Mercury Music Task- Plan B

The Mercury Music Prize nominee I'm going to look at is Plan B and his track Ill Manors.

Plan B has two sides, one which his urban hip-hop/rap side, the other is soulful singing, this song goes with his rap side, the location is in a London estate, grungy and dark, it also contains some narrative. So this track does communicate with Plan B's genre.

A bit of illustrative,amplified and contradicting some occasions it ties in and shows what he is saying, like at the beginning he says urban safari and it shows him a safari jeep. As the song is mainly on about the London Riots there is a lot of clips of police,fighting, estates and urban life. There are parts of narrative throughout, little clips to show the way they life.

There is some editing to the beat, one example is when there is a drop and then someone throws a molotov as it impacts the beat starts again. Some clips do change on the beat of the song, short little snippets of riots and police are shown between the beats.

As Plan B was born in east london around estates he can relate to this video, this video might make some people not respect Plan B as it makes him look like he is in with them and part of the riots. But this video will help Plan B's acting career as he has already been involved in films which are similar to this music video, like Harry Brown and Adulthood. It may also show his political side as he made the video to bring forward the London Riots again and why they were started and whats to happen.

As said I think some people may look at Plan B differently compared to some of his other songs which were slower and not as a 'Aggressive' Throughout he is either looking around him or looking at the camera, which seems threatening, especially when he is sticking his fingers up. I would say there is some voyeurism but then again that's how people see the estates nowadays.


The next song I'm going to do is Plan B- Writing on the wall

This video genre is from Plan B's other side, his more soulful side, this song goes with the soul genre, with various instruments,rhythm and tone, with this songs it's soft and smooth. This tracks goes with some soul characteristics and Plan B's second side. Also the location is a live gig of this song which occured in many other soul videos.

Bit on contradicting and amplified, it is clear that it's about a relationship with is struggling which is clear in the video and some of the lyrics indicate that, such as "try to make it all ok" "Its a waste of time" "This time next year we'll be no more" as he sings this the girl is making dinner and calling him when he says he's just having a few drinks then he'll be home, but he stays out longer and gets with another bird, it's clearly shown through the girls emotions that this isn't going right.

A few jumps with the beat but not many, the music and the visuals don't completely move together.

It still makes Plan B look a little bad, as it is him that doesn't come home to his girlfriend and stays out later with another girl, But the soulful look is a big change in Image for Plan B because he was more of a rapper. His clothing suggests his soulful new look, he doesn't look aggressive as he sings and the close ups are of him singing, the band and the fans dancing.

As said above it gives a bad impression and affects how Plan B is looked at possibly, some people may take the video the wrong way, If you just listened to the song you wouldn't picture it like that. When the camera is on plan b they have this white bright light behind him which gives him an angelic look.


 

Strengths

My practical strengths are editing, especially with After Effects, which is what I prefer to use as you can do a lot more than you can with Final Cut Pro, and I find it easier to use. I'm able to try a lot more things in after effects, I would like to expand what I can do while doing the Music Video project, I want to try 3D camera tracking, transitions and lots of other things, which I may have to do at home. A did the editing and effects in our thriller last year, I created the Peng Cheese Production part, muzzle flash (causing the scene to light up) and the blood bursts.

Kid Cudi- Something Is Wrong Here

Kid Cudi's No One Believes Me doesn't communicate his genre, it doesn't have the stereotypical hip-hop look/feel to it, no parties, gold chains etc. The location is some suburban streets at night, Cudi is walking around as strange things are going on.

This video is a great example of synergy, the reason being is that this is a soundtrack to "Fright Night" a film about when people are going missing in a little suburban town, long story short there's vampires. The location of the video is where the film takes place, which i guess is an example of intextuality as its in the same location. It's synergy because it is promoting Kid Cudi and Fright Night

I'd say the Lyrics & Video are kind of illustrative, he is singing the lyrics while walking through the streets, he sings "I feel like something is wrong here" and "I feel like something is strange here" For example when time he says that there is a little girl standing with blood around her mouth-1:12-1:30.

There isn't much editing to the beat in this video, it sort of just flows with the music flowing in the background.

I don't think there is much demand of the record label either, as the video doesn't fit into his star persona, as through out he is slowing turning into a vampire.

Cudi only looks at the camera once and that's at the end as he walks towards it staring and then bursts into ashes, seems like he's coming for you. But throughout Cudi looks around the scene rather than at the camera, at points he looks past the camera. There's a sense of voyeurism in this video as there's a lot of scenes where you feel you shouldn't seen that, like the people getting bitten, going into people's houses when they are asleep.