Video Pitch

My music video pitch Idea -

Narrative.
The video could be about a loner who does not enjoy life and the days go by with out any excitement, how ever when sleeping, he has nightmares of an alter ego that represents his 'DARKER' physi. The nightmares seem to be random at first glance, however the vishual images collaborate with some of the lyrics and the nightmares are consistant through out the song.

Character.
The Stoner (Abraham) -
The artist, featured as the main actor in the music video. The singer whose album is being released. In the music video he is the lonley stoner who is having nightmares.
The alter ego (Zaheer) -
Representing the alter-ego, the dark side of the artist. Who follows the artist around in the music video as a shadow, illustrating that the alter ego is always there.

Atmosphere.
The atmosphere of the music video is contrasting. The music beat is bubbly and bright. Hyper active and in contrast to the dower and twisted vishual images. The lyrics connect the vishual images and the beat together.

Sub genre.
Hip - Hop

Setting.
In diffrent locations - the Drama studio.
- A bedroom
- the streets

Lighting.
In the drama studio we will use spot lights to create dramatic effect.
The rest of the music video will be taken in natural light depending on the scenes.
Th song is based around day and night so we felt that the scenes should depict a cycle of day and night through the music video.

Props.
The props we will need are limited.
An axe, while overall, mobile phone etc .. using props allow to create a more realistic sitchuation.

Costume.
loose clothing, baggy jeans. Puffy coats
for the alter ego actor, a ski jacket that covers his face. - this dehumanises the actor, allowing him to be represented as a personality.

Sound.
bright, fun, bubbly & hyper. Fast paced.

Camera work & editing.
Short duration shots to make it quick paced.
And there will be long duration shot also to create drama.
fast transitions. and dissolving transitions.
black and white - when the artist is sleeping to represent his nightmare
The rest in colour to allow the viewer to understand and connect with the ideas.

Similar Text Research - Video Analysis

Jay-Z & Mr. Hudson – Young Forever



Young Forever is a song produced by Jay-Z and Mr. Hudson who are both popular artists in the hip hop genre. The music video begins with no music, but instead a montage cutting to three different sequences. The scenes at the beginning represent the lives of three young people, and try to illustrate the name and meaning of the song ‘Young Forever’. The three scenes are shown once from a long shot, and then again using close up shots in turn to exaggerate the youth of the people in the video. The boy running and a boy playing basketball at the beginning of the clip emphasises his freedom, and expresses how good life is as a youth.

The video frequently cuts to shots that were taken of fans at a concert emphasising the star image and iconography of the both of the artists. The camera pans and tracks through the audience slowly so viewers can see the thousands of dedicated fans on screen. The music does not officially start playing until at least one minute into the video. There are also various close up shots of the artists emphasising their importance.

Jay-Z is an artist known for filming his music videos in the same black and white style. By doing so, they are easily recognisable as his, and emphasize the authenticity of the music video. Jay-Z wears sunglasses throughout the whole music video, creating his own star image. This is something often seen in typical hip-hop music videos as there will be connotations of wealth and power, which sunglasses may suggest. Even more so, when the video cuts to scenes of performance at his own concerts, the crowds are shown doing the Freemason sign, which is something else symbolic he is known for. Many people argue that he is part of the Freemason cult.

Throughout the video, performance shots, close-up of artists, clips of a concert, and people in their youth are continually filmed as a montage dissolving into one another to illustrate the speed of the music and amplifying the lyrics. Each cut coincides with the beat of the music.

Brainstorm Ideas - Draft 1

Brainstorm of ideas interlinking with song lyrics:

Lyrics

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Artists Influences

In the early years of Kid Cudi music career, he felt he had been inspired and influenced by artists such as Tupac, Biggie smalls.




This is Kid Cudis - Myspace page. Where he puts down his thoughts and musical influences:
http://www.myspace.com/kidcudi

Auteur Research & Influences

Spike Jonze's - Music Video Director:

Music Video Directed by Spike Jonze's:

Using a surrealist base for the video.
The director - Spike Jonze's represents the
adults as youths in the video.
Showing the youths as Gangsters and high flyer's.
the lyrics are contradicting Notorious's hard upbringing
to the extravagant lifestyle he is living now.
The group was inspired by the use of representing the
youth, therefore we would like to integrate that in to
our music video.

Chris Cunningham - Director:

Music Video Directed by Chris Cunningham


The inspirations I got from this video was the surrealist affect. Stepping out the box Chris allows the performer to be in the video without acutely being in it. The women have beautiful bodies with face of the Aphex twins. This surrealist effect is really inspiring and i would like to integrate a similar aspect in to our music video.
The conventions of a hip hop video remain the same too; such as the flash cars, half naked women, dancing around the men, the show of power, money and sexuality.
The prolonged conversation draws the audience in to the video because of the funny way the guy is trying to chat up two beautiful women, who don't like him and end up arguing with each other.

Photos that also influenced our group:

Similar Movie Research

Music Video Comparison with the Movie Kidulthood and Adulthood

Our Objective
My objective is to compare the two teenage movies Kidulthood and Adulthood to our music video in terms of how they represent what we are trying to represent. In a way both our music video and the films are the same because they represent violence in a world where everyone has an alter ego and this causes them to do violent and drastic things. An example of this is the bullying that goes on in the film Kidulthood results in a domino effect that spirals into more and more drastic actions taking place and eventually tragedy strikes as one of the characters dies due to a violent act. Our music video portrays this in a more visual way as the alter ego is a physical person that can be seen, rather then someone inside the persons mind affecting their sub conscience.

