Day 9 - Recces

Today me and my group went out to the different areas that we would be using for our music video, these were the house for the first scene, the street outside for the second scene, the bank and shop for the third scene, all I need to do now is annotate the pictures with whats going to happen is each scene.

Day 8 - Production schedule week 3 & 4

Here is the 3rd and 4th week in my production schedule, there have been a few problems along the way when it came to getting all the work done on schedule but its looking good so far.

Day 7 - Depth of field camera work

Today we were shown how depth of field can be used whilst filming, you can focus up on a single object and the background will be blurry, therefore making the object the focus of the shot. After talking to my group about this camera effect we decided that it might be a good idea to use this in our music video.

Day 6 - Case Studies

Media Case Study 1 – Mac Miller ‘Nikes on my feet’

The artist is called Mac Miller and he is signed to Rostrum Records which is an indie label, Mac Miller is the latest signing and they also have other artists signed such as Wiz Khalifa and Chevy Woods. The video is featured on the social media site YouTube, it has 29 Million views to date, and it lasts for 4 minutes and 40 seconds. The music video starts off with the artist Mac Miller in bed; it looks like there was a party of some sort the night before because there are empty alcohol bottles lying around. He then gets woken up and gets dressed, the next scene then cuts to a shot of his shoes which is the brand and focus of the music video ‘Nikes’. The next scene is a school or college where the artist is waiting for his friends in a car to somewhere else. The music video is performance based because it’s the artist  rapping in a various locations without any sort of story or narrative to follow, I think the produce chose this sort of style because the name and idea behind the video was using the shoe brand ‘Nikes’. The main theme of the music video was Nike the brand but also about the artists “Swag” or style, he raps about his past when he couldn’t afford new clothes and shoes. I think the artist is represented as a confident male who is enjoying the current part of his life as he describes having a lot of money to spend and this is shown through the branded products displayed throughout the video.

At the start of the music video there are fast cuts between scenes of the bedroom, these are used to represent the different parts of his life for example the award for best hip hop video, pictures of him and his mother which could have been his inspiration for music. The bedroom gives the audience an idea of what kind of lifestyle he lives, very laidback and relaxed. The close up shot of his shoes that he puts on is directly connected to the theme of the video. There is a scene when he’s walking out of a bus, this is in slow motion and he’s looking up at the school, this could be to show someone coming back to somewhere that they used to go. There are a lot of close up shots of his self and friends, some and more serious than others, representing confidence and enjoyment. At the very start of the video there is a scene of the artist walking in the street at night, then it slowly fades out to dark, at the end of the video there is a low angle camera shot looking at the sky and at first the colour fades eventually to become white. The second location used in the music video is a college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Mac Miller is from, this could be the school he went to.

The target audience for this kind of video would be older teenagers to young adults who are interested in hip hop music; they might also enjoy smoking because the artist uses this as a large theme throughout the video, at 1.42 in the music video the music changes and you can hear the artist smoking. Some teenagers might even use him as a style icon, copying the way he dresses and they might copy the way he acts, you know the video would be aimed towards older teenagers because of the type of language he uses and one of the main themes of smoking. In my music video I would like to create a similar scene to the start of the video where the artist will be shown waking up, I will use a fast cutting rate between the shots so I can show many important objects that can give a little insight of the artist’s life to the audience.

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-rqu-hjobc


Media Case Study 2 – Kid Ink ‘Hell and Back’

The music video Hell and back was written by the artist Kid Ink, he is signed to the indie label called The Alumni Music Group which is made of a small group of selected artists. The artist isn’t that well known in the UK because his songs don’t get much coverage on radio shows, he doesn’t do any tours in England either. The track Hell and Back is the most popular song on his most recent album “Up and Away”; it currently has 1.1 Million views on the social media site YouTube. The whole music video is a metaphor about the artist going to Hell which could be a reference to the “Hood” or “Underground” where he is competing against others trying to get out of the drugs and crime lifestyle, this is shown by the setting of the video which is a abandoned town in the desert. The artist is shown walking through the town and you can see the houses are completely shattered. The other part of the title could mean that he went through the hard times of trying to promote and become a better artist and he achieved his goal and now he’s making money from the job, so he’s gone into the hellhole and come out alive. The music video is entirely performance based but I think there are slight references to a narrative but that’s just my guess, I think there could be an understory which the he’s trying to tell, his past. The video is mostly performance based because he’s mainly rapping in a desert and there isn’t much else going on apart from that. I think there is a strong theme of success in this video but the artist doesn’t directly related to it, the majority of the lyrics are about the troubles and hard times he’s gone through in his life, then the idea of success comes into play because he’s overcome them.

