Case StudyTrey Songz – Foreign

Produced by Soundz & The Insomniaks

Released May 13th 2014

Synopsis

The song Foreign is basically about how Trey Songz, the artist, loves foreign women. The song is him surrounded by different exotic women, who represent the foreign element of the song. The video is a shot at various locations and begins with a silent scene but the main scene is on a set with a backdrop.

The Video

The video is mainly performance based as they use scenes that shows that they are actually on set filming. There is also a lot of lip synching and interacting with the camera, for example, there are scenes of the females getting ready on set and the set design with all the cameras and lighting. Also there is singing towards the camera and indicators that show that they know the camera is actually there.

The Video

There is a small scene at the beginning which I think links to another music video. This small scene has rapid cuts of Trey in a car and then a woman crying and ripping things up. This part is in black and white seems completely separate to the actual concept of the song. Its more emotional and has a deeper meaning. The mood changes when Trey Songz wake up in bed and there is upbeat casual music playing which is not actually part of the song. Trey goes to the kitchen and there are 3 females there who begin to serve him and feed him. Also at this point in the video the colour begins to come back which shows the better mood of the video.

Camera Angles & Editing The video begins with a long shot of the car, this could be to show his wealth

as another shot of the car is used later in the video.

Flash cuts are used in scene between the woman crying and Trey Songz driving fast, this could be done to match his speed and build up tension to the mystery of what the opening scene is actually about.

Also in the opening scene there is a close up of the heart chain on the women's neck and then her ripping it off, this could represent their break up.

There is then a cut to Trey in a large bed alone, waking up, implying that maybe he was dreaming.

During the kitchen scene the camera pans around to show the whole set and Trey walking in.

Camera Angles & Editing A medium-long shot is used of a female feeding Trey over the counter in the

kitchen scene. This is used to show the set and other females in the scene, which suggest that he gets a lot of females. Also in this shot is the beats pill and this is used for promotion.

An over the shoulder shot was used where the woman at the front of the shot was out of focus but the female in the background was in focus, keeping the attention on her.

The camera is done as a point of view angle as it walks through the make up area and all the girls look at the camera as if it’s real and smiles or waves and poses. This is to show their attractiveness and match Trey Songz lyrics, “I’ve seen your Instagram but you look better up in person”.

Once the song has actually started, various shot types are used e.g. medium shot, during the set scenes.

Mise en Scene The beginning of the song is in black and white, which is used for the deeper

scene that seems like his dream.

The kitchen set is quite large and the females are dressed in t-shirts, vests and shorts. This is to make them seem sexy and convince the viewers that foreign girls are better.

The main set is basically a blank backdrop that is lit up with different colours, such as blue or orange and the colours represent different countries and the variety of foreign girls.

The girls are dressed in suggestive and racy outfits.

Also other scenes include a scene in a club and in a hot tub.

Themes & Representation of the artist The overall theme is just foreign girls and the representation of different

countries through the women.

The video is used to show the attractiveness and beauty that Trey Songz see’s in foreign women.

Trey Songz is represented as the ladies man as he is shot together with the different women. As an artist Trey is already known like that so this could be to show that he is loved by women and also loves women internationally.

Post-Modernism

This music video does not have many post-modern elements because it follows a story and sticks to a time sequence. For example the beginning starts with a link into a previous video where he cheated on his girl with multiple females and it carries on from him waking up in the foreign music video, so this shows that it’s following his life time sequence. If it was post-modern then we would expect a mixture of the time sequences. The video is also very simplistic and mainly uses bold coloured backdrops for it.

Target Audience & Applying this to my video

I think the target audience are young adults because the beat is young and the song is more relatable to younger people.

I also think that this is more appealing to males because of how the females are dressed and the fact that the song is from a male point of view.

I like the simplicity of this music video as it is mainly done on a simple set with different lighting.

I like the idea of the colours on the backdrop, it draws more attention the artist.