Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Production: Editing
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| This image displays the inspiration of our grime video from inspirational artists; Chip, Yungen and Stormzy who Isaiah Dreads I'm sure takes inspiration from himself. We edited the music video into a montage to quickly display examples of grime videos without dragging out the montage. |
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| This image shows a montage being cut and edited into time to display the use of the steadicam I both my journey to production and in production of our grime music video. Displaying skills of cutting, editing, syncing and filming. |
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| The vlog concludes with showing the audience an example of our music video. Our video star is in the booth for the concluding hook and it lines up with the song, which is played throughout the vlog - capturing the key to time on the editing process. |
Research and Planning: Isaiah Dreads The Artist
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| The artist of the song 'Hype In The Booth', Isaiah Dreads gave us permission to use his music video. We will be sending him the final product once it's complete as the song currently doesn't have a made music video. |
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Thursday, 3 December 2015
Research and planning: Feedback on animatic
We had our fellow media peers to give us feedback on what they thought of our storyboard plan and the actual song itself.
Summary of feedback:
- Our into is authentic and looks very real. It builds anticipation for the video to start and emphasises the grime genre.
- We have a variety of shots and the video is rapidly paced to keep viewers intrigued.
- The song is fast-paced, exciting and fits the grime genre.
Monday, 30 November 2015
Research: Unsigned Artists
Unsigned Artists
He's an 18 year old grime artist. He's an up and coming artist who has released 2 EPs so far and has featured in 2 fire in the booths. He has a fairly large 'following' on twitter but is still relatively unknown in the scene and for this reason, gaining his permission would be achievable. This artists track 'Hype in The Booth' would be a good selection to make a music video on.
Novelist
He's a 19 year old grime artist. This artist is arguably flowing into the 'mainstream' side of the genre as his popularity has grown tremendously in the last year. He's released many hit singles and 1 mixtape in his career so far. He's famed for his close connections to South London and often references these in his lyrics. Gaining permission form him may be hard but the quality of sound is certainly near the top of pickings. If we were to use one of his song we would use 'Lewisham Mcdeez' for it's inventive lyrics and useful beat.
Little Katty
He's a 19 year old grime artist. This artist, arguably the most accessible of all has had a very underground career. Releasing many hit singles such as 'Street Life' and 'On my Job', he went away (prison) for 2 years but is now coming back to re establish himself within the grime genre. His latest track 'I'm active' would be ideal for us to make a video on.
Friday, 20 November 2015
Research and Planning: Location
Below is a presentation on location for our music video to "Hype in the Booth" by Isaiah Dreads:
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Research and planning: Costume
For our video I am wearing a black adidas tracksuit. This is conforming to the grime genre, where most of the artists wear tracksuits in videos, most notably the extremely popular recent video by Stormzy (called "Shutup"). He is wearing a red adidas tracksuit. He is considered to be the face of grime in 2015, and his video has over 11 million views, therefore when people think of this genre they will now think of an adidas tracksuit.
I chose the colour black because our song is quite a dark tune with a heavy beat, this black tracksuit suits the video well, and we'll be filming a large portion of the video at night and in a dark area, therefore the black tracksuit will blend in well with the darkness, instead of standing out.
Overall, this costume makes the video look much more professional, realistic and fashionable so that the youth watching the video are in touch with it.
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Initial Research: Audience research
Knowing the artist quite well and following him since the beginning of his still early career helped significantly when opting for a target audience. I've attended a few of Isaiah's gigs and thus allowed me to gage that the type of people constantly return to the bands concerts and more importantly music in general.
Although research can be crucial, by being a fan yourself and knowing other fans you are able to personally observe the typical demographic of a grime audience enabled me to target this demographic specifically.
Additionally, research into a target audience was aided by my own experience of grime genre gigs at festivals and individual concerts respectively, as well as watching certain grime artists online. This enabled me to interpret the specific type of audience through videos online and draw for successful artists' marketing techniques. Firstly I drew ideas from Yungens' music video 'Ain't On Nuttin' (shown below) - the opening to the music video shows Yungen performing live to a crowd. From this scene we can draw the fact that the crowd look of the ages of 16-22 and mainly consist of ethnic minorities of African/British youths.
We began by having our target demographic study our choice of song 'Hype In The Booth' in order to see the potential the song had to make a music video and whether or not what we believed was our target audience liked the song generally.
