Case Study No 3 Earl Sweatshirt Featuring Vince & Casey Veggies - Hive

Earl Sweatshirt

Video - Earl Sweatshirt featuring Vince Staples & Casey Veggies - Hive

Producers - Jason Colon

Info - 2013 Tan Cressida, Inc., under exclusive license to Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment

Synopsize

The music video is one of an alternative hip-hop artist rapping about his feelings and emotions. It is based in and urban setting which adds to the grime element of his video. The reason I chose this video is because is varies from other underground hip hop tracks as he relies heavily on mise en scene (costumes) by other characters in the video to add to the dark tone of this piece

Theme

The theme of this song is dark however, they present this in a comical way, hence the reason I like this video and decided to analyse it. They stick to the same theme throughout the video and similar to my other case studies of Kanye west black skin, also use special effects such as blurring the character face away which gave him a rather un appealing scary look, which also linked with the lyrical content and added to theme and appeals to the niche audience. Furthermore the theme of the song uses similar ways to draw in a audience like Tyler the creator Yonkers, by making a video which completely ignores the social norms of society with use of close up and medium shots will adding graphic imagery, which enhances the theme, will produce an wider attraction. Due to alternative hip-hop being a niche audience I do believe is vital they create videos, which have a theme, which have a memorable aspect to them, as they are competing with other markets with a bigger fan base. 

Representations of stars

The actors are portrayed in a manner which is linked with the theme, the mise en scene is vital as they were in costumes of mask and create visual imagery which supports there lyrics.

 The actor represented as being from the streets and they carry a disturbed essence around their persona through there paralinguistic throughout track. They also don’t wear makeup and some of the faces have cuts on as shown in close up which highlights his natural skin which looks like he may have been it fights which adds to the representation of him being from the streets. Despite the fact them being from the streets, they are clearly lyrical talented as the rhymes sound like poetry against the slow but powerful instrumental, which allows them to portray there thoughts and emotions through a video which is difficult to portray when rapping about inner feeling. Even though they come across harsh and unsociable, due to the mise en scene and lyrical content the representation is still projected, which makes their representation even more, clear to the audience adding to the urban gloomy theme.

Camera Angles

They use close ups in the beginning of his face which is extremely affective in showing the performers emotion, they also use camera editing techniques by fading from a black screen into his close up, he also wear a black hoody jumpers, which merges in with the back ground which gives an visual picture of an camouflage which extremely affective when introducing the performer.

They also use a mid-shot which is good as it shows top half of the bodies of the characters in the frame, and there was three characters however, 2 of them were wearing mask which I believe was effective in keeping the audience engaged with video and also put a comical effect on the dark tone although it did come across rather creepy.

 They also use a long shot, which allows the audience to see the rest of artist who are dressed up in eccentric costumes which correlates with the theme well, by using a long shot allows the audience to grasp the creepy tone portrayed by the artist.

 The reason I used the video as one my stimulus is due to the attention to low lighting, this is a close up shot which shows the character face, the reason I believe this shot is significant is due to the dark layer in the background allowing the artist face to glow which adds more emphasise to the main character. The artist also avoids looking directly at the camera, this is due to him not feeling part of society and even though he builds a connection by doing a close up he lacks eye contact which allows him to project he’s natural identity of being a outcast in society

This medium close up, allows the audience to  form a connection with his audience, the audience who listen to this music, may smoke and this also adds to the urban tone as it creates a mist in front his face, secondly smoking is linked to decreasing stress, so this also portrays him releaseing an outburst of his inner though through the action of smoking.  

This medium shot is also a focus pull as the camera, directly shoots on the character, while blurring the surroundings like this shot as the representation of his environment is portrays minimal however still has an significant t effect on the shot, as the rough fences and tent in the background, costumes links to his urban theme

 

The long shot of the house is shown through a cut in action as they, project this house, this long shot is also key as its strengthens the theme of the song, it’s a haunted house and due to the lack of lights represents a shell, which could also be the representation of the character and how he see’s himself in society.

Audience 

The audience is a niche audience who are into alternative rap. I believe they will heavily support their artist. I believe the audience are in the teens late 20’s most probably from geographic areas where they’re maybe drugs or gangs around as they may relate better to the music as they may have similar feelings. Secondly I believe this video will branch out to a wider audience due to professionalism of the camera shots and various other elements such as the mise en scene, which distinguish the video from others, as the costumes of the character made it a remarkable video. This video follows the basic conventions of an alternative hip-hop video as they create visual abstract through the artist abstract concepts of society. This video is similar to my groups idea hence the reason I choose to a analytical review on this video, which strengthen my thoughts into creating and alternative hip hop music video.