Analysis of "This is America" by Childish Gambino

• Lots of music videos you get cutting to the beat where the cuts happen only when the beat changes. We don't see this as much in this example.
• Opening title card or title graphic. Handwritten phone and in lowercase. Thres no capital letter for America which is part of the meaning. 
• The fact the background is black and the writing is in white could be a representation of which direction the video is going in
• Moving away from "The American Dream" possibly because it is normally a concept driven by middle/upper class white people
• Opening shot is in a wearhouse. It is an industrial space and it tends to be quite dirty and not a nice place to be
• Calm atmosphere in the beginning. Reminiscent of a tribal type of music. Very African possibly.
• Then we see the main guy: The mise en scene of this scene is that he is wearing sort of subtle civil war trousers and that he is topless and showing his skin colour. All of this gives hints to which direction the video is going to go.
• Calm Music until he shoots the guitarist who now has something over his head, making him look like a hostage. This would make the main guy the terrorist or a shooter. There is a reference to the character Jim Crow Laws making it about segregation. 
• Then a black guy comes in a wraps the gun in a red cloth meaning blood and death. It also supports the Republican red colour and shows that gun laws and the legalisation of them is mostly supported by the republican party.
• Some of the moves that the main guy does almost make him look zombie like.
• There is a montage behind him of kids dancing on cars and almost being celebratory. 
• The church singing happily then getting shot by the main guy is reference to a church massacre in 2015 and in Charleston which had 9 people dead but 10 people shot. There were 10 people in that same scene in this music video. The shooting was by white supremacists
• Constant juxtaposition between the smiling and dancing in the front while there is a riot and mayhem in the background.
• Lyrics talking about being on his cellphone and then camera pans to a low angle shot of bunch of kids who are all on their phones which is showing the changing culture of the world with children constantly watching something on their devices
• After this, there is a white horse with a black hood which is a reference to the KKK. However, this is a reversal because normally they are in white hoods.
• The silence after everything and then he lights up a cigarette is a reference to drug culture
• There are lots of cars at the end with the main guy dancing on top of them. Cars were previously typical in a rebellion.
• The final scene is him running through the dark corridor. This is a reference to a scene where a black man is running away from white supremacists and you can see the white in his eyes.