American rapper Pitbull who is best known for dance anthems Timber feat Kesha, and Give Me Everything featuring Ne-Yo, Nayer, and Afrojack has just released a music video for his new single Jumpin. Despite the rapper’s high profile – and capacity for a high-budget shoot – the entire thing was actually shot on a Sony A7S III and a Zeiss Batis 40mm lens and some have described it as "One of the worst music videos" they’ve seen. I'm inclined to agree.
To give credit where credit is due, Pitbull is an artist with a net worth of more than $100 million dollars. He could easily afford to shoot a music video on a more expensive cinema camera, yet he chose to hire a videographer using a $3,500 camera. While some people are criticizing the video for looking like it’s been filmed on a phone, I personally think that’s more down to the effects used in the editing process and the fact that some of it is shot in vertical mode.
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I don’t think it’s a good video by any means. The storyline is boring and every shot is predictable – rappers in a private jet, as if that hasn't been done before! As expected from a hip-hop music video, Pitbull and featured artist Lil Jon are supported by a number of scantily clad women dancing around. It also uses selective color for anything red which is one of my pet hates in photos, let alone videos. It’s a tired, childish technique and I can’t understand why any professional videographer would fall back on it – it isn’t 2001.
The song samples the 1992 track, Jump Around by House of Pain which features the catchy (albeit not the most imaginative) chorus “Jump around, jump around, jump up, jump up and get down.” That is something you will certainly never catch me doing to Pitbull’s re-imagining of the tune.
If Sony Alpha Rumors is correct and filmmaker Greg Watermann did indeed shoot the entire thing on a Sony A7S III, the camera used is almost irrelevant. The clips have been edited in black and white, and have had grain selectively added to give that film effect, so even if a $30,000 camera had been used the end result would probably be much the same. However, shooting it on a camera that is relatively affordable for a professional videographer proves that you don’t necessarily need the most high-end kit to shoot stuff that will end up on a global platform.
I don't think you can entirely blame the videographer for the poor music video and some people are definitely in full support. It's gained nearly 300,000 views in the five days since release, and many Pitbull fans have described the song as "another banger". One went as far as to say "He never fails us", I can't say I agree, and from a creative standpoint at least I think the video is weak but hey, maybe I'm missing something.
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