USHER WEBSITE
USHER TWITTER
MISE EN SCENE
In this video it takes a slightly different approach to that of a contemporary music video. A contemporary music video will exploit
women in a sexual and provocative manor often with the artist in high quality designer garments with expensive props such as chains, cars, alcohol etc. In terms of the location and props of this music video, it is located in an American city of which the artist is trying to repres
ent conventional 9-5 jobs. One scene is an office setting which is a usual job in a city and also some sort of delivery courier/factory. These locati
ons are used
to represent the conventional
professions and locations that "normal" people do. This is juxtaposed by scenes of him in an expensive sports car accompanied by hegemonic/stereotypical females (good looking, dark hair etc). The props used are fairly stereotypical in some scenes but then these stereotypes are juxtaposed in other scenes. For example he is trying to represent how different his life is to those that do 9-5 jobs in terms of money, fame and fortune. The props used
are chains, expensive sunglasses (shades) leather jacket etc to represent that he is famous and wealthy. The props and costumes used in the city scenes are thos
e that normal people would wear such as a work uniform, a suit etc. This could be used to represent the difference in his lifestyle and that of others, it may suggest a sense of freedom due to him being rich and famous that he doesn't have to fit in the collectiv
e identity of the working/middle classes. There is also scenes of him at a college american football match, this may represent some sort of purgatory of which he transitions from being in a working class job, and then straight to fame. This football may symbolise a possible way out apart from the music as these are two predominate careers that manywish to have. In terms of representation and the use of people, it stil
l represents women in a sexual and appealing way but more tame than other music videos. In terms of other representations they are all very stereotypical, for example at the football match, all the men are the players and there are women cheerleaders.
This is a fairly old video of which may suggest that the attitudes have changed towards women, so this may be why this video differs to contemporary music videos of which females are represented in a provocative way and the artists follow the semantic field of the genre which deals with money, drugs, sex and materialistic objects.
CAMERA
Various camera shots are used to portray or represent something in a certain way for example at the beginning of the video there is a track medium shot of the back end of a sports car, this then pans to show him driving it with women in the car. This is effective as it could have been anyone in the car, but the slow pan adds some sort of surprise element to show him driving it (as at the time the video was made he was a new artist, now he is more of an R&B icon). The medium shot of the car allows the viewer to see what type of car it is and also the road of which it is travelling downwhich is in an urban city setting.Another representation given off is a police motorbike following the artist and then turning off. This may represent many things for example that this artist had trouble with the police but due to the fame this is no longer an issue. Or further it may represent that without this music career he may have turned to a life of crime and the officer turning off showed that he had avoided it. One last representation may be due to the stereotypes of the R&B genre dealing with drugs, sex, alcohol and women that the police are keeping a close eye on him. Lastly it may represent the common ideology that there is some sort of racial conflict between people of a black ethnicity and the police.
Another shot is a close up of usher dancing in the factory uniform, he has added his own idiosyncratic touch as he is wearing the uniform in his style of which stands out from the other workers. He is wearing gloves and a hat turned backwards, this may represent that he is an individual and different from the rest. There is also a medium shot of usher walking across the street in a suit. The medium shot allows us to see his costume and his surroundings. The urban setting may represent that he is from "the streets" as it is often referred as.
Lastly from the transition of Usher working in the city, it then moves to him becoming famous and wealthy of which this is represented by a long shot in a club setting of which looks like a V.I.P. area and a girl is leaning on him whispering in his ear. This represents Usher as some sort of sex symbol to women. The spoken verb "whispering" has connotations of secretism and promiscuous ideologies of which then links to the stereotypes of the R&B genre of which is sex, money, drugs, alcohol and materialistic wealthy objects.
EDITING/ENCODING
The preferred meaning of this video is to represent the artist doing some sort of transition from a normal working lifestyle to that of fame and fortune being adopted by the music industry. The scenes juxtapose each other, one scene will show Usher working in uniform in a factory surrounding, this is then juxtaposed by him in a suit which represents wealth and then a college football match and then usher in carpark exiting a sports car and entering a club setting. This may be used to show some sort of hierarchy. He may be portraying that he is at the top of the food chain for instance, that his profession earns the most money and most people dream to have his job as a music artist. It may also represent that he has left normality due to the wealth and fame. 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. The dominant ideology is that there is different classes that run parallel with collective identities, this is represented through such things as costume, it shows that certain jobs have certain representations and stereotypes in terms of lifestyle. Usher is implying that his profession is the best and it links to the "party and fast" lifestyle as represented by the club setting and the expensive car and good looking females.
EDITING
In terms of editing there is rapid cuts that happen throughout, they're aren't many long shots, the longest shot is the medium shot at the beginning of the back end of his sports car.
The fast cuts aid the bass and tempo of the song keeping some sort of rhythm to the song and video.
Special effects are used when he is dressed in a suit crossing the road. Firstly he is walking forwards and people around him seem to be going backwards, this may signify that he is improving and becoming bigger and other people are going backwards in the sense that they are not moving forward in their life in terms of career etc. Another special effect is Usher swiftly putting his coat on.
Another technique used by camera angled and character movement is Usher body popping and puts his arm out of which a car stops right on time. This also shows him having super human powers as he stopped a fast moving object. Once again this may link into him being different to other conventional people, he is trying to imply that he now has some sort of superhuman status due to the fame and money.
No comments:
Post a Comment