How the Alter Ego Becomes Alive In the Music Video and the Films
In both the films and our music video, we try and portray an action that is happening, which then provokes the character to think and make a decision; the decision can be influenced by the alter ego following him and causing him to become more violent. In the film due to certain actions, whether it be because of a possession being stolen or someone committing suicide due to bullying at school, this starts an effect which becomes more aggressive and more violent, in the movie Kidulthood, a GameBoy is stolen, and to get it back some of the characters break into the house in which it is being help, when they are there they get caught and begin to fight, they escape but not forgotten, this then leads the character which stole the GameBoy to react violently instead of calmly and hits one of the characters with a bat, this then leads him to die. In the mind of the character that used the bat, his alter ego effected him because there is a choice to be made, the environment that they live in provoke him to take drastic measures instead of seeing that two wrong do not make a right, and instead of seeing that this happened because he stole something to begin with, his alter ego encourages revenge rather then peace.
In our music video we have similar circumstances that portray the main character being kidnapped literally by his alter ego; this is in his mind and causes him to become more violent and aggressive towards everyone. Darkness is used more as a visual representation of what the person intends to do rather then doing physical harm to anyone else. There is numerous times where the alter ego is following the main character which represents him being over controlled and has no resistance to his sub conscience.

Physical Representations of the Alter Ego in Effect
In the film Adulthood, they use a lot of visual representation of how their mindset is, this is done by using argumentative language and body language as well as physical acts of violence. An example of this is where two of the characters are discussing the deal they have made to kill someone for money, one agrees and one doesn’t, they begin and argue and without notice, one of the characters beings to fight the other character which leads to him being hit with a brick, these two characters were friends but ones alter ego got the better of him which resulted on harming his friend for no apparent reason.
In our music video however we preferred to use visual representations rather then physical acts of violence, we did this using darkness and a visual human being, being represented as the alter ego in his mind. By doing this we can create an influence over the main character and persuade him to do evil things. The alter ego has a mask on that creates a horrific effect on the viewers as they do not know what this person is, rather then who the person is. By using the kidnapping scene in our video, we managed to create the effect of a sub conscience world in his mind where the mina character is literally being held captive by his alter ego and is struggling to escape.

Overall Comparison
Overall I feel that between the movies and the film, we have created a similar effect of how environment and thoughts can effect a person behaviour, although we used a slightly different projection of how it can happen, the intentions and the environment is the same, we tried to use locations that were similar in the movies but we shot a lot in the dark to always increase the tension that the story would inevitably bring on. The eventual result we feel is one of suspense and after thoughts on how people react if they do not have overall controls of their feelings; we give the impression that it is the generation and the environmental differences which cause this to happen.

Misha's Research:
Music Video Comparison with the Movie The Butterfly Effect

Sypnosis -
The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. Although this may appear to be an esoteric and unusual behavior, it is exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position. The butterfly effect is a common trope in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with "what if" scenarios where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes.

Watching the butterfly effect was another reason our group got the idea of the Alter ego. Very similar to the Butterfly effect. The alter ego produces to diffrent outcomes. How ever the alter ego relate more to a person and their personality than an event or a place. The movie is very dream like, confusing the viewer at points on whether the scene is part of a dream, time travel or reality. We liked this effect and want to use it in our music video by intergrating a nightmare within the video.

Abrahams Similar Artist Research

Sean John Combs also known as Puff Daddy/Diddy is an American record producer, rapper, actor, men's fashion designer, entrepreneur and dancer. P.Diddy’s business revolves around Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide, which includes his record label Bad Boy Records. He owns his own famous clothing line Sean John, a movie production company; and two restaurants. Diddy has also taken the roles of recording executive, performer, producer of MTV's Making the Band, writer, arranger, clothing designer, and Broadway actor. It is said that Diddy has to be one of the richest hip-hop stars, with a net worth estimated at US $346 million in 2006. Diddy’s upbeat rhythms and catchy tunes tend to downgrade his music to Pop-Rap especially when he collaborates with other artist who are not associated with the whole hip hop/ rnb genre. This includes artists such as Christina Aguilera.

Diddy started his career as an intern at New York's Uptown Records he eventually obtained the role as a top executive at Uptown. He was instrumental in developing Jodeci and signing and producing Mary J. Blige.

In 1993, after lost his job at Uptown Records he established Bad Boy Records were he signed new hip-hop artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. As the year went by Diddy began signing more acts to Bad Boy, this includes artists such as Carl Thomas, Faith Evans, Father MC, 112 and Total, as well as producing for Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil' Kim, TLC, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, SWV, Aretha Franklin, and others, and forming The Hitmen, an in-house production team and is now one of the most popular labels in the music industry.

Abrahams Comprehensive Textual Analysis of Similar Music Video's

50 cent-P.I.M.P

The first music video I will be analysing is 50 cent’s X-rated video which is known as P.I.M.P which means P-Person I-Into M-Marketing P-Prostitutes. There are certain props they used in this video which enable the audience to recognise that the men in the video are Pimp. I.E. 50 cents walking stick which he calls his magic stick this is a tradition object which a pimp has. They also have flashy cars which are also used in the video to signify their wealth of maybe being a pimp. Another prop which I think give extremely strong impression to the audience that these men are pimps was a dog lead which was connected to two female, now I think that they put this into the music video because they want to make the audience know that they refer to female as bitches which is a female dog and obviously dog have leads and collars which is what these females also had.

