A Tribe Called Quest - "Find A Way" (1998)

A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in St. Albans, Queens, New York in 1985, originally composed of rapper and main producer Q-Tip, rapper Phife Dawg, DJ and co-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and rapper Jarobi White. The group is regarded as a pioneer of alternative hip hop music and the kings of NYC jazz rap. 

Directed by Paul Hunter who has worked with musical artists including Whitney Houston, Aaliyah, Pharrell, Dr. Dre, TLC, Tyrese Gibson, Beyoncé, LL Cool J, Justin Timberlake, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Michael Jackson.

The video follows the group with them lip syncing the lyrics the majority of the video, most memorably on Venice beach where the director uses a ripple effect to amplify the feel of the beat. 

Also in this beach performance scene we see the director introduce the karaoke lyric effect which he also uses later on. I think he's done this to add to the overall mainstream feel of the song (intended) and ultimately poke fun at it. Which the label (Zomba) may have been fine with or just not thought about.

Before this there are two invisible cuts (one including voyeurism,) which alongside an extended mix of the drums and a few sound effects takes the setting from a night in the city to a day on the beach. However this is only one of the only examples of external sound used in the video.

This video uses special effects in a very clever and innovative way(for the time.) This can be seen in the form of excessive invisible cuts, sometimes by the cover of darkness and others through the manipulation of voyeurism masking techniques throughout, most notably when the video of a girl on a beach transforms into a bus advertisement. 

This influence is seen often in modern music videos most noticeably(and possibly copied,) in A$AP Rocky's video: 

Besides the masking and clever invisible cuts the video uses slow-motion, reverse speed and overlay graphics as well. However one of my favourite SFX in the Tribe video is the CGI, masking, invisible cut blend at the beginning and end of the video. The editor uses a render of a planet fading into/out of the action to introduce to video and close it off. This gives the video a circular structure and also an insight into how a lot of the days for the artist's may play out. Furthermore it could also be an intertextual reference however I'm not sure on the text it references. 

Whilst being a more popularised and genre stereotypical style video it still supports the group's iconography, with their performance style, voyeurism effects and object wipe transitions (seen using a traffic light in 'Find a way'. Here is an example of one of their previous videos where you can spot some common similarities

'Find A Way' does fit many Hip-Hop conventions for the time such as; Signs of success like cars, strong performances and dancing women. As well as the low camera angles which make the artists seem superior and powerful. Here are some examples of other Hip-Hop videos from the time: 

 

Just like most music videos the Tribe video also uses wide angle shots to show location and large groups (the whole group performing too,) and close ups to show singular people and details. 

When thinking about: Composition, Framing, Movement and Angles there are many interesting decisions and uses of them in this video.  

Compositionally this video follows typical rules and conventions such as the 'Rule of thirds'. The director uses the rule of thirds for wider shots and opening shots of the artists/interesting features and then as the framing gets tighter the composition becomes more centralised and symmetrical which directs attention towards the main subject. In terms of framing there is a wide variety, however most memorably the director often uses frames inside of frames which are then used as transitional vehicles. The most common type of framing is the 3-shot (as it is a group of three,) used when Tribe are performing and when individuals are interacting with eachother. There are only a few one shots and these take place when the artists are in their cars or taxis (MS.) The wider shots and lager shot sizes create a less intense feel which supports the mood of the song. There are unique camera movements and angles that have been used by the director to diversify the video and give it a more upmarket and high budget feel (contrasting the group's old iconography.) There are frequent uses of aerial and crane shots when opening a scene, these sometimes transition into gimbal shots like when the group is performing on the beach, or remain aerial like in the CGI opening at the start.  We rarely see any stationary shots as the motion keeps the viewers interest and there is no strong storyline, instead there are many smooth gimbal operated shots which follow the artist/s through a scene, like the party.