Music Video Research 5 - No Church In The Wild

Artist: Kanye West & Jay Z

Track: No Church In The Wild

Director: Romain Gavras

Narrative

The music video focuses on two groups at war with each other; police and freedom protestors. Although there seems to be a hint of victory for the protesters near the end of the video by the way they throw their fists in the air, the video uses the ideology that with the use of violence there is never an end and war still goes on. There is no evident story to the music video therefore as an audience we are left to rely on our own interpretations of it.

Camera/editing/Visual Style/Mise-en-scene

The first shot we see is a Close Up shot of a bottle of liquor being lighted with the intention to be thrown at police. Through out the music video, the camera shows shots of different types of some sort of biblical statues shot from predominantly low angles to show they have importance. Close Up shots are shown of protesters wearing balaclavas. The protest takes place on a street and is more of a riot due to the violence used. The music video shows Close Up shots of the rage in the protestors faces and raging dogs belonging to the police for protection. Through out the music video the motion is both slow and fast. When the beat kicks in and the artist begins singing, the riot commences and the pace becomes fast. The slowness is more so when either the police or the protesters are combatted. The camera focuses more in on what the police do to the protesters, than what the protesters do to the police. The director hones in on the fear of a protesters face using Big Close Ups. Towards the end we see shots of fireworks in the sky, green lasers and an high angle shot of a protester looking down on police whilst his hands are in the air suggesting a victory for the protesters. This is also reiterated when the camera follows a police man running whilst on fire at the end of the music video followed by a low angle shot of an elephant distressed by the chaos.

Conventional/Unconventional

The music video is unconventional. It isn't the typical music video you would see from the Hip Hop/Rap genre. This video tackles an issue whereas other videos which fall under the same genre focus more on showing off their money and their luxuries.

What works?

With no knowledge on why the riot/protest is occurring, as an audience we can only take the interpretation that their lies a moral behind it therefore it is hard to see how the music video corresponds with the lyrics of the track.