50 cent was dressed in all white, he had a white vest and trousers and he wore his jewellery in a way for everyone to notice I think he wanted to look like this because he wanted to show his wealth. Later on in the video we notice that there are other pimps but these pimps are traditionally dressed because they were all in colour suits with a top hat with a feather on it. This is the way a traditional or stereotyped pimp would dress because they are often looking ‘slick and sharp’. On the other hand the outfits for the girls in the video were the total opposite they were either in their bra and knickers or just in knickers. I think they done this because they are showing us that they are just used for the body and by them hardly wearing and clothes it prove it.

All the rappers in the videos body language seem to be confident in the camera maybe this was to represent that they have a bold role. If they were not rapping then they would be touching the girls in the video so this shows us again that they just use them for their body (for sex). On the other hand the female body language were the total opposite it looked like they were submissive to the men because they were like slaves to them especially when they are following 50 cent around and dressing and undressing him. But they also had a smile on their face like to mean that they enjoy being these pimps slaves.

When the video starts we see a panning shot of 50 cent going up and down so we establish that he is the main character in the video so we would know when he is talking about being a pimp he is referring to himself. We then see a close up of the iPod so again we realise that it is his song and it is called PIMP. A panning shot of three topless females who surround 50 cent occurs this also adds on to the understanding that 50 cent is a pimp because pimps often have more than 1 female for themselves and 50 cent has three at this point of time.

A medium shot of 50 cent occurs and then the girls follow him like slaves this represent that he plays the master role as he is the controlling one in the group.

We the visualize a close up of a flashy care which 50 cent gets out of and the doors close inwards like a double cupboard this also represents his wealth as this is the sort of car that wealthy people would own. Later on we then see a bird’s eye view shot behind 50 cent and we see that he is in a room which other pimps so we establish that these other men are also pimps. While they are in the room a pimp mentions certain things that 50 cent doesn’t own but yet he is still a pimp and we then see close ups of certain pimps faces as they are in shock this is to tell the audience that these things are the sort of things that traditional pimps own.

When Snoop Dogg begins to rap we notice a close up of a girl saying ‘we love you snoop Dogg’ this is done to show us that Snoop Dogg is also a pimp and he controls them and makes them fall in love with him. Later on we visualise an over the shoulder shot of a woman holding two leads which are connected to two females. This is done to represent that these girls are ‘bitches’ which is a pimp terminology for a woman.

When 50 cent shows the pimp his magic stick it glows and a transition begin which takes the scene to next dimension with diamonds and 3 men in init then Snoop Dogg begin his rap back in the house. This scene is representing that his magic stick is very powerful as it can do usual ‘magic’ things.

When snoop Dogg is rapping we notice that we see him raise his hand to the camera 3 times as he says ‘my pimp hand is way strong’ then we see his finger point to a girl he is dancing with. This is done to show his aggression toward his female so we know that pimps abuse their women if they disobey or behave in a wrong way.

The theme of this song is that the men are P.I.M.P’s, P-Person I-Into M-Marketing P-Prostitutes and they just illustrate that they are wealthy and have the females that they can do anything they want to them. The females are represented as slaves in this video as they do everything for and to the men in the video even if they like it or not. While the men are represented as wealthy sex addicts.

Aphex Twins- Window licker

The next video I will analyze is Aphex twins song called window licker. There are certain props that are used to signify the wealth between the males in the video. The reason why I say this is because in beginning we see two men in a low rider car which is a standard car for an American but on the other hand we see a another car which is a limo but not an ordinary limo the limo is very long in length it almost as if it should be called a super limo. This definitely shows us that the guy in the limo is wealthy and the two men might be middle class. Another prop which is used is an umbrella which in the video is used as a dancing tool and sometimes it is put between the man’s legs maybe to represent his penis so we know that sex is on his mind when he is dancing for the two women.

The man who comes out of the limo is dressed in all white as he is in a white shirt and white trousers. One of the two men is in a black shirt and grey trousers while the other was in a white vest and black trousers. This is also to represents the wealth of the men because the two men are dress normally while the man who owns the limo is dressed smartly. The girls are also dressed in white but in white shirts and knickers.

As the limo door opens and the man comes out of the limo we see a reaction shot of the girls faces as they looked shots as they are turned on by the man. This is done to show the effect this man has on the ladies. The camera then zooms in on him as he begins dancing and the reaction shot process keeps on occurring. While this is occurring the video cuts to the beat.

We then notice him dancing with an umbrella. When he opens it a medium shot of these ladies occurs as they have now transformed into the man as they have his face in their bodies. This is done to show us that the man has taken control of them and that they are now his as they have been possessed by him. The scene then cuts to the ladies and the man inside the limo and we see a variety of shots displaying them touching each other while the video it cut to the beat.

We then see a slow motion panning shot of the ladies shaking their buttocks while he sprays champagne on them. This is done to represent that he doesn’t have respect for them he just wants them for their bodies.

This song is very different to other songs as there are no lyrics at all. The only words we hear are when the two men are talking to the ladies. The theme of the song is the white man is almost ‘God like’ as he can control women without saying a word. Like 50 cents video pimp the female are represented as slaves as they let this man do whatever he wants to them without any questions asked. Whilst again like 50 cents video pimp the males are represent ad sex addicts and the man who owns the limo is also wealthy. 50 cents title of his song pimps relates to the video image as we see what a pimp owns i.e. females and wealth but on the other hand the Aphex twin song title window licker doesn’t relate to the video image.

Eve-Who’s that girl

Genre

The genre of this video is hip-hop as it has a hip hop/rap beat in the song and the lyrics are hip-hop based. This video follows the usual stereotypes of a normal hip hop video as it has some the main conventions as a regular hip hop video which would be the regular clubbing scene, rich and flashy jewellery, expensive vehicles in the video it is the red motor bike and the flashy house.

