Symbolism Within Our Video
What Is Symbolism?
Symbols within our video
"Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense" - literarydevices.net/symbolism/
​
Symbolism is often used within the media to suggest certain themes and ideas without directly mentioning them. This is because it allows the viewer to analyse and view the video and it symbolism from their own perspective.
Bear Mask
During our video our protagonist wears a bear mask. This is because the bear represents "strength and confidence", "time for healing", and "the importance of solitude". All of these themes can be found through out our video. For example, in prison our protagonist is alone, in solitude. The only time he isn't alone is when he is in love, however, this doesn't last long before he is left alone again. Healing is also shown throughout the video as we see our protagonist develop from a "lost soul" to a better version of himself. I would also argue that he is trying to heal by living in his past. We also see strength and confidence throughout the video as our protagonist is continuing to stay strong despite the fact he has had his fair share of troubles.
Lion Mask
Pig Mask
Four our female supporting protagonist, as lioness' the symbolise "power and transformation" as well as "bravery". While transformation isn't necessarily seen from our female character, we see how she transforms those around her, and how she transforms the bear from a drunk to a fun loving character. We also want to represent our female character as strong and brave. We had a few choices with masks e.g, we could have had a rabbit mask, however, we believed the lion mask portrays our character as a strong female.
Why Is This Important For Our Video?
White Mask
In our video we use a pig mask to represent a police officer. This conforms to a very heavy stereotype that people have about the police. However, the shot the police are in is a P.O.V shot. This is important as it shows how our character now views the police. He views them negatively because he is being wrongly accused. This is rather controversial, however, we are using this to portray our characters thoughts and feelings.
During the mugging scene the criminal shall be wearing a plain white face mask. This is to create anonymity and refrain from giving our criminal a identity. Like the pig mask, you could argue that the protagonist, while re-thinking the events, has chosen to remember the criminal as white faced because he believes the criminal is cold, emotionless and has no identity.
White Dress:
White dresses/Outfits are often associated with purity and innocence. We wanted to portray our supporting protagonist as innocent and pure as she is a symbol of hope for our main protagonist. At the end of the video the white dress is stained red with blood. This is to emphasise her innocence and how she has been caught up in the middle of a crossfire.
