Music Video Research - Aloe Blacc

The music video for Aloe Blaccs' "I need dollar" is a very well produced music video as it uses most of the music video conventions. The song is about how he has come from the street where he had nothing and his life on the street. The video incorporates this by splitting the screen into two sections, in one (a still shot) Aloe Blacc is watching out of the window whilst lip syncing the other section of the screen is a linear clip using a tracking shot following a man who the audience perceive to be down on his luck like Aloe Blacc. The video is constructed so that it appears that through the window, Aloe is watching the other character. The editing of the videos was done so that Aloe is in black and white which I think is done to show that not everything is as it seems and that there are grey areas to every ones life. Also the costume helps us to show that the situation the character on the left is in as he walks down the street never stopping for long whilst wearing a body warmer and a hat which is commonly shown on people who live on the street in films. Where as Aloe is in a suit which means that he has done his time on the streets although the song doesn't give the audience an insight into how he got ou of the slum but he does 'share with us his story'.