Case Study 2: "The Hills"

Music Video: The Hills

Artist: The Weeknd

Release Date: 27^th of May 2015

Genre: R&B

Duration: 4:02

Synopsis:

It begins with a shot of a car that is upside down. A wounded The Weeknd emerges from it.

 Two girls then get out of the car and start pushing The Weeknd around, as if they are blaming him for what happened. However, the singer seems unfazed. He keeps steadily walking towards a house, as if he is magnetically, or magically, attracted to it. The car behind him then explodes.

The Weeknd then enters a creepy house and starts looking around.  The Weeknd then climbs some stairs – very slowly – as if emphasizing the “ascending” nature of initiation.

He then enters a room that is very, very red (the symbolic color of initiation and sacrifice). The strange looking person is holding an apple. This most likely refers to the proverbial snake in the Book of Genesis who pushes Adam and Eve to bite the forbidden apple. While the snake is usually associated with the devil who convinced humans to disobey God, the occult elite considers the snake to be Lucifer. The two girls laying on the bed are the same two girls who were in the car with The Weeknd. How did they arrive there so fast … and when did they have time to change? The viewers are meant to understand that there is something supernatural going on here and that perhaps these girls were sent by the shady character to cause the accident and lead The Weeknd to that room.

Then the video ends. At this point, one might understandably wonder what this video has to do with the song, which is about The Weeknd telling a girl from “the hills” (who is cheating on her husband with The Weeknd) that he doesn’t really care about her, among other things.

As it is the case with most videos with a ritualistic undertone, the true story of the video is in the details. First, the title of the song, “The Hills”, is often a reference to upper-scale neighborhoods, the most famous one being the Hollywood Hills. In one line of the song, The Weeknd refers to rolling into a “gated residential” to meet the girl. The song and video both convey a sense of moral corruption in “high society” (as he’s singing to a girl that is committing adultery).

When The Weeknd enters the house, we hear him singing:

The Hills have eyes, the hills have eyes

This can refer to people in closed communities knowing about each others’ lives and gossiping their afternoons away. However, in the context of the video, it can also refer to the elite monitoring their people, especially newcomers, such as The Weeknd.

The video bears a resemblance to the beginning of the movie Mulholland Drive, which also begins with a car accident in Los Angeles, and a wounded and confused actress walking towards civilization (the entire movie is one big, enigmatic look at the dark side of Hollywood).

In short, the video is about The Weeknd reaching “the hills” or, in more accurately, the occult elite. And, if you are not part of the privileged bloodline, you need to take an oath and bite the proverbial apple. Conveniently, the next video of the series describes what happens when you are initiated.

Camera and Editing. (analysis of video)

At the start of the video, the car which The Weeknd and the two girls he was with are in is toppled over. The camera roles past the car (moving to the right) showing the damage detail of the car from one angle.Once the beat finishes the camera switches to a black screen where The Weeknd says ‘yeah’ .

The camera then roles towards the left showing the car once again. But from this angle it is more zoomed out and we can see one of the girls moving around inside the car. Once the beat finishes the camera switches to a black screen where The Weeknd says ‘yeah’ again.

For the third shot the camera zooms in slowly towards the drivers door (where The Weeknd crawls out from). Once the beat finishes the camera switches to a black screen where The Weeknd says ‘yeah’ again like the two previous shots.

For the fourth shot the camera zooms away from the car. These shots have most likely been filmed in order to show the damage that has been dealt to the car after the presumed accident involving The Weeknd and the two girls .  

In the next shot the Weeknd crawls out of the injured and limping, wiping the dirt of himself and bleeding. This shot is mostly tracking The Weeknd and does not zoom in or out, it only tracks his every move. This is a continuous shot from 00:08 to 00:52.

The next shot is from the left side of The Weeknd. This shot shows the character being pushed by the girl in the blue dress (her facial expressions and body language indicate that she is mad and in panic because her and her friend (the other girl) just faced a near death experience. However The Weeknd does not seem too bothered by this.

From 1:00 to 1:17 the camera is continuously being followed by The Weeknd to show his facial expressions and physical state.

From 1:17 to 1:29 the camera is following The Weeknd on his left. In this shot we see bystanders who witness what has happened. In the following shot The Weeknd looks at the bystanders and does not seem too bothered by them watching.

The next shot is another continuous shot which rotates and follows The Weeknd (from 1:35 to 2:18).  In this shot he is continuously being pushed by the girl in the blue dress. This shot is one of the longest in the video. In the shot the car also blows up which makes the video more engaging for the audience.

The next shot shows The Weeknd walking towards the house and this time the camera follows him.

The next shot features the lyrics: “the hills have eyes...” The Weeknd walks into a house which looks abandoned and in a way spooky.

The next few shots shows the Weeknd walking around what looks like the living room, everything in the room is broken and it seems as though someone was looking for something.

The next few shots consist of The Weeknd walking to a bedroom. Alongside these last shots the chorus is played one last time (“I only call you when it’s half past five...”)

During the chorus the camera switches from The Weeknds face to his back frequently. When the chorus finishes, some strange words play (sounds like the voice of a child) and the bedroom has the two girls that were in the car with him and another person with all white skin and very thin figure. The camera then switches to black immediately. This from my analysis raises questions (who is that person?) and makes the viewers wonder: “what is with all the red?"

From this video I plan to use elements including, a similar style of filming and acting.