Mark Romanek directed many music videos, however I decided to analysis "99 Problems" by Jay Z. This music video was the third single released by American rapper Jay-Z in 2004 from The Black Album. Throughout the song Jay-Z tells a story about dealing with a racist cop who wants to illegally search his car, dealing with rap critics, and dealing with an aggressor. This music video received 4 wins for: Best Rap Video; Best direction – Mark Romanek; Best editing – Robert Duffy and Best Cinematograph – Joaquin Baca-Asay and 2 nominations for video of the year and best male video. Throughout this analysis I will be referring to the representation issues and also referring to Andrew Goodwin’s writing (‘Dancing in the distraction factory’ Routledge 1992) 6 point analysis theory.
As demonstrated in this music video, relating to Goodwin’s 6 point analysis, the artist, Jay Z, is seen in the majority of the video. In the song, Ja z also says his own name within his lyrics which is another way to promote his song and once again relates to Goodwin’s 6 point analysis. Mark Romanek cleverly uses the phrase ‘Bitch’ as a marker, as on the line “99problems but the bitch ain’t one” he shows a different girl. Here Mark Romanek is using the representation of the female sex. These female women are dancing in a sexual manner which may suggest that Mark Romanek thinks most women are like this, hence why he has represented women in this manner.
Editing within this music video is very effective as the amount of different cuts that are taken give the impression that Mark Romanek has a unique and distinguished way of filming his videos. Throughout the video the camera is always moving even which makes the cuts look very neat and tidy, being director Mark Romanek uses this extremely well and even in still frames the camera is moving very slightly, however someone not looking for this feature wouldn’t be able to spot this technique.
Throughout the music video, Mark Romanek uses slow motion which lets the audience see what is going on and understand the story behind the video. As well as creating the atmospheric mood of mystery and a hidden message behind the lyrics. The lyrics suggest that there are a few problems, but is this in life or just made up, who knows? The music video shows that he is hiding something illegal in the boot of his car, this with the graphical match of the police and the sirens, creates a story for the audience. Another technique used by Mark Romanek is the fish eye effect. By having the technique of the fish eye, Mark Romanek has suggested that Jay Z has a very strange, mysterious and distorted life style, he is running from the police which confirm our suspicions about the mystery in his life. Another use for the fish eye technique is that he is trying to hide what is going on in the music video just like he is trying to hide what is going on in his life. Mark Romanek also decided to make the music video black and white.
To conclude, Mark Romanek uses very unique representations and techniques to create this music video. They are all very effective techniques and they keep the audience engaged.
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