Trey Songz – Heart Attack

By Shanaz Ahmed

A head and shoulder shot is used, while he is lying down, emphasising the state he is in, with the editing of receiving flashbacks in black and white. This portrays that he had a heart attack and the memories with his girlfriend are the most dearest to him as it was a time where he was happy. The mise en scene of trees behind them, shows that they are surrounded by nature and they are happy, whereas, they may not have been before he had the heart attack.

The long shot allows the audience to see where he is and establish the setting. The framing is in the middle, of Trey sitting alone and there are props of trees on both sides. This portrays that he is left alone, which is further emphasised by the empty looking room. This matches to the lyrics as it says “never been here before”, which can be interpreted as he was not alone before.

The head and shoulder shot and the mid shot of the two people establishes that the connection between them is not good and they may be having arguments, due to them being far apart and he is looking back at her. The mise en scene of the door behind the girl shows that she may be leaving him. The lyrics used are “we’re in too deep can’t think about giving it up”. This may mean either of them aren’t going to give up and are expecting each other to stop first.

The lyrics used for this scene is “but I never knew love would feel like a heart attack”. The shot of the two people with their heads down shows that they are both hurt, due to what is happening. However, they are not showing each other that they are hurt, and are carrying on with what they are doing.

The close up of his face allows the audience to see how he is feeling and his emotions. It shows that he is crying, which matches to the lyrics as they say “swear I never cried so much”. The black and white effect used in the editing, portrays what happened and it is not presently occurring.

A parallel edit is used of these two scenes. They are both in the bathroom at the same time, but in different places. I like the way the edit is enforced, as it goes back and forth to the both scenes, according to the lyrics when it says “nev-nev-nev-nev-nev-nev-never knew love would hurt this, this bad”. This shows they were affected negatively by it.

The style of this scene emphasises the difference between before and now. A long shot is used to show the setting, which shows the distance between the two people and on the screen behind them, shows how close they used to be. The framing is in the middle, which makes the audience focus on the screen.

The loose close up of the two people allows the audience to see that they are arguing. As the shot is taken from behind, it enables the setting to be shown, which is in the car and he is driving. The lyrics are “And if I lose you, I’m afraid I will lose who, who I gave my love to”, which explains why they are still together, despite the constant arguing. It implies that an event may occur, as his attention is distracted from the road, while driving.

In this part of the music video, a variety of techniques were used together. The pace of the different scenes started increasing, along with showing the different flashbacks and a parallel edit of the two cars coming were shown. This emphasised that something was going to happen, which confirmed with the sound of a crash and the scene was white. I found this interesting as it represented that at present, he is in hospital and all the events that occurred were the past.