A2 Media: The Weeknd - The Morning Analysis

This appears to be a modern day spin on the three temptations of Christ, which also occurs in the desert. After a night of indulgence, girl finds herself stranded in the desert. The three girls represent a contemporary temptation by a modern Devil: Greed, fame and all the cocaine she can handle. Three girls can either symbolically represent the temptation itself or three aspects of herself. Can she beat the Devil? I don't think so. Not in this video.

each one of these girls is unique in their own way, first girl represents greed, after running out of water and not sharing, she sells her soul to the devil and ends up choking to death on the water the devil gave her, the second girl exchanges her body with the devil in return for permanent beauty and ends up being a gold figure only good for public image, the third girl is self explanatory, she sells her soul for what she desires the most and the last girl is a mirror image of them all.

Camera Shots

Close up- start

Long shot- the main girl alone- make the audience understand factors bout the character and their environment

Mid shot show all their reactions- familiarising the characters to the audience, their motivations as we can see theyir facial expressions and body language in more detail

Extreme long – shows them in a desert

It establishes time and location of the video / the character are just about visible to the auduience

Provides the the audience important information regarding the setting of the storyline

Pov 1:20 they view of the action engages the audience

The music video intensifies the ideology of the lyrics by using different sorts of camera work. It grabs the audience attention instantly by using a close up shot of what seem to be the main character, the emotion displayed makes the audience want to know what actions are taking placing. It is very curious for a music video to start off with such an intensive shot.

It is then followed by a long shot of the protagonist, which shows the audience of how they got abandoned on what seem to be remote desert, thus showing the relationship between the characters and the environment they are in. The director then uses a mid-shot to familiarise the audience with the rest of the characters, which shows their reactions to the actions taking place.

There is a point of view of the protagonist watching the antagonist follow the group, this then engages the audience as its lets them see what she is seeing and in a way sympathise with. The POV also creates a impression that no matter how fast they walk or run the antagonist is going to catch up with them either way and he is confident in that as that’s why he is walking, this makes him even more terrifying.

Throughout the music video extreme long shots are used to illustrate to the audience the level of isolation that these characters are facing and to also form a feeling of been followed and stalked by a predator that only one of them can see, thus letting the audience know that she is the protagonist. There a great deal of close up shots to show a glimpse of each characters personality & motivates. The characters are also walking in a particular order of which one the antagonist will get first.

During the video at certain points there are various flashbacks to what happened the night before, this creating a feeling of the characters having a hangover and also starting to remember what happened the night before, thus also helping the audience understand further of how the characters ended up in the situations they are in. Every time the it the video cuts to the flashback its always in low lighting to create a nightclub sensation. Because of the low lighting this may have trying to indicate to the audience the fact that the characters were in some sort of danger but they were too intoxicated to realise.

In this music video continuous editing used to create that notion of continuity thus giving the audience a concrete physical narration to follow

The protagonist is wearing white clothing to create that notion of purity, innocence, virginity, cleanliness, and neutrality, this symbolises to the audience that she was the only innocent within the group characters, as the other characters are wearing dark colours.

The antagonist wears sun glasses to show that he has something dark to hide but he compensating by smiling constantly throughout out the video to hide his motives and emotions,

There characters communicate with body language, this helps the audience understand the emotions of the characters and it works well with the video as other forms of communications may have come together with the video, for instance the characters talking to each other.

And at some point the antagonist uses a writing board to communicate with one of the girls in the group, and he is still showing that one emotion thus making look inhuman and threatening to the audience.

Right through most of the video the lighting is very bright maybe to represent to audience the fact that they are meant to be living Hollywood celebrity dream which is being in the prime of your life and having fun. But the video also explores the topic that even celebrity struggle with addictions, sadness, and depression. And fact that fame and fortune of celebrities can lead to unhappiness, and this is symbolized by the lighting getting darker as the video is about to end. This shows the audience that the protagonist realizes that this (Hollywood) place is empty and not nearly as beautiful as she had always imagined, as the building she was heading for on the horizon disappear,

There is no Diegetic & Non-Diegetic Sound used at any point during the video this could have been used to help enhances the imagination of the audience, as it can provide depth, establish character and environment,

Voyeurism is used when the girls are dancing in the dark with a spotlight from the car headlights, this engages the audience by creating a notion of a strip club as if the girls were dancing for the audience.

The High5Collective, often abbreviated H5C, is a group of independent visual artists based in Los Angeles, California. As a production team, they began releasing videos in May of 2011. The collective gained exposure mainly through the Indy blogosphere, but also received some support from larger websites such as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and The Huffington Post. It is unclear who the members of the group are, although there has been speculation that there are five main individuals leading the collective. Their website provides the following information: “We make art for artists that inspire us. New videos every couple weeks. Enjoy the art, bitches.