Cassidy Ft R.Kelly- Hotel Analysis

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MISE EN SCENE
In terms of the mise en scene, this video covers many aspects that a contemporary R&B music video will include such as the props, costume, location and people. The video includes stereotypical locations such as hotel and club/bar setting which insists that they are living the "hollywood" lifestyle. The hotel location suggests that the music artists are always travelling due to being in the "fast lane" in life. A hotel room also has connotations of partying and sex which has been inhabited by these artists living the rich life, love isn't wanted they just want to fulfill their sexual desires. There is a medium shot of a plaque on the door saying "presidential suite" this further implies that they are living a wealthy lifestyle and that they believe that they are V.I.P's.
The costume worn by both artists has many connotations and semantics. R.Kelly, the R&B icon, is dressed in a pink mask and a pink hat with a pink basketball jersey and trousers. These colours have many representations that have been created mostly by films but has been adopted into this video. The pink and white outfit has a semantic field with a pimp. A pimp is a person, especially a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute or a brothel, usually in return for a share of the earnings. As prostitution is illegal the mask may indicate that his idenitity must be supressed. R.Kelly does not mean this literally, the representation he is implying is that he is somewhat of a sex icon to women, his wealth and appearance alures women to fornicate with him. This is a common stereotype that alot of contemporary artists imply, that they are somewhat of a sex symbol with their wealth and style. The other artist, Cassidy, a young R&B artist, wears a sports tracksuit, baseball jacket and a baseball cap. This is all very stereotypical to the Hip Hop & R&B genres as sometimes these intertwine. These tracksuits and hats imply an urban "hood" look, many artists try to represent their hometown through music either through lyrics or clothing as there is a sense of "state pride". In this video the women is dressed in a provocative way which insists stereotypes of proestitution especially with the costume of R.Kelly intertwined, she is dressed in a lace see through dress with underwear on, this has a semantic field of sexy lingerie which also links to sexual fantasies and desires. The props used are expensive luxuries such as champagne, sports cars (ferrari) and diamond chains. All of these are very stereotypical to the R&B genre as artists want to imply that they are living a fast and wealthy life saturated in materialistic luxuries.

CAMERA
A variety of camera shots are used to represent a situation in a specific way. For example, there is a long shot of the hotel room when the female is dancing over Cassidy, this represents Cassidy as being fairly dominant as he has a women dancing for him, it also has conotations of a strip club, paying a female for what is known as a "lap dance" of which the females dances in a provocative manor to seduce the male. This long shot also shows the hotel room, as commented on before, the hotel room has many common stereotypes of partying and sex.


There is also a long shot of Cassidy in a club setting looking across the bar at a female, This represnts him as being wealthy and powerful. Alcohol is also a common stereotype of the R&B genre as as well as other genres such as Hip Hop and Rock&Roll.
Another shot used is a close up of the artist Cassidy kissing the female who is lying on top of him. This represents the women to be in control of him but also represents him being powerful as there are many historical values that the man that can get the most women is seen as the alphamale and this is what he seems to be implying in this video through the use of props such as cars and money.

In the bar there is a use of chiascuro lighting to illuminate Cassidy, he is dressed in all white and has spot lights on top of him. This may suggest that they want to emphasize his presence at the bar, or they are trying to represent him to be rich and powerful. The colour which suggests purity and "angel like" features. This may be another way he is representing himself to women as some what "Godly".

ENCODING/DECODING

The preferred reading of this video insists that of a "Rock & Roll/Hollywood" lifestyle including drugs,alcohol, sex and money. No dark messages are present such as illness or poverty, all of these are juxtaposed by the lyrics, costume, location and props which insist that of a party lifestyle. Alcohol, Money and Women are the way to satisfy ones need's in life, which of course is not applicable to real life (to some). The Gratifications given from this video are that of entertainment and escapism as it is promotes how different their lifestyle is when their wealthy. It offers social interaction as the people within the video will socially interact and talk about the song or video. it offers escapism as people watching the video can imagine living that lifestyle. There are many reprsentations given off in this video, the key representation in terms of collective identity is that these R&B males are somewhat of alphamales as they are rich and can spend lots of money on alcohol, sex, drugs and luxuries. Another key representation is that women are just "meat" they are only needed to fulfull sexual desires, there is no sense that love exists, all these artists want to do is have fun. Women aren't represented as delicate, elegant and graceful, they are represented as sexual figures dressed provocatively in order to get sexual attention.

There are many hegemonic factors present, firstly in the women used, she is a very slim build with big assets as this has been mediated in comtemporary print and social media. Another ideology given off in this video is that poverty and other world affairs don't exist, these individuals just party every day with their wealth.

EDITING

In terms of editing there isn't a alot of techniques used. The are rapid cuts that take place throughout, no shot is longert that 2/3 seconds. On the other hand there is some scenes that have been slowed down, for example when the girl is pulling the cover over the both of them, the slow motion may suggest that they are about to have an intimate encounter. The rapid cuts might symbolise the fast lifestyle that they are living, on a deeper note, it may represent a sense of adrenaline sort of thing, due to the alcohol, drugs and sex in their lifestyle. At the beginning a "cinema" type transition is used, the shot of the door with a tag on introducing the artsists and the song scrolls out from black. This might suggest that what they do is behind closed doors, or another idea is that the black suggests emptyness, but due to their wealth suddenly its all turned into a big party. The tag on the door is also globally recognised, these tags on the doors often say "do not disturb" which then links to more sexual references.