Planning: Final idea

Artist: Sza ft. Kendrick Lamar 
Song Title: Babylon
Genre: Hip Hop/ Soul

We have chosen the artist SZA because she is such a different arist her song Babylon with her group member Kendrick Lamar has a great meaning of love, trust and betrayal as to why our group thought we could create a good narrative to this song. This song falls under the Hip Hop/Soul genre because its a nice balance of rap and soulful singing which makes it appeal to different audiences. Also the song is so relatable for teenagers so our target audience would be easy to choose.

Video content:
We have decided to create a narrative based around 3 scenarios
Scenario 1: A couple that are going through relationship problems and issues resolve their problems by using violence and aggression. They take their life's by overdosing on pills/drugs.

Scenario 2: A girl that is a young carer of her younger siblings while taking her A level exams is under so much stress she decides to take her life by drowning herself in a river.

Scenario 3: A young girl is in her prom dress depressed walking around crying. We see a group of people bully and make fun of her. She tries to take her life by jumping in front of a moving train

Video structure:
my video structure will consist of narrative and performance because we have the artists singing and rapping with the story behind it.

Star image:
Our star image will be based on the prom girl because she is a perfect representation of a teenager so for her to be the artist she will connect more with our target audience. We wont use Mulvey's male gaze theory because I don't think it will help present the narrative well and the characters are young. 

Planning: Star Image

Genre: Hip-Hop/Soul

Traits of stars:

• Humble
• Layed back
• Controversial
• Confident
• Street wise
• Creative
• Relaxed

Morals and values:

• Equal rights
• Voice of young people
• Represents reality
• Controversial
• Relaxed

Media perception:

• Young/Fresh
• Media seek the stars
• Active on social media
• Wouldn't have a public relationship
• Introvert
• Relatable

Links to theories:

Goodwin: Our star will have allot of star image as we are going to use close ups and extreme close ups with some mid shots also used.

Mulvey: Our star will not have any male gaze as we want our star to be represented as venerable by our audience not as attractive.

Dyer: Our star will not be manufactured and will follow her own ideas and not conform with society.

Hebdige: Our star aiming at a subculture but will have a very niece audience.

Related artists:
Jhené Aiko and Corinne Bailey Rae:














What do I like about these artists:

• nude make up
• loose clothing
• young
• Innocent
• Big messy hair
• Looks innocent
• Innocent colours (White)

Related artists:
Eminem and J cole:


What do I like about these artists?

• Looks very ordinary
• Not dressed up
• Looks humble
• Sunglass
• Simple clothing
• Dark colours

*Image*
 Our female artist is a young girl between the age of 16-18. She looks quite plane and stripped back only wearing nude make up, if any. We want her to be presented as innocent and vulnerable in order for the audience to sympathy with her. 

*Image*
Our male artist is a young boy aged around 18. He isn't over dressed and comes across cool and humble. He dances in the video as well as rapping.

Using Goodwin's theory of star image both of my stars will be shot using close ups, extreme close ups and mid shots.
We will not be using Mulvey's male gaze theory on our female star as we want her to be presented as vulnerable and innocent.

Our male star will be following the popular culture theory as he will be more mainstream than our female artist and will be street dancing which is a part of popular culture. 

Will we not be following hebdige's theory as our artist do not represent one subculture, however our female artist will be quite niche.

Research: Diverse music videos

Diverse Music Videos

What are diverse music videos: Diverse music videos are very different to the mainstream music videos. They are usually made by artists who have very niche audiences that like the artists music. The videos are mainly concept based so this means the video is more focused on ideas rather than a story or the artist/band. Genres that make diverse music videos are mainly the less popular music genres such as electro, dance, rock and alternative.

Cunningham music videos

Aphex twins - Come to daddy


This video was made for the aphex twins it is a very strange video that can not be really understood by the audience the general feel for the audience is that it creeps them out and makes you feel uncomfortable so it is hard to watch.

Aphex twins - Window licker

This video was also for the aphex twins it is also a very strange music video that is also very hard to understand but is clearly taking the mick out of one of the biggest genres in music R&B. It also makes the audience feel uncomfortable and confused by the way the video is made.

Bjork - All is full of love


















This video was made for Bjork but you can clearly see it was made by Cunningham as it is very abstract and different and makes the audience confused and uncomfortable.

Christopher Cunningham's credits: Cunningham has won many awards including the golden pencil award for Bjork's all is full of love video and also won a MTV music video award for breakthrough video and a Grammy award for the best short film.

