3 Professionally Produced Music Videos (Bryson Tiller- Don't)

Artist- Bryson Tiller

Song- Don’t

Date- Released 20^th August 2015 (Official Video) 

Producer- Dope Boi Beatz

       Synopsis- This song is mainly about Bryson explaining to a girl and her man his perspective on what he sees in their relationship. However, he wants to prove that he is the right one next in line for her. He will show her what no other man has shown her, including her current man. The word “Don’t”, has a double meaning. The first meaning is that Bryson doesn’t want her to continue making the mistake of staying with him. The other meaning is that, he doesn’t want the man to keep on mistreating his lady, as he really doesn’t know what he really has until it is gone.

Conceptual, Narrative or Performance? – Performance and Conceptual:

      The song doesn’t have a set narrative although the lyrics really tell the story. The video is mainly for performance purposes such as lip synching and shots of many different locations. The variety of different locations for different shots are good to keep the audience entertained. We seem to be exploring Bryson’s world and not everyday society. We see bright lights such as the tunnel and outside the store and dark environments such as alleyways and the bedroom. The conceptual idea mostly comes in the whole duration of the video. We have the girl, who the lyrics refer to. She is shown mostly in the video, as it is only her and Bryson that are in the video. The man that Bryson keeps on referring to, isn’t there, but looking at how attractive the girl is, there wouldn’t be a need as the lyrics seem to be strong enough to send this idea to the audience.  

Camera Angles:

·         Close Up

·         Low Angle Shot

·         Establishing Shot

·         Long Shot

     

    Through a range of establishing shots, we are able to view the environment that Bryson like to be in. The environments seem to be isolated as when we view the street that he is on, we rarely see people around him, which could suggest the impression he is trying to make towards the girl. He seems to be acting more as an introvert rather than an extrovert. Although we have close ups, we merely see his face clearly, which could suggest that he has an ulterior motive. This could also link to the lighting in the video (mostly dark). We have a low angle shot of the girl which implies that she has power over the opposite genders (Bryson being male). Her superiority comes from the fact that males will fight over her and she would be deemed by the audience as innocent when she seems to have a sense of conniving traits.

Editing Techniques:

·         Pulling Focus

·         Cutting Rate is Slow

·         Reverse (Cars Driving Backwards)

·         Fade To Black

     

      The pulling focus is used to emphasise the importance of the girl in the background. Although she is far, the editing technique allows her to look bold for the audience to see. This also helps with the Mise En Scene, her clothing. Bryson is blurred out once the girl is the main focus. Also, cars are more in the opposite direction (reversed) which could suggest the type of world they are in. It may be that they are in their own world or could suggest that they block out the odd world.

Mise-En-Scene:

·         Focuses on her facial expressions/Face (Lips)

·         Locations; Alleyway, Tunnel, Outside the Store, Apartment/Bedroom, Staircase (White, High Key), Park, Highroad.

·         Never set in the day, always dark but in some scenes, it will contain lighting.

      The clothing on the girl is mainly of a white colour which connotes an angelic and flawless trait. However, the male seems to be trying to attract the opposite gender, wearing the stereotypical clothing on a hip hop rapper (Hat, Sneakers and T-Shirt). The locations of the video seem to be very isolated and dark, with the minority of locations having some sort of light. For example, the staircase where the girl is located is very light, which connotes that she is the light and the positive path for Bryson.

Selected Themes and Motifs of the song:

·         Love

·         Relationship

·         Jealousy

Lip Syncing: Mainly, in the video, Lip syncing can be visualised instead of heard. It is used to mainly highlight the lyrics that should mean a lot in the song. For example, “his loving ain’t the same”, “if you were mine, you would top everything”. It gives the lyrics a sense of authority. One thing to point out is the fact that the title of the song is not lip synced once throughout the video.

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

1.       Dark scenes would really show some sort of isolation.

2.       A sense of mise en scene, that links with lyrics and themes of songs.

3.       It should also link to the traits the character is seen to have.