Genre Specific Analysis: Plan B

Praying

This video visually links to its song lyrics literally rather than representationally, it also uses stereotypical generic dancing in the background to make it feel more like a music video. This tells a dark story about murder, forgiveness and betrayal. In this shot we see a scary looking man looking at himself in the mirror in his prison cell. This could represent him looking at himself and reflecting on his actions as most people do in prisons. The low key lighting sets the atmosphere of the video to be a dark one.

In this shot, we literally see him praying which goes with the current lyrics at that time as he sings about begging in the song. This video is one that features the singer as the protagonist in the narrative of the music video. This links the song closer together with the video and makes it fit into some stereotypical/ gender music video archetypes (to have the singer in the video). The white painting in the background of this shot connotes innocence and that the man in the shot is innocent and may be in prison for the wrong reasons. 

In this shot, we see him again but this time the mis en scene make him appear darker so that as a viewer we may see him to be darker than he seems in terms of personality, his silhouette almost makes him look suspicious. the light in the corner represents hope and innocence, the light at the end of the tunnel. If you look closely you can see that he looks as almost as if he relies on it as it's what he needs to get him through a tough place like prison.

In this shot, we see a dark silhouette of an officer over looking the men doing sports. This makes him look dark to add to the story as it makes it seem as if they are in the wrong compared to the prisoners that are wearing white connoting innocence. The fact that he is higher up shows his authority to those below him and his power over these strong looking men below him.

In this shot we see the prisoners lifting weights and making them look fierce and tough but their white outfit and lighting of the shot suggests otherwise. The song hints at angels and one of the lyrics says 'but then this angel appeared out of the dark', in other words, another cell mate came and saved him and took 'the blame' for him. This relates to this shot as the prisoners look angelic in the lighting and clothes are angels are seen in the light with white clothing.

In this shot we see the singer get interrogated by the investigators for something he may have done, this adds to the narrative of the music video. This infers that it's a big case that hasn't been solved yet and he wants to get out of it as badly as he can. The dark suits the investigators are wearing make them seem like they are dark characters. The grey that the singer is wearing is a mixed black and white (grey) which are shirt colours seen throughout the video. This could represent that that he is both good and bad, it also makes him stand out as he has a different shade of clothing to the rest of the inmates. 

In this shot we see him standing in the light almost as he is walking into heaven. This video has a lot of themes of heaven and hell and I think the prison represents hell and the outside is heaven. It's about someone taking the blame so the protagonist can go to heaven as the other inmate is in the prison for life (the song gives this information which adds to the narrative and religious themes).

In this long shot, we then see the inmates revolting against the prison as it looks like they either want to change how things are run or they are trying to create a distraction to let the singer out. They could be tired of praying for something to change and wanted to take action (from whats in the lyrics). This revolt adds to the narrative by making the video seem as if it's about two sides. The mis en scene which shows just black and white links to the idea of two sides (light and dark).

This shot is effective as we have the shots of the bars which is what you expect to see in a prison showing/ confirming their location. Also for the first time you see some colour, the little red light in the distance connotes danger and anger like the inmate's anger towards the officers and this connotation helps foreshadow the fight that's about to go down.

In this shot we see someone fighting to get out of the hands of the officers but you don't know who it is which is a bit of a cliff hanger for the viewer as you don't know who paying for the crime and whether the kind heart of one of the inmates taking the blame for the protagonist or whether it's the protagonist. This is dramatic as he is dragged towards the light as if that the closest thing to sunlight and hope he is going to get for a long time. Also, the silhouettes in the shot make everything seem a lot darker.

This is genre specific as its got a thriller aspect to it and a narrative that follows with the lyrics visually. The themes about 'praying' and 'murder' and the scenes such as good and bad, and hope are themes I want to show in my video.