Conventions of Chris Cunningham's music videos: A Chris Cunningham music video can be clearly seen if he created the video you will know by the diverse concept themed videos that he creates for his artists. His videos are made to make his audience feel uncomfortable and confused when they watch the video. distorted humans, low-key, obscure images

Opinion of his work: My opinion of Chris Cunningham's work is that he does what he makes his videos for but I don't not like the videos he creates as they make me feel very uncomfortable when I watch them.

Gondrys music videos

Gary Jules - Mad World


















This video is extremely simple and only uses one camera shot throughout the entire video. There is no start image the artist only appears in small sections of the video. The simplicity of the music video makes it hard for the audience to understand.

Kylie Minogue - Come into my world
















This video has very complexed editing and is very unique which engages the audience to watch more of the video. Since its very unconventional it makes the audience want to watch more. It has a lot of star image as it is performance based and is focused on the star.

Daft Punk - Around the world

















This video is very diverse and concept based music video it is fun with allot of dancing to entertain and engage the audience. It uses allot of colours but has no star image throughout the video.

Gondrys Credits:
Won an Oscar in 2005 for best writing and screenplay. Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Nominated for a BAFTA award 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA nominated 2005 for Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Bodil Awards Nominated for Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Bram Stoker Awards Won for best screenplay 2005.

Common conventions of his work is repition in the music videos.

In my opinion Gondry's work is very original and it is very intellectual in the way it make the think in order to understand the repetition theme an why this is being used however the narrative is much easier to understand and does connect wit the audience.

Advantage of diverse music videos:

• Diverse music videos allow the artist re-invent themselves to their audience and loyal fans.
• Videos being strange and unique creates a buzz so makes people want to watch the video.
• The video leads a lot of profit and will make the artist succesful if it becomes popular.
• Will allow the artist to have a niece audience.

Disadvantage of diverse music videos:

• The music video may be censored.
• If censored may have to make new video.
• The audience response may not be good.
• limited audience.

Diverse music videos should stay away from mainstream music culture? 

I think that diverse music video should stay away from mainstream as they have their own audience and fan base that they appeal to so they dont need to conform to the mainstream to stay succesful.

Conclusion: 

I have learnt that music videos dont all have to conform to be succes even if that is the easy route for most artist. I dont think my music video will be diverse at it is easier to be a succes if the video is mainstream.

Research: Music Channels

Music Channels

Intro: Music channels are important because they provide a platform for music channels to be seen on TV. Channels provide the audience with a wide variety of choice of the music they are looking for on the channel each mainstream genre will have a music channel dedicated to that genre of music so views are guaranteed.

Music Channels today: There are  a lot of music channels on today's TV to suit the tastes of most people they have become more popular as time has gone on and technology has improved this therefore made music go from very little channels to many.

Examples of music channel:

 
• MTV and its sister channels.

• Channel AKA

• Kerrang

• Chart show TV

• Kiss TV

•  Starz TV

• 4  music

Under representation of music channels:

There are many genres of music that are not largely represtented on music channels for example:

Folk and country are underrepresented because in the UK since they are more populer in the USA.

Religious music is not represented well due to a decline in the amount of people who are religious in this day and age.
Advantage of music channels:

• Direct way of targeting the audience individual audiences.
• Markets and promotes of the artists music video and their new song to make them more succesful.
• Satisfies the fans as there is a demand for music videos are in high demand by fans.
• The music channel shows the audience that the artist wants and to the target audience of the music video.
• Aire time for artists and their music.

Conclusion:
I think my music video would play on MTV as it will be very mainstream and appeal to a large audience that already had a big following.

Research: History of music videos.

History of Music Video

Music videos:
As the years have past by music videos have changed greatly over the year and got better and better and more technological. Once video were just a add on to a song but now they are part of what makes a song a succes they used to be very short and cheap but now most are around 4 minutes with a high budget. Music videos appeal to everyone in the stars target audinence and are mostly made for the fans to satisfy them they are mad to cause a buzz a to promote the audience to give them a wider audience. 

Music history Timeline:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/interactive/2011/jun/11/history-modern-music-timeline

This is a interactive timeline of the history of music videos.
My timeline with key/significant dates and achievements:

  1920: 

The key events in  the history of music videos.

• 1920- when Bessie Smith the video can not regarded as a music video as it has no editing and doesnt follow the conventions of music videos.

•  During 1920  film were accompanied  by the moving image, especially animations.

1940:

• 1940- Disney  'fantasia ' was animation film  about classical music.

 1950:

• Tony Bennett -1956  was filmed walking in  Hyde park London for 'stranger in paradise' it was aired on English and American TV.

1960:

• 1964-The Beatles set out basic visual vocal for todays  music videos. A simple motion picture accompanied by music.

• 1966-TOTP- Artist had to create competitive videos to complete for air time on TOTP. But the show mostly performance based.

