The long awaited music video

So after about a month of filming, and 2months of editing, the video is 99% complete, my colleague will be editing the video slightly over the christmas holiday, so allow it to look finished to us both. This includes small things such as removing a special effect and fixing the sound slightly. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt-j4q3D-I

The video concists of two separate versions which we had created, one using green screen footage, and one using scenary and locations which we visited. Putting them both together 'well' isn't an easy task, but I think we have been able to do so here. The only problem I have is that I felt the footage with scenary looked alot more professional than that of the green screen footage, as personally it looked cheap and not so well made.

Underneath is the two versions in which we worked from to create the final video, where the green screen and scenary locations are in two separate videos to what we had edited beforehand. They both do not meet the required time limit, but the editing you can see is better, especially in the one with scenary, as it was our original idea, before the artist decided on wanting green screen footage in his video.





(There were a few lip sync errors in the timing of these two videos, but they were incomplete.)

I decided to ask several people who are influenced and listen to this type of music for their opinions on what they thought about both the scenary and the green screen footage. As we know the green screen idea is the modern kind of grime/rap music, as it means you can stay in one place and get it all filmed in one day, and manage the lighting manually rather than being out of control from it. The old school type of music videos for this genre with the streets and grime feel for the locations always felt more effective to me, as it did with those that I asked for their opinions.

Here is a list of some of the people which I asked for them to voice their opinions to the two videos, after showcasing them so that they could get an idea of what both of the viduals looked like;

Lawrence - The first video has extremely good effective scenes which give a good effect and link with the urban style of the music, however, if 1-2 of the scenes were a little darker (less light exposure) it would continue the great effect on from the other scenes in the movie.
The second video's overall effect created is quite good, but the look of it is pretty generic and some of the effects on the singer himself (random sepia, hues colour cycle and rather easy techniques) reduce the quality overall.

Sam - The first video was done well but it was abit dark in places, but the locations used were a really good choice for the type of video. I think that the second video was better, simply because it was basic, and it looked good. It could possibly do with something being in the background though rather than a white one, but apart from that it was good.

Mike - The first video worked nicely with the use of effects and editing, such as the reverse jump which looked cool. The second video seemed to lack what the first video had, it looked plain, maybe because of the black and white I don't know, but I deffinitely preferred the first video.

Chad - The first video's visuals were fine , but there were a few areas where i'd preferablly change. For example, the overuse of zooms in the beginning, and the scene from 2:05 from an angle, it looks almost like a 'Behind the scenes' video. The cutting with the lyrics had worked well however, as well as some of the scenary chosen such as the tunnel scene.

The second video seemed inferior in comparison, it lacked anything good, the camera shots really didn't work, showing 3/4 of the artist all of the time, and having an amp randomly placed there on a white background, it made no sense. There was nothing going on in this version, some of the green screen footage didn't work either, his hands were cut off at one point. The artist's movements from the side shots seemed odd, with him randomly swaying. The angles lacked, and didn't really catch the attention of that in the first video, which created a far greater impact.


In conclusion, the first video was liked due to its scenary, but needed to improve on lighting, and the second video was good due to its simplicity but lacked that little bit extra to 'give the wow factor' which would make it the better version of the two.

Next stage

Now that the music video is complete (will post up a video of it in the following weeks), our next stage is to design a DVD Digipak for the artist, which inside will have a CD with the song, and the created music video which can then be distributed if desired after.

The research that I do will need to be based around the genre in which my artist is based, in the Rap and grime music genre. The problem with this is that DVD distributables aren't too common for this nowadays, and are used in the form of CDs and online shopping websites from Web 2.0 such as iTunes, Amazon, Play, HMV and more. This means that if I do manage to find some DVD Digipak designs from my chosen genre then fine, but if I can't find enough to give me the ideas and creativity, then I will look at CD album covers, as they have the same kind of effect and reason for each thing placed on it to be represented in the certain way.

There are three different types of ways to create the DVD Digipak in terms of its layout and visuals. It could be either text, photography or graphical. As I am slightly knowledged already with using Adobe Photoshop, I will most probably go for the graphical route, following ideas from artists such as Kanye West, with his use of cartoons and bright colour images to represent the young creative side of himself and hip hop.
In comparison, artists such as Kano and Wiley use mainly photography to show themselves in their album covers, to represent the grime scene and their type of music.

Update 14th December

After a meeting with my colleague we watched over the new video that he had put together from the green screen footage over the weekend. It was nicely edited and some nice effects, but again it was not long enough, although we had already spoke about lengthening the music to allow us to include enough footage for it to be long enough to reach the 3 minutes limit. This means that he did not do as we had agreed, and are falling behind.

We now have the problem where we have two videos in which we have spent time editing, but neither of them are long enough. Although the artist likes the green screen work, I feel that the original video is nicer in terms of the scenery and editing involved, as personally I don't think that footage with the green screen work as well as footage with real scenery, especially in terms of this genre of grime/rap. 

Our next plan is to add some more to the music, whether it be adding one of the verses to play again, to create a new verse, or to just use the original last verse from the song. The reason why we need to add more length to the music, is that the artist doesn't like the last verse of his original song, so he took it out for this video. We agreed that he would add the chorus to be repeated again, so that instead of being around 2:20, it will be close to reaching three minutes, which is what we needed initially. 

