Jay Sean
Where Do We Go
The opening
of the song is with a long wide shot showing a car moving in. At this point
there is a diegetic post-synchronised sound of the car breaking. Although the
sound is a reflexion of an action in the video it is actually one of its
editing techniques as the sound is put on after as an effect, so it’s much clearer
and effective as its quite dramatic. It then suddenly switches to slow music,
played by a guitar. This is then followed by a close up of someone holding a
clip board and tapping it with a pencil, showing that they are thinking; this
action supports the slow music. It then switches to a zoomed out shot giving an
over the shoulder shot of the person looking at the clip board. But the person
is still anonymous as you haven’t yet seen his face. The shot then changes to
another where he is sitting on a stall in a very low lit room, where only he is
in the spotlight and is rubbing his head. This may be showing he his lonely or
depressed and lost in thoughts. We then see a medium close up shot from the
back of him until the scene changes back to the music room. This is when the
scene fades to back to the actor where we are able to see that it is Jay Sean.
During this time Jay Sean is placed on one side of the screen in many of the
shots. For technique a slow fade shot has been used nearly throughout the song,
this may be there to represent the loneliness he is feeling as when he says “I
don’t know what I’m gonna do” the scene fades back to him sitting alone on a
stall all alone in a dark room and only he is in the spotlight. There are high
angled shots throughout out for when Jay Sean is on the stall showing his
vulnerability and the fact that he’s urging his lyrics towards the camera, show
strong emotions. This also reflects how he feels as he is being looked down on,
just because he feels lost as he does not know where his relationship with her
is going. The song is a narrative throughout but it has scenes of him sitting
in the studio, thinking and these are always in black and white, this could be
to reflect the dullness and how he feels. He then starts to talk about love and
there’s a scene of him playing pool alone and the moment where he says “it
wasn’t supposed to be this hard” the camera pans from left to right on to his
face which is followed by a match on action allowing the viewers to see that he
is indecisive as he’s playing pool one moment, sets it up again but then just
walks away from the table. Whilst he is walking in a narrow corridor, the camera
is slightly out of focused so shows him blurred but the lighting as it has been
so far continues to be dull in such a way that you are able to see the decorations
in the corridor but you are unable to see his face, this may be because he may
want to be hiding and not to be seen as he is so lost as he can’t get what he
wants back; the love of his life. The
scene then changes to him driving out in his car a Bentley, where extreme close
ups of his face are shown and the lyrics at this point are “where do we go, so
girl I need to know” showing his heading out but is alone at ten in the night not
knowing where he’s going and has lost his love. This connotes that he is
confused and is trying to hide from his identity as he is not happy with himself
at the moment as he is not getting the answer that he wants and is waiting for.
Also although he may be rich which we know by him being well dressed and his
expensive car but it shows money can’t buy love nor can it bring happiness as,
In the end he is walking on the streets in a very busy area, but he’s alone. The
scene ends here so we know that the love of his life didn’t come back after all
he called her or wanted her back. The reason is not shown why but it leaves the
audience with an open opinion to think why. It may have been a case of Jay Sean
not appreciating his girlfriend at the time but when she left he realised what
she was worth then, which is the reason to why the title of the song is where
we go as Jay Sean doesn’t know where his relationship is going from this point
onwards.
In this song
there are many parts where over layering has been used of Jay Sean on a screen,
but I won’t like to do that as my location will not be inside and it would send
double emotions and mixed messages as in this video it shows you two different
angles and sides of him as he is upset in one but looks straight at the camera
in a serious way in the other. However I will like to extract some editing
techniques such as the fade, as it helps represent a certain mood and emotion
as it helps reflect the fact that the actor is upset is represented well with
fades as the effect can be done quite slow and the darkness, if done in black
and white reflects the dullness. Another thing is the way the scene started
with the sound of the car engine stopping. I think it works pretty well as it
gives a division from the scene and music so the music only starts when the storyline
does. I also liked the part where he is in a room and is having direct eye
contact with the camera and this shows he is speaking directly to the viewer,
but this also helps focus on his emotions more which is what makes it a good
narrative story. I will use these pacific techniques as my video requires paper
to be torn in the beginning of the scene before the music starts so editing
sound will be added on. As well as direct eye contact with the camera as my
chosen song is quite slow and purely based on a heart broken/ guilt character
so in order for it to be a successful music video it is very important to have
strong emotions and this is shown best when the character is speaking directly
to the viewer.
Drake Ft Rihanna
Take care
The start
of the song is with a piano beat with a medium wide shot shows a slow motion of
a person falling, as you can see their hands up in the air with dust flaring up
and bits of pieces of paper which makes it come across that they may be falling
into water or just on something that has just broken which would explain the
material flaring up. As the music is still slow but then carries on when the
bird is flying off. The camera is held still at both moments but it’s just the
movement in the scene going off the edge of the screen.
It then changes to a cold scene where there are clouds covering the view but as
the camera moves into it you can see the icy scenery of the mountains and then
the scene changes to a girl in white in a studio with a grey swerved background
and then the camera zooms out of her. This is a smart technique as it creates
questions to what the link is between the two scenes of zooming in and out
motion, in the viewer’s eyes.
In this video as soon as the
rapping starts there is a close up on drake whilst he’s rapping, to show his
facial expressions as it’s a mixture of emotions but as soon as he looks at the
camera he doesn’t look back at it, this may be because he’s explaining how he
didn’t care what people said and he couldn’t face the truth or because he’s in
denial about it. There are various shots
angles as well as medium shots and long shots to get the whole body language.
