Prismatic

Every cinematic experience is a movie, but not every movie is cinematic.  Since the Blinding Lights (BL) MV came out I’ve been trying to articulate what intrigues me about it. I could break this down on many technical or creative reasons; such as their choice to not have any shots of The Weeknd singing the song creates an emotional immersion. However, my belief is that no amount of creative-technical analysis matters as much as why those choices are being made. This allows me to understand the essence of the choices being made so I am not inclined to be limited to those same creative-technical decisions. This then opens up the possibility of different ways to achieve the desired result. Blinding Lights is spiritually a continuation of Heartless; but like any good sequel you do not need to have watched Heartless to understand Blinding Lights. Many people were quick to comment that BL gives them “Joker vibes” and I’ll admit the opening shot immediately hit me with that thought. Though intentional or not, the Joker aesthetic is not what makes the music video a cinematic experience. Both examples above are similar; you should not require knowledge on other films, books, or any reference to evoke a cinematic experience. The experience itself should include all the necessary pieces for you to feel the emotional journey in the story. Unlike music videos, movies don’t have an inherent purpose. Movies can be anything you want them to be, it can be for making money, propaganda, or as most people believe ‘just for entertainment’. I’m not going to pretentiously tell you that every movie must be a cinematic experience, but I will pretentiously tell you that a cinematic experience is what makes a movie stick with me. A cinematic experience is born through an emotional development. This can be categorized into character development, but focuses on their emotional realizations. A character making a choice because they’re cornered into making one of two decisions is character development. We learn about what they value when under pressure. However, the same situation but exploring the emotional effects of their decision is an emotional development which is a key ingredient for catharsis. Blinding Lights does this very simply by allowing us to stay with The Weeknd after the song has ended allowing us see how he feels after the events of the night have transpired. No words, no audible sound of his voice either. Without this one moment the video would fall short of being a cinematic experience. It’s not so important what happens, but how we feel about it that creates emotional friction.