Case study 2: Ashanti - Foolish

Research / case studies

Director: Irv Gotti.

Title: Foolish.

Date: January 2002.

Summary

The song was written by the artist herself Ashanti (girlfriend). In the music video there is a mini video being acted out by Ashanti and Terrence Howard (Henry, boyfriend) giving the audience an inside of the couples’ relationship. The video shows the audience, Terrence being involved into some criminal acts, cheats on Ashanti, which ends up in a break-up after an argument. As the song suggests, Ashanti feels that she still loves her ex and that she just can't seem to get over him and becomes frustrated since her heart and her mind force her to love him and hate him at the same time. In supporting roles we can also see Charli Baltimore, Vita, Ja Rule and Irv Gotti. The video is set in the fashion of the movie ‘Goodfellas’, with Ashanti in the role of Karen Hill and Terrence Howard in the role of Henry Hill. Irv Gotti and Ja Rule are also in a scene appearing to take the roles of Jimmy Conway and Paulie Cicero.

Video concept

The video is meant to show females or males the struggle that people face in a relationship but, help females in relationship to build the courage to walk away if they know they are being mistreated. I think the concept of the video is good because there is a clear understand of what the director point of view that he is trying to make to us as an audience see. I like the plot of the mini video as well they made it seem as a realistic relationship, it starts off with him always treating her with luxury things then as time goes on he starts cheatings on her and they have their arguments, but everything seems realistic as the journey is being shown. I think another concept of the video is about being involved in illegal crime, that is an act under the law and it shouldn’t be ignored or encouraged. The structure of the mini video (flashbacks) within the music video is non-linear structure, it happens in (non chronological order).

Themes and motifs

The representation of Ashanti in the music video, is the role of a girlfriend that lives a casual life and someone that seeks advice from her family and friends. She seems like she is a young age probably early to mid twenties. In the video she is wearing a black, silk dress with a long, low, v-shaped bust cut at the front with an open cut at the back being held up with two thin straps and expensive jewellery. This suggests to the audience that she is an attractive woman that is confident within her and she likes to portray a sexy, saucy look, the colour black connotes that she is elegant and mysterious. Although she seems as an independent female the fact that her boyfriend has everything the top of the range she looks as if she is dressing to be on his level of class. But when they weren’t together she wasn’t dressed as someone with such high class so it makes the audience wonder was she as independent as she gives off or was she really depending on him and overwhelmed with all the luxury. As the video goes on we realise that Terrance is the one with the expensive cars and giving out tips whilst Ashanti is dependent on him who shows traditional views in a relationship to the audiences and we see him giving her a lot of money at once. However, in the music video you only see Ashanti portraying lip synching at the confrontation of the argument with her boyfriend. Throughout the music video she is acting as the role of the girlfriend but in the background she is singing the song lyrics through first person narrative this gives the song more meaning and gives the audience more of what it was like.

Camera

The opening shot of the close up of Terrence and his friend allows the audience to see what type of man Terrence was before he met Ashanti. In this shot he looks like a calm but mysterious male, as an audience we can’t see what class he is but from the costume I suggest a normal working class. Then we see an extreme close up of Terrence giving a staff his car keys from this shot she begin to think he is more than just the working class because it only at high class restaurants  you would give the staff your car keys for him to park the car for you. Then a close up of the couple showing their facial expressions as they are walking into the restaurant, it seem as if Ashanti looks fascinated by it all whilst Terrence looks as if this is his normal life. An extreme close up is shown of Terrance’s hand giving the staff at the door a tip this shows us his wealth and makes us think that he is upper class also, when we see a suitcase filled with money that Terrance is counting. The wide angle shot of the couple at their table helps us to see the view of the restaurant which looks very classy but says he does ”construction” which makes the audience think that’s not the only thing he could be doing to afford such luxury. The close up shot of the couples faces in the argument helps to show the anger and frustration which helps the audience because you can’t hear the tone in their voices. An extreme close up is focused on Ashanti’s diamond ring on her wedding ring suggest that the couple is engaged but she just found out he was cheating. A close up is shown of Ashanti singing to Terrance about leaving him this is a powerful shot because we get to see her gaining her independence back and being strong enough to end the relationship. Then a wide shot is shown of Ashanti on top of Terrance at the same arguing scene which shows her authority over Terrance for the first time throughout the video. The last powerful shot is the extreme close up of Ashanti’s face crying after the break up this show the pain and heart break she is currently dealing with in the present moment.

Mise en scene

The music video is set in America. There are a wide range of locations being shown in the video such as, the car and the high class restaurant this shows use the life Terrance introduced Ashanti to. This helps the audience to have more of an understanding of their relationship and where key thing happened. Another location is in the bedroom this shows that the couple wasn’t only about luxury and spending nights out that they had their times when they stayed at home together and relaxed. The finally location was in a mystery room when Terrance was counting his money and with his friends this connotes the where the money is from and what him and his friends do it’s all a mystery.

Editing techniques

The music video opens with the boyfriend with one of his friends in a car discussing something then fades into black then to Ashanti and Terrence together going into a restaurant. This gives the audience the impression that this is when they started their relationship. We also see an advertisement of a company on a close up shot written in white “Murder Inc” this helps to inform the audience who the video is by which is also branding. Then close up the back of then couple fades to a close up of their faces as they are walking into the restaurant, this shows us the couple from different angles it also shows us the facial expression of both characters Ashanti looks fascinated by it all whilst Terrence looks as if this is his normal life. The camera uses fades inside off cuts for example when it shows us the back of the couple then fades into showing us the front this helps the audience to seem as if they are travelling along with them on their journey. The video uses a freeze then fades to black to another scene the connotation of the freeze helps to show the audience that is the end of that chapter. The video continues to use fades instead of cuts to show the journey of the couple’s relationship. Shot reverse shot is shown when the couple is arguing this helping to showing when a different person is speaking in the conversation especially that there is no dialogue. The music video ends by a freeze on Terrence face and a fade to black with “Foolish” being written. This is a caption and is an important editing technique because it’s the last thing the audience see therefore they would always remember the name of the song and adds to the filmic quality.

Target audience

I think this video or song is targeted to both genders, but I think its primary target audience is traditional couples in a relationship, where the man is supporting the woman because that was the type of relationship Ashanti and Terrance portrayed. I also think it helps to show that even in traditional relationships females can stand alone and have a voice when things go wrong.

Ideas for my music video

This music video is similar to my video ideas because, throughout my music video I would like to show the singer playing the role of the broken hearted girlfriend and I would like to show the couple in chronological order of how their relationship began to the present day. Also, the story in the lyrics are similar because Ashanti in Foolish, is singing about her trust being broken and the song my group and I have chosen is by an artist called Delilah, her song is called Insecure. Her lyrics are similar to Ashanti’s because she talks about her trust being broken and her relationship experience. The editing techniques I have planned for my music video are similar, for example, I would like to use a lot of cuts to show the journey of the couple but I would be using a lot of extreme close up and close up when the camera is just focussed on the artist. Also I like the idea of showing the fades to show the journey of the couples’ relationship and I would be adding that into my editing techniques.