Textual Analysis of Music Video- Plan B

This is a Plan B song from his album 'Strickland Banks'.

2 seconds into the music video, we see a shot of the outside of the arena where Plan B, known as 'Strickland Banks' is performing. This straight away allows the audience to understand the setting straight away. 

The narrative of the music video is Plan B singing about a fictional character, known as Strickland Banks. From the off, we see Plan B going out and performing his song at a concert, and then he goes on to go out for dinner after.

A screenshot of Plan B in performance. This is early on in his music video where we see images of him singing his song. The video progressively starts to have a strong narrative to it, giving the audience an idea of what's to come.

Whilst we see this, we also see Plan B's long term girlfriend at home, cooking a romantic dinner for the two of them. During the video of his song 'Writing's On The Wall' we get the idea that the character Strickland Banks isn't happy in his relationship and this can be justified when we see him going off with another girl after his performance. This also links in with the lyrics and even the song name, connoting maybe he always thought they were never going to last, and as the song name suggests there was 'Writing On The Wall'.

The video throughout uses lots of stereotypes. The main one is the social stereotype of woman staying in at home, while the man is out working, making money. This is a stereotypical stereotype and makes the video seem very realistic, whilst helping us to concentrate on the hidden message behind this.

There are many different shots in this music video. The most common is the extreme close up. This is significant because it is used to help express and portray each characters feelings and emotions. This for example, when Plan B's girlfriend becomes upset and worried when her boyfriend doesn't answer his phone and doesn't arrive home, even though she has cooked him dinner.

Also these shots are used to help show other things, for example when we see the sauce rising as she is cooking dinner. The rising of the sauce could have connotations of her feelings, showing she is happy and excited to be able to cook for her man, however this shortly turns into sadness and anger, as we see the sauce become less. This could again connote her feelings, or suggest the idea of her hope of seeing her man at home for dinner tonight slowly fading. Finally it could connote her feelings of being worried, and the concern as to why her man isn't home, and maybe starting to think about what we can see.

We also see different camera shots such as high angle shots, an example of this would be when we see Plan B's girlfriend at home, crying on the stairs once the realisation that he isn't coming home kicks in. By using the high angle shot, it makes her look small, fragile and venerable. The other shot type is the low angle, this is used when we see the headline 'Strickland Banks' outside his concert. By using this angle shot, it shows Bank's dominance and power, and the relationship he has with his fans, suggesting they 'look up to him'. We do also see some other types of shots, such as establishing shots, mid shot, long shot, wide shot and POV shot, which all help to show emotions and portray different things to the audience.

We see two main settings in this music video, the first is the house, where we see Bank's girlfriend primarily. At this house we get an establishing shot, which shows us a stereotypical 80's bedroom. Also we can tell this by the choice of woman's clothing. It is very bright and stands out. Also we see a short perm, again implying the time period and being a stereotypical 80's hair style. The other setting we see is the arena where Strickland Banks is performing. This has a Motown/80's feel to it given the tables, chairs and traditional silver microphone that we see him using when performing. All this implies the time period is the 80's. Also the stereotypical black and white suit, connoting the time era of the 80's again.

The lyrics of the song also match the moving images that we can see. In one part of the song, the lyrics are 'we aren't over but the writings on the wall, this time next year we will be no more'. This implies Strickland Banks doesn't expect the relationship to last, and is saying that they are still together, but there are many reasons why they could be over. At the end of the music video, we then see Strickland Banks with another lady, therefore we all feel for his actual girlfriend, meaning the audience connect to the music video and we feel the same emotions that Bank's girlfriend must also be feeling.

