Research and planning: Alicia Keys - It's On Again (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2) ft. Kendrick Lamar

Alicia Keys is an American R&B singer-songwriter, pianist, musician, record producer, and actress, she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001, Billboard magazine placed her number ten on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years. Alicia incorporates piano into a majority of her songs and often writes about love, heartbreak and female empowerment. Keys' style is rooted in gospel and vintage soul music, she also heavily incorporates classical piano with R&B, soul and jazz into her music.

Kendrick Lamar is an American hip hop recording artist, his music has been influenced by many famous rappers including Tupac, Jay-Z and Eminem. 

RCA (Radio Corporation of America) Records is an American flagship recording label. RCA Records is the second-oldest recording company in US history.

'It's On Again' was written for the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack by Keys and Lamar in collaboration with Hans Zimmer, who composed, and producer Pharrell Williams. 

Performance based:

Throughout the music video, it is both narrative and performance based as some scenes show the artists singing (miming) as well as other scenes showing them but not singing and action in the music video showing the narrative:

                                         

Mise en scène:

• Setting and location

The music video is set in New York City, therefore showing the City buildings in the video, creating an urban area/mood. However, it was filmed in Los Angeles

• Costume and make-up

Kendrick Lamar

Alicia Keys

This is the first costume Alicia wears, it consists of a black leather jacket, black tights and a short, tight fitted dress, which links with the dark background of the setting. It connotes mystery. However, it is also keeping it fashionable.

 

This is the second costume Alicia wears towards the end of the music video which consists of a black fitted dress with a long, flowing, green coat which is trendy and stylish, but still keeping the dark colours to fit in with the setting of the video. The green colour of the coat stands out from the very dark-night background. The costume and the setting links to the film The Amazing Spider-man 2 as it is quite dark and one character in the film causes a black out, hence the darkness of the music video. 

Alicia's make-up

The make-up matches the clothes and the setting as the eye make-up is quite dark with the use of black eye shadow, eye liner and mascara. 

Hans Zimmer

              

                                                                          

Zimmer is wearing a black bow tie, white shirt and black blazer as he is the composing, and composers tend to wear suits at a show. It also fits in with the theme of the darkness.

Pharrell Williams

Pharrell is the producer of this music and is therefore shown in it as he is part of the team who participated in this particular video. 

• Sound

Non-diegetic sound is present throughout the music video, which incorporates the artists singing the song.

• Camera work

Lots of fast cuts are used, as it increases the pace of the video as well as matching the genre of the film The Amazing Spider-man 2 which is action. The song itself is fairly fast and therefore the camera movements matches the music. In the beginning of the video, Kendrick Lamar is rapping fast which matches the fast pace of the video. When it cuts to Alicia Keys, she is singing slower which also matches the slow pace of the camera movement in the video.

The very first scene in this music video is an extreme long/wide shot which shows New York City that immediately sets the scene and setting of the music video. 

The music video promotes the artists as well as promoting the film- The Amazing Spider-man 2. As it incorporates certain scenes from the film into the music video:

 

Some scenes in the music video are filmed but then connects to the film as the scenes from the film which are shown, follow on from the previous scene in the music video:

Shown on the left is the scene filmed from the music video, and on the right follows straight after that scene showing the lights in the City shut down.

The same is done here, where Pharrell types in 'reboot' and then it shows a scene from the film where all the lights come back on in the City.