Music Video Analysis - All of the Lights

The first shot you see during Kanye West's music video, All of the Lights ft. Rihanna and Kid Cudi, is of a warning sign emphasizing that bright flashing lights will be used in this video; this instantly prepares the audience to expect a lot of quick snappy shots with a lot of change in colour. By reading this opening shot you will know that the song will be fast paced without even listening to it.

The shot then moves onto a list of names which the audience do not understand but will expect to understand by the end of the video.Then a young girl is seen walking in black and white, this will surprise the audience as they were expecting a fast start but the music is also very slow as all you can hear is a piano. You then see a glimmer of light when the little girl slowly walks past a car with bright car lights, which builds up the tension for the song to pick up in pace. The idea of the little girl walking in the streets on her own with slow, sad music, makes the audience feel sympathetic for the little girl. All of the lights which she walks past are lit up by the camera to make them the focus point even in the opening stages of the song.

Then instantly the black and white shot of the girl flashes multi-colours very fast but the music stays dull... Then incomes the loud sound of Rihanna singing 'all of the lights', and then the beat drops and gives the audience what they were expecting in a very fast, exciting song. A long shot of Kanye West's name in bright lights are shown to show that he is the main part of this song and is the main artist even though Rihanna opens the song. 56 seconds are then shown of a black background of all different coloured writing, synchronized in with the sound and the beat.

Once these 56 seconds are up, Kanye West is shown, but the lights are still flashing to keep to the theme of the lights. Kanye is shown as a silhouette to hide his identity, but he is so well known people will recognize his voice and posture and work out that it his Kanye West who is singing.

A medium shot is then shown of another man in the characters bed with his girlfriend, Kany West says "To my suprise, another n*gger replacing me", this synchronization keeps to Vernallis' theory of lyrics corresponding to the story of the video.

The editor has done an edit where a shot of Rihanna and a shot of Kanye West are cut between the two so fast that it looks like they are flashing together in the same shot. We have used this edit in our music video as we feel it is very influential and will work in well with our video.

Kanye's next line is "restraining order, can't see my daughter", this reflects back to the opening shot of the little girl alone to slow upsetting music. It makes the audience realise, that this little girl is either Kanye's daughter or the character in the video's daughter. He then says "she need her daddy" as the edit shows the little girl in colour for the first time; this shows that life is being brought back into the girl, and she wants her dad just as much as he wants his daughter.

After then next chorus, Kid Cudi is shown on a black background wearing a bright red leather jacket to keep to the theme of bright lights.

The final 20 seconds of the video is of a blank multi-coloured screen flickering thorugh different colours at a fast pace, to end the song to the theme which has played thorughout the song.