Feedback is evidently positive and this enabled us to move forward and start planning the song as an animatic and storyboard to start shaping our music video together.
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
Friday, 6 November 2015
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
Research and Planning: Isaiah Dreads' first music video
This is Isaiah Dreads' first official music video, which is respectable considering the artist is 18 years old. Although this specific song features a collaboration with another artist; Saskilla - I still thought this would be an appropriate use of inspiration for our work when producing the soon to be made 'Hype In The Booth'. Firstly there is no narrative to the video but focus on the lyrics which is ever present in the grime scene. The hook of the song 'Lights Turn Green' features the artist rapping under a green light bulb which is an extremely obvious use of synergy between the lyrics of the song and the visuals of the music video; a technique I will utilise with a recording booth in the song 'Hype In The Booth'. Also you can notice the other verses are filmed at night which is a technique often used by Grime artists in the street (other examples include; Yungen, Chip and Stormzy) as it holds connotations of aggression and power. Another technique I plan to use for verses of our 'Hype In The Booth'. The artist is dressed quite casually too in a Basement branded tee, so it will be important to dress our artist in casual clothing; such as a tracksuit once famously utilised by Stormzy in 'Shut Up'. In terms of camera angles there is a wide range but the majority consist of minor panning, free hand camera work with numerous close/mid-shots.
Research and Planning: Shot List
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| High Angle Shot |
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| Low Angle Shot |
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| Mid-Shot |
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| Extreme Close Up |
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| Close Up |
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| Panning Shot Diagram |
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| Panning Shot GIF |
Research and Planning: Links to similar artists
Isaiah Dreads is a young grime artist from London, he is unsigned and not too well known in comparison to much bigger grime scene artists. He is only 18 years old, the same age as the group and this makes him a relatable artist for us in terms of style and understanding. We decided to use the unsigned artist as it allows us to market for him specifically attempting the create and image we'd like to depict to his audience. He is London based and writes his own music. He performs in the grime genre and uses strong wordplay. His music video heavily features synergy between lyrics and visuals and conforms to numerous conventions of the grime genre. Isaiah has featured on BBC radio one extra as well as BBC one's fire in the booth ft. Charlie Sloth which is an accolade he can be proud of.  |
| Yungen |
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| AJ Tracey |
AJ Tracey is a London based rapper also. He once again styles himself similarly to Isaiah Dreads. He like the other two artists has recently featured on BBC radio one which is a key marketing tool for these unsigned artists in gaining publicity and a fan base. He is of the same ethnic background and both focus on beats in their music. AJ Tracey successfully utilised a similar beat to Isaiah's music in his track 'Naila'.
Research: Magazine advert - Ellie Goulding 'Lights'
- The advert has been designed to look visually cluttered which means that it looks busy on purpose, although there isn't a lot of elements to the advert, the gold title and glitter in her hair makes you look twice.
- There is a synergistic element to the poster because the title is in Gold, and the name of the album is 'lights'. The glitter in her hair links to the colour of the title and adds the synergistic element. Interestingly, there is a slight pun to her name and the design of the poster. 'Goulding' has 'gold' in the beginning of the name and her hair and the colour of the text is gold.
- Ellie Goulding's music is different from most genres out there in the music industry, it is a mix between acoustic and pop which links with this advert as it is a natural picture with a subtle hint of glamour due to the glitter effect in her hair. She's showing that she's an ordinary girl while also being a unique artist with a little something more to offer. The album name 'lights' can be represented with the little speckles of gold in her hair.
- The magazine advert links to Ellie Goulding's music video 'Starry Eyed' which is featured on the album. The glitter effect on this advert is frequently used in the music video, which links the two together and makes the music video easily recognisable and relates it to the album it is from. It makes the album and the music video synergistic. You can watch the video by clinking the link below:
Monday, 2 November 2015
Research: Goodwin (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Andrew
Goodwin; in ‘Dancing in the Distraction
Factory’ (1992, Routledge) has identified the following features
of music videos:
-Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
-There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals-There is a relationship between music and visuals-The demands of the record label will include a lot of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work-There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body-There is often intertextual reference
What Genre is the music and how is this reflected in the video?
This song consists of two different genres. The operatic section and the use of hard rock. In the opera section the video shows the four band members faces, and nothing else. In the hard rock sections, the video just shows band shots.
How do the images relate to the lyrics?
