Textual Analysis | What I learned.

I did a slideshow to present to you what I have learnt from doing my three textual analyses.

http://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeHolgate/textual-analysis-overview   

Textual Analysis Overview

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Textual Analysis 3.

Rizzle Kicks | Down With the Trumpets

The music video I will be analysing is Down With the Trumpets, by Rizzle Kicks, directed by Toby Lockerbie.  The genre of the song is a mixture of hip-hop/rap/pop, this genre is not only seen by the song but the way the music video is made, with characteristics of the three genres, with the story of the music video being them performing on the streets to earn money to enhance their music career, in this video they give fake money to the guy with the trumpet then run-away. 

There are several points in the music video where the actions of Jordan "Rizzle" Stephens and Harley "Sylvester" Alexander-Sule are associated with the music, there is an example of this at the very start, where the tape is put into the cassette player. Then later on in the music video, when the play the trumpet the same time as it comes into the song. There is also a notion of looking onto the cassette player when the line is repeated to show that it is them on the screen of the cassette player, there is other examples, when the person who sells them the trumpet checks the money and realizes it's fake.

The video cuts are synchronized to the change of line in the song, which has a medium tempo, the location of the two also changes between the seaside and what appears to be their bedroom, then in the third verse it switches between the seaside and the bedroom then to a new location, what looks like a public path near a forest. In the music video, despite the little story of performing for money to get instruments, the video is performance based, whilst walking or standing.

In the video there is no notion of looking in a sexual manner, and not one girl is seen in the video. All the notion of looking is towards the two artists and not to any other topic.

In the final conference there is a nice visual effect, where the fall and then it cuts to a different location and then back again, maybe to suggest they are disillusioned or tired but they keep on going.

To conclude this essay, Jordan "Rizzle" Stephens and Harley "Sylvester" Alexander-Sule who are most commonly know as "Rizzle Kicks" perform in the music video, with a small side story of them performing for money to enhance their music career. On the video there is a colour palette to enchance the bright colours as the song was released in the summer and is a summer song, aimed to get people dancing.

Textual Analysis 2.

Day 'n' Night - Kid Cudi

The music video I will be analysing is Day ‘N’ Night, by Kid Cudi, with the music video directed by

French director So-Me. The genre is of the song is alternative hip hop, this genre is not only seen by the song but the way the music video is made, with characteristics of the alternative hip hop genre, with cartoon drawings overlaying the footage portraying something which is isn’t due to the character day dreaming.

There are several points in the music video where Kid Cudi’s actions and movements are determined by the music, one is where the woman is portrayed to have clapped and then has an cartoon owl face, the clap being synced to the beat of the song. Throughout the song, this is the same with the visuals showing Kid Cudi’s imagination misleading him, and how is attracted to madness through his imagination, this is seen when several people are changed into different people, with a woman having an owl’s face, and people on the street turned into pirates.

The video cuts are synchronized to the beat of the song, which has a medium tempo, but not all the time but if the location is changed it is often to a beat in the song. In the music video, there is no solo parts of the song which are illustrated differently from the rest of the music video, all the theme of him being mislead by his imagination is seen throughout. Every time the chorus comes around, Kid Cudi believes he is on a stage or performing in front of a crowd and seen dancing, this is as the pace to the song slightly increases from the rest of the song.

The record company are trying to sell this track by portraying that listening to the song can let this drift away and let your imagination lead you. Kid Cudi in this video is portrayed as how the record company (GOOD Music), are trying to sell it, as someone who is letting there imagination lead him through life, sometimes for the better and sometimes in a bad way. This was Kid Cudi’s debut song and debut music video so it is hard to see if this music video relates to his old music videos. Again as this is Kid Cudi’s debut song, he is making his first impression to everyone who has not seen or heard his music before, but as he has made more music video’s his image hasn’t changed too much and is still portrayed as someone who is out of the norm, and in touch with his child like imagination.

There is no reference to the notion of looking in a sexual manner, apart from one part in the video, where there is a women which a revealing cleavage and cartoon eye balls come around and look at her, suggesting that everyone’s eyes are drawn to her. Even though the music video is very visual there are no real notions of looking to a specific topic.

The music video is narrative-based with the story of him walking around Los Angles carrying out every day activities but his imagination portraying things which aren’t there, sort of like a day dream throughout. There is also an intertextual reference in the music video relating to “The Wizard of Oz” where he is imaging himself walking down the yellow brick path again reiterating his fantasy.

To sum up this essay, Kid Cudi is walking around Los Angeles doing a variety of mundane activities such as getting a slice of pizza, grocery shopping, or visiting a bar, but the overlay of graphic colors on top of the actual video disguises or transforms the daily scene into one of fantasy. These fantasized versions of reality reference the film The Wizard of Oz and later manifest Cudi's desire to perform music; ultimately they play on the song's theme of the "lonely stoner" whose quotidian existence transforms because of his ability to "free his mind." The music video is therefore a narrative video with very good visual cartoon images.

Textual Analysis 1

Make Her Say (feat. Kanye West & Common) - Kid Cudi.

