Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), better known by his stage name
Kid Cudi, is an American rapper, singer and song-writer, guitarist and record producer, Cudi is signed under Republic Records and his own imprint, Wicked Awesome Records. He first gained recognition after the release of his first official full-length project, a mixtape titled A Kid Named Cudi (2008). The mixtape caught the attention of American rapper-producer Kanye West, who then signed Cudi to his GOOD Music label in late 2008. His association with West and his label, led Cudi to prominence.
It starts with Kid Cudi putting on a track on an old school record player, he then takes a sip of champagne and begins to lip sing with the track.
This music video has been set up to look like a party, because it links to the lyrics. People watch it and want to go out and party. He sits on the sofa with people partying around him, they are all in slow motion and he is singing along to the song at normal paced speed. As the video goes on, he proceeds to be sitting at a bar, where again everyone is dancing and drinking around him(in slow motion) while he is still acting and singing along with the lyrics.
He performs the video the whole way through, and the song tells you a story which he acts out through dance, hand movements and other characters joining in.
A lot of slow motion is used throughout the video, this seems to be very effective and could be done to show the expression of everyone and how much fun they are having. At the same time that the slow motion is being used, when the song speeds up at parts, the things that are going on around the party seem to speed up with the music. Then at point (3:30) when the beat drops a bit more, it reverses in and out of slow motion, and it almost looks like rhythmic editing in the way that the shot doesn't change but the pace of it does. It then carries on and continuous to go in and out of slow and fast motion.
At point (1:06) he sings "Everything that shines ain't always gonna' be gold" and as that is sung the camera switches to a female DJ who pulls out a record which has the cover of Kid Cudi's Pursuit Of Happiness track inside, which coincidentally is gold.
He is surrounded by luxurious women who are laughing and stroking each other and some of which are kissing as well. These women are being shown as objects. They are all smiling and having fun, and then it goes to a shot of himself taking a shot and as he is doing so the lyrics are "Tell me what you know about dreams, dreams; tell me what you know about night terrors, nothing." This could have been done so that it appears he is asking the drink a question, in order to find out what he knows about dreams. And as he carried on drinking he would find out the answer.
Diagetic lighting is used during the video, its used to make Kid Cudi stand out from the rest of the party, and gives the viewer a type of 'golden hour' look over himself. As well as this it highlights the mise-en-scene for example the props in the video that will stand out because of the lighting and will 'glisten' and make Cudi look as though he is rich and wealthy.
The lighting also seems to light up the table in the middle of the shot, which has bottles, beer, and other props on it. The light seems to bounce off the table onto the surrounding people who look like they're having a good time and are all dressed well and drinking out of champagne glasses which portrays a party and party people. The light is quite dim, which could be counted as soft lighting; this was probably done because the lights aren't usually on at a party. The dim lighting could also represent a mysterious being and how he is on a pursuit of happiness and that when he finds that happiness it will brighten up.
Shot types that are used in this video are mostly medium shots and seem to be focused on Cudi in the middle, this means the focus of the audience will be pulled into the middle of the shot, i.e the main character of the video which in this case is Cudi. These shots are done to create emphasis on the artist, location and his emotions.
As well as this, close ups are used not only to show emotions but also to reflect the words of the song with the movement of Cudi's lips.
As well as this close ups are good to show other emotions like hand gestures to show parts of the song or how he is feeling. For example here when he raises his hand to his ear and says "Everything that shines ain't always gonna' be gold, hey" he is looking deep into the camera, making eye contact with the viewers and it almost seems like he is asking you the question. The use of close up and hand gestures combined with the rhetorical sounding "Hey" makes you feel as though you are almost there at the party with him.
His star image is constructed to look as though he is a very chilled out guy who is easy to get along with and loves to party. He looks like a likeable guy and seems to be very popular and also seems to know how to throw parties. His target audience is aimed at teens from 16-25 year olds. He wears clothing like young party teens would and also seems to act the same way that every teen acts, having fun and partying. He wears fresh looking Adidas shoes which is trendy and many teens would look at him and want to dress and act like him. Because it is portrayed that he has 'the perfect life', that is why i believe it works so well.
He would have easily been able to market this song through YouTube and other social networking sites. The upper hand that he had was the song became the SoundTrack to the film Project X which was a film about a party that three friends had which turned out to be a crazy over powered teen rave. The song goes along great with the film and this gave him the idea to create the video with the theme of a party, just like Project X. Which therefore boosted the marketing of the song.
The music video.
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