Music Video Research 3

2pac - Ghetto Gospel

Camera/Editing

The video begins with almost a pov shot of a crowd onlooker as a woman pushes here way through to the crime scene, we then get a low angle shot of the dead man as the woman begins to cry, the shots alternating shots of either close ups of the woman clutching her loved one and close ups of the crowds onlooking the scene. We get a long shot of a group of young people outside the "Prevail Community Outreach" . "Everyone's ashamed of the youth 'cause the truth looks strange" .After a couple of shots of  him jokingly fighting with his friend we get a longshot of a building titled "Crossroad, Church of God in Christ". This shows the crossroads that he is facing in his life of just being a gangbanger and a petty crook of wether he will turn to God.As he is being shot we get a low angle shot as a drink comes pouring out, this shot acts as a way to confirm he was hit without sowing the actual crime itself, he knocks the cup over as he is being shot.The next shots we get are his lifeless arms on his lifeless body. The final thing we see on screen is a quote from the mother of Tupac Shukur, it reads "Remember to keep yourself alive, there is nothing more important than that - Afeni Shakur.

Narrative

The video starts with a man dead in the sreet surrounded by a crowd and a woman crying who is holding him. We then transition back in time and go back to the mans final day. He is waiting outside a community outreach centre where we see the struggle his life has become and he notices the church, while standing here , several shots of the city later we see him playing with his son, we then begin to get time updates, 5:20pm, 7:49pm, this is something regularly seen in crime shows to set the scene, this acts as almost a prelude to what we eventually know is going to happen.  Later on he is eating alone when a car rolls up on the sidewalk, anybody familiar with rap or crime will know what is going to happen next, drive by.

Conventional - The video could be considered unconventional at the end of the story is told at the start and then we go back and hear the story, The video also doesnt feature somebody in a studio performing the song and it is soley the video that we see