Planning: Artist Image

Research: Artist Image

Our artists' image is important to our product and campaign because it is critical that we get both of our characters image and identity correct in order to attract a wider ranged audience as they are two different artists coming together for a collaboration album. 
For the first artist image I will be looking at SWEENEY who takes over the voice of Lil Durk in the Like Me music video and is the rapper out of the two artists on the collaboration album.
Because of this we will have to not only differentiate each artist in terms of actions and representation and overall role of the music video, but they will also have to be distinguished in terms of mise en scene such as costume colour lighting and facial expressions. Hence the reason why we have chosen this actor in particular to be our more aggressive character, as you can see he has a more serious and arrogant facial expression which is what was first realised when auditioning for potential characters and looking at how they are represented by one picture of themselves.   
Actual artists that best resemble that to SWEENEY is:

• Lil durk.

• Ace Hood.

• Skrapz.

The resembling artists have not just been chosen for their appearance and image in the media but they have also been related to our artist because of their lyrical content and  primal and serious aura that they carry during performances and in their music videos which is now attached to their image within the media.


An important image aspect that also manipulates the them of this music video is the Ying (also known as yin) and Yang binary opposite theme. This has influence over the SWEENEY's characteristics as their are 2 different sides to the symbol, he is present as the side known as Ying. This is because the characters overall appearance (all white clothing relates to the touch of white in the circle) is deceiving and his actions best present and show us that he is bad and has and therefore carries the Ying energy.
From this we earn that our artists appearance is pure and white and innocent looking however his dark actions show how he really is.

As a result of this research upon artist image here is a first glance of our 1st artists image and appearance below, as you can see the appearance has been heavily influenced by the artists mentioned above as well as the theme.

The second artist that will be analysing is MD, his artist appearance within the music has been influenced by the following music artists that are established within the industry already:

• Jeremih.

• Trey Songz.

• Omarion. 

Our reasons for MD being influenced by the following artists is because Jeremih is the original artists that MD will be covering in the song Like Me as he has to sing the chorus as well as his own verses Jeremih is an artist heavily involved in RnB as other the other names mentioned that influence our character, all of these artists' image within the media are heavily influenced by females and womanising as  a lot of girls love them for not just their appearance but for their clean heart within the media, Which is what is needed for our character MD in the music video as he will steal SWEENEY's girl from him in an innocent manner rather than with bad intentions.



The reason why we have selected images of our artists in black attire is because if you didn't know who they was within the media they could be mistaken for bad people that influence themselves in crime as they are wearing all black attire, which is the idea and theme that we are going for with this character as he plays the opposite role in the Ying and Yang theme against SWEENEY and is Yang the good character with a bad first impression because of his overall appearance, however it is his actions that prove that he is different from his contrasting character. 

Planning - Pre - Production Paperwork

Pre - production Paperwork

Production schedule:


Location Recce:

Client Release Form

Planning - Digipak Information

Digipak Information

Album Name: Ying & Yang

Artist name(s):

SWEENEY - (Amani)

MD - (Michael)

Track List:

1. Differences. (INTRO)
2. You Are.
3. Squad Only.
4. Wavey
5. (MD)MA.
6. P.H.A.T.
7. Trilla.
8. Spectre.
9. Lost Tape.
10. The Equilibrium.
11. C.R.E.A.M.
12. Paypa Chase.
13. LEGO City.
14. My Fung Shway. (Feng Shui)
15. The Mirror's Edge. (OUTRO)

Music Institution: DefJam Records.

Production Company: KAJE Records.

Parental Advisory Symbol: Present

Planning: Creative brief for digipak

Research: Creative brief for digipak

Product Overview: My two artists are already well known and established Hip-Hop artists that have decided to merge their talent and fan base together to create a cross over album.

The Album Concept: The crossover album will be known as Ying & Yang this is similar to that of Drake and Future's Album 'What a Time to be Alive'. The overall concept that we are looking for is to play off of the idea that these are indeed to different artists with their own style MD (Jeremih cover artist on Like Me) sings and SWEENEY (Durks cover artist on Like Me) raps, hence the reason why we have come up with the Ying and Yang concept as these are two different elements and energy types of Music coming together to create one product. 

For that reason the digipak that we create will be heavily influenced by this theme and the music video will also have the same influences and themes. a comparable that has already been mentioned is 'What A Time to be Alive'.

Because we have two different artists collaborating together for this project they will also be merging fanbases together which means this product will be aimed at R&B, Pop (because MD) as well as Rap and american drill (because of SWEENEY) meaning that the reaction we want from this will come from multiple genres and produce multiple sales from a wide range of people.

The launch date of the Albums release will be shortly after the release of the music video as we need to create hype around the album by releasing the top hit 'Like Me' before hand.

Planning - Storyboard

Storyboard:

This is the story board that me and my group have made to best capture the information on our narrative of the music video. We also added in important information such as the; camera shot, Location, Props to be used, Lighting, Actors used in specific scene, Sound, dialogue, editing and the narrative description in each scene to make it clear to the camera crew what is happening within each scene to make it easier when filming.

