PARTY MONSTER - THE WEEKND - OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO. (ANALYSIS)

This music video is extremely effective and exciting, due to the advanced editing which has taken place throughout the entire music video.

The first 10 seconds of the video consist of various fast paced shots, beginning with Jesus' cross, the acceleration of a sports car wheel, the person behind the wheel, and then 3 to 4 shots of a "beautiful girl" alongside the main actor / singer.
 Eventually, the car is parked up drifting in front of us as the artist, the name of the song and the director of the song are showed on screen in a green text. Also, the Weeknd is in a desert which points out that the he might be around the Las Vegas location as that is primarily known for hosting legal brothels.

EDITING:
The editing is extremely fast and rapid, which also indicates the speed of the sports car that "THE WEEKND" OWNS.

What really caught my eye at first was the use of "colourisation". We see a huge palette of colours ranging from bright red to midnight blue, indicating that the theme has got something to do with a party-like and rave atmosphere. The ENTIRE music video uses colourisation 

and there is no visual imagery of a natural shot apart from the background of the drifting car. Colourisation plays an enormous part in this music video as the music is really upbeat, fast and rapid. The colourisation create a sense of emergancy and urgency about moving forwards, because the use of flashing lights alongside distortion highlights the importance of a vivid straightforward lifestyle. The colourisation effect signifies what "THE WEEKND" is trying to get across. The colour red is used heavily in the music video, which could realte to the lustful, sexual and energetic feeling of being in love with finding a girl who is ultimately the sex animal, the party godess and the drug taker. In otherwords, the "PARTY MONSTER".

The special effects are really vibrant and evident because we see various flashing lights, bright outlines of objects, illuminated backgrounds and also a demon like set of eyes on one of the girls the WEEKND is trying to go after. The special effects are vital for this music video as the theme is based on partying and love, it does make a lot of sense to include this so there is a higher level of realism and verisimilitude to the on screen actions. The special effects were the key attribute of this music video.

The pace and rhythm of the video is quite fast and quick. However, for the first 37 seconds of the video, it is quite slow as the scene is still to be set. After these important 37 seconds, the music video maintains a constant beat with a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, both intertwining with one another. The onscreen action is fast paced from the very beginning of the video to the very end of the video. The shots of the sports car wheel, the WEEKND driving the car, and the drift scene could connote how the rest of the music video will be based around that, in terms of speedy and quick cuts happening on screen. In my opinion, the sports car had set the scene for EVERYTHING in the music video to be sharp and straight to the point, allowing the audience to know just before the action starts. The rhythm is strong and harmonic, but eventually begins to die down when coming to the end of the music video.

The transitioning of the shots can be quite hard to observe, but the classic cut can be seen alongside some fades. However, the main types of transitioning is the digital effects. This particular effect includes colour replacement, animated effects, lighting effects and distortion. At exactly 1 minute and 27 seconds, we see a vague fade of a really bright white screen with a hand reaching out. This may have been used to compliment a change of the beat and tempo, subsequently expressing the characters mood. 

Shot duration and screen time tend to tie in to one another in this video because a maximum typical longshot would get around 4 seconds. Due to the natural fast tempo, beat, rythm and atmosphere of the song, each shot tends to last about 1 or 2 seconds. The WEEKND gets the longest screentime, and  is followed up by the sexual girls and then the sports cars. This is the chronological order / importance of what should be put first wehn looking at screentime. We have the main character telling the story, followed by the reason, which is then followed by the speed at which his life is travelling at.

For the camera shots, almost every different type of shots were used. These shots consist of:

1. High angle shots
2. Low angle shots
3. Slanted shots
4. aerial shots
5. Close up shots
6. Long shots
7. Medium shots
8. Wide shots
9. Extreme close up
10. Zoom effect

All of these shots were used very quickly in the music video, and were incorporated really well in order to compliment the fiery approach and beat of the song. The close ups were shown for THE WEEKND. The mid shots were used everytime to intriduce a new location. Overall, there was no sequence of the shots, but they were all used constantly. The shots had definitely complimented the lyrics and the beat.

The props used in this music video consists of: 

1. A dark room
2. Double bed
3. large plasma screen tv
4. The red cross
5. Party Monster cake
6. Sport cars
7. Shiny silver necklace
8. Black glasses

The props were a vital element to express THE WEEKNDS feelings and emotions.

Lighting is difficult to analyse as the ENTIRE music video is edited using extreme colourisation. Low key lighting can however be seen when coming towards the end of the video.

The costume for the WEEKND is all black with a leather jacket.

The costume for the females that he is after are not that easy to see, but the quick cuts and short scenes of them show that they are wearing a short revealing dress. (Attracting attention)

This music video was very heavy in editing for the Mise-En-Scene. I really enjoyed this music video, and it is definitely one of my favourite music videos.

Here are some images from the music video itself...