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.