Textual analysis of plan B music video

 

Plan B - Writting on the wall 

 

Genre  

The genre of the video is pop, reflecting the artist whosa music style is pop, rap and soul. the songs narrative is about a man who is a celebrity called Stricklen Banks who is performing at a gig then goes out after while his wife is cooking him dinner, then the man cheats on his wife and she has the realisation that his not coming home. There are a few intertextual references to Stevie Wonder "No Bout Ode" in the words with "writting on the wall".

Narrative
The Narrative reaches the first 3 stages of Todorov Equliliburum theory, with the Equiliburum at the start with the women getting ready and preparing a romatic meal for Stricklen Banks while he is performing. It reaches the second stage which is distruption, as Stricklen banks tells his wife he will be home soon his just going for a drink and he meets another girl. And then the video Ends on stage 3 Realisation when the wife realise his not going home and the video ends with him cheating.
The recognisable characters in the video are a false hero (in this case Stricklen Banks) and a victim/damsel in this case a his wife who he cheats on.
The video reflects the lyrics as it is about the relationship being in a bad place and they both know it and while his wife stays faithful and is preparing a dinner to try fix things the character Strickland banks is not and uses it as an excuse to cheat.

The video represents themes of gender stereotypically throughout. shown the man in a negative way who takes women for grantage and sees them as objects or arm candy. this is evident throughout with male gaze showing off the two women body's. The video also stereotypically shows the woman in the kitchen cooking a meal for her man while he is out being a celebrity, working to make a living given him a lot of power.

The Artist who is playing Strickland Banks in the video is constructed to look popular and be made out to be a celebrity, this look connate that he is held back by his wife and there relationship as in his head he deserves to be out living  and can do better than coming home to her every night.

The video is set in three locations roughly. The first an 80s style era nightclub with all the clothes and furniture and technology all slightly out dated now. The home where his wife is that is all white signifying her as pure, and faithful and then the bar Strickland goes to which is dark and dirty which is in juxstipstion and connate that he isn't faithful or good back. This theme is explored throughout with the dominate colour being dark grey or black as we follow him through the string of bars and clubs.


Camera
The shots used throughout are used to connate the theme of Strickland Banks being a false hero and effecting his wife with constant close-ups on her face from start to end to see how she is feeling and what his actions are doing to her. as well as high angles used to make her seem smaller and helpless while only low angles are used on him to show that he has power and control over the whole situation and his actions are what causing the events to happen. Extreame close ups are also used on the meal being made as well, especially on the shot with the egg yolk to connate that it was kind of a last meal in order to save there relationship from a tough place with the egg implying that it was given it new life.

Camera angles are also used as technical codes with an extreme close ups on the band playing and the guitar to set the tone in the club.  and various shots of the pan boiling and keep going till it boiled over to connate the state of their relationship. Point of view shots are used of Strickland Banks moving around to give perspective of what his seeing allowing you to see what his seeing, this once again uses male gaze as we see him looking up and down the female in the club again connoting he isn't faithful to his wife.  There are a lot of fast cuts used to different shot types to keep the paces of the video going in order to show off the narrative developing through out.

Audience
The Audience for this video is teenagers to early twenty year olds, as the video is set in a club where a lot of young people spent time so they can link to the people dancing in the video having fun.

The company/institution in the video are 679 Warner music group this is the fictional record label for Strickland Banks and promotes him in the video with a big venue sign in order to promote the celebrity within the video and give him everything in order to market his name.

Analysing this video will help me when it comes to creating my own music video as it has allowed me to see good ways of using low and high key lighting in the narrative. as well as give me a first look at how camera angles can be used  to conetate different meanings to the audience, Low angles used to show power, high to show weakness.