Narrative

The narrative of this video is very simple as the song and music video is based on the artist, her money and how she gets her money. For example in the video at 2:52 the artist says “won’t starve today song after song I write till I get paid”. We can see she is in love with her career as she gets enough money from it and she informs us that she is living and coping nicely from it.

Issues of representation

I wouldn’t say that there is an issue of representation in this video. I say this because the video challenges the representations of a normally hip-hop artist. Regular hip-hop artist are usually male but in this case the artist is a female and this already definitely challenges this representation. She does everything in the video you would expect a male artist to do in a hip-hop video expect it is done by a female.

Audience

The targeted audience for this song would be teenagers and young adults. I say this because these are the regular age group that listen to hip-hop. If I was to go in depth for the specific target audience for this music video it would be targeted at teenaged females because the artist is proving to the world that females can do everything a male can do as rapping is known to be a male hobby whereas this artist has challenged this and made it her hobby and has been successful from it and she prove to everyone that it is possible as she has done it.

Media Language

The message behind the song is that this female artist ‘Eve’ is obviously a girl (female) but she still is ‘gangsta’ which is an individual who is discreet, known’s how to get money, power and respect from others whether its is legal or illegal. She uses the tiger to show she has no fear as most individuals would be scared to get as close as she is to a real tiger. I personally find this funny because it is true because there are many males that would come close to this animal but yet this female artist has it in her house as a pet.

Similar Artists Research

Zaheers Similar Artists Research:

Birth name Kanye Omari West
Born June 8, 1977 (age 32)Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Origin Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres Alternative hip hop
Occupations Producer, rapper, musician, singer
Instruments Vocals, keyboards, sampler, percussion, synthesizer
Years active 1998–present
Labels GOOD Music, Roc-A-Fella,

Def Jam Associated acts Child Rebel Soldier,

Common, Go Getters, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne, Mos Def, Q-Tip

Website kanyeuniversecity.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West

Kanye West is a multiple award winning hip hop artists who has been in the industry for 9 years. He is known for his outstanding music productions and also his very real and thoughtful songs which brought to life a new type of song which diverts away from the stereotypical gang violence.

He is marketed as a rapper that thinks before he speaks in the sense that his lyrics are very well thought out and can often have a double meaning behind them, he influences many people around the world for his fashion sense and also his controversial behaviour which attracts large media coverage.

West’s sound is featured heavily on Jay-Z's critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, released on September 11, 2001. His work was featured on the lead single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)" and a diss track against Nas and Mobb Deep named "Takeover"; West has worked with Mobb Deep and Nas since the track's release. West soon became a major name in hip hop production following the release of the album, but struggled to find a way to get a record deal. Jay-Z admitted that Roc-A-Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper, claiming that he saw him as a producer first and foremost. Multiple record companies felt he was not as marketable as rappers who portray the "street image" prominent in hip hop culture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West

Kanye West is seen a religious man who portrays this in his music, songs such as “Jesus Walks” have been acclaimed and been heard in numerous concerts such as “Live 8”. A lot of his lyrics involve religion or his personal life, his album “808’s and Heartbreak” is entirely made to express his feeling the break up of his now ex-fiancé. These are the types of ways in which he is branded and marketed, he uses emotional and personal feeling in order to attract an audience that can relate to what he is trying to the message he is trying to send out.

Mishas Similar Artists Research:

Inspiration Board

Misha's Similar Artist Research

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The Offical Jay Z website :
http://www.jay-z.com/index.php

Jay Z's MySpace page - were he advertises himself and his music,
Keeps in touch with his fans & Provides news of pcoming events:
http://www.myspace.com/jayz

Misha's Comprehensive Textual Analysis of Similar Music Video's

Analysing Camera Work & Mise en Scene

Music Video Analysis - 99 Problems

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Below is a more indepth analysis of camera work in music video
Similar Product Research

Zaheer's Comprehensive Textual Analysis of Similar Music Video's

Zaheer's Music Video Analysis's:

‘She Came Along’ by Sharam and Kid Cudi.

Genre
The genre of the video is an inspiring hip hop type song, I say inspiring because the beat is very uplifting and encourages dreams to be fulfilled. It’s quite unconventional because it has a very positive motive and influence and that goes against the more negative and controversial themes behind original hip hop videos. The video itself does not have as much flash jewellery and cars, it focuses more on inspirations and going back in time to when they didn’t have what they do now. That is a more conventional message of the previous hip hop genres when artists use to speak about what they didn’t have and what they inspired to be.
Narrative
The narrative is Kanye going on a ship to do a dare devil like stunt to fly over the canyon. The video takes places in the build up to that and eventually his demise when the rocket crashes in spectacular fashion. This theme is quite unconventional because it features a short 30 second break in which Kanye’s ex girlfriend confronts him about him leaving her for a white woman (Pamela Anderson), this becomes more and more comical after they show a 5 second graphic of ‘Technical Problems’. The video is light hearted and gives an impression of a less serious topic which doesn’t affect political or cultural issues in a deeper sense then a light hearted one.
Issues of Representation
The age of the artists does not concern the narrative because it is more about an individual setting out to do what he feels he needs to do. There is a comical representation of African American woman against white woman, during the 30 second break from the song when Kanye’s ex girlfriend confronts him, her friend says ‘I told you he would leave you for a white girl, You just want some tits, what about the ass?’. It then cuts into the graphic. This in itself shows the cultural differences between the two races and how some African American males prefer dating women of other races rather then dating one of their own.
Audience
The audience targeted for the song is quite a broad because of the light heartedness behind it; there aren’t any major issues that would restrict the aging of the target audience. The understanding of the text is up for interpretation because Kanye talks about some of the girls he has been with and cheated on. The relationship between the audience and the song becomes similar because of the literal message of the video, it encourages rather than discourages. The artists himself however tends to cause controversy himself and distances himself from his fans, but within his songs he conveys multiple messages that can be positive and negative.
Media Language
The symbolism behind the song is mainly about achieving your dreams and confronting your fears. It also confronts the issue of white vs. black women without being racist or discriminating the races, it stays light hearted throughout. The technical symbolism is also very funny and comical because of the rocket crash, it is quite obvious that they used a toy rocket in order to create the affect of a real crashing rocket and they only used camera angles in order to create that illusion, together with graphics and open atmosphere, it creates a positive impression and influence that is quite unconventional of the genre as well as the artist.

