Textual analysis of Plan B-Writing's On The Wall

In class we analysed this music video for which i have created a textual analysis. From this I found the different ways Mise-en-Scene can be used to help aid the narrative and create symbolic meaning throughout the video. I will use this to help me produce a more visually effective music video.

Visual codes
The big crowd and live performance show the artist is at a concert while the woman is at their house which has a very classic 80s style to it. Also the female's hairstyle, clothes and role as a housewife follow the stereotypical presentation of an 80s woman. The lighting is quite low key with dominating colours of blue and black throughout most of the video on the male which have connotations of sadness and negativity whereas on the female they are much lighter. Also the female wears yellow reflecting her positive character and contrasting with the black clothing of the artist reflecting is bad male character. The sign at the start of the video uses typography to show he is playing at a concert and also the text "sold out" highlights how popular he is. The most key shot composition is the way the artist is portrayed mostly with low angles unlike the female character who is seen with high angles to reflect his sense of power compared to her.
Technical codes
There are various shots used of the instruments being played and singing back up singers at the concert which creates a fictional band for the artist to show he is playing live. The camera keeps still or tracks he artist during the majority of the his shots which mirrors the sense of him being watched by the audience as if they were at the concert themselves. With the female character however the camera pans and tilts often in her shots which highlight him as the centre of attention because the camera focuses mostly on him. The cuts throughout the video have been edited so there are more on the artist than on the woman to highlight his importance as the star but also last longer on her than on the artist. This gives the effect that the fast paced editing with Plan B reflects his time passing fast because he is having fun whereas the slow paced editing mirrors the slow passing time to his partner at home.
Genre
The genre of the music video is Soul Pop which follows the common genre of the artist. Because of the genre of music it is expected there would be a romantic theme with various relationship issues, which is how the narrative works. Also shots which focus on the artist as the star of the video would be expected from this clip. The other woman is an unexpected element of the video because commonly in Soul the artist would be singing about their own love problems and not that of others. There are no visual intertextual references however there is a link in the lyrics o Stevie Wonder's superstitious with the lyrics 'writing's on the wall'.
Narrative
The video follows a narrative about a woman at home who is waiting for her partner, played by Plan B, but he doesn't come home because he is cheating on her with another woman. The theme of the video is of trust issues and a tense love relationship. Only the first 3 stages of Equilibrium, disruption and recognition from Todorov's theory can be seen in this video. There are three main recognisable characters in the video's narrative which are the villain (male and second female), the hero (female) and the false hero (also the male). The video reflects the lyrics 'we ain't over but the writing's on the wall' by its way of reflecting how the relationship isn't over yet for the couple but something bad is about to happen.
Organisations
The record company for this song's album is 'The Defamation Of Strictland Banks' which included Plan B's fictional character Strictland Banks as the protagonist of the video to help promote the album.
Audience
The video is aimed at a young adult audience by the use of young adult characters and the location of a club, commonly associated with young adults. By the formal clothing of the characters, style of the scenery (e.g. the artists home) and music genre it would more likely be targeted at a middle class audience and possibly would be more appealing to people going through relationship issues.
Representation
In terms of representational issues the male is seen negatively as he is out having fun and cheating on his partner whereas the female is seen as a positive character by the way she is working away in the kitchen and the audience is made to feel sorry for her. There are also common stereotypes shown in the video with the female located in the kitchen and male out working. The artist had been constructed to look like a celebrity by the live performance in front of big crowds and being among many people to show his popularity.