This means that more editing will need to be done, but luckily we have enough footage, and with working on two different types of footage, scenery and green screen, we should be able to have more than required to fit the length of the song with video footage. This is a bit of a problem that his far into the project we need to keep changing ideas and now do a lot more editing to fit the length rather than it being too short, but if it is completed as intended then we will be able to create a polished music video which will visually be really good.

One problem down

I spoke with my colleague today, concerning the music side of the video, and how we need to make it longer to reach the 3:00. As he made the song beforehand, we agreed that he should be the one to change it to reach the time, due to it being his own song so it would need to have him being happy with the change. He told me that it should be done by Monday, so hopefully we will be able to make the last minute changes just in time. The second version which would include some green screen footage may not be created in time, but if it is able to also be done for Monday then that would be ideal.

New problems arise

After a further look at our video today, from the editing that was done yesterday, several small issues, and one large one arised;

- The glowing effect of the character created a black border, which will need to be removed
- A fade in needs to be included so that it fits with the other areas where it has been included
- Some slight lip sync errors from the editing of yesterday
- The video is only 2:23 long, it will need to be ATLEAST 3:00 for it to be complete.

In order to allow us to make the song 3:00, the verse that was removed will either needed to be added back into the song, or a new verse/chorus will need to be added somewhere in the song to enable it to reach that 3:00 which we now desperately need. With the Monday next week as our deadline, we now have a rush to get these adjustments implemented so that we can finish this and then concentrate on the next part of the coursework, the advertising with the CD cover.

Update 9th December

Our deadline has fortunately been extended until next Monday. Although I felt that we could finish our video at the original deadline, like the others I also had more to do than I had thought. We did manage to do some green screening on Monday, which was a new experience to me, and was very successful. It was recorded with a High Definition video camera, which meant that we would have to render it to standard definition for it to match the video clips that we already have.

Due to having so much footage of the green screen, myself and my colleague decided to create two versions of the music video, one with the green screen footage included, and one without, to allow there to be a decision during the screening of the music videos, to then decide which one looks better.

(Click image to view full resolution)

As far as the completion percentage is concerned, the music video without the green screen footage is roughly 98% complete, it just needs some slight touches of the lip-synchronising to fix it, and to include a few more effects to keep the video more 'pacey' to the beat, in which I was including some today. I did encounter an problem as there was a server problem in the suite and some of my footage became corrupt. Luckily I had backed the files up on several other medias, so was able to import another copy of it and continue with my work.

Hopefully we will be able to complete both versions by Monday, if we do then this would be great.

Update 2nd December

After another catchup with my colleague we went over where we had gone to so far, and what was left to do. We made a few adjustments such as fixing the timing on some of the shots, and adding some new footage into it for more variety. Due to our quick cuts being successful, we made use of this by cutting between some foot stomps and the artist moving in the camera before the chorus. This worked really well, the quick cuts keeping to the pace of the music. All we have left to do is to film an intro for the video, rather than just using up some spare footage. We also considered using some new footage to put at the end, to meet the conventional types of rap/grime music videos, allowing a use of a new song to be included at the end of the video.

Update 29th November

This week was our last full week to be able to complete our music video, as it has to be completed for next Wednesday. I feel that we will be able to meet this deadline.

We spent the Wednesday before this week to begin putting all of the footage to the timing and to begin putting some of the clips together to have some initial thoughts on the structure of the video. This week we were able to work more in depth on this. Wednesday was focused allday on putting the full structure to the music video. It did however run onto afterschool, where my colleague worked afterschool, and I then carried on from where he left off when I arrived for the open evening the same night. He was focusing on the verses, and I was focusing on the choruses and the missing parts between them, such as the intro and the ending, but also the instrumentals between the chrous and verse in the song. By the end of the open evening I was able to put the chorus that I had edited, with the verses that he has worked on, both in time and then filled in the blank areas, with some of the spare footage that we had. My colleague was able to include some effective cuts to the beat, for example when the drums come in before the second verse, he included several quick fast cuts to each few drum hits, which worked really well.

For the choruses, I included the reverse jump shot that I had shown in a previous post, and used several of the shots that my colleague chose to include into the verses too, so it is synchronous together which is what we needed. I did consider whether to include the abstract shot that I created in a previous post from 2weeks ago, but from looking over the footage that we currently have to the music, I don't think that it would fit in with the rest, and also how this is a grime/rap video, the effect used in it wouldn't fit the genre, so if I were to include it, then it would have to be included several times elsewhere, which could ruin the video, so I decided to leave it out.

All in all, the video is now looking to come together, and we both feel like we're making some really good progress. The video is now structured, all we have to do now is to consider any effects to include, transitions, and any other effective camera shots of locations that we have but hadn't yet included that could improve the quality of the video and the variety of shots shown. Only 3 days to go!

Conversation with artist

Although we had planned to spend tomorrow to concentrate on editing, the artist (my colleague) suggested that we should do some green screen work. So tomorrow will hopefully be spent to add a few shots with it to further our variety and hopefully be able to finish the music video tomorrow. Fingers crossed!



Wednesday 18th November
We came to the conclusion that we would just focus with what we have, as using the green screen at such a late date wouldn't give us enough time to work with it and put it together with our music video, ontop of the editing that we have left to do. This was a positive decision made, as if we did decide to use the green screen, then we might not have a chance to finish in time to the deadline.

