The track I’m choosing for my third music video idea is ‘He Wasn’t Man Enough’ by Toni Braxton. I chose this song because of it’s fusion of R&B and pop and also the lyrics offer a good story (narrative) to base the music video on.
My artist is a R&B artist who is strong and empowered, she is known for diva star image. She also can do either slow and more soft R&B music and up-tempo R&B. She is a diverse artist who can either do emotional ballads and R&B/Pop music. In order to find similar artist like my artist I looked at artists that did both emotional ballads and up-beat songs. I chose Whitney Houston, who is known for her emotional ballads (such as ‘I Will Always Love You’) and for her upbeat R&B/Pop music (such as ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody).
For the setting of the music video, I thought that it should take place in a country club (or a hotel/mansion), a location that looks like an expensive exclusive hotel. The music video, will be shot in various locations in the ‘hotel’ , this includes: a restaurant (in the hotel); a VIP suite (a white room with decadent furniture and materials, such as furs, etc…); A gentlemen’s cigar room (a warm, wooden library / ‘smoke room’); an oriental inspired bar (a club or bar that has Japanese design (for example, a sushi bar, etc….) and lastly a pool (a landscaped outdoor area, with fountains and pools).
At some points throughout the video I want there to be a choreographed dance sequence involving the singer and sometimes just the dancers. After researching online I found a clip of two dancers dancing to the track. I really liked their choreography because it was expressive but not to erratic or busy. Below is an attached clip of the choreography I would like to incorporate into the music video.
The narrative of the music video basically shows the singer to be living an extravagant and glamorous life, after she broke up with her ex boyfriend. It shows her living a good life and doing well for herself after their breakup. In the music video we see her dressed lavishly. There are also some scenes, like in the restaurant where she is dining with another man and her ex is watching at her from another table, with his new girlfriend sitting next to him. We can see that the new girlfriend of the ex does not like the singer because she is jealous; to which the singer replies in the first verse “Don’t you know that he was my man? / But I chose to let him go / So why do you act like I still care about him?”.
The music begins and it to starts with the singer walking into a dinning room (in the hotel), the windows are open and the wind is blowing the white curtains.
The restaurant is full with people, and many people glance at her (because she is famous and glamorous), as she walks through the restaurant, this is the first moment we see her ex gazing at her because he is shocked to see her. She walks through a hallway and past a reception area and then enters it into an elevator. During this period I want close ups of her shoes (high heels) close ups of her body, but no camera shots of her face until she begins singing.
This is a photo of my sketch, this is how I imagined her walking in
During the intro she is wearing a white one piece bathing suit, with some cut out openings on the bathing suit; she is also wearing white high heels; a large white sun hat and a white semi-transparent scarf she has on her arm. The only thing different are her large framed black glasses.
After she gets into the elevator and steps out of it, it cuts to her in a large white room, with fur carpets and over-the-top furniture and materials (it is very decadent),
She is in bed singing and also sings while stretched on a white chaise-lounge chair.
When she is on the bed she is just wrapped in fur blankets and fur scarves.
She also wears a white fur jacket when she is on the chair.
The rest of the music video is just shots of her in different outfits in different locations, and the scenes just cut into each other, changing from shot to shot.
In one scene, she is in a ‘gentlemen’s cigar room’, she sings whilst siting on a leather sofa, she also smokes and holds a cigar in the scene.
The next scene is her in an opium style den room, the atmosphere is slightly smokey and this is also when we see her and the back-up dancers perform the choreography.
She wears a blue sequin jumpsuit, with a hoodie in this scene.
Below I sketched my idea of what I would like her to wear
In this scene her outfits changes between the blue sequin jumpsuit and a gold fringe dress.
In the next scene the doors of the dinning room open and she walks in wearing a flowing red gown, she is seated at her table and is on a date.
This makes both her ex and her ex’s girlfriend evidently jealous. The singer exchanges a few glances with her ex’s new girlfriend.
To taunt her even more, the singer stands up rips the bottom of her dress, to make it into a short red dress.
She then gets onto the table and continuous the choreographed dance; the other back up dancers get on top of other tables and join her in the dance.
In the last location she is beside a pool lying on a sun bed.
I want to have shots of the outdoor pool area and landscape.
Additionally, I would like shots of the singer in front of the pool with the back-up dancers.
She continues singing. Here she wears a turquoise sun dress and a silver neckless.
Throughout the song her outfits and locations change from one to the other. It finishes with her by the pool, lounging with the back up dancers, she puts on her glasses, when she says the last line “He wasn’t man enough for me”, the song then ends and cuts to black.
Stylistic elements I would include would be the choreographed dance moves, which highlight the fact that she is a powerful woman, who is independent and does not need a man, which conveys the message of the video. She also is seen dressed in leather and with a jacket covered in bullets, whilst in a ‘gentlemen’s cigar room’ smoking a cigar; this is subversive because it shows her in an environment, generally associated with men, which emphasises her strong nature.
The video fits with the track because it does show the tension between the singer and the ex’s new girlfriend, which is mirrored off the lyrics : “ Stop blamin' me / He wasn't man enough for me / If you don't know now here's your chance / I've already had your man”. The song is about how she is moved on and doesn’t care for him, and by showing her life as fun and happy, it emphasises the fact that she is moved on. Her avant-guard style (glamorous clothing) and expensive taste suggests that she is enjoying life and is successful after she broke up with the man.
The video fits with the star image of the artist because it shows her as being in control and in power and also the outfit and location changes express her ‘Diva’ image.
No comments:
Post a Comment