Technical Analysis of a Music Video

Technical Analysis of a Music Video

Fatlip - What's Up Fatlip?



I have chosen to analyse this video for two reasons. The first of those reasons is that it is a video for a hip-hop song and the music I will be using for my video will be either hip-hop or something similar, so it is useful to see some of the conventions that directors use for that genre. The second reason is that this was a video clearly filmed on a very low, if not no, budget, yet it still manages to be an engaging and humourous video. As well as this, the video was also directed by the critically-acclaimed Spike Jonze, so it is useful to see what techniques the top directors use.

The opening of the video is very good use of their limited resources. The first scene is an out-take in which a little boy punches Fatlip ahead of his cue. The opening of a video is very important as it has to engage the viewer and keep them from switching off, and it is a part of the video that directors can spend lots of time on and still get it wrong. Fatlip's use of the out-take to open the video fits with the low-budget but it works very well as it is a very funny clip and it sets the light-hearted mood for the rest of the song.

The clip illustrated in the picture is another clip I thought was a very good technique and another example of how to create an aesthetically interesting video on a low budget. Fatlip is rapping and then as the camera pulls away we see he is upside down on monkey bars. As he lets go and uprights himself the camera rotates with him and the shot is back to normal. This is a shot that I'm interested in replicating as it an interesting shot and something that is simple enough for us to use in our video.