Problems

During my time in the media suite on Wednesday, I was suffering from technical difficulties from the mac's. It seemed to bring an error each time I begun editing the video clips. I came to the conclusion that it could have possibly been because there was "too much" footage in the iMovie file, meaning that it would have such a large file size to process that it couldn't handle it.

My way around this is to possibly use some software I have on my home pc, or to work with a smaller amount of footage. At the end of the day, it might have been just from the computer I was on, suffering from the server with all of the other colleagues processing files at the same time. Hopefully it won't create this problem for me again next time, or it could lead to a slow down in the editing process of the music video.

Problems although progress is still being made
We looked through what we managed to put together and it looked promising. We agreed that I would focus on the chorus's for now and he would look at the first verse, possibly the second too if he has time, and then on Wednesday we would look over it and then make any last minute ammendments and aim to finish the editing on time. The intro is one of our problems, but the artist is taking a visit to London this weekend so hopefully he was able to take some effective still images for us to use so that it is similar to his inspired track by Tinchy Stryder.

Update 16th November

As I was unable to use the media suite today due to me being elsewhere I decided to show the current stage i'm at with the editing, and the possibilities that will need to be done from now on, considering that we have less than two weeks left now to finish the editing. Last week was spent to put the clips together so that they had a caption with them as to where they will be placed along the timeline with the music, which was cut at certain points such as the verses and choruses. This took less time than we had anticipated, as it was all done by the Wednesday afternoon. It was important that we did this, as it would mean that we would delete footage that was of no use to us, as we took several scenes more than once. During this stage, I had soem experimental phases where I tried out some of the effects within iMovie, to try and change how the certain video clips were shown. One in particular, where ther artist is made to look like he is lying down, and then gets up and begins to rap to the song. I decided to try and change this one because in the clip he looks upside down which is unfortunate, but the camera rotation to then be upright and steady when he begins rapping is really effective. I tried an effect called 'mirror' to try and rotate the footage so that instead of being upside down he is looking up so that when the rotation is done it will look right. Instead of this happening, I was given some kind of abstract pattern effect. Whether this was accident or not, the outcome was quite effective.

(Click image to view full resolution)

As you can see, the position of the artist has been fixed here, so at the beginning it does look as if he is lying down, and then the rotation gives off a sense of confusion, as he seems to be upside down, but an abstract visual appears to fix it, so that he is looking to be standing up in the right angle. I would say that this was worthwhile, despite how it blew me away that it seemed to do an effect that I wasn't intending on happening as the final outcome of it.

(Click image to view full resolution)

As you can see from the image above, the footage has been split up into three sections, which is for the different sets of footage that we have, which did total to over two hours of footage!
The clips that we have decided could be used have been put with the music and captioned as to where they start from, so that we can add each bit that we need at the right moment, and have it lip synchronous to run smoothly with the video as we edit the clips together.

From now on we'll need to focus on decideing where to cut each clip, and which ones to put in each part with the lyrics so that it is lip synchronous, and it looks good. Once this is done we can figure out if re-filming is needed, or additional footage, and to decide on whether special effects could be included anywhere to enchance the final image.

Proposal - Junk Star Kids

Samuel Kenny aka Junk Star Kids is a new artist targeting the grime/indie genre. Intending to bring back the retro feel to grime and rap, Sam hopes that the video will do so in terms of the footage used and effects shown. Due to his genre there will be a huge audience that would like his music, and want more from him.

The music video itself will not contain a narrative, but will focus on the scenery to make it ideal for the grime genre, and will be synchronous to the beat rather than to a story line. The locations will more than likely be quite dark to suit this grime feel, then focusing on the little light available to help emphasis on the effect that grime videos give, showing isolation but yet we will be attracted to watching this artist during the length of the video. Several special effects will be used to give it a modern feel, but will then contrast with the old scenery that will be chosen.  As always, the video's sound will be of the actual soundtrack, but there will be one or two extra special effects that will be included to enhance the video. The music video that will be created has been inspired by the well-known artist, Tinchy Stryder, who in his video “Your not alone” walks off at the end of the video. The intention is that Sam will also do this, but with placing his headphones onto his ears and walking off. There will then be a special effect with the audio to make it sound slightly distorted, to then emphasis on the fact that he has put his headphones and we are now hearing it from them too.

A lot of zoom shots will be used with the camera being handheld, to give the idea of the retro feel, but to also show that it is a grime music video, and not a mainstream rap or pop video. There will be some special camera shots used at certain points within the video, such as the “La Roux tilt”, which involves a 90 degree turn of the camera as the artist moves to give the idea that the artist was lying down and has stood up, when in reality they were just leaning against a wall. A few PoV shots (point of view) have been considered, to give the audience the feeling that you are with the artist, like you know him, as the artist will be shown at eye level, rather than looking up to him.

The artist will be represented as the typical grime artist, although there will be a twist due to him being slightly aimed towards the indie genre also. By indie I mean a kind of retro feel, which will be different to the normal grime videos, that tend to use mainly green-screen footage, and the artist standing there rapping to the camera. The intention in this music video however, is to make it look almost like a live performance, with cuts to seeing the artist in other locations as we walk with him.

Sam is currently without a record label, but ideally he would be signed to labels such as Boy Better Know, Parlophone records and Konvict Muzik. The reason for this is that artists that are in the same genre are in these labels, such as JME who is in Boy Better Know, Tinie Tempah who is in Parlophone records, and record label, Konvict music. Konvict music is however more mainstream, but has artists such as Akon and T-Pain who could possibly in the future be artists that he could relate to.

