This song is a remix of Frank Ocean's single Novacane, by UK artists Double S, Shocka and Vertex who are collectively known as Marvell. This song a mixture of the R&B and UK rap genre. The music video is an example of a 'Narrative Music Video' because the visual combined with the audio tell a story.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
In the music video, the variety of different camera shots is limited. However, the camera shots have effectively been used to produce an emotional story about the life of two troubled youths. The most common camera shot used in this music video is the close up shot. This kind of shot in particular has been used in the video to show the viewers how the youths in the video are feeling, and to give them an idea about the youths emotional states through their facial expression. At 2:17, we can see through Aiden's (played by Shocka) facial expression that he is vulnerable, misguided and unhappy due to certain unfortunate events which took place in his life. The close up at this point really allows the audiences to feel sympathetic for him, as we can see that he is caught up in a troubled lifestyle. I also denote mid shots being used. These are mainly used when we see the artists actually telling the story rather than when we see them acting. For example, we see Vertex who is telling the story at 4:52 in the video (rather than acting as Jay the dealer) and a mid shot is being used. This is an appropriate shot to use at this point because the majority of rappers like to express themselves through hand movements as well as their lyrics, and a mid shot allows this, while showing the viewers mild detail of the artist and the background. This represents the artist as quite expressive and melodramatic through his use of hand movements. Not many long shots are used in the music video, however when they are used, they come across as effective in a different kind of way. At 1:37, I denote Aiden standing in a room and by his body language, we can see that he is feeling depressed or that he is thinking deeply about something. This is effective because it shows us how Aiden is feeling without actually seeing his face. This connotes that body language is also an important aspect of a music video.
MISE EN SCENE
The majority of the music video is set in an alley. The alley is quite dark and the only light source is coming from the street lights. Overall the lighting is low key, which connotes feelings of unhappiness and depression which is effective because the storyline in the music video has deep emotional meaning, and the feeling created relates to the lyrics in the song. Also because the alley is quite narrow, this may represent that characters mindframe in the sense that they have limited space to think. In terms of the props being used, I feel that the group have creatively used them to enhance the narrative of the music video. I also feel that their performance is enhanced by the use of props. I denote a syringe being used by the actor at 3:10, which creates a sense of realism for the audience. Some people may say that they are glorifying drug use by including it in the video. However, I feel that they are just simply highlighting the negative effects of using drugs, to prevent young people from using them. The characters in the story are represented as young and easily influenced through the use of drugs as props. The costumes used in the music video are dominantly dark colours, mainly black. Black outfits can somewhat be overpowering, and can make the wearer come across as rebellious and delinquent.
EDITING
This music video contains many different editing techniques, which include transitions such as jump cuts and visual effects such as flashes and greyscale. As usual, the jump cuts have been used to skip from one scene to another, to show the viewers that some time has passed since the previous scene. The jump cuts have been used rather than other transitions such as dissolves because the music video is quite fast paced. The fast paced editing represents the characters as impulsive, rushing their decisions and unfortunately making the wrong ones. Flashing effects have been used in the music video to show the viewers that the characters are disorientated and confused.
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