Señorita - Vince Staples - Music Video
"Señorita" is a song by American rapper, Vince Staples. This song features on Staples' debut studio double album "Summertime '06" which was released June 30th 2015. "Señorita" was released as a single first however, May 4th 2015. The music video for this single was released on May 12th 2015, and on 21st October 2015 the video has 3,415,102 views.
The video includes what would seem like a rundown estate in America, with a group of people walking through the street, holding a bible above their heads. One by one people get shot, and die, therefore the group gradually gets smaller and smaller. Vince Staples, is walking about by himself, and eventually egts up onto a pickup truck with a microphone, and proceeds to rap the rest of his verse. At the end of the video, the camera continues to pan outwards and it becomes obvious that the main gang leader, and his followers are trapped behind glass, and what seems to be a middle class, white family is sitting on a sofa staring at them.
Camerawork -
The camerawork during this music video, contains many long, pan shots that give the viewer a feel to the scenery. The first shot is a close up of the leader's back, he then turns around and looks at the camera. Then there is a cut to another shot, that is of a hand on a piano, playing the keys. The man playign the piano, then suddenly drops to the floor, and it would seem that he got shot. The next shot is a tracking shot of the group walking forward, with the leader holding a book above his head, that has "VS" written on the front, from what I can gather it means 'Vince Staples'. This shot is repeated although not identical, throughout the video, showing that people keep getting picked off one by one by a gun that you don't see right until the last few shots of the video. There are many tracking shots of Vince Staples during the music video, of him walking towards the truck that he performs upon. The shots follow him, while he is rapping, most of the time looking away from the camera. There is a shot of Vince, on top of the truck performing the rest of his verse, and it keeps cutting to different shots of him, some close up, some long shot, in which you get to see the whole truck and Vince on top, with the microphone.
The tracking shots have inspired me, and I would like to include some shots similar to them in my own music video. The shots are short, but they grasp the scene perfectly, as Staples covers some ground, moving to a new unseen part of the set. I intend to include a shot like this, with my main actor walking towards an object that is off screen, while I follow him towards the object, he will be lip-syncing the song.
Editing -
The editing in this video is very simple, there are just a lot of simple, fast-paced cuts that change the shot from Vince, to the group of people holding the book, to people sat in their gardens. The editing helps make the shots sync more and look smoother, they also add variety into the order of shots, for example; it isn't all just shots of Staples, there are ome shots of the gang/group and some other shots of a police man in riot gear, and some people sat in their garden having a barbeque, all of which help the flow of the video, and mix it up a bit, rather than just being a linear video. The entire video is shot in black and white, whether that is to do with the meaning of the song/video, or they just liked it better that way, it certainly grabs the attention of the viewer and makes them think. I take a lot of inspiration from this video inparticular as the editing is rather simple, and the cuts that they make, help the video flow, and looks seemless. The black and white works very well with the mood and meaning of the song, and even the video, therefore it has given me ideas for my own music video, in which I might have it all/ selected parts of it, in black and white.
Mise en Scéne -
The mise en scéne in this video is rather simplistic. The lighting is very simple, either natural lighting, or a slight artificial lighting that gives off the impression it was shot in the day. The fact that the video is black and white, takes off the stress of worrying about lighting, as long as you can see everything you want to be seen and the actors/rappers are well lit, it shouldn't be a hassle. The clothing in the video varies a lot to do with the character. For instance Vince Staples is wearing his casual clothing that he probably wears on a day-to-day basis, which is a sort of stereotypical, American skater/gang member style of clothing. He is wearing light, skinny jeans, with a hoodie and a denim jacket over the top, he also looks as if he is wearing some kind of boots. As for the group of people holding the book, the main leader is wearing jeans, with no top, and has tattoos all over his body. As for the others, they are wearing, plain, ordinary, everyday clothing that you would most likely see on the streets of America. There a few props that stand out, such as the book that the group leader is holding, which could be linked with Vince Staples. Another prop is the microphone that Vince uses to perform the rest of his verse, this indicates he could be performing to a crowd, or wanting his voice to be heard.
As for inspiration, I think a take a lot from the clothing part. I want my actor to dress up in casual clothing and seem as if he is a casual guy, nothing striking about his appearance etc. The plain skinny jeans and the hoodie are becoming a definite for my clothing, as they are stereotypical clothing for rap videos, and rap artists, they are also seen as comfy, casual and plain.
No comments:
Post a Comment