Depending on the success of the creation of this music video, Sam could soon become a well-known artist, due to his dedication and love for music, but also with a good quality music video to back him up, to then have it advertised on web 2.0 websites such as Facebook and YouTube there is no reason why it can't be a success. It could then lead to several music channels such as Channel U and Viva hearing about him and then being able to have his music video displayed on there, which would be ideal for him as a new artist to the scene.

New scenary for footage 02/10

Tonight myself and the artist went down to a location by a multi-story car park, which had a large area of space which looks like it was used as a private storage area. The lighting was perfect, and there was so many places which we could take shots from which would be ideal for the video. We spent a good hour just filming the area with some shots, trying to create some variety for our video of the camera type shots, and also the locations. Because the lighting was ideal for us this time round, it may contrast with our previous footage, but each location's lighting is different. I will post up some footage of the location on Wednesday when I upload the footage in the media suite.

During this shot I decided to practise some crash zooms, so that it was synchronous with the beat, and the lyrics, but not 100%, so that it then had some variety rather than being crash zooms throughout. It was hard as the beat to this song is fast, and to do good crash zooms isn't something that will happen all of the time that you use them. The shot itself is really good, a lowshot of the artist creates a sense of PoV shot as if it's a live concert, as the artist is always on a stage higher up.

(37-50 seconds)

Within this footage we attempted a reverse shot of the artist jumping off from a ledge, so that when reversed, would look like he jumped backwards onto the stage, which would be shown to the lyrics "Super high......." so that it is expressing the lyrics visually. Personally I think it worked well, as when we artist reaches the stage after jumping backwards, his hands are still movign to the beat, so it carries on. For a reverse shot, it was very effective.

(10 seconds onwards)

The mise en scene for this shot was ideal for the whole grime theme. Only problem we had though, is that the lighting wasn't too great for the camcorder to deal with. We did our best, held on out through until the shot was complete, and added some brightness through iMovie to enhance the visual so that we could see how it was. Personally I think it's okay, obviously it's not great, but that's due to the lighting and there isn't too much we can do to fix that, apart from re-filming if we have to do so. The low lighting is however effective in giving off the emotional side of the song showing his inner feelings and showing his icolation, his feelings.

Progress week ending 1st November

Half of the week was taken from us to make any progress as the artist was away until Wednesday. We then had to step up our game and make the most of the few days in which we had left. We ended up filming in the evening due to us both having other things to attend to. A location that we used the most was in fact a car park. You wouldn't believe it though due to the shots that we used, we were able to take shots from areas to bring across the theme of grime, along with the orange lighting which was dominant here.

We came up with some last minute ideas when we were in the middle of filming some of the scenes, including a still one-take which would form a cut of shots to make the artist appear in different locations on the shot, as if he is teleporting around the screen to the best. When it is cut down to fit the beat it should work really well.

All in all, this week wasn't as successful as we had hoped, but the footage we did take was of higher quality in terms of the lighting and scenary for the mise en scene. It gave us an insight to what else we need to get done, and any other ideas that we could include, possibly involving other people in the shots, and locations we should try to film in. Hopefully we will be visiting these locations tomorrow evening, as we need to make the most of our free time to get more footage than we will use. We have around one hour of footage so far, so we are making alot of progress on our ideas and footage taken.

Tasks for this week

Plans week 26th October

We intend to get the last few scenes for our music video completed by the end of this week we are now in. Unfortunately the artist I am working with will not be available until atleast Wednesday, so we will need to make sure we are well organised for the last few days we will have. If we manage to get the filming done by this week, then we should be on schedule and be making steady progress to then be able to be ready for editing it all together.

Update to progress

Wednesday 21st

Myself and artist Sam Kenny went down to Shildon to visit the tunnel that leads down to the beach "Smugglers tunnel". It is an ideal place to shoot some clips from, due to it's appearance and lighting, giving the perfect grime scenary. It also had some graffiti on the other side of the tunnel which we took advantage of in our filming that took place. We only faced one major problem while filming there, and that was the wind. We didn't expect it to be so strong in there, but it was something we had to deal with, and I think that we pulled it off with the shots that we were able to take. Here's a few images of the tunnel;

Our most adventurous shot which we took on this day was the 90 degree tilt, copied from the idea of La Roux's video "Bulletproof", as I have spoken about erlier in my blog. I had to prop the camera against a wall so that the camera was still while I tried to hold it against the winds. I then had to turn the camera as the artist moved away from the wall, to give the impression that he was lying down, and then begins to rap to the song. When I uploaded this footage onto the computer and then added the music to play ontop of it, I thought that this was successful. The only problem I felt is that he is upside down in the shot, although I think it works anyway, as it gives the idea of confusion when you watch it. Here's the clip I am talking about;

Thursday 22nd

The next day we decided to visit a recently abandoned business area, which was about to be tidied up in preparation for the take over from another company who have recently bought it. The location is ideal aswell for this video, having stone and rubble scenary, with trees and bushes in the background, perfect for a grime-based music video. Here's a few photographs of the setting;

The footage that we took looks nothing like these images, as we decided to film there at 8pm until around 9.20. It was quite dark, so we had to make use of the lights that we had around us, such as the orange street lights, and a hand-held bright white torch that I brought with me. The footage was more structured than the day before, and we decided to do some different angles and shots. Here's an example of the footage taken. We took this chance to also produce another piece of clothing for 'Junk Star Kids' which I managed to make before we met up at this location in the evening.

