CVP.NET
columbia video channel
news
treatments
resources
50 CENT
Title: "Your Life Is On The Line"
Concept by Nzingha Stewart

In 1998, rapper 50 Cent disappeared in the belly of NYC while shooting a music video. A year later the footage was found.

50 Cent leans into the camera in a super close low-angle shot and says the opening line of the song, "Nobody likes me". It's shot in the stark black and white film and lit from below a la The Blair Witch Project. Fade to black, fade up, a tighter shot the same spooky low angle shot. "Nobody likes me. . ."

"And that's okay. . ." The video explodes in colorful; hand-held footage of 50 Cent holding the camera on himself as he raps. The movement of the camera is as frenetic as he is.

A wider shot, from another camera shows 50 Cent is performing with detectives chasing him. They're in a late model Chevrolet, one of those old big cop cars that plain clothes cops drive, with a single siren stuck on top. Crazy cutaways of the city, all handheld contribute to the frenzied feel and the hyperactive energy.

The detectives grab 50 Cent. fade to black. When we fade up, 50 Cent is performing in the back of the cop car, hand-held photography with a single hot light shining on the cops, like 50 cent is videotaping his own capture. We also shoot him from the front seat performing - mixing the two points of views, his looking at the cops, and theirs looking back at him.

Shooting the car from another picture car, we see the car race through the back alleys of the city, on the cobblestone streets under the Brooklyn Bridge. Two black cars block the entrance and the exit of an alleyway. Just as the two other black cars surround the cop car, fade to black.

Fade up- 50 Cent has been released and is performing outside of the cop car in front of all his peoples. His crew that backs him are who were driving the other cars that blocked off the detectives, freeing 50 Cent. Having 50 Cent surrounded by people during the choruses intensifies the frenetic energy of the song.

The two cops are being held up by his boys as 50 Cent performs. When the choruses come up, 50 Cent grabs one of the cops and pushes him into the camera, which is at an extremely low angle, and makes the cop start singing his lyrics. It's a really funny scene as the crooked, self-important cops are forced to perform 50's lyrics.

We fade up. On the cops being taped up from head to toe. Fade to black.

Fade up, 50 Cent rides in a super fly ride with his homeboys through the colorful heavily textured streets of BK, when two cop cars come blaring around the corner, lights flashing chasing them. 50 Cent dips out of the car and into an abandoned, boarded up building.

As he runs through the dark building, we have a front seat to all the action. The scene is shot on digital video, lit by a single light emitted from the camera. The cops chase him into the building, but can't find him. Every once in a while we see him in super slow motion, ultra mysterious shots, peek out from the corner s and the darkened spaces of the building. Then seemingly vanish right before our eyes. The cops search the place, but 50 Cent is gone.

We shoot the video in super saturated 16MM, and mix this footage with the footage shot on the video for the feel that 50 Cent is shooting the video himself.

At times we will reference the movie Pleasantville in that the entire image will be in black and white , except for one thing in the frame which will be in color. For example, if 50 Cent is wearing red, everything around him will be seen in black and white except for the bright red on 50 Cent.

Shot at a machine gun fast pace, with a feverish mix of handheld video and film, this video is mad frenetic, capturing the hectic, urgent feeling of the song. 50 Cent is like a figure out of a legend - in fly clothes, disappearing into thin air, right when he's about to be caught.

Referencing the hottest movie of the year and putting 50 Cent's own unique twist on it guarantees instant audience attention It's all about 50 Cent and the hot ass track. We are pulled into his world in a crazy mix of shots and we return again and again for more from 50 Cent.



<< back to treatments

Columbia