"Power Trip" is a song by the American Rapper, J. Cole. The song features on Cole's Second Studio Album "Born Sinner" which was released June 18th 2013. Power Trip was released as a single first, and was released February 14th 2013. The music video for this song was released on 9th April 2013. On the 8th September 2015 the video has 35,372,744 views.
The video is a visual illustration of the lyrics, and it paints a perfect picture of the story. The story behind it follows on from J. Cole's earlier song "Dreams" which made an appearance on his second mixtape "The Warm Up" in 2009, in which the story is that, he obsesses over a girl and devises a plan to kill her boyfriend. The follow up in the "Power Trip" video is that he carries that plan out and by the end of the video has killed the girl's boyfriend.
This has given me many ideas about doing a music video to a song with a narrative, as if I am telling the story through a visual experience.
Camerawork -
During this music video, there are many different shots, all used to try and develop the story of the song a little more. The first shot is of the house in which the girl lives, it is a pan of the entire front side of the house. The second shot is of a mid shot of the girl inside the house, which makes it look as if someone is watching her. Then this is followed by a lot of close ups of J. Cole in a strip club, looking depressed, or guilty. It is clear to see that throughout the video the shots are trying to show many obvious things through different types of shots. For example; The shots of the girl, are usually from a distance, and from behind some sort of cover, trying to show that J. Cole is obsessing over this girl. The other shots are showing J. Cole and his companion taking the body to bury, and the rest are showing J. Cole feeling guilty, and depressed.
As for inspiration from the video, I really like the shots of J. Cole, close up. I think that I want to add in some shots like that, as I want the actor to be singing the chorus to the camera. As for the other shots, I most likely won't be adding many of them as I am aiming to shoot, in a bedroom or a hotel room. I don't think I will have any shots outside, as I think the inside setting would be perfect for the song that I have chosen.
Editing -
The editing in this music video is simple, its just full of short cuts, from shot to shot. Nothing major, the cuts are slow paced, nothing flashes or cuts rapidly as the song is slow. Other than some slow paced cuts, there isn't much editing, other than some flashing lights to indicate the police car, and a video effect to show J. Cole is in the club. I want to use a similar edit for my video, for when there will be a long shot of the actor and the room they are in, I want it to look frosted or slightly distorted.
Mise en Scéne -
The Mise en Scéne is very essential in this music video, the lighting for the outside shots is authentic as it is shot mid-day, and the shots of the house are well lit, with artificial lighting. As for the costume, the girl is wearing lazy clothes; some shorts/underwear and a tank top. J. Cole and his friend are wearing normal everyday clothing, which is typically seen on the younger generation (beanies, hoodies, and jeans) and that of a american gangster type, rapper. As for Miguel, he is dressing up in a suit, indicating he is going off to work, showing he has an important job. As for inspiration I think that I will take the costume and lighting into account, and definitely use them for ideas in my own music video, especially the outfits, as they would be perfect for my music video.
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