Video Analysis- Dead and Gone

Dead And Gone- T.I ft Justin Timberlake

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Genre Characteristics:

T.I. goes the reflective route with the video, looking back over his life with the spectre of death before him. “Dead and Gone” shows T.I. reminiscing about Atlanta and the life he’s leaving temporarily before returning, which is ultimately where the third act of the video takes us.

The meaning behind the song and the music video is that the old T.I. (the younger and wilder self) is dead and gone. This emotionally intense, autobiographical track tells the story of the death of T.I.’s lifelong friend and personal assistant Philant Johnson who was killed on May 3, 2006, when T.I.’s entourage was caught up in a shooting after a show in Cincinnati, Ohio. The shooting incident also left three injured. T.I. co-wrote the track with Justin Timberlake. In this song, T.I is leaving everything that he has done in the past behind him and is now going through redemption.

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Is there a relationship between visuals and lyrics?

The video begins with him driving down a road in which he’s been going down all his life and that its time for him to change and be better since what he’s done is effecting both his family and friends. During this part of the video the lyrics say “I’ve been travelling on this road too long…” The majority of the actual video is also set on a dirt track road.

These non diegetic lyrics are heard whilst a car is travelling down a long straight road. These two components combined show there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. The lyrics, collaborated with the visuals show the very deep and emotional journey the video and lyrics are expressing. I believe that this song has a narrative; the artist seems to show numerous shots, or flashbacks of various things that have occurred over the years. He’s telling the story of how he’s been on the same road of corruption and having a bad influence upon the people around him. These flashbacks tell the tale of the lyrics sung by T.I in the video.

'I turn my head to the East

don't see nobody by my side

I turn my head to the West

still nobody in sight

So I turn my head to the North,

swallow that pill that they call pride'

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At this particular section of the music video, the actual actions of the artists follow what is explained through the lyrics. In this case they turn their heads in the direction expressed in the lyrics. This section shows that there is an obvious relationship between both visuals and lyrics incorporated in this video.
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Is there a relationship between visuals and music?
The main relationship between visuals and the music is the two elements collaborating throughout. The visuals directly relate to the pace of the music to enable the audience to maintain a better understanding of the story. An example of this is when T.I begins to rap. The rate of images shown (mainly flashbacks) increases as the style of singing is much faster then Justin Timberlake's.
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Shot and camera technicalities:
There are some unique angles some of them seem to be repeated where they have a camera above one of the artists and almost pan down from up top. This is a high angle which is then moved down to about a medium close up of JT or T.I. The majority of these shots however seem to be camera movements in which the camera is on a crane. A good example of this movement is when Justin is playing the piano and the shot rotates as it lowers from above to eventually show J.T at a medium close up (1.50).

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Are there any close ups of the artist or any star image motifs?

There are many close ups and medium close ups of the two artists T.I. and Justin Timberlake as well as numerous shots of the camera panning around the both of them as they are singing. This notion is used in the majority of all music video's as the main aim of any video is to promote the artists. Another of T.I's motif's for this video is to tell the story of how he's been on the same road of corruption and having bad influence upon the people around him. This video shows one of T.I's life experiences; escaping from his previous lifestyle (lifestyle shown in the flashbacks) and his road to redemption.

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Is there any reference to the notion of looking?

Throughout the video they also have numerous still shots of pictures from cemeteries, to extreme close ups of peoples faces. All these clips seem to be point of view shots or of the star actually looking directly at the audience (their stare follows the camera).

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Are there any references of intertextuality?
There are no intertextual references in this video that I am aware of.

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In all the video is very interesting and there are a few different ways in which someone could interpret it. The video incorporates much narrative as well as a variety of moving image media.

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Dead and Gone Lyrics
http://www.elyricsworld.com/dead_and_gone_lyrics_t.i..html