This is a music video for a rap song. This song and the video that goes with it are both disses directed at the YouTuber Logan Paul. This video was directed and created by Konstantin with the intention of insulting Logan Paul after KSI, another YouTuber, made a song intended to make fun of Logan.
Textual Analysis:
This video utilises a lot of different lighting techniques. The beginning of the video uses mainly natural light, but also uses a softbox to brighten the actor's faces. The later shots inside use three point lighting to give the actors depth, contrast and saturation. Other shots use red gel lighting to connote things such danger and anger or green gel lighting to connote someone's kryptonite/weakness.
At the beginning of the video there is a lot of diegetic sound as the characters are having an audible conversations that go with the storyline of the video. Later on in the video we can see performance shots and can assume that because the band is playing instruments to the music that the music is diegetic, even though we know it's been added in post. The storyline shots where characters are talking to each other are all filled with direct sound.
One of the main props used in this music video is the Infinity Gauntlet. This is worn in the end of the video by the artist to destroy his enemy. The glove is seen as a symbol of destruction and power by those who know what it is and this is the connotation that the director was trying to put across, that KSI is stronger than Logan Paul and is going to win the fight they're having. Another prop that was used was an axe, dragged across the floor. This is a clear reference to 'The Shining' (1980), when KSI axes the door down and places his head through the broken door frame. The wielding of a weapon such as an axe also asserts dominance in terms of a fight, almost as if the wielder has a drastic amount of power over the person without a weapon.
The location for this music video takes place in a mansion and around the grounds of said mansion. At the beginning of the music video we see Logan Paul and his friends leaving a forest and entering the grounds of the house. This is a hidden reference that hints to the suicide forest incident of January 2018 that Logan Paul had. In the next scene, Logan sees KSI and instantly ditches his friends to get away, running towards the house. Him running to the house is a small detail used to connote how Logan is rude enough to ditch his friends to run in the direction of money, the mansion being the physical representation of money in this instance.
This music video utilises costume very well. In the beginning of the video, we see Logan comforting his friend after he admits to being scared. During this scene Logan opens up his jacket and show his shirt saying "we're Mavericks". To someone who isn't trying to analyse the video you would see that there's a bird on the shirt that looks like Logan's merchandise, however, looking closely, throughout the music video we can see that he changes shirt each time he 'takes an L' and the bird on the shirt slowly begins to die. At the end of the video, we can see that the bird has transitioned from parrot with a full body of feathers to just the skeletal body, connoting how Logan is now, dead.
The editing in the video is clearly a representation of how KSI expected the boxing match between him and KSI was going to play out. The scenes we see Logan in are sped up quite fast, referencing to how his head is going to be spinning after KSI knocks him out in the fight. Meanwhile, the scenes involving KSI are either normal paced or slowed down, showing how he is going to be able to relax and cruise along during the fight.
Audience Analysis:
The intended target audience are both Logan and the YouTube audience. Because this is a diss track, there needs to be elements that are disrespectful to Logan, however, it also needs to be understandable from an audience's perspective. Although this video has two target audiences, one is niche (Logan himself) and one is en mass (the audience KSI has and the rest of YouTube users).
This music video was only advertised by KSI and the directors on their social media. However, due to the large following of KSI the video has 30 million views on YouTube. The use of social media to advertise and market this video in terms of target audience is an outstanding move by KSI because people's awareness of the video will grow considering the age of the audience he has and their inclination to share this type of stuff on social media, thus, further promoting the video.
This music video was very well received by both audiences. Both Logan and KSI's audience have said how this is the best music video of his and potentially the best YouTuber music video ever. A lot of people argue that the quality of the music video completely out-classes the quality of the song itself, which is something I agree with.
Industry Analysis:
This video was produced by a small team chosen by the directors Konstantin and Meji. The whole reasoning for this music video was purely to get into Logan's head prior to the boxing match he had with KSI on August 25th. However, only he truly knows if it worked or not.
This product has an international reach as it was released on YouTube and is accessible to anyone who has internet access.
This music video uses steady-cams to stabilize shots and a camera rig called a Trinity that rotates the camera around 360 degrees for whirlpool effect shots.
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