The only priority of things to change with this footage from our second location is to make the visual slightly brighter so that it is easier to see the artist performing in the location, which can be done by a simple fix in the effects option in iMovie.

Week 19th October

After changing my artist, myself and the new artist sat down and discussed some ideas for the music video that we will be creating, and I was able to listen to the song for the first time. His initial ideas was to take ideas from a song by Tinchy Stryder, where the narrative behind the song is similar to his own, and the video is shown in the same grime-based theme. We then went to Shildon, near Teignmouth yesterday to get some initial shots by a tunnel path which leads down to the beach. It was a really nice place to film, just became a bit chilly due to the wind there. I'll post some short clips of the shots that were taken soon as I get a chance to.

Here is a complete set of the lyrics to the song, called 'Qualities about her', which I will be using for the music video;

“Qualities about her”
Chorus
When I get that feeling,
Then I know i’s real love inside,
Cus’ what you do to me I’s more than physical,
I’s just more than the outside.
When we are together,
It jus’ proves we’ve all got week sides,
Cus’ when you go and say you love me,
I’s like a vocal powered super high.

Verse
Qualities about her,
Don’t need to be questioned,
She’s what I’ve always dreamed about,
She’ll never be second.
I think I really love her,
So this I do vow,
To always be here,
And never ever row.
To answer any question,
And promise always keep,
To show you what you mean to me,
And sweep you off your feet.
To listen to you’re every word,
Give opinions honestly,
And not to act to stupidly.
Later on in life,
When we’re together still since now,
I promise to protect you,
This I certainly do vow.
Cus you’re every thin’ I want,
You’re every thin’ to me,
You are the only one,
The only one I need.

Chorus
When I get that feeling,
Then I know i’s real love inside,
Cus’ what you do to me I’s more than physical,
I’s just more than the outside.
When we are together,
It jus’ proves we’ve all got week sides,
Cus’ when you go and say you love me,
I’s like a vocal powered super high.

Verse
I spit the verse like the first time,
A single girl I would talk about usually,
But now I know what to put with a rhyme you see,
Cus already I know there’s this one for me.
That girl that brings you numinous and,
Gets excited when its you, you,
She tells you I’s love for you,
And calls you baby.
And tha’s why I do promise to always see, you.
And no one else I will let get in the way,
I will love you forever, but real today,
I’ve always know you,
But never really known you (get me?)
And tha’s why it should be you and me.

Chorus
When I get that feeling,
Then I know i’s real love inside,
Cus’ what you do to me I’s more than physical,
I’s just more than the outside.
When we are together,
It jus’ proves we’ve all got week sides,
Cus’ when you go and say you love me,
I’s like a vocal powered super high.


Verse
Qualities about her,
Don’t need to be questioned,
She’s what I’ve always dreamed about,
She’ll never be second.
I think I really love her,
So this I do vow,
To always be here,
And never ever row.
To answer any question,
And promise always keep,
To show you what you mean to me,
And sweep you off your feet.
To listen to you’re every word,
Give opinions honestly,
And not to act to stupidly.
Later on in life,
When we’re together still since now,
I promise to protect you,
This I certainly do vow.
Cus you’re every thin’ I want,
You’re every thin’ to me,
You are the only one,
The only one I need.

The lyrics in this track are an experience JSK went though, expressing his love for an unnamed girl. The verses are declaring his vows for this girl "this i certainly do vow".

Junk Star Kids

I was unable to post anything the last few days due to a recent art trip, and busy working on the weekend.

The artist I will be making the video for is called Samuel Kenny, or as he is known by as an artist, 'Junk Star Kids', (JSK). He is a new upcoming grime artist, who focuses on bringing a new style to the scene, and bringing an early promotion of himself in his first music video, aswell as being promoted in local events around the area.

Kenny has some ideas for promotion, such as his own designs to be printed onto clothing, which can then be sold to lead to a profit for himself in the long run. As I am experienced in the graphic design of the vinyl printing for clothing, I will be able to help him to do so here, and to hopefully gain a smaller fee to have the clothing made and ready to be sold to others. The quality in which my vinyl is when heated, will allow more than thirty washes, and still not having any major cracks or fades with the designs. A local 'Fashion show' is where this artist is hoping to unleash his brand of clothing and gain some publicity for doing so.

He has produced live to people, and is always creating music ideas, whether it be writing down lyric ideas, or creating a few lines on the mic, he's dedicated and has a great ideas for his future.

We have begun discussing ideas for the music video, although I am yet to have the chance to listen to the song we will be using yet. I will be able to listen to the song within the next few days, and can begin creating a new storyboard and ideas to compare to the ones in which he has already decided on. The good thing with this change, is that he is also very knowledged in the media and can help me with ideas and what he wants, and how to do it. It will be alot easier to work with him than my original artist.

Change of plans

Due to recent unreliability to my current artist 'Zanif' I will be choosing one which will be easier for me to contact and work with towards a music video. His name is Sam Kenny, and his nickname for his artist name is 'Junk Star Kids' which will be his brand also for some clothing he is considering to create to sell to people to promote himself. I will be posting up some information about him tomorrow. I feel that this decision to change artist was right for me, as it allows myself to put more work in, and have more time to do so rather than being restricted to time that I would need to contact wit hthe artist and film.

