
Beyoncé’s music video Formation is about shedding light onto the Black Lives Matter Movement/Hands up don’t shoot movement. She brings problems to the surface of cop brutality on African Americans. Which has been a very controversial topic especially these past few years; with the shootings of African Americans such as Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin to just name a few. People found it controversial as to if Beyoncé was using her platform in the right way and with that found it disrespectful to cops in the US that not all are bad. In the music video she uses powerful point of view and language of the gaze shots to show the awful history of African American’s in America and the racism still going on now. 

In the scene between 3:43-3:46 there is a little African American boy dancing, while full forced policemen are watching him and the flashing police lights are going off in the background. The establishing shot is a close up of the child’s shoes but quickly goes to full body of the child dancing, showing innocence because that is what children represent. After you see the full body shot of the child it goes to a point of view shot of the child where you see about 10 huge officers just staring at him with blank faces, and red and blue police lights flashing crazy behind them from police cars. They have a semi-reciprocal look going on here as the gazer has the power as they watch this boy dance. Everything establishing the sense that he is in trouble for something but you have no idea what since he is just dancing and not doing anything wrong. Which has been the case in many of these controversial killings, since the people look “threatening” based upon what their skin color is and what they are wearing. Also the cops have all the power as they are huge compared to him giving them power.

Some may argue that a person wearing all black clothes with their hood up is sketchy. But that is just their cover, what if that is the only clothes they can afford? Or their favorite color is black? Or it is a cold day so the person has their hood up? So the producers use a reverse shot where you then see the point of view of the officers and you just see a tiny boy dancing, technically non-threatening at all since he is just doing his thing dancing but since he is wearing dark colors and has his hood up he could be considered “dangerous”.  That is why they used a child as the person dancing to represent innocence of all the ones unlawfully killed. And that because he is an African American wearing all black that makes him look threatening. Showing how in life there should be no association with skin color or what someone is wearing and being threatening. Which is a big problem in the US Beyoncé does this to make a statement as to you should not judge a book by its cover. 

The lyrics that you hear Beyoncé singing in the background are, “Sometimes I go off (I go off), I go hard (I go hard). Which can seem a little threatening if you just heard that lyric and saw the situation but in the next seen the lyrics are, “Get what’s mine (take what’s mine), I’m a star (I’m a star)”. Which makes more sense than because the child is just dancing trying to make it, all children have pure dreams they are trying to work for.  And I don’t think getting killed at a young age is part of anyone’s plan regardless of color. 

The next shot of this continues situation comes up at 4:21-4:24, where the establishing shot is a full body shot of the child putting his hands up in an almost cross like religious formation. They do this in reference to the Hands Up Don’t Shoot Movement that came out of Michael Brown. His gaze is extradiegetic looking at the police officers who aren’t in the scene awaiting what they are going to do. Even though he has his hands up.

Then the scene reverse shots to a close up of an officer throwing his hands up too showing the tension. Then an over the shoulder shot from the kids point of view where all the officers have their hands up too and he’s still standing there with his hands up. Beyoncé chose to do this because she wanted to show how things should go. No matter how people look or what they are wearing, if they have their hands up there should be no guns pointed from the police. 

Honestly the next scene is so important to this one as it shows graffiti written on a wall that says, “Stop shooting us”. Which is powerful within itself, but goes right along with how if people obey the law there should be no controversy. The lyrics here are, “Slay trick, or you get eliminated”. Which is so perfectly placed because it’s a cop scene where someone has a chance of getting “eliminated” and the cops are in the power position with the child. 

The motif here of how things go with cops’ vs how they should go is so powerful. She uses a kid as the person being target just to portray the innocence of the people usually there. How the cops are in these full suits but there is no real threat, it’s just people with dreams. She makes direct reference to real life situations such as the hands up don’t shoot movement, and how when people have their hands up the cops should also be doing the same. Everything in this video is purposeful from the shots, to the eye contact, to which scene goes with what lyrics, and that is how to create a purposeful message which is what Beyoncé did.  Even though she is “just a singer” and has no political background she has every right to voice her opinion, no matter how controversial it is. Plus, she is doing it in a peaceful way so there should be no problem, plus why not use your platform and make a difference when you have millions of fans. 