Analysis and Research- Music Video Tupac- Ghetto Gospel

-Analysis and Research- Music Video

Tupac- Ghetto Gospel

- This video is narrative the whole way through, the artists never performs.

- It is shown in chronological order.

- The editing is synced to the beat.

-It uses flashback to show the past and present times in the video, we know they are flash back through the types of editing used.

Codes-

-The police/news choppers radio talk is code for the crime shown in the first few images of the video.

-Rain- This is pathetic fallacy, it is used to add to the mood and that the fact that something bad is happening.

-There is a point of shot view used of someone as if they were standing in the crowd.  This makes you feel as the audiences as if you were an onlooker to the crime scene.

-There is a time shown at the bottom of the screen.  This is shown as if you were following “a day in the life of..” this person.

-The camera height is level with the person on the floor. This gives us as the audience a feeling of that we are there with them witnessing it as it goes on.

-It has the convention of a music video that it has an opening scene before the music starts.

-The words Ghetto and Gospel are an oxymoron.  This means there are two words next to each other that don’t go together.

-There is also juxtaposition with Tupac and Elton John performing in the same song as each other as their genre of music is completely the opposite also one of them is a black man from a tough background and the other is a white gay man.

-When the person is crying there is a defocusing of the camera, this adds to the mood.

-The lyrics that are being sung match the imagery shown on the screen.

-The establishing shot in this video shows it is an urban environment, we know this because of the large buildings and the overpopulated areas.

The scene of them at the table reading shows they are educated people and they don’t belong in an area like the one they are shown in.

-There is a religious connotation when they are eating; a picture of the last supper is on the wall.  This could be trying to make him as a Jesus like figure almost.

-All these codes lead to us as the audience to believe that he is a good person, it also adds to the emotion when he gets shot as we see it as an injustice to happen to a good person.

-The costume and body language gives us clues that the people on the street corner are a gang.

-There are close ups of their hands and when they exchange drugs, this helps to progress the narrative for the audience.

-There is also juxtaposition here as the gang are outside a church, two things which are not usually put next to each other.

-There are scenes of the main character with his family.  This also adds to us as the audience to believe his a good person.

-There is a close up on the hand holding between them.  This shows he is a father and a husband and shows the love between them.  This adds to the sadness of when he gets shot.

-There is a close up of him looking to be in deep thought; this could be of him thinking that he needs to get out of this environment in which he doesn’t belong.

-When he is outside he holds his hands up to the sky and light is coming from behind him from the sun.  This links back into the last supper picture on the wall which is trying to suggest he is Jesus like.

-There is a camera shot that is looking at him through bars.  This could symbolise that he is in this trapped lifestyle in the Ghetto.

-When he is shot there is a close up of the glass of water he was drinking spilling on the floor.  This could be code for his death and how his life is poured out.  It could also wine at the last supper which links into the other codes for making him Jesus like.

-At the end of the video we see that it ends where the video starts.

-We see him at the end of the film, like as if his family member can still see him standing on the corner with his gang.  This is also Jesus like as it is like Jesus’ resurrection.