Discussion with client, Zanif

10/10/2009
Me and Zane had a discussion tonight, concerning when we can actually get our heads down and begin the filming for the video. Unfortunately, he is still in education during weekdays at a local college, and I am also in education during weekdays, so by the time we manage to meet up in the weekdays to film, it would be doubtful that we would get much done, although he would be busy alot of those days with other things. We were able to agree to begin filming this coming weekend, and then make the most of the upcoming half term we will have, but it will be the final chance to get the filming done to be on deadline, which is a shame, but when both client and myself are tied up with other things it's hard to film as much as we would like to. Hopefully we will get alot done next weekend, or we will have to let go of our other things we are doing to get this done in time, as the deadline is the end of this month for filming before I aim to begin editing what I have in footage.

11/10/2009
Due to the delay for filming, I will therefore need to focus this week up to the weekend on finalising the storyboard ideas, and the preparation for the video itself, so that when the time comes to get our heads dow nwith the filming, we will both know exactly what we are doing so that we don't waste too much time, as we will have little time left to actually get it done on time.

New storyboard ideas

Here is a small outline of the new dieas I have created for the music video, in the form of a storyboard. The arrows between two boxes represent the change of camera shots and effects within the scene which will then link to the next scene. Here is a detailed list of what each box entails, in order;

Sitting down by the recording area, rapping on the mic through the window, then a one shot, pan across to the door as the artist walks past, then tracking him as he reaches the door to outside and opens it.
Transition: White fade out

Then facing other side of the door, pan across to be followed by the artist as he walks through the streets. The use of a white fade out to represent a chane of atmosphere and setting. He will then interact with a friend, to link with the line "familiar face". Then they will walk together and he will continue to rap. As the line "away with the fairies" appears, a special effects will appear to represent fairies, with a tilt up (possible trumbone shot) to the sky, and then back down to the artist as he continues to rap to the song.

He will then continue to rap, and then take out a piece of paper from his pocket, which will be a picture. He will look at it, which then it will cut to a shot from his point of view, where we will see what he is looking at, which will be a live video of himself rapping.

It will then fade to a scenario with building works and himself, where the chorus will be played. A cut will appear when the chrous has ended and the phrase "nothing ever goes to plan" is heard, to represent an interrogation. It will then fade back to the streets aroudn the phrase "so I chase". The artist will then talk to his friend on the verse "when blud when".

It will finally cut to a scene of a tunnel with some specific lighting, possibly orange, when it says "I can't take it no more", to represent isolation and being alone.

I guess you can see the idea of what I am thinking here. I will be using the artist's actions, and settings to represent the lyrics in the song, which will also include a large clothing prop variety to do so. It could be mroe challenging for me than my original idea, also with the idea of a one take shot in the beginning as he walks from the recording studio to oudside. The other shot I am thinking will be difficult, is the trombone tilt shot, which is itself very hard to accomplish successfully. If I am able to use these shots, then it should be a very promising first music video.

Researched music videos

During gaining my ideas for the music video, I have looked over many music videos around the same genre of hip-hop/grime/rap to gain ideas of how the videos are shown. They include;

T-Pain ft Lil Wayne - Can't believe it
T.I - What you know
Fabolous - Diamonds
Swizz beats - When I step into the club
Tinchy Stryder - Breathe
Liquid - Keep grinding
Jelluzz - Hold on
D Stubborn - Ryder
Snares & Kicks - J-amp
K.I.D - No wifey season
Dutty Menace - Dreamin'
Hammer ft Dexplicit - Stinkin'
Illamadi - Top boy
Adam Tensta - Before you know it
Danjah - My love
Lazee - Im not pop
The Game - Better on the other side
Choong family - Adrenaline
Tay Dizm - Dream girl
Tinie Tempah - Tears
Kid Cudi - Make her say

This is just a small list of some of the songs which I have been looking over for ideas and inspiration. Others I have watched were by the same artists as listed, and also those posted below, such as Freeway, Ludacris and Ace Hood. Most of the artists are focused around the Hip Hop scene, but artists such as Lazee, Adam Tensta, Kid Cudi, Liquid, Tinchy Stryder and Jelluzz include the relaxed atmosphere, and grime setting in some of their videos which I will be wanting to include with my video so that it meets the genre, and the audience which these artists will know how to meet, due to them being well-known and successful.

Obviously as my artist being a new upcoming artist to the grime scene I will want to create a fresh appearance to the video and the artist, but looking at these videos helped to give me an idea of what the audience are looking for. This includes;

1. the artist rapping to the screen,
2. bright colours on their clothing,
3. rapping into a microphone,
4. many different sets of clothing/apparel,
5. alot of shots
6. unsteady cam
7. use of black and white to contrast with the colour
8. special effects
9. specific accessories - sunglasses, caps, hoods up, stylish trainers, custom designed clothing
10. Close ups and medium shots
11. Including friends and people they know

As far as promotion and advertisement is concerned, web 2.0 is important for advertising the artist, with social networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo, where the artist creates a page where they will display their new upcoming music, display blogs to tell fans about news like gigs, clothing, meetings. The artist, for grime music would be commonly shown on ''Channel U'', due to it being a grime-based music channel, where all new upcoming artists are shown.