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However as we had gone over the story board that we had created we decided to slightly change the narrative due to the fact that we have too many characters in the narrative and this could be troublesome for the group when filming if they wasn't to turn up to the video shoot. For this reason the new narrative is as follows. This will not affect the current story board we have as the majority of the scenes will remain the same and just the narrative scenes will be changed to best suit the storyboard.

Planning - Characters

Planning: Characters within narrative

Me and my group were required to look into the characters within my music video. This is important because in order to make our music video believable and correct to our vision, we had to plan every representation and what our performers will be portraying within the music video. If we did not succeed in planning our characters, when people watch our music video the characters won’t look like how they sound on the sound which could make them lose interest as they aren’t seeing the visual representation of what they are hearing on the soundtrack. Both of the characters that are being shown within this post are also the characters that are the 2 main artists within the music video.

Completed by Amani

Character 1:

Name: Amani Sweeney-Fenton (SWEENEY)

Age: 18.

Ethnicity: Black, other.

Physique: Tall Slim. 

Genre stereotypes of artist:

• Money orientated

• Self-obsessed.

• Womanising.

• Confident.

• Intimidating.

• Controlling.  

Costume:

The overall appearance that we are looking to achieve with our artist is that we want him to look successful, trendy in the area of fashion and his image must be quite evident that he is money orientated in terms of the use of jewellery and designer brands. 

The all white look gives our artist a sense of purity and cleanliness as although this genre of music is more directed at Rap, this soundtrack in particular abandons the ideology of gangs which is conventional to the genre and exploits the idea of having fun with your friends and having a sense of swagger about what you do. This helps us to capture an image that maintains all the positives about rappers and people associated with the genre and leave out/ down play direct illegal activity which some people do not like to see which make the music video a better-rounded music video for various people to enjoy. 

Our artist playing as the character SWEENY:

• Straight cut white jeans – (designer).

• T-shirt -white

• Bomber Jacket - white

• Gold watch - (designer)

Hair and makeup: Our artist will have a high-top temp fade haircut (as shown in the image) and won’t be wearing any makeup as we need to portray the realism of the music video through the visuals. 

Body language and facial expressions: This artist/character will have a very relaxed and confident body language to display how he is having fun whilst he feels ‘Wavey’ with his friend. We will show him as having fun and feeling youthful as the lyrics of how the characters behave in the song compliment this.

Representation within your video: Due to the all of these characteristics SWEENEY will be an extremely relaxed character, meaning that he will come across as having a good time. Often UK rap presents this idea which is why we have planned for this too.

Completed by Josh

Character 2:

Name: Michael Okafor (MD).

Age: 18.

Ethnicity:  Black African.

Physique: Tall Slim.

Gender stereotype of role:

• Fun
• Charming.
• Confident.
• Relaxed.

Costume: Because of the overall theme of binary opposites within our narrative we have decided to dress MD in the opposite colours. He will wear causal clothing which will be all black, he will not be wearing designer brands as he is not interested in material items such as brands and designers, however he does have a desire to look good and fit the social stereotypes associated with him.

Hair and makeup: Make up will not be used on our male characters MD will also have a high top haircut as it is a popular hairstyle people have in modern day that grow up in these areas, they have the same hair cuts as it shows that these are two characters that have grown up around the same environment but follow completely different lifestyles, which means they are expected to do certain things similarly. As we are trying to represent the UK rap scene, this is a conventional look.

Body language and facial expression: The body language of the artist will also be portrayed the same as the first which is confident in order to represent the artist as possessing SWAGGER and a 'star' in his own right. The facial expressions of this artist will also be quite cheeky so the artist will be smirking and smiling a lot which he enjoys the company of his fellow artist/character as they party together.

Representation within music video: MD will be similar to SWEENEY, however the only difference is that he will be in all black. It was important that we had a similar representation of our characters as it must reflect the UK rap genre and both characters must compliment each other in terms of how they interact to create a believable friendship on screen.  

Similar characters that have influenced our music video characters:

These artists are also often used as the character/only performers in their music videos to enhance their star appeal to their loyal fans.

Similar findings:

• Black in origin
• Young in age
• Wear white and black
• Urban clothing
• Enhance a confident persona
• Use lots of close-ups and medium close ups on them

Planning - Lighting and colour

Lighting & Color

Lighting and colour in 'I Won' - Future ft. Kanye West



It is black and white in colour. I really like the use of this as it is a very distinctive and cool effect that gives the video a classy look for mainstream artists who usually do not tend to be formal or classy. This black and white theme is an idea I already had in mind to go along with my idea of a black vs white; one artist dressed in white and the other dressed in black as well as making my two performers have contradicting actions within the narrative to portray the idea of opposites. I am very interested in recreating a black and white concept as it helps can vary and create both a classic or urban feel.

Lighting and colour in 'Don't' - Bryson Tiller

 

The lighting in this video shows a contradictions between high key and low key lighting. The high key lighting and use of all white clothing on the female character is used to represent her as an asset in the music video which plays against the stereotypical conventions of females being passive in a music video.

