Textual analysis - This is America - Childish Gambino

This the first image , although it establishes the scene it is not an establishing shot its more of a mid-shot . It shows the artist doing a typical Caribbean dance and the music in the background is cultural music native to where the dance is from . It conveys a peaceful all loving sort of tone , the lighting is bright , the only abnormal factor is the fact the artist has his top on but smart trousers on .

This is the shot I would call the establishing shot it really sets the tone for the rest of the video , its highly contradictory to what was happening in the music video before. The mise-en-scene is still bright to convey this aspect that America believes its country to be great however if you look beyond the surface it is far from. The artist's stance is also a message in itself as if he isn't about to shoot someone in the head commenting on the desensitisation of many people in todays society.

The lighting adds a lot more shadows into the view in the background suggesting the idea that there's more going off in the background than is visible to us yet . This almost serves as an analogy to America as a whole, the idea of the setting turning happy and them dancing again plays homage to the ever changing aspects within America.

The background comes into view now and we see the chaos happening in the background , however the main focus is still on the group dancing at the front , showing how American society often ignored the issues within its country. This is a wide shot used to show the whole of the action.

In this shot the action in itself is very fast moving as he shoots the camera angles to mirror the gun going off , and then it quickly moves onto the next scene. This in itself almost conveys the idea that 'mass shootings' aren't given as much coverage as they should be , and if they are that the issue raised doesn't stay a hot topic of conversation for long because people are so normalised to the idea of it .

This scene adds in a new tone of light with the orange from the smoke shining through, maybe even playing homage to riots over the years based from protests where people often set fires in the streets . It looks like there's a small red light as well around the scene of the orange , suggesting police confrontations with protesters. The element of there being smoke in the focused area of the shot contributes to the idea of fire .

This scene is so similar to one of the first screengrabs I've analysed. It again shows him pointing as if holding an imaginary gun , but this time not pointed at anyone . This leaves the shot open for interpretation of the viewer as to what he's making comment on. This does fit with the idea the artist wanted , when asked in real life why he made the video and what the purpose was he chose not to comment and said he made it for people to from their own opinions from.

This shot is typical of a protest video , it has cars surrounding the artist but with no real meaning for the cars being there , and he is stood on the top of one of the cars smoking marijuana  (which would be considered anti-social behaviour ) . I believe this is done to show his protest towards the problematic aspects of America , and shows what most people do as they just simply stop caring. I like the bright lighting throughout the whole video as it really conveys the idea everything is not what it seems.

This is the darkest shot in the whole of the video , everything is black apart from one point where he is running towards . Almost suggesting the light at the end of the tunnel and that the best thing for him to do is run and not hide in the shadows . This starts an extremely short narrative strand as the video as a whole is confrontational to the issues presented so the idea he is running away from something makes a viewer automatically question why .

This is the first scene we see the artist looking scared , with the background being so dark and not showing much light the whites of the eyes of the artist are extremely heightened , showing the terror on his face. As the scene goes on we see the police chasing him and the lyrics accompanying the video suggest its a matter or racial discrimination from the police , the lighting may also show comment to this suggesting all they see is the colour of his skin instead of whether or not he has committed an offence . This could be a comment on the corruption within the police , suggesting the police put there effort and time into the wrong causes entirely . 

 

The video conforms to Henry Jenkins idea of fandom , he says 'Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk'. This video is typical of protest videos the only difference is the use of bright mise-en-scene throughout , combined with the short flashes to positive actions . This makes sense in the context of the music video as its showing the drastic contrast which can be seen in American society .