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.