Case study 3: Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You

Research / case studies

Director: Diane Martel.

Title: If I Ain’t Got You.

Date: February, 2004.

Summary

The single's music video is set in New York City and features rapper-actor Method Man as Alicia Keys' then boyfriend. Alicia Keys sings about her love for her boyfriend and that she doesn’t need luxury or possessions from her boyfriend she just simply wants him.

Video concept

The video concept is to show the world that there is more to a relationship than just gifts and money. In her lyrics she says “Some people want diamond rings, some just want everything
But everything means nothing, If I ain't got you”. This is the artist telling us that she just wants a pure relationship of true love, she also states the way relationships are all about financial things and the fairy tale life seen in weddings and marriage instead of starting with the root of love first and then building, gaining and receiving everything else as a bonus.  I think this is a video to open couples or even people that are single eyes up to the big and better things in a relationship.

Themes and motifs/ Target audience

In the video Alicia Keys is shown as a working class woman that strictly adores and devotes her heart to her boyfriend and shows him her appreciation for him by not asking for anything but his love and loyalty. The video shows this by them living together in a home in a block of flats, with only a few pieces of furniture and as a gift he gets her a piano it doesn’t look as an expensive piano but she still happy with it by playing and singing with it all the time. Alicia Keys in the video is seen wearing casual clothes such as a plain jumper, jeans, boots and a winter jacket she doesn’t seem to dress in an expensive way and as if she cares about material things. I don’t think she has a specific gender I think it target both males and female audiences of all ages. The video itself is very simple and calming I think it connotes the idea of the relationship the artist sings to us about.

Camera

The video opens with an extreme close up shot with Alicia Keys playing the piano but in the background there an introduction of the keys/notes being played on the piano in the song. This helps to emphasise the opening of the piano being played and it also makes it seem realistic. The extreme close up draws the audience eyes onto the piano which we then know is the key instrument inside the video. The camera then, pans up to the artist face showing a close up shot as she beings singing the opening of the song. This helps to show feelings and emotions through facial expression of how the artist is feeling or what the song holds which is something personal to her, she sings with her eyes close with generates the emotions and as if she is really attached to the lyrics. The camera pan down from the top of the building to the bottom this shows us the location and helps the audience to have more of an understanding of where everything takes place. The camera shows a wide shot of the artist top of a roof of a building playing the piano, we can see many other building in the background as well the fact that there’s no one else around her makes it more personal and nothing is around her only the piano connotes the simplicity of her relationship and the life she lives. The camera pans up from Alicia Keys feet with her boyfriend in a flat hallway which doesn’t look like anything fancy gives us an idea of where they live. Throughout the video you see extreme close ups of Alicia Keys fingers touching or playing the Piano as well as close ups of her face. A long shot of the couple in an empty house giving each other a passionate kiss connotes that they don’t need anything else but each other. We see a close up of her boyfriends face and that’s an effective shot because it like we as an audience are seeing him through her eyes. The camera focuses on an extreme close up of Alicia Keys wearing Reebok classics as she is playing the piano, this traditional dressing from someone of the working class.

Mise en scene

This video is set in New York City, but only uses a couple locations such as on top of a roof in the city, for example, the long shot of Alicia Keys playing the white piano she was lonely and by herself it helps to keep the audience focussed on the lyrics of the song and not get distracted, also, it connotes the type of relationship she has the fact that it is peaceful and simple. The empty house, for example, when the artist and her boyfriend were kissing the fact of it being just them two in the shot makes the audience have their full attention on them and it also shows the lifestyle they live together and helps to emphasise the lyrics of her song about he is the only thing she really cares about. In the bedroom the couple look calm, relaxed in love.  Lonely streets more focus on Alicia Keys, For example, at the end when she is waiting for him.

Editing techniques

The editing techniques are only cuts throughout the whole video it’s just cuts but it isn’t seem as an boring video because the cuts when they were have an argument were put in really quickly for each shot which builds tension for the audience. The fact that its simple editing techniques used connotes the fact of having simply things and still being beautiful just like Alicia Keys and her boyfriend’s relationship.

Ideas for my music video

I like the opening of this video, my group and I wanted to have the artist playing the piano but in a lonely black room, I chose this video because Alicia Keys opens the video with an extreme close up of her playing the piano introduction.  The opening of Delilah – insecure (my group and I chosen song) has a introduction of the piano being played just like this song even though the meanings of each song are different the topic about love is the same that why I choose to research this song.