Kanye West - All Falls Down ft. Syleena Johnson

Artist

Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 8, 1977. He left college to pursue a musical career, producing tracks for Jay-Z while polishing his demo. He released "The College Dropout" in 2002. It sold 2.6 million copies and won Best Rap Album.

Genre

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic subculture that originated in African-American and Hispanic-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically within the Bronx. The term often refers to hip hop music, which consists of poetry that is spoken - rather than sung - over either original or sampled instrumental recordings mixed with new original sounds from drum machines, and/or other instruments. However, the culture has expanded far beyond its original roots, and now is considered a worldwide subculture comprising rapping, DJing, hip hop dance, and graffiti art.

Lyrics

The lyrics are about  questioning the value of a education, as kanye west feels a lot of people go to college because it’s a safe choice after high school and assume they end up with a nice job, but  that’s not always the case

The lyric are fast paced and narrative, thus keeping the audience interested as they storytelling.

Man I promise, she's so self conscious
She has no idea what she's doing in college
That major that she majored in don't make no money
But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny
Now, tell me that ain't insecurrre
The concept of school seems so securrre
Sophmore three yearrrs aint picked a career

 Camera shots

Throughout most of the video we do not actually see Kanye west, as a point of view shot is used, the audience only sees him through reflection on mirrors, this camera shot engages the audience into the music video and lets them see things from kanye west perspective, thus enabling the audience to slightly understand the artist and relate to him in a way. The reflection on the mirrors allows the audience to know who the artist is. 

Medium shot are also used to show the audience were the artist is located.

There is are several non diegetic sounds throughout the video for example the metal detector and the plane taking off in the end. This adds realism to the music video.

This video challenges some of the codes and conventions found in the hip hop genre for instance it does not reference gang culture like many other hip hop music videos do. but it does conform in terms of the sexualising women, as the female character in the video is wearing a short dress.

There is a relation between between the lyrics and the visuals. For example when kanye west says “I'm so self conscious that's why you always see me with at least one of my watches”, a expensive watch is shown 

The music video is fast paced, as its trying to creating a rushing atmosphere, because the female character is rushing to catch a flight, this keeps the audience fascinated with the video.

the audience for this music video is mainly young males but it also has a female audience, this maybe because of the the feature done by Syleena Johnson, also kanye west talks about subject matters that the female audience can relate to.

Cause her baby daddy don't really care
She's so precious with the peer pressure
Couldn't afford a car so she named her daughter Alexus (a Lexus)
She had hair so long that it looked like weave
Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve
And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe
Single black female addicted to retail and well

Directed by Chris Milk

Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer. He has directed videos for Kanye West, U2, Green Day, Courtney Love, Audioslave, Modest Mouse, Gnarls Barkley and Arcade Fire. He also has numerous television commercials to his credit. Milk is signed to radicalmedia in the United States for commercials/music videos and WME Entertainment for feature films.

Shot at LA/Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California. It follows Kanye as he accompanies his girlfriend, played by Stacey Dash, to the airport to catch her flight. The music video is shot in first-person perspective, displaying the journey from their car to the airport terminal through West's eyes.

All Falls Down" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West. It was released as the second single from his debut album, The College Dropout. The song was produced by West and features singer Syleena Johnson

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.

Filmography

§  The Weeknd – The Morning (May 2011)

§  Frank Ocean – We All Try (June 2011)

§  Sander Kleinenberg – This Is Our Night (June 2011)

§  Tyler, the Creator – Transylvania (June 2011)

§  Le Chuck (June 2011)

§  Timmy and Beakman (June 2011)

§  Antarctic Riffs (June 2011)