No they don't. The lyrics have a narrative, whilst the video is purely band shots which is often a convention of the rock genre.
How do the images relate to the music?
The images do not relate to the lyrics, but they do slightly relate to the music. In the opera section, All you can hear is the band members voices, and all you can see in these sections is the band members faces singing. In the rock sections there are a lot of instrumental parts, and the images show the band playing the instruments. The colours are also much brighter in the rock sections, as the music is more upbeat.
How is the artist presented to sell them? How important are the close ups?
The video focuses entirely on queen and their performance. Throughout the video the audience is always looking at the band. There is a range of shots throughout the video. There are some where they are close ups of the band members faces, which establishes each band members identity and character, whilst there are also low angle, long shots, which make it look the audience are in the crowd watching the band play live, which promotes the band and their live shows.
Is there any reference to 'looking'? Are females presented voyeuristically?
there are no shots of females, as the only people in the video are the band members who are all male. The reference to looking would be involving the shots where it makes you feel like you are in the audience, watching the band.
Is there a narrative? How is the video organised and structured?
The song has a narrative, about a child who has murdered someone and is facing a jury, but the video doesn't represent this is any way.
Looking up at the band, as if you were watching them live. As this is the first ever music video, the only time anyone would've ever seen a band playing the music would've been live or on TV, where the cameras would've been in with the audience.
Can you spot any intertextual references?
There are no intertextual references, as the video is purely performance shots. Having a narrative in the video would leave space for some intertextual references, but there isn't any in this video. This may be due to the fact that this was the first ever music video, and was very revolutionary.
Sunday, 1 November 2015
Research and Planning: Mood Board - Shane Farrell
Research and Planning - Mood Board
In this mood board we see the avenue our video will be going down. We also see representations of the grime culture as a whole.
Friday, 30 October 2015
Research and Planning; CD Net Analysis
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| 4 Panel Digipak with Tube Pocket |
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| 8 Panel 2 Trays |
This form of cd cover would be produced by those who can afford the machinery required and are therefore able to produce their own CD's resultantly. This method has probably been used more freely in the modern day with the progression of household technology. Of course media companies could produce such CD's and make the music memorable to their target audience. I would finally argue that it completes the product too. I suppose the startup cost for this form of manufacturing would be high and target an according audience.Monday, 19 October 2015
Research and Planning: Real Media Texts
In order to gage a better understanding of the genre I sought to find real media texts that are easily comparable to the works of Isaiah. I feel that in doing this research my understanding of the genre has progressed and that I am now more capable of thinking of a concept for our music video that fits well with the genre, drawing on inspiration from similar successful artists, such as Stormzy.
SHUT UP//Stormzy
Aaron Unknown (freestyle)
Stormzy, Aaron Unknown, D Double E & Lady Leshurr
SHUT UP//Stormzy
Aaron Unknown (freestyle)
Stormzy, Aaron Unknown, D Double E & Lady Leshurr
Research and Planning: Music Video Analysis - "Applause" by Lady Gaga
Below is my music video analysis for "Applause by Lady Gaga:
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Research and Planning: Music Video Analysis - "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson
Below is my music video analysis for "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson:
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Research and Planning: Moodboard
Below is a moodboard filled with images that will inspire and illuminate our products throughout the production and editing precesses:
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Technical: Three-point Lighting
What is Three-Point Lighting?
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| Theory of Three-Point Lighting |
Experimentation
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| Key Light ONLY |
Key Light: The main source of light. Usually the strongest and it has most influence on the look of the screen and highlights the main, but not all, features. This lighting is more often than not used to expose the whole or most of the scene. Placed on one side, rather than directly, it creates tone and adds definition to the subject by creating shadow on the opposite third. We found this lighting to be best as it creates a focus for the shot by creating definition to the subject. For our music video we feel this will be our predominant lighting technique and will help to create a contrast of light and dark. This will reinforce our genre by looking dark and 'grimy'. What's more, this was most effective and from audience research this was favoured above the rest.
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| Fill Light ONLY |
Fill Light: A supplementary light used in photography or filming that does not change the character of the main light and is used chiefly to lighten shadows. Secondary to the key light, often placed on the opposing side. This lighting is not so harsh and subtly highlights features, exposing the other half of the subject to more lighting. Despite this, we found this lighting to only reveal a faint overlay of the subject as only a small portion of the figure is exposed to light. Hence, as we are filming in dark spaces such as a suburban London estate and a music booth, this lighting would not be chiefly effective and therefore will not use this so much throughout our production. We may experiment with this, combined with a back light when taking photos for our magazine cover and digipak.