Initial storyboard ideas

I found it difficult to put all of the ideas in my head together into a structured process of what would be video footage to go with the audio track. My initial ideas looked like this;

























They are as follows;

Spotlight on character,
Medium shot as he begins to speak,
Transition: black fade out

Soft light to represent morning, gets up and has breakfast etc, then walks outside
Low opacity of "Zanif Records" shown ontop of scene to show intro.
Transition: slow fade to next scene

Slow motion as puts hat on
Medium to close up as he does so
Transition: Pan to the next shot

Camera pan to the side of the road, then tracking back as the artist walks forward.
Medium/long shot showing character walking and his clothing/appearance
Transition: Cut to next scene



My next task is to finalise this while meeting with the artist to finalise the ideas and then, initially begin to get some footage taken for the music video.

Proposal - Zane

For the music video I will be showing Zane ‘Zenif’ Pritchard, a new grime music artist. He targets the teenage youth audience, from his lyrics about his life, and how typically the youth audience is the biggest audience for this genre. The lifestyle would be based around the streets, relaxed, an everyday life. Due to promoting himself on web 2.0 with social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace teenagers will find it easy to find him, as they use these types of websites on a regular basis.

The video itself will form a narrative, creating a story to represent roughly the lyrics spoken in the song. The artist will wake up, get ready and then go outside, walking through the streets to his location. Along the way he will stop to look at photos, and then some other scenes will be included. A tunnel scene will be used to emphasis on the music genre, as he raps to the camera in front of a quiet tunnel. The photos he looks at will be moving images/videos of himself at ‘MC Battles’ to show himself and what he does, and enjoys. At the end of the video he will be stood in front of a mic where he will say the last few lines of the song, and as it ends, the spotlight on him will go out, as he walks off and it will fade to a black screen to end the video.

As grime videos are used to promote the artist, a possible use of artist branded clothing may be used. As far as the shots are concerned, a lot of medium/long shots of the artist rapping in different locations may be used, with some close ups for certain scenes such as looking at the photos. The photo idea was taken from the video ‘Fit but you know it’ from The Streets. It’s effective as it allows you to include another story while continuing with a different one.

The artist will be represented as a new potential grime music artist, showing off his talent to rap, clothing, and using typical grime setting of rural area such as streets, building works, tunnels, and empty areas.

As far as ideology is concerned, there wouldn’t be many messages implied with the video. I guess that it could bring across the message that not every teenager influenced with rap music and hanging around the streets, aren’t violent, as this representation is commonly thought of by adults.

The camerawork will be very basic, as the focus is on the setting and artist being focused on. Long shots and medium shots will be used mostly, with a few extras to vary it, such as close ups, tracking shots as he walks through the streets.

The Editing will be simple cuts between each shot, and a few fades to the next scene. Special effects such as green screens will not be needed here, as the focus is on the setting with the artist. The editing of the shots will be transitioned after each line is said. E.g. ‘’It’s just one of them days’’ will be a one shot, then when it says it again on the next line, another scene will be played. There will be certain scenes for each stanza so that it doesn’t just look like random shots put together, and so that the narrative can be shown and understood.

The sound will be the soundtrack, played over the recorded footage of the character in the specific areas, voice-lip synchronised with it so that it works.

The mise en scene will be stereotypical to the grime scene. The artist will be in typical hoodies, jeans, jewellery, caps. The setting will be rural, quiet, streets, abandoned areas such as building works, tunnels and more. This will emphasis on the genre of grime hip hop, and give across the representation within the soundtrack, of ‘’one of them days’’, the impression of it being dull, lonely, boring.

Zane is not currently on a record label as far as I know, which means he could have a promising future depending on how successful this video turns out to be. This video would most likely be promoted on his web 2.0 sites, such as Facebook, Myspace and YouTube. It would also be possibly shown on Channel U, as artists with early experience in grime/hip hop music have their videos shown there.

Music video ideas

After a quick informal presentation to my media group about my plans for my music video i'll be creating for the task, and the suggestions they gave back to me in response, I decided to research a few music videos for ideas.

The Gaslight Anthem - Old White Lincoln





















In this video there are videos being played in what looks to be a book, beside pictures. This has been used to show off the artist, not only live, but on album covers and pictures of him at the same time. This allows the artist to be fully advertised in his own music video, with several different medias and scenes.


Nizlopi - The JCB song





















This song is simply a cartoon animation the whole way through. It is effective because it is slow, and looks like a comic strip drawing on pieces of lined paper. Using the cartoon sketch for the video helps to create the calm, chilled atmosphere that the song itself is representing.


Wiley - Wot do u call it





















In this video there is a nice shot where a close up is used while Wiley raps into the mic. This idea I was wanting to use in my video. Another shot I liked was where he is walking out from a tunnel, with the dim orange lighting. I could possibly use this one aswell.


The Streets - Fit but you know it

















In this video, there is the use of playing videos through the photo that he is holding, which is used throughout. This idea of playing a video through the photo I was thinking of using, to show the live performances from my artist.


Aha - Take on me

















Within this video, there is a nice use of sketches used with actual taken footage. This helps to create the idea of realism and fantasy, representing what the artist wants, and in reality they get it.

Camera techniques

After a quick introduction to some of the effective camera shots and transitions which we could use in our music videos from our teacher, we decided to go out and attempt filming a few of them. Here is the first, the 'dissapear' shot;


















This shot can be useful to allwo the visual to keep to the musical beat of the instrumental in the background of the music, or the vocal. It also allows the video to not need so much footage to be taken of different areas, as it can tyake up more time by using the dissapear shot, which does in turn look really effective also, as shown in the video below;



The next shot we attempted was the 'Time lapse', speeding up the background while the character/artist is still moving at a normal pace.

