Research and Planning

After considering numerous options, we decided to do a Kanye West song. And in our video we will convey the dominant character which Kanye West is known to be. Kanye West is known as an alpha male who believes he is the best rapper in the world and a quite controversial figure. Which is why the song we chose was a clear favourite within our options. Not because of the controversy he has caused over the years but because in most of his videos, Kanye West never ceases to surprise the audience and has always got something flashy in his videos.


A perfect example of Kanye West's dominance is shown in the music video for the song 'Power' which he describes himself as a "moving painting". The video itself is very detailed and has a lot of imagery all mainly showing how Kanye being the protagonist has so much power and dominance and will simply break any rule and not be told what to do by anyone.There isn't much use of a variety of camera shots but the whole video is a single take which is zooming out to reveal more and uncover the rest of the contents on the screen. Because the whole video is one take, there is no cutting. But 38 seconds into the video a robe is dropped on the beat and another character is revealed and this shows that although the video is one take important bits of action are performed on the beat.

The mise en scene for this video represents the protagonist as a god of some kind which is shown by the way he is positioned right in the middle of the screen in a stationary stance. And we will do that in our video by letting the locations,camera and choice of costume have a visual impact and show the concept of the video to the audience without them having to be told the concept. A perfect example of the costume saying so much is in the 'Power' video. The protagonist is wearing a huge necklace which looks like an ancient pendant and this straight away illustrates royalty and he is the focal point in the video which shows how he is the one with authority in the video.

The narrative of the video involves amplification which basically means the idea of 'power' is taken from the lyrics but interpreted in a new way. This is because the video is in the style of a classical painting. There is no performance or lip syncing but the characters in the video are all significant in the production and the audience can realize that by just watching the video.

Although we have taken inspiration from this production, it is not really a traditional music video and in our production we will be producing a traditional music video.

Kanye West - POWER