‘Touch the Sky’ by Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco.

Genre
The genre of the video is an inspiring hip hop type song, I say inspiring because the beat is very uplifting and encourages dreams to be fulfilled. It’s quite unconventional because it has a very positive motive and influence and that goes against the more negative and controversial themes behind original hip hop videos. The video itself does not have as much flash jewellery and cars, it focuses more on inspirations and going back in time to when they didn’t have what they do now. That is a more conventional message of the previous hip hop genres when artists use to speak about what they didn’t have and what they inspired to be.
Narrative
The narrative is Kanye going on a ship to do a dare devil like stunt to fly over the canyon. The video takes places in the build up to that and eventually his demise when the rocket crashes in spectacular fashion. This theme is quite unconventional because it features a short 30 second break in which Kanye’s ex girlfriend confronts him about him leaving her for a white woman (Pamela Anderson), this becomes more and more comical after they show a 5 second graphic of ‘Technical Problems’. The video is light hearted and gives an impression of a less serious topic which doesn’t affect political or cultural issues in a deeper sense then a light hearted one.
Issues of Representation
The age of the artists does not concern the narrative because it is more about an individual setting out to do what he feels he needs to do. There is a comical representation of African American woman against white woman, during the 30 second break from the song when Kanye’s ex girlfriend confronts him, her friend says ‘I told you he would leave you for a white girl, You just want some tits, what about the ass?’. It then cuts into the graphic. This in itself shows the cultural differences between the two races and how some African American males prefer dating women of other races rather then dating one of their own.
Audience
The audience targeted for the song is quite a broad because of the light heartedness behind it; there aren’t any major issues that would restrict the aging of the target audience. The understanding of the text is up for interpretation because Kanye talks about some of the girls he has been with and cheated on. The relationship between the audience and the song becomes similar because of the literal message of the video, it encourages rather than discourages. The artists himself however tends to cause controversy himself and distances himself from his fans, but within his songs he conveys multiple messages that can be positive and negative.
Media Language
The symbolism behind the song is mainly about achieving your dreams and confronting your fears. It also confronts the issue of white vs. black women without being racist or discriminating the races, it stays light hearted throughout. The technical symbolism is also very funny and comical because of the rocket crash, it is quite obvious that they used a toy rocket in order to create the affect of a real crashing rocket and they only used camera angles in order to create that illusion, together with graphics and open atmosphere, it creates a positive impression and influence that is quite unconventional of the genre as well as the artist.

Sky’s the limit (Notorious B.I.G) & U Remind Me (Usher)

Usher - U remind me video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvIhigDkY_I

Camerawork
In Sky’s the limit there are a lot of mid ranged shots to show off the housing and close ups on the bling to show off the luxuries of his life.
In U Remind Me, there are a lot of close ups of the characters to portray the emotion that is trying to be given off which creates a mood for the song.
Editing
In Sky’s the limit, some of the shots are slightly distorted to make it seem like they are in a dream.
In the dancing sequence of the U Remind Me, you can hear the footsteps and the brushing of clothes while Usher dances; this creates a sense of realism to show that he is doing it.
Mise-en Scene
The female dancers have a lot of make up on which make them look a lot more grown up, the male characters in the video are all wearing expensive clothes and living expensive lives to resemble the real characters of the video.
In U Remind Me, there are numerous locations where the video takes place which vary from a bright building to the street, which leads to a club.
The main points of the two videos is that they both revolve around male characters, as in most hip hop videos there is a lot of bling and flash cars and houses. Sky’s the limit is very stereotypical in that sense but then breaks the conventions by having children to play the characters instead of the real people. However in U Remind Me the conventions remain intact because of the riches being portrayed but having the real characters. His story is supposed to be sad but the background music delivers a different mood.

