ghost Town?

Answer 42

It’s performative because it features a performance by the band as they look directly into the camera and synch with the lyrics. It’s also narrative because it has a simple premise that the group are looking for somewhere to go. There is also a secure concept to the video, which is the journey and eeriness of the location and the zombie like appearances of the band

Question 43

What is surrealism?

Answer 43

Videos that are weird or bizarre