Goodwin analysis

I have chosen to analyse the song "Survival" by Eminem from the genre i am planning to do my video in which is rap.

We know the genre straight away when we see the artist moves. The genre is not obvious before the artist starts rapping as it is an unconventional music video which does not introduce the artist first but expects the audience to know the artist as soon as we see him taking the bandana off his face. In this video there are some direct links between the lyrics and visuals but also some indirect links. The projection on the walls of the Call of Duty game being played makes a direct link to the chorus "Survival of the fittest" due to the fact only the fittest survive at wars. There are also direct links where part of lyrics are painted on walls and are shown as the artist is rapping them. Indirect links are also made such as when there is a dog walking across the screen (during the bridge) which is a link to the words "survival of the fittest" as the dog must be the fittest if he survived on the streets on its own. The music relates to the visual by mise-en-scene, camera and editing. The mise-en-scene was well thought about, the lighting was setting an atmosphere as it was not obvious, there wasn't a visible source of light. The settings chosen were mostly places away from humanity so empty, devastated houses, streets, a big parking but also places with a  lot of people like a concert and city center. The settings away from humanity perhaps meant to represent that the artist is "the fittest" meaning he is the best out of all rappers. The crowded settings were perhaps suggesting that the artist was the strongest and the one in control of the rest like "the fittest in the herd" and he is the leader. The costumes helped to distinguished who is in power but also created the symbol, using half of the artists face and the bandana, which then re-occurred on the walls. This all relates to the music by creating a whole sens of the artist being the fittest and ruling over everyone else, showing he can survive everything. There are a lot of shots from different angles but mostly low angle shots are used when the artist is rapping to perhaps create a sens e of the artist being powerful. The use of tracking shots to show the writing on walls is very effective as it creates an illusion that the audience is really in that city and is part of this survival which emphasizes the message the artist is trying to communicate. There was a lot of synesthesia in the music video which matched to the camera movement as well as editing. Editing played a major part in this video to create this atmosphere as there was a lot of animation and after effects used like for example the projection on the walls. The editing was on the beat and fast paced which is conventional for the genre. The effects helped to get a message across to the audience and added some kind of meaning to the whole song of different forms when it comes to "survival of the fittest". The editing matches the music as it adds life to the whole clip for example at 2:58 when the beat starts to speed up and comes to a break and drop the editing changes to match this and there are moments were the editing is ultra fast and a shot is on screan for 0.5 seconds. The nature of close ups in music videos is to show the artist as a brand and to show their face which everyone will recognize but also to show emotions and the perfect lip sync to create and illusion that he is actually rapping to the camera and not that there is a previously recorded track over it. The idea of marketing the star using close up is the reason for such a frequent use of close ups in music videos which was fairly visible in this music video but was not overused as in some cases. This music video did not use the technique of voyeurism or the male gaze at all.