"A Milli" - Textual Analysis

A Milli - Lil Wayne Music Video

The video starts with an OTS shot of Lil Wayne looking at a car, before a low angle shot looking up at him and his car that he is standing on. The camera, then tracks him getting off the car and shaking hands with someone before he walks of shot and then, there is a dissolve special effect which takes the audience into the next shot. The next shot is a mid shot, of a security guard standing outside a tour bus. The words ‘A Milli’ appear across the screen, and a person appears from behind the camera and walks into the shot, before being pushed back by the security guard. Further writing is added along the screen. The camera then zooms into a closeup/midshot of the door of the bus, before Lil Wayne appeards from inside of it and the door opens. The camera then tracks Lil Wayne walking from his tourbus possibly using a dolly, keeps a close up angle to him, until he reaches his chair this is followed by a sequence of edits, which has an effect of him robotically entering his chair. He briefly sits on his chair, whilst hair and makeup is applied, and again the camera uses a series of closeups on him, with a series of special effects being used. Lil Wayne then walks from his chair, and the camera once again tracks his movements. He is then followed using a tracker, back to his trailer and the camera angle changes to a P.O.V. shot of Lil Wayne going into his trailer, before the door shuts and the camera moves to a close up of his security guard. The same shot, is then repeated with his security guard stopping someone wanting to get to his trailer. He then re-emerges from the trailer and is tracked, on a possible hand held camera out of his trailer and walking along with an entourage behind him. There are a series of fast edits, to represent the pace and the feel of the song. The same camera method is used throughout. The camera then tracks Lil Wayne walking for a substantial, and lip synching the words to the song. The camera then ends up tracking Lil Wayne in the opposite direction to which he was walking which gives it a different angle. The use of edits are used to break up the sequence of Lil Wayne walking through. The video ends with a low shot of Lil Wayne standing on a table, in essence this video is a video which offers the viewer the backstage view of a music video from Lil Wayne’s eyes, using few edits, and not much variation in camera technique.