Case Study for A2 Media

1. Case Study
Trey Songz – Foreign
Produced by Soundz & The Insomniaks
Released May 13th 2014

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.