Media
Video- Kanye
West - Black Skinhead (Blkkk SkkkN Head) Official Video
Producers-
Nick Knight, Kanye West
Filmed- New
York, NY – July 22, 2013 – Donda creative house & Founded NY Kanye west
The reason I chose Kanye west as one of my stimulus to analyse was
because, I know in other videos he implements varies techniques in order to
portray controversial messages to his audience such as ‘New Slaves. ‘Where he
sets a theme which relates with his lyrical content, he also devises a
performance based video where he breaks down the metaphors and gives the
audience a visual aspect using various camera and editing techniques.
Synopsis
Black Skin head stands out from other videos as he incorporates animated
features and realistic imagery of black people, which is often avoided in many
rap videos. The song is a rap music video about the challenges and progression
he’s made from everyday life from his perspective.
Theme
The theme of this song is rather dark & demonic and he uses various
features such as the beginning, where he has three black people wearing the ‘Ku
Klux Klan’ outfit in black although, historically is known for being worn by
white superiors, the outfit was one which connotes and abuse of power in
America during the slave period, so this is immediately sets a dark tone and
creates a visual juxtaposition, which can appeal to the audience. This then
followed by a mid shot, of black people in cuffs and chains with the diegetic
sound of dogs barking in the background, which adds to the connotation of slavery
suggest in the previous part of the video. There also use Kanye west as a
visual juxtaposition as he is being portrayed as the black skin head which is
created through the various technical elements such the animated version of Kanye
with a bold head, and also the aggression skinheads are stereotypical known to
have is portrayed through his diegetic sound, and also the harsh drum
instrumentals in the song further correlates to the audience by giving the
impression he’s reversing the previous power the skin head obtained and is projecting himself as an omnipotent
character.
They represent Kanye west as being angry and aggressive and they do this
by syncing the instrumental with animated version of himself dancing around in
a tribal manor. The music also changes tempo which creates a powerful presence
which adds to the dark demonic tone.
Camera angles
They use a variety of camera editing techniques, below I
discus the ones I believe were the most effective.
Close ups –
At the beginning of the music video, three people are
dressed in the Ku Klux Klan outfits and they shoot close ups of their faces.
They then use animated features to enlarge the triangles from their outfits to
fade into the next segment, which is three aggressive dogs. They also use a
close up and rely on editing techniques such as darken the back ground and
bringing emphasis on their viscous eyes.
Medium shot-
They also have a medium shot of the slaves, as they show the
top half’s of their bodies. They then begun to zoom in, this shot is effective
as it allows them to create a visual description. Although he portrays anger
which is generated through using historical imagery which is reflective of what
has happened in the past. He’s able to show to the audience that he is still calm
and collective as the lyrics ‘Think I'm possessed, it's an omen keep it 300,
like the Romans’ 300 in roman numerals is ccc, which stands for cool calm and
collected and the audience which is teens dominantly teens will be watching the
videos will understand the subliminal messages portrayed.
Long Shots –
During the end of the video, they zoomed out into a long
shot, this was effectives as it gave the impression he was walking into
darkness which relates to the dark tone he projects through the video. They then
produced another longshot with dogs in the background, however the dogs where
edited with luminous eyes which gave the impression they were staring at the
audience and looked aggressive which linked to the representation of Kanye’s
character.
They also shot a bird’s eye view of Kanye in which the
camera was looking down on him which usually gives the audience a view of the
scenery around the character to help set the tone. However, in this case it was
dark which suggested Kanye was lost and showed the representation of the
character to be confused, angry, and lost which links to the element of anger
portrayed through other segments of the video.
Special Effects, Mise
en scene & editing techniques
The props they used in this video are minimal compared to
other musical videos, they relied more on special effect such as flashing
lights to cause tension, and also having a fast editing speed in numerous occasions
allowed them to exaggerate lyrical content.
They also had an
animated version of Kanye west with a luminous gold chain which gave him an
essence of power and they also used a low angle which was looking up to him in
certain sections, this made him look superior to the audience.
The mise en scene worked well with the special effect as
they made character with rather
disturbing costumes, they also kept a black and white theme throughout with
both added to the demonic tone.
Target Audience
The target audience I believe is primarily for 16 + males who are into hip hop however, I
believe it’s for a dual audience and can also be viewed by people who admire
many genres of music as this music shows a change as it diverse from other hip
hop videos, as the influence of black America is portrayed through various
scenes.
The ideas I will take from this video is how they expressed
emotions and feeling which is hard to do through rap music. They do not use
clear story lines, although in this video I believe they projected there
messages and created scene which drawed in an audience through incorporating harsh scenes
with elements of dark imagery which worked well with the black and white theme.
What ideas could I take?
· The ability to create a performance based video, which narrative structure and clear story line
· The fast editing speed, which is a great way of building tension or excitement on a track with a fast instrumental
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