Music video analysis part 2

Heartless~ The weeknd

Idea:

Heartless by the weeknd was released in 2020 directed by Anton tammi. The genre of this music video has to be INDIE. This video stars Abel aka the weeknd himself with type record label produced metro boomin. With great hints of it being a narrative also concept based genius ms thinks the concept is to be ‘heartless’. The lyrics and the video itself tells is about self love or being emotionless. Video also has a touch of fiction when Abel licks the frog in his palm and later his eyes turn into a frog and his hands get slimy and scaly like a frog. The artist is also shown partying and smoking giving the ‘care free’ image. The target audience was definitely teens.

Andrew Goodwins theory about relationship between video and lyrics fit thus perfectly . The end of the video rather confuses the viewer what happened? Why did his facial expressions change? Did the frog make him puke and why was he suddenly not heartless?

Mis-en-scene

Costumes were kept rather formal here. Abel wearing a red coat with big sunglasses and a stud in his ear. Hair was kept rather made in an arfo. A black and gold watch is also shown and something that made me question the concept was the wedding ring?

Metro boomin is wearing a blue coat. Both of them are rather dressed in a rich formal dilemma.

The props:

The first prop we see here is the fancy car. Abel amd metro boomin are shown dancing around it. It is shown as a symbol for rich. The second prop we see here are the cigarettes and the drinks they’re showing the care free life style drinking while playing choker spending dimes care free of losing or winning. The most important prop here has to be the frog that changes the whole story of the video from being carefree to feeling too much. The lyrics get from being cold heartless to being a sad heartless person who ‘lost their heart and mind’  as soon as he licks the frog his tongue gets longer like a frog other parts of his body start resembling the frog like his eyes and hands. Is that the reason he always wears glasses?

Colour lights and camerawork

The colour pallet of this video is yellow red and blue and the colourist of this video is Nickel Jacobbson. Flashy yellow lights in the start the car has really neon blue lights and the entire set has yellow lights. I think the colour scheme is very fancy.  The choker Arena is also filled with yellow lights and white walls. Abels red coat really pops up in the entire video.

Camera work is really outstanding overall. The establishing shot is a wide shot showing us the location. Then a zoom from the top to abels face showing the lights in his sunglasses. We then see cuts as the drum beats hit in sync. At 1:11 we see a reverse pan of abel and metro boomin sitting by 2 statues. Masking of colour red over his skin is also used. Back shit of him at the rooftop smoking a cigarette. The edit of leaves turning into white crystal. Buzzing sound if discomfort.

This video is a mixture of happiness and sadness which is appealing to the audience. They made the audience wonder about the back story of his life and i think it’s quite interesting.