Initially the footage will have to be considerably longer than what the final footage will be. I took about three minutes of footage, and cut it down to roughly 10 seconds. The effect this time was a little scratched, but i'm sure with some practice this shot could be a very professional, polished scene to include within my music video.



We then moved onto the shot I will call 'Graphic match transition', as I cannot think of the proper term right now.

















Basically, the character will walk into the camera, and will then walk out of the camera, but in a different location, this is used in many films and videos, such as Snatch, during the introduction with the use of objects to transite to the next shot.



The final shot we took was called the 'reverse' shot.It involes filming something, and then playing it on the video reversed, so that it shows the opposite of what was recorded.

















The idea behind this is to make it look like something happens which naturally, couldn't in our world we live in. For example, the well-known idea of "using the force" to pull something towards you, we don't have the supernatural powers to physically be able to do, right? Well in this video below you can see it happening, but remember it is just simply a reversed video of the actor simply throwing the object out from his pocket. This shot would have to be thought about as to how it would look in reverse for it to be successful in the final outcome.



Although many of the shots discussed, and those I filmed I may not use in my music video itself, this has given me a better idea of what I could put into it, and how easy it is to make these effects happen.

Ideas for cartoon character of artist

The past few days has been spent creating ideas for this cartoon version of the artist, from the requirements which he asked for, which include;

• shoe laces in a bow shape, hanging down
  
• adidas trainers
  
• a 'bling' belt
  
• diamond ear
  
• wearing a hoody/jacket
  
• looks similar to the artist
  

In the previous versions of the image below I did include the requirements which were not in this final one, although this was my more successful one in terms of the shape of the character and his clothing, though not perfected, or a face on him.

I did use reference images to get it right however, such as taking pictures of my own feet wearing adidas shoes, so that I could get the view right as I find it hard to draw shoes head on, and using a reference picture of a belt i felt fitted the term 'bling' dur to it's reflective texture, and camouflage on the strap of the belt.

here is an image of the reference picture;

















So as you can see, the use of text on the belt inspired me to use the artist's name in the same position as it has been done.

Here's the final design for the character, alongside my own which was unfinished.




Personally I feel that my design would have looked alot more professional had I finished it. Over the next few days I might finish it so that I can compare the two properly. Mine had included all of the features that he had asked for, and yet he thought that his design looked better. Althought I wasn't happy with his decision due to my efforts, I decided to accept his decision because what the artist thinks is the final decision as what is being made is for him.

Lyrics to the chosen song and moodboard

The song Zane aka Zenif gave me is called 'One of dem days'.
I was not given the lyrics, but I thought best to try and figure them out myself so that I could get a rough idea of the meanings and thoughts within the song itself.

Here is a list of the lyrics;

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past

Verse
Once again it seems like
one of them days
with that same old pattern
and that same old craze
every single day i'll see a familiar face
its like everythings moving at the same pace
its all the same stuff
nothing varies
that's why you'll catch me, away with the faries
'cos they keep me from getting anxious and getting lairy
'cos as i said before man, nothing varies

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past

Verse
Life nowadays is extremely tedious
too much hype which can not be taken serious
never to to plan star, period
i find your humour on the roads acting mischivious
so i chase and I team with a paper and pen
i spit bars on the mic i try for 10 out of ten
then the next day comes its the same thing again
rusty saying things have changed i'm like when blud when

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past

Verse
This had gotta chase me i cant take it no more
im taking life as it comes but im thinking what for
this same old routine its driving me to the core
the core of insanity my brain is red rore
its the same old shit just from different days
the same old pattern, and the same old ways
the same happenings and the same old ways
but i guess, its just, one of them days

Chorus
Its just one of them days
one of them days
with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past
its just one of them days
one of them days with the same old drafts
its just one of them days
one of them days and i gotta let it past


Apologies to any of the mistakes with spelling, I was writing it down while listening to the song over and over.
While looking over at the lyrics, I decided to comment a few notes about them.
A use of repitition of the phrase "One of them days" has been used throughout the song, to represent a sense of regular occurrence, of this thing he does each day that 'drives me to the core'. A sense of aggrovation, wanting something new to happen, from what he is used to doing day in day, out each day.
It ends and starts with the chorus, which allows a constant flow of the music, and creates an easy path where you can add a similar into and ending, so that it can flow with the visual of the music video also.

I then decided to listen to it again, creating a mood board, which I decided to lay out as a spider diagram, to quickly put down the ideas and room for branching off to further ideas.

A detailed list of the mood board includes;

• Cheerful
• Relaxing
• Uplifting
• Pretend/Surreal - Fairies around him on the verse "Away with the fairies", a happy feeling
• Underground scene - Tunnels, under the bridge, clubs
• Character rapping infront of a mic, with spotlight maybe
• Walking through the streets
• Urban area - Building works, lonely streets - represent lyrics and atmosphere a
• Camera followed by the artist - walking
• Dull, gloomy -sky/atmosphere
• Waking up, show what happens for him during the day to tell us why it's just "one of them days"

This rough set of ideas will help me to create a good theme to base the video on, and many ideas I can focus on using.