This is America analysis

 17/3/21

This is America Childish Gambino

This is a blog post dedicated to the music video of this is America. The song in the video was written and performed by Childish Gambino ,aka Donald Glover, back in the summer 2018. This song won a grammy for music videos in trap music and pop. when it first realised i didn't fully get it, but i understood the basic political message behind the song and i remember being completely blown away and my whole school was talking about the song for weeks. 

For Camera, editing, lights and mise en scène the first thing i want to discuss is the camera work. For the beginning duration of the video the camera tracks and follows Gambino as he dances round as he dances and performs around. Throughout the video as the mise en scène rages in the background the camera starts to shake to through off the views in order to distract them from the symbolistic meanings in the background. This is also done by the camera focusing primarily on Gambino and his dancers as a distraction of what's really going on in the background of the video. the exception to this is when Gambino is slightly out of the centre to move to a points of attention as to allow the audience to focus on the back drop. As well as the camera making whip pan which was also used as a cut to the next shot in the video.

Because of the fact the the video is mostly done in one take the video doesn’t lean heavily on editing at all. there are a few cuts now and again but they're mainly performed using camera trick, for example the whip pan that is performed is used as a flashy way to cut and change scene whilst still making it look like one take if you're not looking for it. 

The setting of the video is in what looks to be an abandoned factory which has big industrial lighting in on it that lights the whole room through the piece. There are times when the scene is lit by fire as the lights are out except for the back ones and the raging fire of the backdrop is the main source of light. At the end of the video Gambino is running away in out of pitch black and slowly into a the light showing that he's running to freedom. 

Mise en scène, this video is so full of it it's unreal. First of the we see Gambino he is wearing old confederate trousers, the confederates were on the side in favour of keeping slavery in the American civil war. When Gambino dances his movements are exaggerated and almost cartoon like, this is referring to the Jim Crow movements and the black face period in 1830s to early 1900s in America.

The Music in the beginning is all happy and Caribbean esk, i think the meaning for this is to remind people that that’s s were a lot of slaves were taken from and that's what they were doing when they were taken and that music shows the life that the natives there still lead. The point is to show that people of colour can live without constantly shooting each other. The man playing this music on the guitar at first is just sitting there but when he comes back into frame we can see the bag over his head right before he is shot.

throughout the video there are cars scattered all over the place which i think is a reference to gang crimes and grand theft auto. As most of the cars windows are smashed or the doors are just left open, there’s even a shot of two guys breaking into a car in the backdrop of a scene, this is showing how since the end of slavery in america and minorities  were starting to be treated like people they were just thrown into poor neighbourhoods and still years and years after nothing has changed and these people have tos steal cars. Later we are shown a shot of Gambino standing on top of a 80-90s looking car whilst surrounded by cars. This is a message saying how America is at a point of lack of progression and forward movement. 

As a whole i think that Gambino is playing the role of America itself. Thats why hes constantly dancing and the camera never leaves him, the fact that he's dancing in front of the camera all the time is to distract you from what's really happening to make sure that they stick with there "American dream" image. even though what’s happening in the background is closer to the reality. there is even a white horse with a black cloaked rider in the background that is a possible symbol for the apocalypse.