LF: Technical Deconstruction - Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness

1.      ECU of record player.

2.      CU- meet shot of kid cudi

3.      CU of extras hand with alcohol, early signifier

4.      LS of kid cudi drinking out of bottles, extras socialising around.

5.      Same shot however extras go into slow motion (brilliant effect)

6.      CU of another extra in focus, 2 extras out of focus.

7.      Cut back to LS of Kid Cudi sitting in chair again with champagne bottle.

8.      CU meat shot, with hand movements.

9.      MS out of focus fading into focus of two extras.

10.  CU Kid Cudi

11.  LS of Kid Cudi in chair

12.  CU kid cudi, slight dance moves.

13.  MS of torso of two extras holding champagne.

14.  LS Kid Cudi

15.  CU of Kid Cudi

16.  LS of Kid Cudi with props being thrown across room

17.  MLS of woman opening champagne bottle slow motion.

18.  LS of extras with glitter falling down.

19.  LS slow motion of 5 extras partying.

20.  CU of drake and Kid cudi

21.  LS of party with glitter falling

22.  CU of kid cudi

23.  MLS of hands and glasses, slow motion pouring champagne.

24.  LS kid cudi drinking out of bottle

25.  LS of extras partying

26.  CU of extra (woman) with glass half covering face.

27.  ECU of extra man

28.  Low angle shot of phone flying through air, sped up to LS of extras face.

29.  LS slow mo of extras face

30.  MLS of woman drinking champagne having a god time

31.  LS of DJ holding a kid cudi vinyl cover

32.  CU of kid cudi

33.  Sped up shot of Kid Cudi and drake ranging from CU-MS

34.  White fade leading to LS of Kid Cudi in chair with champagne.

35.  Sweeping shot of crown drinking.

36.  CU of woman smiling

37.  Panning left shot of extra very low-level lighting.

38.  ECU of Kid Cudi

39.  MS of kid Cudi sitting o bar stool

40.  ECU of Kid Cudi

41.  MS of Kid Cudi at the bar with people around him in slow motion

42.  CU of Kid Cudi-Meet shot

43.  Side angle CU of Kid Cudi

44.  Long MS of kid Cudi again with extras appearing in a different time zone.

45.  CU of Kid Cudi

46.  MS of Kid Cudi slight hand movments

47.  Low motion panning up shot of man raising hand with shot glass.

48.  MS of Kid Cudi, referring to lyrics with dance moves (dreams)

49.  CU slow motion of man doing shot

50.  MS of Kid Cudi

51.  CU of Kid Cudi

52.  MS of Kid Cudi

53.  Cuts to close up of man smiling after doing shot- CU

54.  MS of Kid Cudi

55.  ECU of Kid Cudi

56.  MS of Kid Cudi

57.  Slow Motion Low angle shot of champagne glasses colliding.

58.  Low lighting shot of extra with glitter falling down.

59.  MS of Kid Cudi and Drake with dark background.

60.  Slow motion shot of glitter falling.

61.  MS of Kid Cudi and drake

62.  MS of Extras Partying, followed by another extra holding a glass of champagne

63.  MS of Kid Cudi and Drake

64.  Slow motion low angle shot of a woman’s hand and falling glitter.

65.  Wide angle lense shot of Kid Cudi sitting on chair with extras in slow motion.

66.  MS of Kid Cudi/Drake, camera movement is minimal but a nice effect, bright white lights blind the audience for split second.

67.  ECU of kid cudi, with sparkling lights in the background, good use of Mise-en-scene.

68.  Final shots, Kid Cudi feeling the effects of the night before, effects include blurring, and de focusing.

• I chose to technically deconstruct Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness, although it is not a boy band song it is a commercial video which conforms to the conventions of the genre, and you can draw many parallels between the two genres.

• First of all one of the main differentials of this video is the cutting rate as there are a number of long shots throughout the video, nonetheless there are always very unusual effects during these shots which still captures the audiences attention. For instance the long shots of Kid Cudi sitting in the chair at times last for around 4 seconds however there is a lot happening in the shot.

• The extras standing around Kid Cudi are partying in slow motion whereas Kid Cudi is moving at a normal speed, I feel this effect is very unusual and if we can adopt a similar effect through our video we can gain top level marks.

• The use of slow motion is a common theme throughout the video and breaks up the tempo of the shots making it more interesting, furthermore the audience can truly take in the Mise en Scene and the quality of the framing. I feel is it crucial that if we do use slow motion we need to consider our set and the use of lighting extremely carefully.

• Moreover Pursuit of Happiness does push the boundaries of the video in some aspects such as a slightly slower cutting rate and long shots; nonetheless the amount of meet shots during the video is very high. Kid Cudi dominates a lot of the screen time and although he is a solo artist we intend to allocate a lot of screen time to the members of the boy band.