Guy Pollard

Theory and plotIn 2012 Flo Rida released the pop song ‘Wild Ones’ and enticed his audience with this excessive music video. Any fan of his music videos will be able to tell you that they basically consist of his amazing lifestyle. In these music videos he is the epitome of what a male can do with all his wealth and success. The Hip Hop, dance genre music is fast pace and exhilarating and the music video reflects that. The artist is living out the dream of every teenage boy, with an unlimited amount of money, girls and popularity. At every point in this music video the artists is always in the middle of the shot to show his importance to the audience. In this particular instalment of Flo Rida’s life he is documenting his holiday to Dubai where it is captured in a fast paced montage. This music video is almost a cliché when you compare it to some of the music video theories. In Michael Shore’s theory he mentions the adolescent male fantasies which Flo Rida is living out. The artists is surrounded by attractive woman all with a huge sex appeal, the music video even has moments of soft core pornography and it is all to make the audience jealous of the artist as they idolise him. Clearly they are targeting a male audience here with the use of the male gaze to bring in lustful men. But it is not just the sex appeal that sells the music video. It is the wealth and power, the artists is showing the audience that he can do whatever he wants to do and his audience will follow him as they want to be him. There is no narrative as the artists jumps from party to party.

Cameraand Editing

Throughout this music video we have mixed of fast paced and high quality shots as well as having some amateur camera action. This amateur camera action is what brings the music video to life as it makes the music video believable which is a vital part to this holiday. If the audience can believe this is holiday is real, they will be able to believe their idol is as powerful in real life as he is in the music video. In this music video they have a huge amount of product placement and advertisement. With these famous brands in the music video it will make it more familiar and more relatable for the audience which ultimately makes it easier to watch. As well as making money for both the artist and the product, product placement increase the value to the music video as the artist is being associate with these luxury brands. These brands are made obvious with still close ups of the logo. The brands are empathised with sex appeal as you can see with a bottle resting against the bum cheeks of a woman. the flow of the music video is a fast paced montage which is full of action and the party vibe. There are lots of landscape shots in this video to make sure that the audience do not forget where they are. these impressive shots give the music video an exclusive feel. The audience now feel like they are being given special access into this special world.

Artist representationsFlo Rida naturally has a big presence with his big build, but it is emphasised with this music video. Although there is another singing artist in the song, Flo Rida is still the main star as he takes up almost all the screen time. Flo Rida is able to work hard by lip syncing his lyrics and play hard by partying on his holiday. Andrew Goodwin provides us with a good music video theory the describes Flo Rida. He explains that it is important to ignore common narrative and focus more on advertising the artist with the performance. With no narrative to concentrate on, it makes it easier to focus on the music video. This gives the music video a critical edge, its repeatability so people will not get bored of the song. Flo Rida is acting as both the narrator and the performer and with the use of lip sync it gives the music video authenticity. In every aspect Flo Rida is the centre of attention when he is a large group. The water fountains even blow up at peaks with the music around the artist to make him look like a king. The whole music video is portraying the artists as powerful and as wealthy as possible. this increases the popularity of the artice and people will want to be like him. He is seen to be living life to the full by going to parties, drinking and driving and racing some of the worlds most exotic cars in the world.

Mise-en-scene and genre conventionsThis music video is all about showing people the things they will never be ever to do with wealth and power. For example we can see a woman riding a horse playing polo. This is a sport which traditionally only the richest and most powerful aristocrats would play. Furthermore the shot is positioned at a low angle looking up at the rider with the sun shining behind her to make her look powerful like an angel. This shot shows that she is above everyone including her audience who will literally be looking up to her. In the video they perform a number of adrenaline rushing activities such as sky diving, off-roading and racing exotic super cars. these are activities which most people will not be able to perform, so the audience will look at the artists as a rich and powerful man who can do anything he wants. The living life to the full attitude fits the genre of the song well as we see fast paced action shots of partying and playing. The genre hip hop and dance stereotypically has the party scene going which is a constant factor within this music video.