Jay-Z: On To The Next One

Camera: Through out this video everything is centralized in either a long, mid or close up. Jay-z is the first persons face the audience sees in the video, this denotes his importance. Most large objects are in long shots for example the wires, most of the people are centralized in a mid shot and most objects like the skull is centralized in a close up. The camera stays simple in this video because the video itself is simple, the people and objects are its main attraction as well as the track so no complicated camera shots are used.

Editing: Due to the videos simplicity the editing is limited, the first and most noticeable aspect of the video is the black and white effect in the video this interlinks with the contrasting theme through out the video. The pace of the editing is well mastered in this video, it matches the bass of the song perfectly in which makes the video more interesting and engaging. The editing is cleverly done by the director because the cuts and the sequencing makes all the different scenes interlink, for example, at the beginning of the video there is a man in black standing facing a white wall, then it cuts to a black wall with a white liquid dripping on it, this is once again interlinking and following the contrasting theme of the video. Also in this video there are super imposed titles, of lines of the songs.

Sound: The track is the most important aspect of this video, the lyrics interlink with the objects shown in the video, for example he says "now double your money and make a stack" then it cuts to a stack of money. This is continuously shown through out the video and this is what makes the video and the song memorable, a very important aspect to think about when making a music video.

Mise-en-scene: There is a lot going on in this video, firstly there are the black wires with a simple white backdrop, once again contrasting however the main feature is they move in time with the base of the music once again interlinking the song with the video. Then there is the crazy man in the black suit wearing make-up similar to the jokers out of the batman, he is wearing pale white make-up contrasting with dark eye and lip make-up. Continuously through the video there are contrasting, for example the man on the drums has half his face painted black which contrasts one colour against each other and also the black diamond skull with white liquid poured on to it. A important part for this video is to realize his album art work scattered through the video, three white lines have been painted on a black car, three black lines painted on a white woman, there are three white lights on a black wall behind the drummer. The song keeps interlinking back to the video, he says "big yacht" then there is an image of a yacht.

I like this video because it is simple yet affective, the inspiration I will take from this video is to keep trying to interlink the lyrics to the images or objects in the video as it creates familiarity and it can make the video more engaging.