Macklemore's song 'Drug Dealer' is incredibly emotive as he sings about not being able to quit and the dealer's who make him addicted. Jason Koenig is the director, writer and the director of photography for this video. Macklemore's video shows emotion, with dark harrowing shots of the artist sitting in a shower and in a dark room trying to survive going 'cold turkey' against these drugs. The featuring singer on this track is Ariana Deboo, the audience sees her slowly drowning in the pills around her with extreme close-ups on her lips and face.
The video opens with a close-up on Macklemore sitting in a shower, however the audience does not know this yet because of the tight frame and shadows hiding aspects of the scene. This creates enigmas so the audience pays closer attention to the footage. The footage is also unsteady because it is a handheld shot, this is purposefully done since the camera follows the timings of the singer's breathing causing the audience to become more involved in the scene.
The shot then matches off action swiftly to show him sitting in a shower with steam surrounding him, this answers the enigma of the audience not knowing where he is. I really like the steam surrounding him since it gives the shot a more intimate atmosphere.
The shot then changes again to another handheld close-up of a dark room where Macklemore begins to lip sync to the lyrics, the dark background of the shot with low key lighting causes his face to only be in focus - bringing attention to the sweat upon his nose and forehead. Also the audience focuses more intently on the lyrics, bringing more meaning them.
The audience then sees Ariana Deboo for the first time in a close-up shot where she is left centre frame, the editor has used a similar effect to the previous shot with Macklemore - having half of the frame blurred. By doing this Koenig has caused the viewer to imagine themselves going 'cold turkey' and as a consequence of this having blurred vision. White and red pills are slowly filling the shot with Deboo becoming more surrounded by them, this shows how pills and drugs sometimes swallow a person whole and they can't get out.
Half way through the chorus the shot changes to a bird's eye view of Macklemore lying on a mattress, the mise-en-scene in this shot is very important as it shows the quality of life the artist's character is living in. There is a bare mattress which is quite clear to the viewer giving them the idea that the character has a lower class life with not much income for him to afford a bed and sheets. The walls are also dirty showing that he lives in a run down accommodation, because of the fact that he is singing about drug addicts the audience assumes that he may be living in a drug den or he has sold everything to pay for these drugs. In the left side of the shot the viewer can see an ash tray filled with cigarette butts, this causes us to believe that the character does not care about keeping his home clean. On the right side of the frame there is a silver bowl which we presume is for sick because as a side effect of going 'cold turkey' you vomit. Overall this shot provides the audience with information on the characters life and their personality.
After this Deboo is shown again in low key lighting in a mid shot, the warm but dark lighting gives the ambience of being by a fire and with the light glare by her head causing me to first thing of it as a feather and therefore feeling like the scene reflects a native american vibe however I do not think that is the intended purpose of the shot.
I really enjoy the aesthetics of this shot with an extreme close up of her lip syncing to the lyrics, the shadows at the top of this shot causes the audience to fully focus on her lips.
We see the previous shot before but from a different angle where we see the depth of the pills, this is also quite psychedelic because the camera has a transparent divide between the pills and the camera. The blurred effect is again used here adding to the psychedelic effect.
This shot is a mid shot with low key lighting, the aesthetics of the footage are really nice with what seems to be sunlight hitting upon the background of the shot, this causes the smoke from the cigarette to become easily visible and the audience become entranced as a dances away from Macklemore.
The shot then switches back to Deboo now near completely covered by pills and as the song draws to an end we see her become swallowed by them. This shows the more negative ending of becoming a drug addict as she is overpowered by them.
However at the end of the video we see Macklemore's character at an 'AA' meeting where he has overcome his addiction, the room has high key lighting - this is contrasting to the previous shots which had heavy shadows in them. The lighting in the scene suggests that this is a calm and peaceful atmosphere. This shows that his character has 'learnt his lesson' which provides the audience with a happy outlook on life at the end of the video because 'all is well' with his life.
I think that this video is very good with an expertise shown in keeping the audience engaged even though there is no dramatic storyline running through it, because the beauty of the shots and the interesting editing effects the audience become entranced by it and they fully listen to the lyrics - therefore bringing more meaning to the piece.
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