Analysis based on Andrew Goodwin’s theory

1 – Seeing the Sound in your Head
Sky’s the limit uses a lot of base within the song which adds to the intensity to the song, the way the lyrics flow through the song show that they are living in a dream world, it has a joyous tune.
In U Remind Me, the lyrics and the beat flow in a very beautiful way even though if you analyse the lyrics word for word, it goes against the grain so to speak.
2 – Narrative and Performance
The story in Sky’s The Limit is about little kids playing adult roles in a dream world, they have money, cars and fame. The story never really ends but shows a glimpse of what is to come for the characters they are supposed to be playing such as Biggie Smalls and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The story in U Remind Me is about how Usher meets different girls that he reminds him of a girl that he use to know, that girl treated him badly but the last girl he meets, he settles with even though the chorus continues with “This is why I can’t get with you”.
3 – The Star image
Biggie Smalls and Sean Combs are portrayed in a very rich manner in the video and are shown of to be superstars, they are flaunted off in the cars and swimming pool, often having shots that portray the house as being so big that they couldn’t use every room.
Usher is portrayed slightly different in U Remind Me; he does however manage to seduce every girl in the music video but also tells tales of how even he got hurt by a girl previously. They show the stereotypical thing with the jewellery and the flash cars.
4 – Three Ways in which Music Videos Relate Visuals to the Song
Sky’s the Limit illustrated the meaning of the lyrics, it is very straight forward and tells the story through the words of the song as well as the video itself, in U Remind Me it is exactly the same because both lyrics involves with either riches or heartbreak, in Sky’s the Limit as the lyrics carry on, there are sequences of cars and the large house. In U Remind Me, Usher tells stories about how he use to love his old girlfriend and treats the girl he’s talking to the same way, but then the chorus comes in and he walks away from her.
5 – Technical Aspects of Music Video
In Sky’s the Limit, the Speed of the shots are quite slow and timid. They have many close ups of the singers face even though the singer is only a child resembling the singer. The beat itself goes along with what is going on on-screen, the lighting is very bright and a lot of white is used in certain shots to portray a dream world. As for Mise-en-scene, the video has many props and the location shows what kind of video it is.
In U Remind Me, the speed of the shots are a bit quicker because the story unfolds quicker as well, the singers face a lot because that is the kind of self obsessed image that Usher portrays himself in. The beat itself does go along with the video but the lyrics do not, the lighting is quite dark and uses a lot of strange colours such as orange and silver. As for the Mise-en-scene, the use of a flash car and several locations that are in the open, but slowly because a more closed environment inside the club shows visually how he feels with the girl he is with, he was in the open before not knowing what to do but then closed in on one girl and settled with her.

‘Make Her Say’ by Kid Cudi

Genre
The genre of the video is slow hip hop and features multiple stars of the genre and is produced by Kanye West who is a mainstream name in the music industry. The music video has many conventions because it features flash cars and jewellery, beautiful woman and admirable scenery such as an open road and big house. There are some unconventional themes in the video such as the use of college halls and nobody dancing in the video. The use of split screen during most of the video is also an unconventional editing technique and it very well done because shows different angles of the same person and it gives a different perspective of the characters and follows multiple characters at the same time. The overall performance of the artists is good because it suits the calming nature of the song, the beat and lyrics are calming and purposefully lack intensity; there is not a lot of movement but more lounging by the artists and the women in the video. This connotes a more calming influence about the storyline and narrative in the video.
Narrative
The narrative is about women and the artists meeting them and talking about what they are going to together in a sexual manner, the beat itself is very calm and the way the lyrics are said, is to in the same calmness that the entire song is conveyed. The song is very unconventional in this sense because although the theme of the song is stereotypical and very highly associated with in today’s modern culture, politically and in the community, the impression the song gives is that the artists can afford to have fun with it because the woman is co operating. You find out later on in the song that she is a stripper looking for a pay day. For most of the song, this is not known so it becomes more controversial in the sense that woman being objectified more and more and maybe without permission.
Issues of Representation
The ages of the artists are between 25-37 and the age of the woman they are talking about is 21, ‘Born in 88, how old is that? Old Enough’. The ethnicity of the entire music video is based around African American males and the a mix between races for the woman, differentiating between white and black. This is quite stereotypical of an American hip hop music video as most of the artists are African American.
Audience
The audience of the music video is fans of the hip hop genre, it isn’t aimed at a certain age in particular but does have adult themes within the song. The reception of the song was good concerning Kid Cudi and Kanye West who produced the song and it went on to be a decent Single and added onto Cudi’s album. The relationship of the fans towards the song and the artists is similar because there are verses in the song and video in which college students can relate to, by talking about sexual experiences within the library and having most of the video in open surroundings on a college Football field, it appeals to students of that age.
Media Language
The technical aspects of the video compromise of the shots and the editing of the video, this in itself was very good because of the split screen editing that occurred during the majority of the video, this combined with the different angled camerawork made for an excellent music video that worked with the song very well. There were many symbolic aspects of the video such as a woman sitting on top of a Football post behind the bleachers. This as well as balloons being shown at the start show the light hearted nature of the video and sets the scene for the rest of the video, the lyrics breaks away from that but the manner in which they are sung makes it more conventional within the video.

Interviewing Target Audience

The results from my two interviews are very different from each because they both have opposite opinions to each other as none their answers were the same or similar. The male participant is your normal stereotypical male because he gave me the answer I expected on the hand the female participant wasn’t she was quite different she has her own approach as she gave me answers which I didn’t really expect from anyone. I think I would rather go with the male participants ways because as I said he is the normal stereotypical male and that the type of target audience that we are trying to reach because it will be them who will be interested and buy our product.

