“Dang” by Mac Miller ft. Anderson .Paak
The music video I chose to review this week is the song “Dang!” by Mac Miller featuring Anderson .Paak. The song is off Mac Miller’s new album “The Divine Feminine.” The video was directed by Rex Arrow Films, who have also made videos for artists like Nelly and B.o.B. The “Dang” music video relies on urban style, bright colors and a love scene between Mac Miller and his girl and Anderson .Paak and his lady. The general premise of the music video is that Miller and .Paak are separately having issues with their girlfriends and are trying to work through them in a fun way. Both girls seem to be trying to leave them and at the end, the guys win them back. A few major themes in this video are the many different shots, colors and details. The music video has a bookending, which helps tie together the beginning and the end very well. Having a bookending in this case tells us the name of the song at the beginning and at the end, the artists names and the title of the song appear once again. The design of the opening sequence prepares us to see a constant flowered background, which is featured on Mac Miller’s girl’s bag, the walls in .Paak’s apartment and other random places.
The mise-en-scené of the video relies on lighting, clothing, details and props. The lighting of the scene uses natural lighting to portray the daytime vibe, besides at the end when .Paak and Miller are in front of the iconic flowered background with a circle of light around their dark background, making them visible. The costumes in the video take from urban style, relying on bold colors, tattoos and flashy jewelry. The details in this video are very important in creating a color theme and add to the visual appeal of it all, like the close up of the simple rips (4:16) in Mac Miller’s girl’s jeans. Something I was automatically drawn to was Miller’s neck tattoos due to the structure of his bomber jacket and the repetition of flowers on the jacket in comparison to his tattoo of flowers. Another significant accessory in the video is .Paak’s matching gold jewelry, his septum ring and chain necklace (0:21). Another clothing choice is that both of the main girls in the video are wearing white in some way as well. Mac Miller’s girl is wearing a white American Apparel body suit and Anderson .Paak’s girl is wearing a white dress. All of the background dancers are wearing a combination of red, blue, yellow, black or white in the video, which becomes the general color scheme of the video. Some of the props in the video include umbrellas, a suitcase, makeup, fake flowers, pillows and a laundry bag. The mise-en-scené creates a urban, upbeat tone and the yellowish filter put over the video adds to song and it’s meaning.
A various amount of shots are used in this music video, over 20 in fact, if I counted correctly. Two shots that stuck out to me were a wide angle shot at 1:56 and a pedestal shot from 3:05-3:07. These two shots added interesting variety to the video. The wide angle shot occurs right after a panning shot of Anderson .Paak, which shows us his environment in his apartment and all the perfectly aligned things like books and a painting, which contradicts his thoughts and whats happening with his girlfriend. The pedestal shot of Mac Miller is fun and adds to the jazzy beat of that moment in the song, where he is dancing around and the chorus is about to start again. The video relies on close up shots and quick cut shots mostly so these two shots change it up visually.
CA to DC 