Above is the music video for The Hills by The Weeknd, which was directed by Grant Singer and produced by Nathan Scherrer and the production company was FREENJOY, INC. The music video begins showing a wrecked car that has flipped over, and it is unknown why the car has flipped over. The Weeknd is seen crawling out of the car before helping two women to get out. As the song progresses, Weeknd is seen walking by himself down a dark street in Los Angeles, and around the middle of the song, the wrecked car explodes behind him. He occasionally is pushed repeatedly by one of the women from the car which may connote it was his fault, one of the possible reasons for him crashing the car might be that he was intoxicated or even on drugs as the lyrics dictate that he has been using drugs. At the end of the song, he enters an abandoned mansion, and goes upstairs to a room illuminated with red light possibly connoting lust which he holds for the women in the car crash. A man holding an apple sits waiting for him, next to the two women from the car, and the video cuts to black.
Relationship between visuals + Lyrics
There is some relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. These points where the lyrics do match the visuals are seen when one of the women pushes and touches the man while the lyrics are as follows "I only love it when you touch me, not feel me", which is obviously runs a direct correlation to the lyrics and visuals. I think this is to stress the uneasy relationship which the two have in the video, and again to stress it really was his fault. However in the shot he has his back to the women possibly signifying that he is dismissing what she's saying whether she is right or wrong. Genre Characteristics
Abęl Makkonen Tesfaye, known professionally by his stage name The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. In late 2010, Tesfaye anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under the name "The Weeknd". He creates music in the alternative R&B genre. This video indeed does fit the genre of alternative R&B as it has the same style of many other alternative R&B videos like Usher- Climax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNTyfVh3nmU as they have both been lit in the same way, that being a grey in general as seen in the screenshots surrounding were neither shot would look out of place in each others music video as they are so simple. However there are some parts of The Hills music video which don't perfectly match with the normal conventions of alternative R&B as there is a reasonably strong narrative unlike other videos which arguably could be viewed as one dimensional. Intertextuality
There is no evident intertextuality within the video itself however the title of the song links to the horror film the Hills Have Eyes. Proof of this being true comes from a quote of Brian Mansfield of USA Today saying that "when a song takes its hook from a horror film — Wes Craven's 1977 cult classic The Hills Have Eyes — you know there's bound to be trouble."
Also if you didn't noticed is how this scene resembles the “Red Room” scene in “Twins Peak” where cooper meets a girl that was killed. In that scene, there is also a man present, and nobody knows why. The similarity is there.
Performance, Narrative and or Concept
The Hills can be characterised as a narrative music video, as I have explained before we see a story unfolding of the Weeknd crawling out of the car before helping two women to get out. As the song progresses, Weeknd is seen walking by himself down a dark street in Los Angeles, and around the middle of the song, the wrecked car explodes behind him. At the end of the song, he enters an abandoned mansion, and goes upstairs to a room illuminated with red light with a man holding an apple sitting waiting for him, next to the two women from the car, and then video cuts to black.
Performance style
There is a reasonable amount of performance in this video as we see The Weeknd sometimes directly address the audience while singing however there is no other performance as such.
Linear, closed narrative
This video has a linear narrative as there is no set reading but instead it allows us to create our own interpretation of the story line. However what I see is a male trying to impress a female which in turn ends badly in a car crash due to drugs and drink.
Mode of Address
There is a reasonable amount of mode of address throughout the video however only ever through visuals and not lyrics as you can see on the left there is a screenshots where we see him utilizing the technique of mode of address.
Mode of Address
This screenshot is als showing him carrying out mode of address as we see him looking at us. However you can pick up more from this shot than that he is talking to us, but you can work out that he is almost looking through the camera which connotes that his words are empty as he has a transparent look.Star Treatment
There is star treatment existing in this video as there is only one or two shots where The Weeknd is not in it. This is probably because he is not in a band but he is a solo singer.
Audience in the video
No audience existed in this video apart from the fact some of there listeners may be going through the same situation as the to characters, that being a drug problem mixed with romance problems. So in that sense yes there is audience is in the video.
Male Gaze
There is a very strong sense of the male gaze when the Weeknd walks into the room lit entirely in red. As there are two women who are dressed in little clothes while the weeknd stares at them. To strongly stress the male gaze. To the left there is a screenshot to show what I'm talking about. Representations
Also they must be wealthy as they have a continuous drug habit which would be very hard to fund. Furthermore you could say the video represents a very chauvinistic side of society as we see what looks like men using women as sexual objects as seen in the screenshot in the male Gaze subheading.
Pace and Variation of pace
There is Zero pace differentiation of the actual visuals however there is in the audio.
Shot Variety + No. of setups
There is a reasonable variety of shots used. Including a panning shots from 0 seconds to 10 seconds. This was done to create an effect of being dazed after the crashed. I also feel it was done to set the seen and used instead of an ELS establishing shot. Of course I would insert a screenshot, however of course you would not be able to tell it was a panning shot as it's stationary.
Although I said there was no ELS establishing shot there is a LS at the end where we see the red room again. I feel this was done so we could see all the features in the room to stress the almost spooky and uneasiness of the situation.
Lastly was the most common shot that was used that being the medium shot of the man walking to his location as see here. Also here was around 25 different setups however these barley differed.
FX
Special effects were used in this video however only once when the car was blown up which either was really however it was quite likely it was CGI.
Location and Mise-en-scene
The Hills was shot in the Hollywood hills as far as I can tell this was done to signify the wealth of the man as he is on the way to his mansion. Further on in the video he reaches an old run down mansion I feel this could connote what used to be. As in what his life could have been without the drink and drugs.Subcultures
Often in music videos there are subcultures shown which can be quite focused on the genre and I feel this music video does that as the drug theme is very common in alternative R&B.
Notable Shot/ Framing
The last shot is easily the most important or at least the most notable shot as of what it tells us. To avoid repeating myself look back at the text by the screenshots that show a red room. But one thing I haven't mentioned previously is the fact he is holding an apple which could of course signify sin.
Director Style