Misha's Interviews with Target Audience

Interviewing Target Audience

Zaheers Interviews:

How do you feel about the artists some kids would call their role models, would you say they are the ideal role models?
It’s an interesting topic because of the amount of media coverage that music artists get especially rappers and other artists in the hip hop industry. Gang violence and street crime are occasionally done in thought of hip hop music lovers and it would not be foolish to say that the ideas came from a song they have heard or music video that they have seen. Rappers such as 50 Cent and Eminem have often voiced their opinions on violence and they do make it sound appealing, now if you take that into a young child’s mind, they will absorb it because their mind is like a sponge. Before their time, rappers such as Tupac and Biggie Smalls were also heavily involved in violent acts and jail punishments were not enough to suffice this unfortunately. It would be wrong to say that it is all music’s fault that violence occurs but I don’t think I would be wrong in saying that it does have an affect. I listened to a song by Eminem and D12 the other day and the lyrics were so explicit, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They took it to a political and religious level and I was shocked to hear the kind of stuff they were saying. Has this become the standard explicitness of today? Now talking about role models, a role model should be someone that inspires you to do better, in the face of adversity they should be there for you spiritually and mentally in order to help you through your cause. If you look at the many famous role models of the modern era, you could look at the likes of David Beckham perhaps, or Thierry Henry, both footballers who earn obscene amounts of money per week but when you look at their behaviour on and off the pitch, you could say they were role models. They fight for club and country and do everything they can to entertain. You see the amount of flack that these players get when something goes wrong and you have to have a hard head and thick skin in order to prevent it getting to you and that is the kind of attitude that a role model should have. If you look at hip hop artists, if one person says something that another person they don’t like, it only leads to shootings and violence, then more people get involved and it becomes gang warfare until it becomes Tupac vs. Biggie all over again and its one side or America against another, Eastside against Westside. Looking on the other hand, you could say some artists would be good role models, sometimes they have their moments were they become so stereotypical and so controversial its unreal, but the likes of Eminem could be seen as a role model because he shows no matter what has happened to you in the past, you always have a punchers chance of making it big in life, and that I would say is quite admirable. Although the lyrics are quite explicit from him, he does make a lot of people laugh and he loves his daughter dearly, usually it’s the dads of the world that are crucified for abandoning their kids but Eminem shows that he is no dead beat dad and he does as much as he can to bring her up by himself while maintaining a good career in music. Overall I would say it’s a mixed bag when it comes to role models concerning music artists, some are good and some are terrible, it also depends on who is idolizing them but the main thing is they must know what is right and what is wrong, I love music but I wouldn’t go and fight someone over it and that is the message that should be sent out, not guns are used to protect people because nobody ever believes that, guns are used to hurt people that try and hurt you first, at the end of the day, its not the gun or knife that kills people, it’s the person using it and if that person is a star in the music industry, then I don’t feel they should be a role model.


Do you feel that hip hop music today has taken on too much in the form of nudity and does not focus on the music enough?
I do feel that hip hop music videos are mostly about the pushing of boundaries of showing nudity. There has been a progressive sexualisation of public culture, as well as a blurring of public and private spheres. Nudity and sex are not a private acts anymore, with young girls being taught, through magazines, the art of seduction and how to improve their sexuality. The artists are just following society’s notions of hypersexual females, who are constantly flaunting their bodies. Hip hop has taken the ideals of the liberation of the body, but made it into a commodity which can be used to have their music videos more widely talked about.
At first, hip hop artists realized that the controversy that comes with a video pushing boundaries, can lead to them getting more media coverage and allowing them to disseminate their music to a wider audience who want decide to see for themselves the reason for all the controversy. This was achieved through late night music channels, but recently, audiences have been able to use the internet to for search videos that would have previously been censored by the music channels, allowing the videos to achieve cult status.
The artists can still achieve mainstream coverage through editing their videos; to produce a cleaner version can be shown on mainstream censored music channels, whilst still distributing their full length graphic video on various uncensored hip hop websites.
As a result of the videos focusing mainly on nudity, it detracts from the lyrical and musical content of the song because the brain is predominately stimulated by the visual aspect of the video. There is a notion that the song does not need to be good, but if the video is visually brilliant, it will get more plays on music channels. Audiences are more likely to be flicking through music channels in order to find a song they want to listen to, and so having a striking visual video is more likely to keep the viewer on the channel. The audience may also have the music channel playing as part of the background to them working etc, and so having a video that is controversial will make them focus on the television screen.
In my opinion, I think the exploitation of the female body is wrong, and although the women in the videos think they are being liberated and empowered by getting paid for using their sexual capital, the videos are still producing gendered stereotypes. The hip hop artist, who is male, is portrayed as the guy who has enough prestige or money, to be surrounded by women who wear next to nothing. This submissive role is then taken by some members of the audience, as being a reflection of the world, where any women you met will dance for you if you provide them with a material incentive. It is nothing more than the glamorization and normalization of pornographic images which are abstract from reality. Not all women are interested in being submissive to men, but the music videos don’t portray that side of reality.
Too much emphasis is put on the music video and not the song itself, or the talent of the artists. For audiences who first hear a song on a music channel, they will automatically attribute the song with its music video, and if all the content of the video is nudity, the song will only be associated with nudity, despite the fact it may be dealing with serious issues. The talent of a true artist does not need to rely on controversy to sell.

Main Target Audience

From the results of our questionaire we have discovered our main target audience are people between the ages of 12 - 25 years. All ethnic groups like to listen to Hip-hop.

