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

Audience Questionaire

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.

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. 

Genre Research

Before starting to storyboard my project i decided to research the 'Rap' genre and watch some videos to see if there are any good technique i could use and to make sure that i stick to the genre.

 Rap Genre is mostly dominated by male artist, the videos seem to be very dark and tell a story which reflect the lyrics. For example like in the music video "Lil Wayne and Eminem - No love" where the story of the little kid has a direct link to the lyrics.

The Rap Genre is also dominated by young people around 20-30 years old. The videos are normally aimed at people of that age and younger and in order for the audience to have a link with the artist he needs to be around the same age so the audience feels perhaps equal to the artist in terms of what they have been through.

The Rap Genre mostly uses artist performances over dance routines as well as most of Rap Videos have a story which is parallel to the artists performance (at the same time) or is a flash back of the artists life.

I have found a rap video called "Sulin - Jeden w maratonie". This is a rap video made in Poland and it uses a great technique of multi-screening. The creators of the video smartly used the screen dividing it into two parts and then just simply putting two different shots on making it look like one but not exactly like one to make the technique obvious to the audience. There is not much of camera movement but simply just the artist performing.

In the music video "Eminem - Berzerk" there is a good use of playing the footage from back to front making certain objects disappear. This is very effective as well as easy to create which can be useful for my own music video.

Intertextuality

In the music video 'Eminem- Mockingbird' the director uses intertextuality using a news programme which has been emitted in the past. This is used for an effect to show the audience how much of pain this has caused to the artist and his family making life really hard for them. This has an effect on the audience making the audience feel more sympathy for the artist and makes the whole music video much deeper than it was from the start.