Colin Tilley

Colin Tilley born June 27, 1988 in Berkeley, California is an award winning music video director who has written and directed music videos for artists including Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, and Keri Hilson among others. His most notable and frequent collaborator is Chris Brown. The two have worked on more than a dozen videos together in the last two years including every single off of Chris Brown's album F.A.M.E. Colin Tilley has won several awards including video of the year at the 2011 BET Awards. He was also nominated for three videos at the 2011 MTV VMAs including best male video, best hip hop video, and best collaboration video. Colin Tilley grew up around a lot of artists like that he was influenced by like The Cataracs, but he didn’t make it in the music industry. However he found his niche on the creative side and just jumped in head first with a handy camera about 3 years ago. Colin Tilley also does a lot of editing for documentaries and films. The three things that differentiates a good music video from a bad music video for him would be emotion, authenticity and creativity.

Some Of His WorkKeri Hilson ft Chris Brown Jason Derulo Ludacris ft Nicki Minaj ‘One Night Stand’ ‘It Girl’ ‘My Chick Bad’

Shontelle Justin Bieber JLS ft Dev‘Impossible’ ‘One Time’ ‘She Makes Me Wanna’

‘Look At Me Now’- Dir by Colin Tilley

Colin Tilley directed over a dozen of Chris Brown’s music videos most of them from his latest album F.A.M.E. He has been won the 2011 Best video of the year for Chris Brown’s ‘Look at me now’. That video was also nominated for 2011 VMA Best Hip Hop video and 2011 VMA Best male collaboration video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gyLR4NfMiI&ob=av2e

‘U Smile’- Dir by Colin Tilley

Tilley has also worked with the teen sensation Justin Bieber and he directed the music video for his single ‘U Smile’. The video won Best Male video at the 2011 VMAs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ozuCXpVJY&ob=av2e

‘Yeah 3x’- Dir by Colin Tilley

This video was the first released out of Chris Brown’s latest album F.A.M.E. The video received a lot of positive criticism because of its up-tempo and dance feel. The music video depicts the Chris Brown in various dance sequences throughout the video and appearances from dancers from America’s got Talent. The scenes used for the video also gives it a neighbourhood street party feel.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mC2ixOAivA&ob=av2e

Analysis of ‘Deuces’ dir by Colin Tilleyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhBwt9mw7Sk&ob=av3e‘Deuces’ is a song Chris Brown, taken from his mixtape Fan of a Fan (2010). The R&B ballad also features guest vocal performances from Tyga and McCall. Lyrically, the song is about breaking it off with a girl after failed attempts to make the relationship work. It was released as a digital download in the United States on June 29, 2010. The video for "Deuces" was filmed in black and white, against the graffitied backdrop of the Los Angeles River.

This video as many RnB videos is telling a story about the breakup of a relationship. The video starts off with a girl walking away on the beach with her back facing towards the camera. This suggests the girl is leaving because she has just ended her relationship. This denotes with the title of the song which means goodbye. The camera moves on to a shot of Chris Brown, Kevin Mccall and Tyga all sitting on a car on the beach. In this shot Chris Brown is mainly the one the camera is focused on the other two are out of focus which makes him the centre of attention and draws a viewer to him. The empty beach with graffiti also suggests the breakdown of the relationship which the song is about and the emptiness and dullness of a relationship. There are a lot of close-ups of Brown’s face which shows his emotions of sadness and regret.

Although Chris Brown is a well established artists the clos-ups may have been used to re-establish him because of his short break from music, as this was his first video released from his 2010 mixtape. The camera shows an establishing shot of Chris standing in a vast place with no one on it except him, there is a contrast between the grey background and Brown’s black clothing emphasising the gloomy atmosphere of the video. There are various scenes in the video where the screen cuts to the rhythm of the music. The camera then cuts to Brown doing some contemporary dance and the lighting of this scene is very dark with Brown appearing completely blacked out and it appears as if we see his shadow dancing, and a little light coming out at the end of the tunnel.

This demonstrates the characteristics of the genre of this music video because of the dance performance. His dance moves suggests he’s trying to express his emotions through his energetic dancing. There are a lot of cuts throughout the video to emphasise the energy of the dance from Chris Brown. The video then shows the three men together in one shot coming towards the camera. This suggests their power over the women they are singing about their body language show they have more power over her. In this shot they also flip their fingers up which represents the title of the song and also further implying the message of the song: the end of a relationship. These visuals further amplify the words of the song and the overall message

Analysis of ‘Locked Up’ by Akon ft Styles P‘Locked Up’ is the debut single by American singer Akon, taken as the lead single from his debut studio album, Trouble which was released in 2004. The video begins with the rapper Styles P and Akon on a bus with a few convicted felons. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals from the start when the rapper says ‘locked up’ and there are visuals of a bar separating the criminals from the driver, this further amplifies the lyrics of the Styles P when he says ‘locked up’ and ‘they’ which could be him referring to the police. Another relationship between the music and the visuals is made when Styles P says ‘I used to live in luxury’, and the visuals of a man dressed wealthily is shown. The video also has elements of its genre characteristics which is hip hop. Akon is represented in this video as a gangster thorough his costume the orange jumpsuit and durag and we know this because he gets arrested by the police for the possession of illegal drugs. This representation is to an extent true to the lifestyle some African American men have when the live in an urban society and the only way to make money is through doing something illegal.

There is also another relationship between the music and the visuals when Akon makes a sign with his hands that represents a person getting handcuffed and he says the lyrics ‘locked up’. There is a stereotypical representation of race in this video which is another genre characteristics of a hip-hop video. All the inmates appear to be black or Mexican/Latinos which suggests which suggest that only black or South American people are criminals and are the only people who cannot do anything productive with their lives. There are a lot of close-ups of Akon in this video as it is his first video so it is introducing him as an artist. Styles P features in this video which is another genre characteristics of a hip-hop video to have another hip hop artist in a video to boost record sales and give their fans an artist to identify with. Styles P’s presence in this video is not typical to an artist first video because it is supposed to be introducing them as an artist but Styles P’s presence would help Akon reach a wider audience because Styles P is an already established artist. Most of the setting of the video is inside which amplifies the lyrics of Akon when he says ‘locked up’ this suggests his longing to get out and be part of society but he can’t.