This music video is primarily a Nihilist based performance video as it contains a lot of quick editing and intense camera movements with the mise-en-scene and rapper in your face, although there is some sort of story line (The scientific experience on his body, the travelling through Japan on motorcycles) there isn't really any meaning to it and, I think, is only to show off Japan with camera angles and shots.
The video starts out with several establishing, pan shots of Japan (12 Seconds) to set the scene and tell the audience where the video was set - this grabs the attention of the Japanese audience as they might be able to relate to the setting and may interest people who have never been to Japan and may want to know what it looks like. In between these establishing shots there are several close and medium shots of futuristic people in robot suits controlling machinery in a majestic and memorising way (15 seconds) to catch the eye of the audience. The futuristic-robot-people fit in with the stereotypical view of Japan - that it is very modern and technological - viewers are constantly reminded that the video is set in Japan as Japanese text appears on screen, the females in the video are Japanese and there are pan shots of towns. Later on in the video, there are scenes of fast paced cuts with slightly blurred editing and freezes to make it look almost like a holographic message, through this there pauses where Japanese text appears, keeping the Japanese theme flowing throughout the video. (3:30)
As it is a performance video, the vocalist is the main subject of the video - this is shown by the close up camera shots of Kanye throughout the video, which leaves the abstract, unclear narrative with very little screen time. Although, his face isn't full shown until 25 seconds into the video, and makes the audience think that the video is going to be narrative based as it mainly focuses on the enviorment (Japan) and the robots and their machinary. This quickly changes when Kanye starts performing at around 33 seconds, which cuts to an extreme close to of Kanye directing himself at the audience, in what appears to be an alley way. (37 seconds) In these alley way-perfomance-scenes the lighting is used to focus on Kanye as the rest of the shot is darker, like a spot light has been shone on him but still allows him enough room/light to move and swing himself around, as if he was on a stage performing live. Through out the video, Kanye is seen in various places throughout Japan - the main two being the experimental lab and the alley way.
Hip-Hop codes and conventions are seen throughout the video. At around 35 seconds, an attractive female is introduced, firstly with an extreme close up of her face, through the video she is seen dancing and posing with and without Kanye, using her as a sexual object to attract a larger male audience and making them watch the video multiple times. Another code and convention is the black, male artist - Hip-hop is mainly dominated by these types of people due to origin of the genre, this video is no different as it shows a black male dressed in baggy trousers, jewellery and fashionable items (Such as the glasses, which later became an iconic item of his)
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