During this the lighting changes according to his words and emotions and body
language so the more Drake jumps from one side to another the background turns
darker each time. However there are many shots where the camera zooms in to
Drake and then switches to Rihanna where it has her in the same posture and
then zooms out of her. A good thing about the video is that the angles on drake
change according to the beat of the song and the words. This way it looks as if
he’s showing you how he feels, which it is as not only is he just singing but
he’s also acting it out as he remembers it all perfectly and rather than
showing the audience a flashback he’s visualised it through the narrative as a
monologue. The part where it says “look me in my eyes” there is a shot of the
bird and its eyes open, this can come across as Rihanna’s free like a bird
which is why every time Drake speaks to her it refers back to the bird. There
are a lot of slow motions used but this may be to support the gloominess every
time the song takes a turn and goes slow. It also has a bit of a mime dancer to
reflect the African themed music and as soon as the beat goes faster the scene
changes from the cold mountains to a burning forest and the speed at which the
scenes keep changing from one to another gets much faster.
In this video there are many angles
used and as soon as the beat gets faster the repetition of angles increase as
well as the change in different scenes. This is this songs best feature and
something I might consider to extract as it does work pretty well, especially
because I’m looking to do a bit of the narrative. The zoom in and out feature
was also a good one as it creates thoughtful links, as one scene is finishing
off another. The fast pace of the song and switching angles every time the beat
kicks in is what actually gets the song going as the image supports the sound
therefore gets the viewer more attracted and pulled into the video to watch it
more. The narrative part is a feature I will definitely be subverting into my
music video as the rapping allows the character to get direct eye contact with
full emotions out to its audience. The target audience for this Hip Hop &
R&B genre is young adults so from early teens to mid 20s as it’s the age
young people are most likely to enjoy listening to music genres such as this.
Jay Sean
Sex 101
The video
starts off with multiple shots of people saying sex 101 and the screens switch
to a difference person every time the phrase changes from sex to 101. The video
then shows a car pull up in front of a house which is followed by an
establishing shot to show the location. This is the front porch of a house. This
is to get the audience a feel of the type of area, as it seems privately
residential, showing that it is quite expensive and a quite area where there’s
no one passing by. As Jay Sean then gets out of the car the camera pans from
right to left and as he walks up to the stairs you start to get a better view
of the house but there is a match on action as he enters. It then shows a
ladies point of view as she sees him come in this shot is blurred but the
purpose of it is to get the audience to know that there is a women in the room
at the entrance as he passes through the next door and there’s a lady in the
pool. It then switches to the next scene which is in a different location, most
likely a studio where it’s just him and his mistress who he is singing the lyrics
to. It then goes back to him entering the room where there is an extreme close
up on the vodka bottle and the camera then zooms out of it to show another girl
sat with it, and the fact that its empty, which was one of the reasons to the
extreme close up, shows she must be really tipsy and then the scene goes back
to the studio with Sean and his mistress and then shows the girl licking vodka
off olive, that he then gets excited over. But the camera then pans from over
the lady on the sofa and tilts far away and down to show yet another girl
standing at the back. The camera then goes back on to Sean where you see him
checking someone out and as soon as he comes out of the frame on the left
another girl enters from the right. The fact that she’s wearing a very
seductive one piece suit which is half netted and is carrying a wiping stick
gives the audience an idea that Jay Sean may just be a pimp or he just isn’t
able to control his desires but has his mistress who he loves at the same time.
The use of having tyga pop up in the living room as a music rapper from the
ground is a good technique as he just describes what Sean is already seeing the
two girls on the bed do and although he’s not really there he technically is as
he does know what is going on like when he says “get you high when I’m going
low” he points his fingers to show a narrative action but then the scene goes
to the two lesbians on a bed going up and down one another. In the video there
is a running of the part where he is with his mistress but shows a lot about
what Jay Sean in his own time does.
Overall from
the video there are some good editing techniques used and some really useful
camera shots and techniques that I could think of using in my video such as the
one of Tyga popping up mid way of the song and the shots where Jay Sean is on
the bed looking directly at the camera and singing, but then there’s that blur
effect on the edges so it’s just focusing on him and the two ladies next to him
however I didn’t like the shot of where he’s sitting on the bed and is looking towards the camera in front and
singing but the angle it is taken from is a side shot, this is because you can
tell he’s singing to another camera however if he was just looking around even
if it was a side shot I wouldn’t mind it, but my preference wouldn’t be to use
what is in that particular scene. I wouldn’t use the repetitive technique in
the beginning of the multiple face shots either as I think it’s more
interesting to go straight into the movie although I understand why it’s been
done as those are the main characters throughout the video. In this video women
are portrayed as a sex object but this is obvious as they are all in lingerie,
heels and stockings and happy to serve any man who comes in their way, and the
song is based on sex one on one, but this term is the referral for Sean singing
it to his mistress which is why he only says it in the scenes his with her, but
its contradicting the question of love as he says sex 101 because he has so
many ladies with him who are ready to make love on the same sheets as he plans
to sleep with his mistress on.
The target
audience for this video I would say would be young adults from aged 17 and
above as to understand the role of Jay Sean in this video you would have to be
quite mature, in order to understand loyalty in relationships. However an age
group too old would find this a little too explicit as it’s known as ‘pimping’
and quite unacceptable as cheating on your partner isn’t quite fair, it’s
unfaithful.