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| Back Light ONLY |
Back Light: This light creates lighting from behind the main subject or focus point and is used to add an outline to the image. Opposed to direct lighting, this lighting is often used to add definition to features and highlight features around the subject from behind, highlighting the objects outlines. We found this lighting to be effective but very difficult to use as most of the figure is placed in darkness. However, this overlaying darkness helps to establish a sense of mystery and echoes the darker messages of the grime genre of music. This is also perhaps reminiscent of the underground London roots of the genre. I look forward to experimenting further with this when it comes to taking shots for our magazine promo cover and digipak.
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| Key Light AND Fill Light |
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| Key Light, Fill Light AND Back Light |
From this, we have learnt that the positioning of all the lights is a crucial and delicate element of three-point lighting. Simply by misplacing the lights in respect to the subject can make the image appear washed out and seem two-dimensional. In other words, if used correctly, three-point lighting can establish an image by defining main features with shadow, allowing the subject to appear 3D which is vital for the visual aspects of our music video and print products. Moreover, the key light should be placed down first. In so doing, the key light acts as a guideline for the placement of the other lights, which are used to add to the key light and enhance it.
In light of this, we will consider using three-point lighting as a way of establishing mystery and darkness in our music video as this is conventional of the grime genre. A convention of grime music is that the videos are often set in darker suburban London as to echo its working-class roos and be accessible to its heavily working-class audience. By using either the fill light or key light, features of the subject are defined whilst other features remain hidden in shadow - thus, creating a sense of unknown and mystery. This would hence help us to develop grime conventions in our music video and print products. Similarly, by using a stronger and brighter back light we could create a sense of hope and optimism that comes hand-in-hand with the genre.
For future reference, we also found out that the best placement of the key light is around 40-50 degrees anti-clockwise from the camera, where the right side of the subject is exposed to light. The fill light should be placed 40-50 degrees clockwise and the back light 180 degree directly behind the fill light in order to create the most dramatic effect and establish an enigmatic element to a scene or shot. As key light provides the most definition to the subject, it is vital to focus on the placement of key lighting in production.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Research and planning: magazine advertisement
Madonna's album 'Celebration' focuses on the key aspects of her career. Like many popular artists with storied careers, this is an album composed of her greatest hits.
From the magazine advertisement seen here, it is clear that this is being marketed as a tribute to her career. This is conveyed through the use of images, and the title itself.
The title of the album is called 'Celebration', clearly chosen for the sole purpose of celebrating what Madonna has achieved. The slogan for the album is '34 songs that changed the world', so it's letting people know how iconic she is if her songs 'changed the world'.
The main image is Madonna when she was very young, and how she typically looked. This was chosen as the main image because it is what most people picture or remember Madonna as, it is the iconic look of Madonna. Within this close up shot of her face, there are various other images of Madonna, in various stages of her career. Ranging from the young Madonna who was very sexualised in the media to the older more sophisticated Madonna with longer hair, there is an image of each look she ever had.
The colours used create meaning. The background is predominately black, and her lipstick and hair is a very dark shade of purple. This is to convey Madonna's dangerous/dark and sexy side, which she is renowned for. The colours within her face are deep reds, which merge into pinks and purples. These colours are feminine, but exaggerate the femme fatale aesthetic that Madonna really revolutionised during the 80s. The 80s was a period where neon pink and purple were very popular, so the use of these colours was to accompany her iconic look at the time.
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Research and Planning: 2 Videos - Conventions of Music Videos - Shane Farrell
2 Videos - Conventions of Music Videos
Music Video Analysis (Madonna - Like a Virgin)
Music Video Analysis (Kendrick Lamar - Alright)
Friday, 25 September 2015
Welcome To Our Blog
Welcome to our blog! In this blog we will explore music video's and there conventions before beginning research into our own genre choice and eventually producing a music video, marketing it and creating two ancillary texts using our knowledge of media and new tools we'll discover this year. Join us on our journey by reading and interacting with our blog as we progress as a group. We hope you're all smiles like we are for this year. P.S Elliot has undergone a transformation of image since this photo was taken.
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| Tony Egan (5069), Elliot Stahlmann (5214), Patson Travers (4404) and Shane Farrell (4287) |
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