G324 - Plan B: Writing's On The Wall Textual Analysis

Plan B's music video for his single Writing's On The Wall is a combination of a performance and narrative video due to the intermittent clips of him performing the song throughout the video which are contained within a story.

The video appears to be an R&B or deep soul video which reflects Plan B's music genre. After switching between soul, hip hop and R&B, Plan B began encompassing the genres together, shown through this heavily R&B dominated piece with some soul aspects thrown into the mix. The typical narrative of R&B videos focus on the themes of failure and success in terms of relationships, economics and aspirations. Failure of relationships is the theme which dominates this Plan B video as well as featuring aspects of

the success of aspirations, shown through the musical success of Strickland Banks, the character that Plan B appears as within the video. It is commonplace for R&B artists to appear within their own videos, however it is uncommon for them to be presented as a character rather than appearing as themselves. The performance shots of Plan B within the video are expected due to them being a recurring visual within Plan B's videos. The theme of adultery has also come to be expected within his videos due to their dominance within his music. It has also come to be expected that Plan B will subvert the norm of R&B videos and will take the place of a character within the story being created for the video. The title of the song itself is a loose intertextual reference to the song "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder.

The video's narrative is a section from the much larger story Plan B created surrounding Strickland Banks. Plan B has been constructed to represent the fictional character of Strickland Banks, a famous British soul-singer who is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. This story is spread across the entirety of his second album "The Defamation of Strickland Banks". The story follows Strickland Banks as he sleeps with a young woman as part of a one-night-stand who later claims to love him. However, due to his lack of interest she attempts revenge by telling the police that he raped her. Despite the false allegations, Strickland Banks is arrested and imprisoned. Banks struggles with prison life and keeps being assaulted, leading to him killing another inmate. New evidence is brought up in his case towards the end of the CD but it is left unclear as to whether Strickland Banks remains in prison or is released.

The video tackles representation of gender through the adulterous ways of Strickland Banks. It stereotypically presents women as being weak and emotional through the scenes of the girlfriend crying and awaiting Banks' return home whilst Strickland Banks is represented as being dominant, strong and driven by lust. This imagery helps to enforce the stereotypical views of women being dependant on men which is common with R&B yet not as common within soul music. However, these representations play a key role in the story created by the album as a whole, presenting Strickland Banks as a seemingly powerful man who is later outwitted by a female. Despite the allegations being false, Banks is incarcerated, reverting the representation of gender and showing females to be more powerful.The video is not a direct reflection of the lyrics but instead a depiction of the story surrounding it.

The record company's (679 Recordings) role within the video was extremely important as they had to help Plan B to ensure that the video fitted the aesthetic of the rest of the videos for the album and stuck to the concept which he had created for continuity's sake. There was also the risk that Plan B could be held accountable for the behaviours and attitudes constructed for the character and therefore the record company had to ensure that this did not happen as it could have impacted sales in a negative way. However, due to being portrayed as Strickland Banks for the duration of the video, there is very little to be found which directly presents Plan B himself. This promotes Plan B as being dedicated to his art form and more interested in creating something artistically beautiful than creating a brand image of himself.  Plan B's music videos are most commonly distributed and accessed through his online YouTube and Facebook pages due to limited music TV
channels that are available in the UK.

The target audience for this video is evidently Plan B's fans due to it being a visual representation for the story being told by the album and therefore the video wouldn't make sense to people who weren't already aware of the album's concept. The main demographic for Plan B's audience is the working class due to his R&B roots however it it possible that since the release of his second album, he also would have gained an audience from the middle class too. This is signified by the crowd shown within the video as well as by Strickland Banks going from his show straight to a club. Fans of Plan B are able to use the video to help build up a picture of the story surrounding Strickland Banks and the video helps to explain the story. Plan b fans are not crucial to the promotion of Plan B due to his online presence and contacts within the industry which are able to promote him as much as necessary.

The video is set in a music venue, a club and a house. The music venue is the setting for Strickland Banks' performance and connotes success and wealth. The club is the setting for the show's after party and connotes wealth, fun and a lack of dignity. The house is the setting for the scenes depicting the women that Strickland Banks has left at home and connotes loneliness and a feeling of entrapment. The show sign at the
beginning of the video introduces us to the character of Strickland Banks and the bold, red typography connotes showmanship and success. There are no obvious of iconography within the video but instead uses interesting shot compositions to help tell the story. For example, at 3:54 Strickland Banks is seen to be kissing a young woman behind black bars. This connotes that what is happening shouldn't be as he is trying to hide in the dark. The body language of the slightly older woman throughout the video connotes her impatience with Strickland Banks, her despair and her loneliness whilst Strickland Bank's body language connotes confidence and passion.

The majority of the cuts within the video are quite long making the editing slow paced. This adds to the story and makes the video appear more like a short film which is what Plan B is trying to achieve. The camera moves at several points within the video which helps the viewer to feel part of the action. The most effective use of camera movement is from 3:04 to 3:07 when the camera tilts up from the work surface covered in
food to the the woman stood over it. This is because it highlights the efforts that the woman has gone to preparing dinner for Banks and dressing up in smart, beautiful clothing for him to simply go behind her back and cheat on her. Another interesting camera shot used is at 0:59 as the camera is angled up the neck of the guitar. This doesn't add much to the story but is a shot which I find aesthetically pleasing and would consider using in my own music video.