Despite a few recent dancehall music videos facing intense scrutiny by the hierarchy of the Jamaica Constabulary Force for containing strong sexual and violent content, some video directors said they should have the right to portray whatever messages they want.
Cashflow Xtreme Arts believes the police should let directors be creative and display their art.
He said that music videos are actual circumstances that are expressed through the lens of a production crew in artistic form.
“We see all these scenes in movies made all over the world with cops being dirty and sex scenes. It’s reality, we can’t hide from it,” he told THE STAR.
Robin Chin said he wouldn’t alter the content of a music video if he felt that sexual and violent themes would suit the song’s lyrics.
“I don’t feel like I need to change anything, because everything is up to viewers’ discretion and if I have to change things, it means that I am actually re-creating my creative rights, therefore it is not necessarily my true work,” he said.
Certain guidelines
Although Jamaica is plagued by a high crime rate, he believes that the role of parents has more impact in a child’s life and the onus is on them to supervise what their children watch.
He said when guns play a role in his videos, he follows certain guidelines to ensure he does not breach any laws.
“All guns shown in a music video should be prop guns and when I do my videos, although they are prop guns, there is always a gun-handler, a licensed firearm holder or police on set, so all of that should not be a problem,” he said.
However, he believes that if illegal guns are used in videos the police have all right to investigate.
Meanwhile, Karl Durant said he has always been mindful of the type of props he uses because of possible legal ramifications.
“If me a use a gun prop inna video, me make sure say it look real enough fi convince the people dem say is a gun but at the same time it can’t be confused as being an actual gun. You can convey the message without it being a case where it is obvious that it is not a real gun,” he said.
And while he believes that the police or regulatory bodies should not dictate to directors what content they can have in their videos, he opined that directors should take some level of responsibility for the messages they portray because “whether we want to admit it or not, we influence the youths with the content weh we put out.”
However, he said there is still a demand for violent and sexual content in Jamaica.
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