“ill Manors” by Plan B

CAMERAWORK

The video is filmed with heavy amounts of handheld, which gives it a gritty/guerrilla style ethic to it. I find this is a very active and fascinating style to watch, and it fills the frame with life, so therefore I’d like to transfer this frenetic energy over to my video. The imperfectness of the way it is shot, with instances of unwanted soft focus, reinforces that sense of realism. Especially because my video’s content isn’t as aggressive as Plan B’s, this method of film would give me an opportunity to squeeze as much interest from every shot, hopefully.

CAMERA SHOTSIn this video we see a lot of

establishing shots which is imperative, because this video is very specific to London, so that must be conveyed. That importance of place recognition is another trait I want in my piece, so I shall be having lots of these shots to anchor the location and show the characters on their journey from suburbia to countryside.

I also noticed in Plan B’s video a minimal use of close-ups, and this detaches us from the contents and themes; perhaps to convey the feelings of separation felt by those kids, and so this is a not video of warm and friendly empathy. Because my video has themes of romance, I would need to go in the other direction and have more close-ups to enable the viewer to feel the emotions better. Feel the love, basically.

ARTIST REPRESENTATIONThe video has a performance

by Plan B as its central element. He gesticulates and gurns at the camera to project the disgust and anger in him towards the things he raps about. He is filmed at eye-level, as we are put eye-to-eye with him, and so his persona comes across as aggressive, maybe even intimidating. This is a common character found in the rap genre.

I, on the other hand, won’t have my artist in the video, therefore his persona will have to be conveyed by the song and video. My video is quite chilled, therefore my characters will be quite chilled as a result.

LOCATION Rap music is intrinsically linked with inner-city areas, and this video is no different. Confined to dank London council estates, just from the locations we can connote the obvious meanings on show. The working class areas reflect the working-class bravado of the song, and the inherited resistance that comes with being working-class. We also see central London in the distance; which, in this case, signifies the alienation of the kids from the city “rich boys”.

Just like “ill Manors”, our use of location will represent the mood of the piece. Whereas Plan B’s is a atmosphere of urban grit, ours is more tranquil when it arrives at the romantic fantasy of a plush, green forest. But, like “ill Manors”, on the boy’s journey, his mood is downbeat as he looks for his girl, and so the locations will be grimy urban towns and grey motorways.

MISE en SCENEWhat Plan B’s video and my

video will have in common is the use of natural lighting. This lends us the feeling of authenticity, because we are on location and so more believable.

I’d like to think that his video is the ruffian brother of our video. I say this because the general feel of how its shot will be similar, but the content and themes will be different. His is full of dark grey colours with urban clothing, while ours will edge primarily to lighter tones with hipster clothing.