YONKERS - VERSE 1 & 2 DRAFT (UPDATED)

Ancillary products research

Audience expectations through social media

This screenshot shows two people commenting on our song and telling us what they think about it and how we can do better.

https://www.facebook.com/therecordlable/posts/361184457563385?comment_id=369519486729882&notif_t=share_comment&notif_id=1480604333655493

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/therecordlable/

Analysing a music video-Lil Uzi Vert

Pitch Plan

This is our A3 pitch plan which helped us bring our narrative to life. It guided us create and plan out the ideas we had thought of that would make our music video successful and appropriate for the genre. Overall this pitch plan was very effective in the process of making the music video. For instance it helped us think of the most appropriate mise en scene, narrative, genre, editing techniques and cinematography for our music video.



Animatic

This is a video of our animatic which shows the storyboard to our music video. It represents what is going to happen on every single lyric in the song. This will play a vital part in the process of making the music video. This is because it lets us know what locations, props and costumes to use in the video. A storyboard is very effective because it helps us plan out everything we are aiming to achieve instead of thinking of something random which isn't appropriate. It will also make filming less time consuming as the director will know what to do with every shot.

Case Studies of Iconic Directors

Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek is a three time major grammy award winning American director. He has performed extremely well many times within the music videos which he has created. The most symbolic and iconic music video was a cover of the song "Hurt", this was sung by Johnny Cash who was a big musician to be working with Mark. This was the last music video that Johnny ever did. Knowing this, Mark created what seemed to be a very simple but effective video that had a lot of personal meaning to it. The video was up for 6 nominations in the 2002 MTV music video awards and managed to win best Cinematography. In 2004, after directing Jay-Z's 99 problems music video, Mark won best director, just one of the 4 wins in which the video succeeded in. Mark Romanek has won 19 MTV awards and i believe he is great at what he does.

Below shoes a screenshot of all the music videos that Mark directed. He has directed some famous musicians show below such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Red hot chilli peppers and Taylor Swift. This shows that people do respect him and his work because of the names that he's worked with and how well those music videos came out.

Costumes in our Music Video

Straightjacket-
In our music video we will use a straightjacket on our alter ego character and on his normal self. The alter ego will be holding up the straightjacket on one side of the spilt screen and on the other side, his normal self will be wearing it. We are doing this to show that the alter ego character is controlling and influencing his normal self as if he is a puppeteer. As the video goes on both versions (alter ego and normal) will be getting worse and worse. We have chosen to use a straightjacket because they have a reputation of making people look mental, disturbed, dangerous and isolated. This is what we need to portray our character as.

Jumpsuit-
We will use a black jumpsuit on our artist because Jumpsuits have many negative connotations. This is because they are normally worn by criminals in prison. We have chosen to use this because our artist is a prisoner in his alter egos world and there isn't anything he could do about it even if he tried.

Blacksuit with hoodie-
A black suit would be suitable for the alter ego character to wear because the colour black has many different negative connotations such as evil, mystery, danger and violence. We want to build our alter ego character up to look like a big villain or boss. We have done our research on what bad guys wear to make themselves look like a Villain who should be taken seriously and the colour black and suits were most common. Because of this we have decided to implement this into our music video.

Paperbag-
The normal version of our artist will wear a paperbag over his head at the end of the music video to connote that he has lost his identity and that he has lost to his alter ego. This will also show that the alter ego character has changed him and turned him into himself. This would let the audience know that his fight against his alter ego is over and that he has transformed.

White t-shirt and jeans-
The normal version of our artist will wear casual clothing to start off as this will differentiate himself and his alter ego to the audience. It will make it easier to tell whats going on. After this there will be a series of prop and costume changes to show his transformation to his dark side. We have chosen to use the colour white as this colour has positive annotations such as innocence, purity, good and many more.

