3 Professionally Produced Music Videos (Trey Songz- Can’t Help But Wait)

Trey Songz is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and even an actor. The song “Can’t help but wait” peaked a top 20 single place in 2007. Trey has been nominated for Grammy Awards, Soul Train Music Award, BET Awards and the MOBO Award. The song was written by Johnta Austin, Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen. The producer is a Norwegian record producing and song writing team, composed of Tor Erik Hermansen, called Stargate. Can’t help but wait was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the Annual Grammy Awards. The song was released on the 1^st October 2007.

Synopsis of Video ‘Can’t Help But Wait’- This song is mainly about Trey Songz wanting a woman who is being mistreated and abused by her partner. Through the title of the song, we see that Trey has tried to help a lot but he comes to realise that he can’t help, but that he will just have to wait for the right time for when she may leave him or he may leave her. Trey gives examples of what he can do that her partner can’t and won’t do.

Conceptual, Narrative or Performance? – More Narrative and Slightly Conceptual:

The song is very narrative like, with a few things that create the conceptual side. The narrative comes from the fact that the man is really treating the woman wrong and Trey believes that (“Til’ you see that with me it ain’t the same”). This shows that Trey could get this female out of misery and into caring hands. This continues every now and then, as we have the dinner scene where the man aggressively throws his food - that was made for him - on the floor. However, there are scenes that seem to be conceptual, as the woman receives a text message which orders her to come home. This would connote the power the man has from afar. In addition, the text shows that it is not only physically abuse that is hurting her but social abuse (phone).

Camera Angles-

·         Establishing Shot

·         Mid Shot

·         High and Low angles

·         Close Ups

·         Pulling Focus

There are a lot of mid shots and Close ups, which would usually show the raw emotion in the actors. We have a mid-shot of when the woman receives the text from her current partner and her facial expressions show that she seems fed up of being pulled around and ordered. A close up of the woman after she had an argument, shows the emotion she is feeling. She is stunned and hurt by the actions of her partner. Pulling focus is used to identify the main objective that Trey sees, which the woman is. Another use of the pulling focus feature is when Trey and the woman are in the hallway, about to kiss, then the camera focuses on the partner who walks to his door, to see the two very close to each other. This feature could be used to isolate the partner away from Trey and the woman. Finally, there is the use of the high and low angles. The high angle is used for the woman to connote weakness whereas the low angle is used for the partner, to connote his superiority, which is used in the wrong way.

Editing Techniques-

·         Dolly

·         Shot Reserve Shot

·         Slow motion

·         Montage of flashback

·         

Slow motion is used to show the type of girl that Trey pictures her as. The slow motion connotes actions of fascination. Also, the Dolly allows the action to switch from one room to the other. It makes it seem like the two rooms are connected, which signifies the fact that Trey can hear the abusive behaviour going on and that he is the closest to it and is also affected by it. Furthermore, the montage of flashbacks is used to create the mind-set of what Trey sees when the couple fight in the street. The montage allows the audience to see the times that she has been through and the cutting rate speeds up, almost in a shot reverse shot motion.

Mise En Scene- The locations that are mainly used is the woman’s apartment, Trey’s apartment, the restaurant and outside the apartment. The bottle of alcohol/wine in the partners’ house could connote that he may be an alcoholic, which could lead to his actions towards her. The partner is dressed in black, which could connote a dark, cold and heartless side to him, whereas Trey is in a white top with his bandana or his cap, which shows his youth. Being a youth would then connote that he has the mentality to help the woman who is in a bad situation. The woman is in red which could connote that she still has love for the man however, the red could also connote that the man leaves her in tears of blood and heartache, as red can connote both blood and love. The dress sense of the two males in the video are very different as it even has this heroic sense to it. Trey is stripped out in a vest whilst the partner can only be seen wearing black (and sometimes a bit of white).

Selected Themes and Motifs of the Song-

·         Love

·         Abuse

·         Rescuing

Lip Syncing- There are parts of this in the video. During the argument, you can hear words coming from the partner and the woman, however, in other scenes of the arguments, you see lip syncing. Lip syncing is also used when Trey is in the shower, on the balcony and sitting on his bed. It is also used in the restaurant scene, whilst she is departing and lyrics that are lip synced (“You should be rocking the latest in purses, bracelets and watches”).

Ideas That May Come From This Video to My Music Video-  

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       The Dolly used to show the two different rooms, which show how close yet far Trey is away from her.

·         The flashback of montage helps the audience understand the storyline better, which would be a great idea for the theme of the music video I am looking to pitch and produce.