• 1968- 'The Monkee's had their own TV show and a special segment that was made to accompany their song.

1970:

• 1975- Queen 'Bohemian Rhapsody' set up modern music video era. They mad the first music video that they used to replace a live performance. It was made specifically for the song to be played on TV.

• 1970-1980 Music videos became the norm and every artist had a video to accompany their song. It was qucik and easy and made artists get populer quickly.

1980: 

•  In 1981 MTV launched the first video to be aired and this was Buggle's 'video 'killed radio star.

Change of music videos over time:
Music have changed a lot as history of music video has gone on. Music videos are now a esential part of artists succes. As time has gone on more and more is expected from music videos quality of them has to be great now compared to the first queen music vidoe. All genres have different types of music videos that will appeal to their audience. And lasltly now technology has advanced a lot more technology and affects are used to make music videos a lot better.

Conclusion:

This post has made me realise how music videos have changed over time and how they are now very popular and essential and what makes them popular in this day and age.

Planning: Production roles

Introduction:
Production roles are the roles that the people in our group will take to produce the music video it is important to give production roles to everyone in our group because this will ensure everyone is organised and knows what there role is going to be in the making of our thriller it makes the process of making our music video much quicker as everyone knows what they are doing and what they have to do.

Different production roles:

Director:
The director is the leader of the music videos production the director calls the shots throughout the videos production.

Producer:
Partner of the director the producer controls the videos budget.

Camera operator:
Controls the camera when filming.

Lighting operator:
Controls the lighting used in the scenes.

Location manager:
Decides where the music video will be set.

Hair and make up:
Does the hair and make up for the actors in the music video.

Story Boarder:
Plans the outset of the music video.

Editor:
Edits the music video.

Print designer:
Designs the album cover and the digi pack for the album.

Photographer:
Takes pictures of the stars and the music video.
Our groups roles and why:

Chardelle:
Director, Story boarder and hair and make up. Chardelle has been given these roles she was director and hair and make up from last year she has been given the role of director again as last year she got 110% out of the group and made sure we were on task. She has been given hair and make up again as she is again the only girl in our group so is the only one with experience in hair and make up. This year she is now the story boarder as she is the director so she can show the idea clearly.

Lashane:
Producer, Print designer, Photographer and Locations manager. Lashane has these roles because he was good at managing the budget last year so was great at producing. He is now the location manger as he knows very good locations for our video. He is now the photographer as it will be convenient for him to do so while we film and he has experience with photography. He is the print designer as he is the photographer so he will know what he wants to do with the shots on the album and in the digi pack.

Me:
Camera operator, Lighting and Editor. I have these roles because two of them I also had last year and I was chosen to be camera man and editor last year as I have many technical skills which makes it easy for me. I have now been given the role of lighting manager as I have the technical skills and also it helps as I am controlling the camera and the shots.

Why has this been beneficial:
This has been beneficial because everyone in our group knows what we are going to be doing so this has been saved us time and confusion when making our music video.

Planning: Characters

Character  1:

C



haracter name: College girl


Age: 17


Ethnicity: White


Gender stereotype: Vulnerability, Insecure and needy


Costume: Scarf,  White jumper, Skirt and tights.


Hair + Make up:  Pony tail and Natural make up.


Body language: Low self esteem and Weak


Represented as...  A weak vulnerable person who cannot  stand  up  for herself and keeps it all inside and to herself because she feels she cant tell anyone.


Role within music video:  She  is the college girl who commits  suicide.




Characters who have influenced my character decision:


Character 2:


Character name: Male - Couple

Age: 18


Ethnicity: Black Caribbean


Gender  stereotype: Masculine, Controlling, Quick tempered  and Assertive


Costume: Shirtless and jeans


Hair + Make up:  None


Body language Touchy and Good posture
Represented as...  A controlling  boyfriend he loves her but has a bad temper and cant control it and becomes abusive but then feels guilty.


Role within the music  video: Part of the couple who are in love and intimate but  begins to argue and  turn violent.

Character  3:



Character name: Female - Couple

Age: 18


Ethnicity: Black


Gender  stereotype: Vulnerable, Emotional, Weak  and Naïve


Costume: Tight  vest  top and his  boys  boxers


Hair + Make up:  Long hair, Red lipstick , Eye  make up and Fake bruises.


Body language: Vulnerable and has a attitude


Represented as...  She is a young naïve girl who is so in love with her boyfriend  she  will him no matter what happens.


Role within the music  video: Part of the couple who are in love and intimate but  begins to argue and  turn violent.

Conclusion:
This has helped us as we now know what we will want our characters to look like in the music video so we will not have trouble when making the video.