Props in our Music Video

Props that will be featured in our music video:

Chains and Hand cuffs- The normal version of our artist is being restrained and restricted by his alter ego therefore hand cuffs and chains would show this. Hand cuffs and Chains would also show that he is a prisoner trapped in his alter egos world. We would use the chains to dangle our artist in the air so he looks like he is being controlled like a puppet.

Jester’s hat- A jester is a professional Joker or a fool and it is normally told what activities it should do next for someone else’s enjoyment. This would work extremely well in our music video as our artists song is a conversation between his normal self and his alter ego. The alter ego is controlling and influencing his normal self therefore a Jester’s hat would make that clear for the audience.

Puppet strings- We would use Puppet strings in our music video to make our artist look like he is being controlled by someone. The strings would be attached to both arms and our artist would move in a robotic fashion.

Crucifix- The original artist makes references to Jesus in his lyrics therefore a crucifix would be appropriate for the music video.

Clock- Throughout the music video the alter ego is making his normal self even worse and he is struggling to fight it therefore having a cutaway to a clock during the music video would show that time is running out for him to overcome his alter ego.

Dreadlocks wig- The original artist makes references to “Anwar’s dreadlocks” in his lyrics therefore using this as a prop would be appropriate for the music video.

Hammer and Knife- The alter ego person in the music video has to look evil and threatening therefore a Knife and a Hammer in his possession or in the background of a location would do that for him.

Alcohol bottles and used Cigarettes- In our video we need to show to the audience the alter ego person is a very mental, disturbed and eerie. Cigarettes and alcohol have very bad reputations and they can both lead to serious illness therefore these props would be suitable for what we are trying to achieve.

Do's and Donts

 Do's and Donts for the recording and producing of the music video.

Green Screen Practice

This is my green screening practice. It includes three different pieces of footage green screened into different settings.
In the new version of Final cut, it is very easy to create green screened footage. You just drag and drop the keying effect from the effects tab. This means I am able to do more with my green screened footage.
The hardest part of green screening is seeing up the lighting when filming it. The lighting needs to be done properly to make sure the editing software can crop the background correctly. A green screen would be good to use in a spectacle music video. This is because you can have anything in the video that you wouldn't usually be able to do in the real world.

Logo Ideas

This is a logo idea that I have created for our artist as I feel it best suits the genre of music which is rap. I believe it is also appropriate for the genre of our music video which is image. I think this because I have included a big gold crown above our record label name. Jewellery is one of the key conventions in Rap music and showing it off is another one. I have also included this as Rap is one of the most competitive genres in music. Everyone is competing to reach the top and most rappers are prepared to take down other artists in their music to get there. This is evident as there are Rap battles going on all over the world that aspiring rappers and even the biggest rappers in the industry take part in. Some rappers even insult other artists in their music to assert their power over one another. Most people would view Rap as very aggressive and the "devils music" therefore I added a black colour font to our label name. One of the reasons Rap is viewed like this is because of the use of strong explicit language.The colour Black has alot of strong negatives connotations such as power, evil, death, mystery and jealousy. I have also included a white background as there is also a beautiful side to the genre as well. Rap is one of the most popular genres in the music industry. The colour white has alot of positive connotations such as innocence, goodness and purity. All of these connotations are shown in Rap music. Rap takes extreme skill and knowledge and that is why I have made my record label logo look like royalty.

Representation of rap artists

Levi Strauss and Todorov's Theory

A binary opposite is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.
Todorov's narrative theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored.

