Textual Analysis

The Weeknd- The Hills

This music video is dark and has a dual meaning.

The music video is one whole continuous tracking shot with a few cuts
in-between. The beginning of the music video shows The Weeknd
stumbling out of a broken flipped car. The camera pans backwards as
The Weeknd stumbles out the car and struggles to help out two girls in
the back with the camera following him closely in an establishing and
tracking shot to help the audience see what has happened. The
camera shot changes with editing to make it a quick transition as a
woman hits The Weeknd as he continues walking. The camera angle
cuts again to his back as he hobbles along walking which lasts about
three seconds and the camera angle cuts again to his face this time
with a wide shot so the audience is able to see two out of focus
actresses in the back and there is more of a scene set as they are in a
street with trees that are all out of focus. The camera pans backwards
as The Weeknd walks forwards centre frame and then he walks out of
frame as the camera cuts to his side profile as he looks onwards. The
camera continues a tracking shot of him walking and the lyrics are
synchronous to the video as he mentions two girls in the lyrics and two
out of focus girls can be seen in the video with the singer glancing in
their direction. The camera circles around the singer in an establishing
shot to set the scene and holds the singer centre frame as the car
blows up behind him as he continues walking forward with the camera
in an unbroken tracking shot looking up at him in a mid shot at a low
angle.
The scene completely changes as the singer walks into an abandoned
mansion with the camera looking at him from a high angle through the
stairwell as he walks into a un lit room with drapes covering all the
furniture. The camera angle cuts to another side shot of the singer as
he seems almost like a shadow with the camera following him as he
looks around, the camera cuts several times to different angles of him
as he tries to understand this weird house that he seems to be in. This
part of the video involves different tracking shots of the singer as he
walks up the staircase and walks into a red room where a man and two
girls are waiting for him.
The dual meaning of this video is that when the car crashes, all the
people inside die, the singer and the two girls. He's walking through
the Hollywood hills singing about how he's more often high and drunk
than not and that its all a blur. He's been admitted to rehab but has
failed in changing. The whole part about singing that the hills have
eyes and who are you to judge is referring to all of the people in
Hollywood constantly watching him and judging him. That's why it's
called The Hills. The mansion represents him entering the after life and

the final stage of his death. Its abandoned until the last red room
when he goes upstairs. This is where it appears he enters hell, the two
girls are there because of the exact same mistakes he's made in his life
and the guy in the chair is the devil holding the forbidden fruit waiting
to pass judgement on him. This same guy is in a different video of The
Weeknd called Tell your Friends where he is seen burying the singer
in a desert as the two videos are continuous in the sense that they are
one big story all connected.