Real Media Texts 1 (Music Videos) - Justin Timberlake TKO

Song	The Narrative	Settings	Number Of Shots	Transitions Used	Representations Seen
Justin Timberlake- TKO	Starts in house. Camera focuses on woman. Woman gets in car and leaves the house. Appears to drag man along behind car. Flashbacks to house scenes showing the man and woman fighting. At the end of the video, roles have reversed, and although it was made to look like it was the man being dragged, and left outside in a large expanse of open land, turns out to be the woman.	The main settings are the house and the car dragging the man along which is set outside. There is a 50/50 split of camera time for each roughly. The settings are used effectively as the	2 main shots. Inside the house and outside with the car. They would have all been filmed at one time, even more so due to costumes remaining the same throughout. This shows that the artists probably would have been on set and filmed it all in a very short time period (a day or two). This footage would then be edited and broke down into lots of shorter pieces, as we can see from the video and then get the split between two different scenes.	Cut- Directly cut from one scene to another. An example of this can be found at 30-31 seconds.   Fade to Black- Used at the very end of the video, at 6.37.	Non-Stereotypically, Woman is seen to be dominant. However, roles are then reversed back to the stereotypical at the end of the video at 6.18 till 6.37 where we can see the woman has actually been left and now looks weak and powerless.   Woman are seen as sex objects in the video, starting at 3.56 until 4.56.   By the end of the video, it turns out, throughout the whole video, the roles are in reversal, and that in real life it is the other way around to how we see it in the video. By the end of the music video to the audience it becomes evident of this.

Real Media Texts 3 (Music Videos) - Magic! Rude

Song	The Narrative	Settings	Number Of Shots	Transitions Used	Representations Seen
Magic!- Rude	There is a man who is in love with a girl and is trying to win her dad over. He is trying to persuade her father to let him marry her. However, her father wants her to marry another guy.	Starts at a house, this then progresses to them being outside the house, in a car. This house appears to be his and then he and his friends travel to see the girl’s father. Also there are shots of him performing in his garage, in the girl’s father’s house and of the girl. We then see a scene where the girl and her family are sitting eating dinner with the man sitting next to the daughter who the father wants her to marry. This is the continuous theme throughout, the father wants one thing and the daughter another until the end where we see the two get married, as the daughter ‘rebels’ against her father. At this point we see the father shut the door on his daughter and then she is seen walking off dancing with her man.	Lots- There are lots of shots used. Close ups, for example of the ring. Also long shots of the car outside the house. Other various shots were used, for example Mid Shots, high angle, low angle and a clever fish-eye type shot through the door. All these shots add to the music video and make it more interesting to watch.	Cuts- From one shot to another, very normal to find this sort of shot in a music video.   Shot Reverse Shots- These were used to show the father and man talking when he was asking if he could marry her. This made it look like a cut from one scene to another.   Fade to Black- A common trend at the end of music videos for it to fade out.	The dominant character throughout is the father figure. He doesn’t allow the other man to marry his daughter which is the main narrative throughout the music video. He also appears to be very dominant of his daughter and he expects a lot from her, and even choses who he wants her to marry. The father seems to be upper class, in comparison to the man begging for his word who seems to be a stereotypical lower class man.

Real Media Texts 2 (Music Videos) - Bastille Of The Night

Song	The Narrative	Settings	Number Of Shots	Transitions Used	Representations Seen
Bastille- Of The Night	A man is driving his car. He gets out at a crime scene. He enters the house and looks at a body lying on the ground who then mimes the lyrics. This continues for a while as more people also lip sync who are outside the house. He then gets in his car and visits multiple other crime scenes where all are found miming these lyrics. He then is seen in a bathroom splashing water on his face, showing he is confused. By the end of the video he is seen himself to be involved in a murder and mouthing the lyrics too.	It is set outside in the majority. We do also see him entering multiple crime scenes. This is a continuous theme throughout. By the end we see him in a crime scene himself, where the obvious narrative follows a trend up until the point we see him lip synching the lyrics and looks to of been murdered himself.	23 Different shots. Some shots are held on the same scene for a long time, such as when the investigator is driving his car to the crime scene initially. After this we see lots of different shots, which include different shot angles, such as high and low angle and close ups and mid shots.	Cut- From one shot to another, it means that the music video looks continuous, mellifluous and flowing. It helps make the video look realistic. The cuts also make it look like a stereotypical music video and are something we should use when creating our music video.   Fade to Black- This was at the very end and showed the audience that the music video had ended. This appeared just before the virgin media credits showed on the screen.	It shows no real stereotypes. It is a very unique video and different to any other I have seen.