The theory we will focus on is Levi Strauss's which is called Binary opposition. We have chosen to go for this theory as our song is about someone having a personal conversation with his alter ego. Because of this, the Binary opposite we have decided on is Good vs Evil. In the second video above we have used a range of different editing techniques, props and costumes changes to bring our idea to life. Firstly, we have used a yellow flower to represent the good in our artist. We have chosen this because flowers and the colour yellow have good connotations that will present our artist in a positive light. We have also alternated between black & white and a normal filter to show the binary opposite (good vs evil). This will show that he is trapped inside the head of his alter ego and is attempting to escape. At the start of the clip he is playing with a lighter which presents the evil in the alter ego character. This is because it shows that he has bad intentions. My group and I filmed this video in front of a Church which connotes that he has good inside of him trying to come out. For costume we chose a grey hoodie for our artist to wear. This is because hoodies have negative connotations and bad reputations. We also can use this item of clothing to cover his face which also covers his identity. This would be effective because the alter ego is trying to take control of his normal self therefore ruining his identity and covering up his real personality. Our intention of this would be to show a true battle of a good side and a bad side whilst using one person.

In the final version of our music video we plan to include a variety of different things that will represent the evil in our artist such as hand cuffs, chains, straight jackets, Black jumpsuits and many more. This is because these items all have negative connotations and it would best show the story of our music video. To represent the good in our final version we will be using white backgrounds, white costumes, jesters hat and many more. This is because the colour white has many positive connotations such as purity and innocence. 

In the first video above we tried to present Todorov's theory. The problem was that he had just been trapped inside of a shed and we attempted to show the solution by having him walking out of it looking enraged at the fact he was trapped for so long. 


In conclusion, we feel Levi Strauss's theory of Binary opposition best gets across the story of our music video much better than Todorov's theory, therefore we are going to use it in our final version.

Genre Stills

I chose to base my editing techniques, mise en scene and cinematography on the genre of Narrative. In the first still I attempted to tell the story of two friends who have had a lot of history together. I tried to this by using the editing technique of layering and the filter of Black and White. The Black and White was effective as this editing technique has a reputation of representing flashbacks. This made it look like the two friends had a deeper relationship. I layered the Black and White still with another picture of the two friends whilst keeping the original colour,to connote that they are still friends to this day and that the story could be that they are reflecting on past good times they have had together. I used the shot type of Two shot for both stills to show the friendship and bond between the two of them. It also showed the power and closeness in the friendship as they are both doing the same thing in the Two shot. For Mise en scene the two friends were walking together in a similar fashion both wearing casual clothing to show that they are comfortable around each other. We shot it outside to connote that they are on a adventure together as a key convention of the genre Narrative and friendship is adventure. The story we also tried to connote is that they had headed off outside in the open to explore and have an adventure. The stills we shot challenges the theory of Todorov is there is no problem in the stills we shot and no solution. However the stills we shot also supports Levi Strauss's theory of Binary Opposites. We tried to show this through the use of clothing colours. We had one person wearing a Black t shirt and one Wearing a White t shirt with more extravagant colours. Black connotes evil, death, depression etc and White connotes Good, Purity, Innocence etc therefore the Binary Opposite was Good vs Evil. So another part of the Narrative we were trying to show was that opposites attract and that they are friends but are totally different. We feel as a group that we could've showed this much better through our actions and not just clothing colours.

2 Examples of Costumes & Locations

Vloggers Reacting/Reviewing music videos

Pros

• Youtubers are very personal with the viewers and you can tell their honest opinion.
• Youtube is easily accessable to everyone in the world
• You can share the videos with everyone very easily
• It is interesting to see other peoples views on music 

Cons 

• It can be boring to watch other people listen and react to music
• People may think that the vlogger is biased towards the artist and they do not like that 

Different ways that rappers promote their music videos

Clothing: The types of brands that they wear. It influences people to go and buy the brands if they see their idol wearing the same brands.

Youtube: They can easily promote their music on the video sharing website and is also easily accessable which is good for them.

Record label: Lots of awareness comes from a record label.

Twitter: Many people, young and old, use this social media platform which means they can keep up with the latest news.

Instagram: This social media website shows pictures of the artists and what they are up to.

VLOG - Music Video Expectations

30 SECONDS

In these pictures we attempted to produce the theory of Carol Vernallis who recognised that music videos typically consist of a montage of different shots which may be connected via the lyrics of the song.