Planning - Initial Idea

Initial Idea

My idea

Song: The main song I had in mind was Tory Lanez - Diego which consists of a combination of the R&B and Hip Hop genre. The song portrays the idea of 'being the new Tony Montana' which is an intertextual reference to the movie Scarface.

Narrative: Concept Based/Performance - My idea mainly covers a concept based music video with some performance of the star artist. Therefore the camera would linger mainly around the artist, the majority of the video, making him the main focus. In addition to this, I would then include the use of young attractive females acting promiscuously towards the artist portraying the stereotypical idea of a Hip Hop artist representing someone who all the ladies want.

Narrative Structure: The narrative structure would differ from scene to scene. Meaning that their will be a simultaneous edit, combining scenes from three different locations (Party, underground location, bedroom). Therefore the structure of this video would be conventional to the Hip Hip/R&B genre because it would contain the repetitive use of attractive and luxurious locations with beautiful females and expensive iconography (Cars, jewellery, clothes etc.) which represent the stereotypes of artist using the basic idea in music videos over and over again.

Representation of Artists/Characters: Due to the song portraying the idea of 'being the new/modern day wealthy icon (Tony Montana), I would include scenes or flashing images from the film 'Scarface' to match the lyrics. As far as matching the visuals; I will make my artist dress in luxurious 'classical' clothing e.g suits, fur, coats, trench coat and top hats mimicking the character of Tony Montana in which, this way a connection with lyrics and visuals will be displayed (Goodwin's Theory).

Mise En Scene (MES)

Costume: 

All White, Tony Montana costume

Colour: heir will be a consistent use of the colour white ONLY on the artist to represent the wealth and 'significance'. In addition to this, I would include the editing of making some of the scenes black and white to portray the time period of 'Scarface'

Lighting: High key, focusing on my artist to represent the iconic role being portrayed with the additional use of low key lighting which would represent that underground and 'illegal activity' atmosphere.

Setting: Their will be edits transitioning from three locations: Central London, mansion, underground area e.g. abandoned warehouse or under a tunnel.

Body language & Facial Expressions: The body language and facial expressions i will direct my artist to display would be the conventional 'cocky' and slouching posture, with exaggerated facial expressions that rap artist usually do as well as throwing hand gestures to represent their aggressive and flashy characteristics.

Iconography:Generally I will also use the cliched background atmosphere of attractive cars and objects (jewellery, drugs, clothes etc). For the use of drugs i will use a close up of a females lips with them smoking, to portray the idea of smoking weed

Target Audience: 

• Ages from 16 - 30
• Both male and female
• Stereotypical black race who tend to prefer the genre of R&B/Hip Hop
• Occupation: C2 - E class

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Amani's Idea:

Song:

67 (Dimzy, ASAP, Liquez, Smallz, Monkey and LD) Lock Arff REMIX

Genre:

UK Trap

Narrative:

A gang (67) do illegal activities and avoiding the police whilst doing so police tape off the road (lock off) as a result.

Narrative structure:

Performance/Narrative based.

Characters:

Performers (Dimzy, ASAP, Liquez, Smallz, Monkey and LD)

Police officers would also be needed.

Female back dancers.

MES:

Tracksuits, hoodies, bomber jackets. (Black/dark clothing.)

Ski mask/face wear.

Police uniforms.

Female clothing that plays on the male gaze.

Contraband iconography. (Drugs and guns.)

Low-key/Dim lighting.

Application of theory:

Laura Mulvey

– The male gaze.

Dyer

– Star Image.

Goodwin

– Lyrics connected to visuals.

Advantages:

   -Slow-paced instrumental and beats means slow paced editing. (Easier and still affective)      

   -Slow lyrics mean easier lip syncing. 

   -Easy MES costume clothing.

Disadvantages:

·    -Swearing and explicit lyrics must be censored which dulls the effect of the music video.(No clean version to this soundtrack.)

·     -Multiple star performances means it’s harder to do the music video.

·     -It is hard to recreate illegal activity and the usage of real illegal items is banned during the risk assessment. Making it harder to link the visuals to the lyrics as we can display this

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QUESTIONNAIRE:

What category do you fall into?

10-15            16-21            22-27            28+

What’s your occupation?

Student            Employed            Unemployed            Retired

What genre of music do you listen to?

RnB            Hip-Hop       Pop            Rap             Rock         House         Jazz

How often do you listen to UK Rap?

             Always       Sometimes        Never

What would you expect to see in a UK Rap music video?

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Should the music video be focused on the artist?

                     Yes                No

What themes should be included in a UK Rap music video?

             Love             Wealth            Death            Violence            Sex

Should there be references to other artists/events/videos in the music video?

                                     Yes             No

Do you think there should be women being shown in a sexual way?

                                   

                                     Yes           No

Do you think the lyrics should match the visuals?

                                     Yes           No

Do you think the pace of the music should match visuals?

                                     Yes           No

Would you like to see slow motion being used with the editing?

                                     Yes           No

What are your thoughts on the music video being purely concept/performance based?

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What iconography (objects) would you expect to see in a UK Rap music video?

Money         Cars          Knifes         Spaceships        Jewelry

Do you think the ‘star’ should be emphasised by using close-ups?

                                    Yes              No

Do you think there should be a male and female relationship shown?

                                    Yes              No

What setting would mostly suit a Hip-Hop genre?

Party         Carpark/Streets      Warehouses     Forests      Schools      Prison

What are your thoughts on the music video being black and white?

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What makes an artist a ‘star’?

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What type of costume should the artist be wearing?

Suits Tracksuits Jacket&Jeans

This is the questionnaire my group and I carried out and received resourceful feedback from 20 people. This helped with our initial idea as we could take ideas from different answers within the feedback and gradually form them into one 'initial idea'. Carrying out this feedback also ensured that we were planning to exceed our target audiences expectations in the production stages of creating our own music video. The questionnaire overall showed my group and I a somewhat draft idea of what audiences were interested in within music videos and how they appeal to a music video.

Conclusion:

This task gave me some what of an idea of where my groups mindsets were, in relation to having different ideas and intentions when creating our music video. This allowed us to discuss and  try to utilize everyone's idea into one music video idea in order to gather an idea of what we can create. This benefited us as a group because we could discuss with each other some of our individual ideas and then develop those ideas and impliment them in the final product idea.