Unlike many other artists, Kanye West himself co-directed the video, along with Spike Jonze; and it was produced by Jonathan Becker and Joshua Greenberg. This music video was one of three that Kanye West had made for the song, however he favoured this one the most and decided to only release this one to the public and music channels (although the remaining two made prior to this were also leaked regardless).
It first starts off with a long shot of the desert and is used as an establishing shot of the area to keep the audience guessing as to what is actually going on and in suspense of what is to come. The video leaves little to the viewer to be strongly aware of the story at hand however such factors such as the setting being at night and taking place in a desert where the character(s) would be isolated, the slow motion to the video and the actual ambiguity and vagueness to the video already sub-consciously makes us feel uneasy and we become slightly aware of the sinister tone that the video possesses.
Due to the video being very ambiguous we as the audience can never truly know what’s happening and the plot behind the story since we are directly thrown into the action and are not directly informed as to what’s going on, so the director of the video has intentions of leaving the viewer completely in suspense and uncertainty and leaves us guessing.
Although it is not directly told to us what is happening, the director does form enough of a structured plot to the video that we the viewer can be able to make certain guesses and interpretations to what they think is happening, therefore we can take a very open-minded view to it and form an opinion based from our own analysis. An approach such as this is ever so rarely seen in music videos in general, yet alone a hip hop music video and therefore I do believe the director attempted for a very unique direction for the video.
I believe the director intended the video to be both aimed at satisfying the male and female audience as we have the male gaze at hand here where we see a very attractive woman who is dressed in very little, being of an existent character in the video. On the other hand this character also satisfies the female audience as she can represent a more post-feminist portrayal of a ‘sexy woman’ who can yet still call the shots. This is because throughout the entirety of the video the audience is always aware of who is in power here, which is her and nobody else. She is pretty much the only visible character throughout most of the video and therefore she dictates the camera and the audience into seeing her and only her. To exemplify upon this we also see the camera make many panning motions towards her, and there are tracking shots used on her to illustrate just how mighty and powerful she really is and how much attention is needed on her. It again shows how she gains authority over the camera, as a shot in particular shows her walking to a certain area and while there is so much space placed in front of her she still manages to be the only figure visible on screen.
The song in general has a very dark tone to it, and everything ranging from the beat of the song to the lyrics help portray it in a more pessimistic and darker light. Therefore she is also presented in great darkness within many of the shots in the video, which reveals her in a silhouette form and brings a very sinister and mysterious feel to her.
There is a shot where she throws a lighter in the air for it to land on her clothes that she just rid of to burn them, and we see her walking towards us (the camera) while the flames are burning behind her, and this already creates a vicious and monstrous persona to the character and presents her as being very menacing.
When we see her walking towards us however she never looks at the camera and that also tells us that she is in demand and very authoritative as the camera needs to be on focus to her, yet she hasn’t got a care in the world for the camera or us. This shot happens to be in a medium close up form and therefore we acknowledge the detail needed on her as we can see the motions she is making and notice she is walking to a certain direction, and this accompanied with the point of view shots her head is facing in allows us to understand that she has some sort of goal and needs to go back to the car as it has more significance than we may have initially thought.
By her walking towards the camera it means the camera also has to back away from her, pointing out how threatened we are supposed to feel by her presence. The video being in slow motion not only creates a very dramatic feel for it, but also makes her appear almighty and grand because her movements are slow yet still inevitable and sure, and so she almost seems like an unstoppable force who has an aim that we the audience know nothing about, yet can only watch unfold and do nothing in our power to stop.
It is not only the many camera and editing techniques that make this character be presented as so powerful and in demand, but also her actions as we see that she has the man, Kanye West, tied up in the boot and therefore helpless. It shows that she does indeed hold the authority in the video and even a man whom would be typically be portrayed as the more dominant force, especially in a hip hop video, is weak, feeble and powerless to protect himself of her wrath and unable to stop her motives and prevent herself from achieving her goals.
When we see her forcefully ram a prop, being a shovel, into Kanye West repeatedly we develop the view of fear we have upon her and recognise how much of a villainous character she really is. As the camera pans away from the boot and the car, we don’t actually literally see the shovel being thrust into Kanye West’s body and this makes her appear even more evil and cruel as the camera seems to not want to show us the gruesome details of our actions, making us fear the woman more and being more frightened and terrified of her.
When closely analysing the music video myself, I have come to a rough and opinionated conclusion that perhaps Kanye West and the woman in the video were once lovers. However he wronged her by most likely committing adultery/ having an affair and committing infidelity and therefore she found out about it and is punishing him (murdering him) because of it. If that is the case then it creates for a very intriguing plot as it portrays such a villainous character whom is doing the wrong things however is not all entirely to blame as the person she had once loved wronged her first. It portrays the woman as being somewhat twisted and psychotic however as she is going through such drastic lengths just to hurt him back, as she is even willing to take his life because of it.
We know that there must have been some sort of affection between the two as just before she starts stabbing Kanye West with a shovel, she kisses him in the cheek. That not only displays a possibly existent love-life between the couple, it also emphasizes on just how disturbing of a character and twisted she is, because she is placidly able to make a transition of making a gesture of love to him to instantly making more than just a gesture of sheer hate and detest.
In conclusion I found that I had mixed thoughts over the video. I believe it is an incredibly unique type of video especially when considering what genre it is for, however the extent of the ambiguity and obscurity to the video acts almost like a double-edged sword for it. It allows the audience to make their own interpretations to the video to a certain degree, however it leaves too much for the audience to guess and arguably lacks enough depth for a narrative in order for a viewer to thoroughly understand what is happening. Overall the pros may indeed still outweigh the cons and the dark nature to the video can leave a sense of macabre to it where we the audience still have a certain interest into the gruesome events in the video, and our interest is still pertained due to this.
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