Analysis on Director Spike Jonze and his Music Video for Jay Z & Kanye West - 'Otis'

From looking at a variety of music video directors I have decided to look closely and research into the director Spike Jonze. Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor and he has worked on music videos, commercials, film and television. He is best known for his work as director of the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are.  He is well known also for his music video collaborations with Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Björk. My favourite piece of work that Spike Jonze has created is his music video for the collaboration of Jay Z and Kanye West - ‘Otis.’ I will be analysing this music video using Andrew Goodwin’s music video analysis and throughout I will be looking at Spike Jonze filming techniques and style of filming.

The song ‘Otis’ by Jay Z and Kanye West was released on July 20^th 2011 which makes it a very current music video created by Spike Jonze. The artists Kanye West and Jay Z belong to the labels ‘Roc-A-Fella,’ ‘Roc Nation’ and ‘Def Jam’ which are labels that have signed artists of which belong to the music genre hip hop. Within this music video it does demonstrate Hip Hop characteristics. Originally an MC would rap, while a DJ would provide a beat via his electronic equipment and also Hip Hop music was often performed on streets, nightclubs and private parties at the time of its origin. Within this particular video these characteristics of Hip Hop are shown through Kanye West and Jay Z both performing to the camera and they are set in a desolate place where what looks to be factories in the background. The video is very simple which allows a focus to be of the artists rapping keeping it original. Spike Jonze has previously worked with Hip Hop artists such as P Diddy on his video ‘It’s All About The Benjamin’s’ and B.I.G on his song ‘The Sky is The Limit,’ he also within their music videos has kept it traditional with the artist performing to the camera.  This has proven to show that throughout Spike Jonze’s music videos for Hip Hop artists he likes to keep it authentic to the genre characteristics.  Also Hip hop is traced back to New York City in the 1970s so therefore the majorities of Hip Hop artists are American and are proud of this.  This is shown within this video by there being a large American flag draped over one of the buildings which acts as a background for them performing. A main characteristic of Hip Hop has become wealth. This did not originally be a characteristic because Hip Hop originated from people on the streets creating raps, these people not being very wealthy at all, however once hip hop was discovered and became more mainstream it has become a huge success and money maker which now is a main focus within Hip Hop. This is shown within the video substantially through the lyrics. Some examples of this are, “Photo shoot fresh, looking like wealth,” “I pulled up in my other Benz,” “big face Rollie, I got two of those.” All of these lyrics talk about money and wealth through what the artists are and what they own showing money and wealth to be a characteristic within Hip Hop.

The second point of Goodwin’s theory is showing a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. There is not a great relationship between the lyrics and visuals within this music video however there is some gestures made by the artists to relate with the lyrics. Some examples of this is when Jay Z says “Big face Rollie, I got two of those,” Kanye West then shows his watch to the camera and then puts two fingers up gesturing the number of watches. Another example is when Kanye West says “last week I was in my other other Benz,” here both Kanye West and Jay Z act as if they are steering the wheel of a car to relate with the lyrics. Further into the video Jay Z then says the lyrics  “Photo shoot fresh,” and while saying this he acts out taking a photograph. Another element in the video to show the relationship of the lyrics and visuals is when “all the ladies,” is said by Kanye West; it shows four girls in the back of a maybach luxury car. By having this kind of relationship between the lyrics and visuals it creates the audiences to not only watch what’s happening in the video but to also be listening to the lyrics at the same time. With having the artists from the Hip Hop genre perform within Spike Jonze videos it then forces them to create and do gestures as a way of visually showing the lyrics.

In the music video there is a relationship between the music and the visuals. This is shown mainly through the pacing and edits. Within the video, if the music is at a slow pace then the camera movement is also slow, an example of this is at the beginning of the video when there is a long shot at a low angle of Jay Z and Kanye West making their way towards the car in the distance. The camera moves towards the car at a very slow pace keeping in time with the pace of the music. This works well as it sets a calm atmosphere for the audience but yet is showing a buildup which lets the audience know the beat will kick in soon.  As the music then starts to pick up pace and the beat starts the edits then become increased and as an audience you start to see different angles and more of the location in which they are in. By having more edits when there’s a faster pace it lets it be more visually interesting for the audience and works well to have the edits coincide with the beat of the song.  The main part of the video that is throughout is Kanye West and Jay Z performing and while they do this there is not many edits as this keeps the focus to be on them. Then finally towards the end of the song the number of edits picks up the pace again, flicking through the different angles and position shown throughout the video quickly.  Spike Jonze does this in a lot of his videos and obviously likes to keep a strong relationship between the music and the visuals. He has done this in his music video for Arcade Fire – ‘Suburbs’ as at the start the music does not start straight away so the edits and camera movement is slow however when the music starts the number of edits starts to increase.  

Within the ‘Otis’ music video the attention is almost always on Kanye West and Jay Z. This was probably decided by the record company as with ‘Otis’ being the first single released by their new album ‘Watch the Throne’ they most probably want to keep the focus on them attracting more viewers and therefore more sales of the record. The image in which I think the duet artists portray through this video is positive as it shows them having fun together and enjoying what they do as a career. There is nothing negative within the video however some may find the lyrics about wealth in some ways inappropriate.  

Things that stand out to me that Spike Jonze repeatedly does within his music videos that he creates is that if the music video is performance based he tries to make it visually interesting for the audience through his use of camera angles and camera movement. One angle which he has used within a few of his music videos is a low angle while the artist performs into the camera. By having the camera at a low angle it supplies power to the artist as they are looking down on you. It almost is an intimidating angle to make sure the audience is listening to their lyrics. This is used within the ‘Otis’ video and also in the videos I previously mentioned being the ‘Sky is the Limit’ video and the ‘It’s all About the Benjamin’s’ video too.  Also Spike Jonze particularly likes to use tracking shots in his videos. I have seen him use it specifically in the ‘Otis’ video and also in his music video for ‘The Suburbs’ by Arcade Fire. Within the ‘Otis’ video he uses this when there are shots of Kanye West and Jay Z in the car. This works well as the camera follows them keeping the focus on them but it also looks visually engaging.