The video starts off with an eye level long shot of a vacant town in a desert, this could be related to the title Hell and Back, this is done to give the audience a idea of what the video is going to be based around, then there are fast cuts that shown different parts of the town, for example inside a house where you can see a poster about someone who is lost. Next there is a dolly shot which follows the artist walking through the desert, it seems like the artist has been here before and knows the area, therefore this could have been the “Hell” and that would explain why everything is shattered. The next setting is in an open area of the desert where there is a medium to close up shot at eye level of the rapper, its giving the main focus on the rapper and this allows the audience to see his facial expressions.

The next few scenes are shown through long shots of a destroyed caravan, the artist seems to know the area as he looks around the camera quickly cuts to things like a TV and a bed, one interesting shot is a close up of something which has Jesus printed on it, this is the complete opposite of the song title Hell. There are also brief shots of women, the first few scenes last less than a second and are in black and white, at the end of the video they are shown in colour, it could mean that he’s finally reached his goal.

The artist is shown wearing quite expensive clothing, he is also wearing long gold chains; this could be done to show his wealth but also being fashionable. The target audience for this music video would be young typically American teenagers who are interested in either Hip Hop or R&B music, this doesn’t only American people listen to him, and he just hasn’t had as much coverage in other countries. People who are familiar with Kid Ink know that he promotes most of his music through the social networking site, twitter. In my own music video I would like to use a similar shot to when the artist was shown in the desert with a medium shot of him rapping, in my video I would have the artist shown in somewhere like a street instead.

YouTube Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmLnWnpn98

Day 5 - Treatment slideshow and audience feedback

Audience feedback The treatment pitched received a good reception all round, having good statistics to give backing to ideas proposed. However, there was several concerns and feedback given. The first was to consider which actress would play the part of Jay’s mum. It was said that it would be a good idea to use a real mother that has children rather than someone who is not, to make the piece more realistic in terms of acting, as they have the experience required. Another question asked was how can you get a toddler to act in this piece and how would the toddler look like Jay. The answer was that we had arranged someone to act as jay and that the actor playing jay would use his little brother to play the part of the toddler giving the piece consistency. We was also told that we should consider the location of where the chorus is lip-synced, which we decided in the end to use estates/flats . This was decided as it would merge with the theme and background of the narrative music video. Another question posed was, would we actually have enough time to fit in all the scenes. I believe we would, as we would use the fast forward effect so that the scenes were not tedious and only relevant parts which were the most exciting were shown. One more query was in relation to Jay being mugged, and how is it relevant, as well as how is it going to be shown. Jay gets mugged because he doesn’t have enough money to pay back the drug dealers, and it will be shown as him getting beaten up and when he falls, from that point, the footage will be reversed till the fundamental scene beyond the point of the car crash, which is Jay and his mum arguing. Feedback was considered and amendments will have to be made, we have taken the first steps to amend them by trying to organise auditions from actual mums to play the role of Jay’s mother. As well as that considered time as a factor and shortened the boring and irrelevant bits of the piece.

Day 4 - Finalised Idea

Today in media class we decided on a final idea, we plan on showing two sides on a guy’s life, the video will start off with showing someone waking up and writing in his diary, a close up shot can be used. The guy will then go to university, whilst there he will have some sort of fight or argument with another student, the incident was reported and the guy will face a suspension from university. Most of these scenes can be shot inside the building, this side of the story will be shot in day time, when the audience view this video they will be able to differentiate between the two parts. The third scene will be shot at night time, or when it’s darker, the guy will be approached by a group of people or he will go to speak to some friends and take some sort of drug, the after effects of the drug will be shown in the video with slow motion. Then we want to show the guy making his way home, he gets on the London underground, then he could be shown walking home, we will shoot this with a medium shot from behind, then we will edit it afterwards skipping certain areas, the guy will get home and fall on his bed and sleep, the scene will fade out into dark, the last scene will show the guy the next day writing in his diary how he regretted the idea and never wants to experience that again.