Lighting and colour in 'Wavey' - J Spades ft. Young Teflon

The music video that has helped influence my music video in terms of lighting and colour is J Spades Ft. Young Teflon - Wavey.

As in this music video the use of lighting and colour helps to emphasize the theme of being 'wavey' (under the influence of drink and drugs) also the black lighting is cleverly used to enhance the star image of the two performers which is similar to the way we would like to shoot our own music video.

This is a ghood example for our music video specifically as our key themes for our music video is indeed; drink, drugs and females, we also have included the use of star image within our music video as we also have 2 star performers in our music video. 

Planning - Location

The locations we plan on using for our music video:

Bedroom:

Central London:

Ponders End: Gritty street representation

Underpass/Tunnel:

Planning - Similar Videos

Planning: Similar Music Video 

Part of our planning for our own music video, before shooting, it was beneficial for me and my group to look into similar music videos in which we took inspiration form and analysed key techniques that we could implement into our music video. This helped us gain new ideas of possible cinematogrophy, editing techniques that we can use during our own filming and editing stages as we will be looking at videos from a similar genre. 

Video: Chip - Sonic Boom 

Content and visual style of the video: White and black performance music video. Cameo including President - T (UK rapper).

Themes apparent in video: Chip raps about his recent experiences after the recent dispute against other rappers; Bugzy Malone, Tiny Tempah, Big Narstie and other MC's in the UK rap scene. 

Lighting and colour: bright lighting and contrasting colours are basic but effective as they are used to attract an audience to watch the music video. 

Body language and facial expressions: The facial expressions of the people in this music video are all quite intimidating and serious in the music video the music video as they are all big men adults are being shown with a quite serious and stern body language which shows that they are quite serious people. 

Setting: White room.

Iconography/objects: There is iconography used in this music video that are based on some of the themes of the soundtrack, for example Chip says "I don't wanna share no zoots" that is a slang term for a joint of marijuana which is also shown in the music video as well as members in the background drinking alcohol which is another object that rapper Chip frequently mentions within his lyrics. 

Character representation: Characters within this music video are represented to be quite urban and 'hood' as they wear black/dark colours and linger in the background whilst consuming alcohol and smoking which is to be considered as quite a urban and 'hood' activity, mean whilst Chip the main artist in the music video was wearing white which represents that he is different from the people around him as he is the only one wearing brighter colours he tends to stand out a lot more. 

Artist representation: The Artist within this music video are represented as important within the music video, hence the reason why he is surrounded by many people but is the only one wearing the opposite colours as they wear black and he wears white. He is also center of the camera whenever they are all shown and the only person with the most solo appearances with the camera, also during the long shots with everyone in the frame he is in front which indicates that he is potentially the leader of the music video.  

Editing: Multiple editing techniques are used within this music video; invert frame flashes, fast forward frames as well as merged frames playing simultaneously. they also clone the artist and relay a serious of shots from all different angles and sizes by using straight cuts. 

Use of camera work: Various shots from different camera angles and sizes including; Long-shot, Mid-shot, Close ups and extreme close ups that are used in sync with the beat with straight cuts to emphasize the effect of the beat and the lyrics mentioned.

(Post from Amani)
Video: Skrapz feat.Giggs-Round Here

Content and visual style of the video:
Performance video featuring 2 well known established rappers Giggs and Skrapz (cameo including well known UK rapper Nines)

Themes apparent in video:
Explicit themes within the music video:

• Gang Culture.
• Drug use and alcohol consumption.
• Sexual lyrical content.
• Violent lyrical content.

Lighting and colour:
low-key lighting used throughout the music video and people presented in the music video tend to be wearing quite dark colours in comparison to the main people shown the the music which is the two artists (Giggs and Skrapz) and the cameo appearance (Nines).  

Body language and facial expressions:
In this music video, stern body language and expressionless/serious facial expressions are being shown to imply that all of the people in the music video are serious and not to be taken lightly. 

Setting:
Estate/housing area.

Iconography/objects:
To enhance the visual representation of the lyrics and themes applied to this music video we see people in the music video drinking alcohol and smoking in scenes.

Character representation:
characters represented within this music video are represented to be seen as gangsters that live within the estate and the overall message is that you shouldn't go there.

Artist representation:
The artists are represented to be the leaders as they are infront of all of the people and are continuously at the centre of attention although none of them get any solo shots within the music video. 

Editing:
Editing techniques that have been used in this music video are:

• Straight cuts.
• Fast forward effects.
• Frame Flashes.
• Text used to display artists gimmick slogan.
• Slow motion effect.
• Grey filter affect.
• Static TV filter.

Use of camera work:
The camera angles in this music video are mainly handled angles, which is a classical filming camera angle/movement in classical gang music videos in the UK in the early 2000's.

Conclusion This is relevant to my music video as we are looking to use some of these filming methods and cinematography of our 2 main artists surrounded by other people in the background wearing contrasting colours. We would also be displaying the use of alcohol and drugs, (using recreational props) in the music video as it is a main them and topic within our music videos soundtrack. As our music video carries similar themes to both examples used, however our music video is quite a diluted in terms of lyrical content meaning that it is suitable to be used and shown to a mainstream UK rap audience.