Daily Update

Today, together with Agata we have discussed the following:
Make-up- Agata will prepare this for all performers in the video
Costume- Everyone has prepared their costumes but the biggest problem is with Theo who does not posses clothes which can be associated with rap genre
Locations- All locations have been planned and visited apart from the location where we could safely and legally create a graffiti for the music video
Casting- In progress, all member are engaged in it and are looking for the right people to perform. Mostly basketball players are needed for the basketball scene
Storyboard- 3/4 completed and will be finished by Friday 29th November

Weekly Update

In todays lesson me and Agata have done a plan for next week!

Audience Questionaire

Schedule for this week

Marketing Strategies

In today’s lesson Agata and I have presented to the class Marketing Strategies for Master ZIG TC. Master Zig TC is an underground rapper, aged 25 with no major achievements. He has couple of good album releases but nothing major. Master has a recognizable pose, which he often uses on pictures and posters to be original and have a USP (Unique Selling Point). I decided to market in many ways under main headings: Web, Publicity, Pirate Radio Stations, and Print TV.

I would use YouTube to promote the star amongst the million web users to show his potential in amateur made clips made by him or even friends. Twitter and Facebook accounts would be created to have contact with the limited fan group, which will follow, zig tc everywhere and also MySpace to put up his track although this media portal is dying out.

Publicity would be used effectively to make the artist the main gossip theme in his local area. I would use good publicity to establish his identity in the local newspapers when the artist would be caught smoking weed, which is fairly controversial. The artist would be a support at big gigs and come on stage before the main rappers, which will also bring him some fame in the mainstream music industry as well. He will do free gigs/concerts for example for charities or just to get noticed, he would attend rap battles.

Pirate Radio Stations would play his music, as he would give out free albums to the radio stations in order for them to be prizes in quizzes or just for the album to be played on the radio. He could have interviews in the radio and his tracks would be high in the underground music charts by promotion in radio.

Print would be limited due to cost. Some small poster to advertise concerts would be printed with the artist in his USP pose. Master would appear in underground music magazines where he would have interviews or be mentioned in an article, which will promote him amongst the underground rappers. Zig would appear in local news papers smoking which will also promote the rapper as well as he would have photos with mainstream rappers in more popular newspapers and magazines to also promote himself.

Goodwin analysis

I have chosen to analyse the song "Survival" by Eminem from the genre i am planning to do my video in which is rap.

We know the genre straight away when we see the artist moves. The genre is not obvious before the artist starts rapping as it is an unconventional music video which does not introduce the artist first but expects the audience to know the artist as soon as we see him taking the bandana off his face. In this video there are some direct links between the lyrics and visuals but also some indirect links. The projection on the walls of the Call of Duty game being played makes a direct link to the chorus "Survival of the fittest" due to the fact only the fittest survive at wars. There are also direct links where part of lyrics are painted on walls and are shown as the artist is rapping them. Indirect links are also made such as when there is a dog walking across the screen (during the bridge) which is a link to the words "survival of the fittest" as the dog must be the fittest if he survived on the streets on its own. The music relates to the visual by mise-en-scene, camera and editing. The mise-en-scene was well thought about, the lighting was setting an atmosphere as it was not obvious, there wasn't a visible source of light. The settings chosen were mostly places away from humanity so empty, devastated houses, streets, a big parking but also places with a  lot of people like a concert and city center. The settings away from humanity perhaps meant to represent that the artist is "the fittest" meaning he is the best out of all rappers. The crowded settings were perhaps suggesting that the artist was the strongest and the one in control of the rest like "the fittest in the herd" and he is the leader. The costumes helped to distinguished who is in power but also created the symbol, using half of the artists face and the bandana, which then re-occurred on the walls. This all relates to the music by creating a whole sens of the artist being the fittest and ruling over everyone else, showing he can survive everything. There are a lot of shots from different angles but mostly low angle shots are used when the artist is rapping to perhaps create a sens e of the artist being powerful. The use of tracking shots to show the writing on walls is very effective as it creates an illusion that the audience is really in that city and is part of this survival which emphasizes the message the artist is trying to communicate. There was a lot of synesthesia in the music video which matched to the camera movement as well as editing. Editing played a major part in this video to create this atmosphere as there was a lot of animation and after effects used like for example the projection on the walls. The editing was on the beat and fast paced which is conventional for the genre. The effects helped to get a message across to the audience and added some kind of meaning to the whole song of different forms when it comes to "survival of the fittest". The editing matches the music as it adds life to the whole clip for example at 2:58 when the beat starts to speed up and comes to a break and drop the editing changes to match this and there are moments were the editing is ultra fast and a shot is on screan for 0.5 seconds. The nature of close ups in music videos is to show the artist as a brand and to show their face which everyone will recognize but also to show emotions and the perfect lip sync to create and illusion that he is actually rapping to the camera and not that there is a previously recorded track over it. The idea of marketing the star using close up is the reason for such a frequent use of close ups in music videos which was fairly visible in this music video but was not overused as in some cases. This music video did not use the technique of voyeurism or the male gaze at all.

Voyeurism

In this clip the director used voyeurism during Miley Cyrus performance for the male gaze. The director used camera movement like for example in 1:41 where the camera follows the stroke on the leg all the way up in a slow movement. A good example of voyeurism in this music video is at 1:45 when the camera slightly shakes to sides an up to follow the movements of the artist as she touches her body. This makes the artist look like she is a sexual object and uses her sexuality to flirt with the male audience. The same happens at 1:55 when Miley drags her hand across her breasts which is some kind of sexual pleasure to the male audience.

In the clip "Wrecking Ball" also by Miley Cyrus there is a lot of male gaze and voyeurism. At 1:14 there is a clear use of voyeurism where the good looking artist is fully naked and bends back to show her breasts to the camera but not fully which can create even bigger pleasure for the male audience.At 1:23 the director is also trying to communicate that the voyeurism technique is being used when the artist is licking a hammer in slow motion. The use of slow motion creates bigger pleasure for the male audience as the audience can see more then if it was at normal speed,

Favourite Music Director

My favourite music video director is Hype Williams. Hype worked with all major rap stars such as: Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and many others. I have been researching his work and found that he has common stylistic features in his videos which i will mention.

First of all i have spotted that Hype Williams likes to use on screen text to introduce who will be performing in the video clip and also introduce himself. I have seen this in many clips he has created for example "Kanye West- All of the lights" or "Nicki Minaj - Stupid Hoe".

Second thing i have spotted is that the director has a tendency to use bright colours in his music videos meaning that the colour of the background will be really live and bright perhaps standing out a bit. Hype Willams has used this technique in music video called " Empire state of mind".

Another thing i have seen reappearing in Hype Williams' music videos is animation. The director uses a lot of animation to create objects, illusions or just on screen text. He used animation to create insects on the music video called "Why stop now" and in the same clip he used animation to create illusion that one of the artist has incredible strength when he lifted a whole building up.