Scott Mescudi, or most commonly know as his stage name Kid Cudi, released his first mix tape in 2008 which was titled “A Kid Named Cudi”, when he was 24 years old, this caught the attention of Kanye West, who is a very successful and respected hip-hop artist, this then led to Kanye West singing Kid Cudi to his music label, GOOD Music. In the song “Make Her Say”, he collaborates with Kanye West and Common, who is also attached to the GOOD Music label. The song was originally titled “I Poke Her Face” but was then later changed to “Make Her Say” to make it suitable to play on the radio. The song was released on iTunes on the 9th of July, and it was the second of three singles he released from his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, which was released in November of that year. The video was directed by Nez Khammal and it premiered on July 20, 2009. The music video stars all three of the artists, but despite that fact they never attended a film shoot together, with Kid Cudi and Common filming there parts in New York, whilst Kanye West filmed his section in Los Angeles. It was also planned that Lady Gaga would make an appearance in the music video, as the song had a vocal loop from her song “Poker Face”, but she was too busy to make an appearance in the music video. The song falls into the genre of alternative hip-hop which is quite a niche genre of music, meaning that there are very few notable genre characteristics in the music video.


The music video is a performance based video with a little bit of narrative in there too, the video is split into three different sections, a section for each artist, and in there section the artist is present throughout. The small pieces of a narrative are seen in Kid Cudi’s and Common’s sections, the narrative is that they are dating or seeing a girl who is quite moody and upset, in Kid Cudi’s part for example he is driving in a convertible on a nice day, and the girl next to him seems moody and as if she is sulking. In Common’s part it is the same, but he is in a bedroom sitting at the front of the bed whilst a girl sits at the back again sulking and moody. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in the music video, that is the fact that all three artists same the same line, but slightly different each time, Kid Cudi says: “she said she can have whatever she likes, but she cant bring her friend”, Kanye West says: “…. she said she gonna’ bring her friend”, and Common says: “…. but you gotta’ bring your friend” this is reflected in the mood of the artist in the video, with Kanye West and Kid Cudi seeming quite happy, but Common doesn’t look so happy. Also in these lines whenever they refer to the girl, it always shows a shot of here not looking so happy. This is because the response of the women is seen as how much they like the man, in this case the artists. 


The music video is a very creative one, and it keeps the eyes busy throughout, with lots of shots and with the screen being spilt into two showing different shots and changing a different times. This not only keeps the eyes looking and interested it also creates the illusion that the three artists where filmed at the same locations even though they were not. The video has minimal aesthetics, with scenes taking place in big empty open spaces. The first scene is Kid Cudi on a rooftop with helium balloons tied to the ground which gives a nice effect and looks colorful.


There are a few examples of relationships between the visuals and the music, one of which I have already mentioned which is about the mode of the women in the video and the lyrics. Another example is when there is the sound of the record scratches, there is a shot of the women on a DJ table scratching a record, incidentally the DJ table she is using is the first use of Activision’s new game ‘DJ Hero’. Throughout the video, the change of shots is matched to the key beats in the song, this is quite effective as the two sections of the screen never cut at the same time, and there is movement in the other half. This is also put with several match on action shots as you see Kid Cudi walking through the room from two different positions.


I think that Nez Khammal, who directed the video has done a great job with the editing as it is very creative and simple but also very effective. This is one of the few notable characteristics of alternative hip-hop, the fact that the video’s are generally creative and a bit different from the rest. 

Photoshop Skills.

Here is the original photo I found on the internet;

After editing it in Photoshop and adding several layers this is the final image;

Idea Brainstorm.

Here is a brainstorm I created in class today to get our head around some of the ideas we had and to put them onto paper. After this brainstorm we decided to use the Kid Cudi song, "Day & Nite".

Goodwin Theory.

Goodwin's Theory applied to Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness.

Goodwin’s theory

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Auteur Theory | Hype Williams

Hype Williams is a famous music video director, who’s signature style has developed and changed over recent years. Firstly he used to use the fisheye lens allot in his videos early on in his career, he also used a style where he shot in a regular widescreen shot and have another shot split in two one on top of the first shot and one on the bottom, this is seen in the video “Diamond on my neck” by “Smitty” but he dropped both these style in 2003 due to lack of work directing music videos, but this period from 1996 to 1999 was his most successful to date, where he won six awards in three years for his music video’s. Hype Williams is associated with hip-hop/rap genre, working with artists such as Kanye West, Will Smith, Busta Ryhmes, 2pac and Notorious BIG. After 2003 Hype Williams adopted a new style in an attempt to get more work. The new style was focusing the camera on the upper torso of the artist with one solid colour in the background, this was seen in Kanye West’s music video for the song “Gold Digger”. In more recent years though he has changed his style again to a more high tempo style with flashing images and lights, this style was clearly visible in Kanye West’s song “All of The Lights”, which was released in 2009.

Production Open Sequence.

A short introduction we use at the start of our videos to indicate we made it, like any production company does at the start of the film they produce.

YouTube Channel.

Here is our YouTube channel from last year, as me and Ramtin anre continuing with the identity of FlickaFilms we thought it would be again useful to use the channel to upload this years work. The link is below and keep an eye out for some videos soon!

http://www.youtube.com/user/FlickaFilms