Planning: Production Roles

Production Roles

Director = Joshua

We chose Katie for this role because she has experience in directing from directing her thriller production in last years’ project where she was able to organise the production efficiently.  

Editor = Amani: 

In last years Thriller Production, Amani was seen going out of his way to learn and experiment with various amount of edits on Final Cut Pro. Therefore, we chose him to be our based editor as he has experience from creating a successful project last year. 

Camera person = Joshua

Joshua filmed his groups last years’ thriller production which we have identified that this is an advantage for us because he has a well developed understanding when operating the camera. 

Print design = Amani

We decided that Emine would be the print designer due to her previous work experience in photography where she gained a specific skill set on how to take professional pictures which will benefit us when we are doing our digi pack.  

Producer = Joshua: 
Joshua was chosen for this role as he is extremely organised in which this would be beneficial for us as he would be able to assist the director on tasks such as what days and times we will film and ensure our cast members will attend this. 

Storyboard = Amani: 

We chose Amani for this role due to his creativity and ability to quickly create a scene and adapt ideas from scene to scene. Amani’s previous skills in art will benefit the group because from drawing each scene, it can give everyone in our group, a clear idea of what we will be filming. 

Photographer = Josh

Due to Emine’s developed skill set from working in photography studio, she would be most appropriate and suitable to the photographer role. 

Location manager =  Amani

 Katie has given us several locations that we can have easy access to and that we as a group have found that these locations that Katie has recommended are very suitable to our production idea. 

Cast control = Josh

Josh immediately acquired the cast consisting of two performers to represent our two ‘artists’ therefore Josh would be most suitable for the role to control and handle the cast. 

Costume, Hair & Make up = Amani

As they are females and are very familiar with using make up, they would suit this role. They are both also very passionate about fashion and clothing so they would have certain ideas for what type of costume our artist should wear to match the particular locations. 

Lighting = Josh

Emine developed the skillset and knowledge of lighting which is part of photography therefore she would suit this role. 

Planning - Final Idea

Final Idea

Now that me and my group have gathered and discussed each others initial ideas and other additional ideas that we think would make a successful. We compared each others notes and combined them into one to help plan our last and final idea for our music video. 

Artist: J Spades ft. Youngs Teflon

Song: Wavey

Genre: UK Rap and Hip-Hop music

Performance/Concept Based - The idea mainly covers a concept based music video with lots of performance of the two main artists being the main focus from scene to scene. Therefore the camera would linger mainly around our two artist for the majority of the video. The concept will consists of black and white edits, colour, lighting, costume etc. to portray am 'opposites' idea between the characters. So there will be a consistent display of black vs white connotations, mainly through the clothing of one artist being dressed in all white and the other being dress in all black. In addition to this, we would then include the use of young males who are also part of the two artists ‘Squad’ to show how these two artists have a good friendship.

Narrative Structure: We don’t really plan to have a clear narrative between the video, as it want it more performance based and we want our video to enhance the star image of our artists. The video will display however the narrative of these two artists being good friends and the type of lifestyle they lead. There will also be no clear start, middle and end, it will be the two performers throughout.

Artists: 

• SWEENY (artist and performer) - Youngs Teflon. He will wear white in the video and will perform his part of the rap. He will have a cool persona and represent a typical young UK Rap artist.
• MD (artist and performer) – J Spades. He will wear black in the video to contrast himself from SWEENY and will perform his part of the rap individually and with SWEENY at times. He will also represent a typical young UK Rap artist.

MES:

Setting – A white room, studio setting, brick wall – we believe these will stand out and represent our genre and places our target audience will go and habg out.

Costume –

All White - SWEENY

All black -  MD

Black and White clothing. Artists might change attire during the video to enhance their reputation but they will also contrast each other. (effects being used for music video)

Lighting and colour – Mixture of high-key and low-key lighting. Light and dark colour effects (effects being used for music video)

Colour: white and black, depends on who is singing (effects being used for the video)

Body language & Facial Expressions: The body language and facial expressions I will direct my artists to display 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 their mates potentially engaging in this activity.

Application Of Theory:

Laura Mulvey - 'Male Gaze'

-We do not plan to use this as we do not plan to use any females in the video

Richard Dyer - 'Star Image'

-We will definitely use this idea for both of our artists. We want to increase the fame and reputation of both artists therefore we will make them look like ‘a star’ by the way they dress, the way they act and also by the way the camera will move around them. There will be lots of close-ups and medium close ups to develop this idea.

Andrew Goodwin – ‘8 characteristics of a music video’

-We will follow genre characteristics through the MES.

-Intertextual reference perhaps with including the background to one of their lives

-Close-ups to enhance star motifs

-technical elements with lots of fast edits and application of using MES in a unique way

-editing to match the pace of the song: we have lots of fast beats, therefore our editing will match this.

Advantages:

• Fast beats which will allow us to use lots of visual effects and techniques.
• Settings should be easy to film in
• MES should look very effective to the eye
• The concept of ‘Ying and Yang’ should be very clear to the audience.

Disadvantages:

• Lyrics might be hard to lip-sync to
• Location of bricks yet to be found that matches setting and mood.
• Two performers needed will need to interact with each other well which might take some time
• Potentially could look quite repetitive

Target Audience:

Aged 16 – 30 years

Both males and females but we think mainly males prefer the UK Rap scene

People who generally listen to the Hip-Hop/ Rap music / R'nB genres with social interests of drinking, dancing and street life.

C2- E social category

Ethnicity will be mainly ethnic groups

By finalizing our groups overall idea of our music video allowed me and my group to all have the same, one idea in mind when developing production ideas. The final idea helped my group start organizing the the filming stage of our production which consisted of finding locations, costume etc. which was beneficial as it jump started our preparation stage.

Planning - Copyright Letter

Copyright Letter

In order for my group to produce a music video with a chosen song choice, we first needed to inform the record label for permission to use their song. Here I conducted a formal letter informing Def Jam Records of our A2 Media Studies project requiring us to create a music video. By doing this, it will prevent any copyright issues encountering with us in the future.

This is proof of sending my letter to Def Jam Records which I have done to prevent any copyright issues that may be consequence when creating our music video.

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

_________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________________________

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?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

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?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

What makes an artist a ‘star’?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

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.