Kanye west - Touch The Sky

The music video touch the sky is an illustrative video, which references links to Evil Knievil with a linear narrative. Within the video the scenes represent the lyrics especially in the chorus e.g. “For the day I die am going to touch the sky” within the scene they use a rocket plane, which is aimed at the grand canyon so the video is implying that when he touches the sky it’ll be the day he dies if anything wrong. The music video touch the sky uses intertextual references because the audience has to know who Evil Knievil was and what he strived to achieve.

This music video has a linear narrative, which is in chronological order where the lyrics and the video coincide with each other and they both tell the story. The narrative also shows the tension between Evil Knievil (Kanye West) and his wife (Pamela Anderson) because of the deadly stunts he did. Another intextual reference to the 70’s is that a news reporter questions on an interview with Kanye Wets’s character how “Nixon” (President Richard Nixon) would react the stunts he was about to perform (Evil Knievel performed in the 70’s). Although towards the end of the music video the narrative becomes an enigma because you don’t know if Kanye West has died and is in heaven or is next to the crash site. This adds mystery towards the end of the video.

The mise-en-scene within the video is very impressive because it uses all the accessories of the 1970s which the music video is based in. The video uses certain techniques at the beginning of the music video, such as the credits to represent typical conventions of 70’s movies. The costumes and hair styles are key factors of the music video because its states what time the music video is based in and who the music video is about. Plus the costume that Kanye West is wearing in the video is very similar to the one Evil Knievel wore, however the audience will have to know who and what Evil Knievel did to understand the intertextuality. The sceneries of the video are quite extraordinary with the desert, the Grand Canyon, the limo, and the Caravan all giving the audience incite to what Evil Knievil used for his stunts.

Touch the sky uses a lot of fast paced editing and camera shots. For example the crane shot which is filmed using a helicopter, zooms in on the limo quite quickly. This shot adds to the realism of a 70’s action movie. Another technique that is used to make the video look similair to a 70’s action movie is the way the shots focus in on certain actions and then the box that the action is being shown in, shrinks, at this point another box appears showing a different action or the same action from a different angle or camera view. This technique was used many times in 70’s action movies, to show two shots of the same action happening at the same time. Pans are used in the music video to show the largeness of the Grand Canyon. Low angle shots are used to show Kanye West in heaven, this symbolises that he is more powerful in heaven watching over everyone from a great height. Close up shots are used to show the expressions on the characters faces, and what emotions these expressions symbolise.