Conclusion
I’m going to evaluate our questionnaire results and say what we did to accommodate the results into the music video and its style.
The first question was asking what the age of the people were who were going to answer our questionnaire, the majority of the people were between 18 and 25 and that is very close to our teenage target audience, we wanted to target a mature teenage audience who would understand what kind of theories and impressions we gave off our music video and its story.
The second question is related to the gender of the questionnaire answerer, 60% of the people were male and again this is part of our target audience, we wanted a males perspective because they may appreciate the aggressive side to our video more then the female audience would.
The third question was based on what the ethnicity of the audience is, this was a delicate question and our target audience was not really based on ethnicity or race, because we live in a multi cultural society and pigeon holing our audience to a minority would be detrimental to what we are trying to achieve. The results were 50% of the audience of which answered our questions were black and 32% were white, the rest were made up of different ethnic societies.
The fourth question was what type of videos do the audience like, conventional or unconventional, or aim at the start was to create a music video that broke the rules of hip hop music videos, we didn’t want to portray our message in a stereotypical way, the majority of the audience also preferred the unconventional and exciting videos. Consequently we can provide our audiences needs while being able to be adventurous with our ideas.
The fifth question is what type of music do the audience tend to listen to, this again was more about seeing what the audience enjoy rather then to adjust our idea of what we wish to do, the majority of the audience said RnB but the second largest said hip hop which is our genre, overall we are very happy with this result because if the audience were given a second choice, we feel they would have all picked hip hop after RnB.
The sixth question was whether they felt personally that the music they listen to affected their speech, personally we felt this could be classed as a trick question due to the pride of the audience wanting to say no due to their own independency, however we are pleased to say that the majority actually said yes and were very honest about how they speak.
The seventh question was about whether the audience found dreams and nightmares interesting, due to our music video being based on a dream, we felt that positive feedback on this question was absolutely crucial otherwise we would have to reconsider our plan, in the end we got a resounding yes to the question and that gave us a lot of encouragement to give the audience what they wanted and to continue our project as planned.
The eighth question was about whether the audience like surrealist or abstract music videos, to help the audience know what we mean by both definitions we placed a small example next to each one so they answer honestly, we got mixed feedback with a 52-48% win for abstract, this in a way was good because we feel our music video is classed as abstract and having positive feedback, however small the margin, is always a good thing.
The ninth question was quite interesting because the question itself was based more on personal experience of the artists, we asked if they felt violence is necessary in hip hop videos and the majority said no which is very interesting, the reason we found this interesting is because our video and story is about self inflicting of the mind, what your conscience can do to you if your not in control so in a way it does have violence but also not against anyone else, it will be interesting to see the feedback we receive post watching the video.
The tenth question is about whether they feel the previous experience and background life of the artist affects the way they write and what they sing about, this question would not influence what we are trying to do because our artist is a brand new artists but it was interesting to see a 95% yes answer to the question.
The eleventh question brought on some controversy within the group, the question is whether the audience liked dance routines in the videos they watch, we originally had an idea to include it but decided against it later on, however we received an resounding 93% yes that they liked dance routines, this of course brought conversation towards what we should do but unfortunately we could not find anyone willing to do a dance routine for us.
The twelfth question was what type of storyline did the audience prefer, the answers were spread reasonably evenly between solo, dual and performance and we class our storyline as solo although there are hints of a dual storyline too with the “alter ego”.
The thirteenth question was whether the audience preferred the music video to illustrate or contradict the lyrics in the song; we also had an option for no preference. Our music video is based on lyrical content and we are pleased to say that we made the right choice by having over half the audience say they preferred the video to illustrate the lyrics in the song and video.
The fourteenth question was what the audience felt about contemporary videos and modern ones, we feel our video is quite modern in style, language and imagination so we were hoping for a majority of the audience to vote in the modern favour, unfortunately this surprisingly was not the case, just over half the audience actually prefer a more contemporary video rather than modern and although we accept this as a disappointment, we felt we had a lot to offer with our style and substance that may be able to attract even the most contemporary video lovers.
The fifteenth question was incredibly interesting, the question was whether the audience preferred fast or slow videos and because we undoubtedly consider our video a very fast and action packed video, the audience were halved at 50% each, we found this very interesting but again we continued as planned.
The sixteenth and final question was whether the audience preferred a scary, an action packed or a light hearted video. Our music video is more action packed then scary and we were very happy to say that the majority of the audience said they preferred that.
Overall we are very pleased with the feedback we have received and we are very grateful for those who took time out to answer our questions, we feel our video is going to have a lot of positive feedback and we look forward to hearing what our audience think about our music video.

Questionaire Results

Questionnaire Results

View more presentations from misha1992.

Audience Research

Questionnaire

Please mark one box only for each question.

Mark inside the brakets - [ ] with an X.

Thank you

1. What is your age?
[A] 12 – 18 years old
[B] 18 – 25 years old
[C] 25 – 30 years old
[D] 30 – 35 years old

2. What is your gender?
[A] Male
[B] Female

3. What is your ethnicity?
[A] White
[B] Black
[C] Asian
[D] Chinese
[E] Middle Eastern
[F] Mixed
[G] Other Ethnic group

4. Do you like conventional or unconventional music videos?
[A] Conventional

[B] Unconventional

5. What is your preferred music genre?
[A] RnB
[B] Garage
[C] Jazz
[D] Hip-hop
[E] Rock
[F] Dance
[G] Other

6. Does the music you listen to influence your speech?
[A] Yes
[B] No

7. Do you find Nightmares and Dreams intresting?
[A] Yes
[B] No

8. Do you prefer abstract videos or surrealist ones ?
[A] Abstract Videos (Colourful, fun and vibrant)
[B] surrealist (Unusual and crazy)

9. Usually hip hop videos involve a lot of violence and power; do you feel it is necessary?
[A] Yes
[B] No

10. Do you think that the background life of the artists influences the way types of songs they write??
[A] Yes
[B] No

11. Do you like dance routines in music videos?
[A] Yes
[B] No

12. What narrative style do you prefer in music videos?
[A] Solo Storylinee
[B] Duel Storyline

[C] Performance
[D] No narrative

13. Should the video contradict or illustrate the lyrics in a music video?
[A] Contradict
[B] Illustrate
[C] No preference

14. Do you like a more contemporary or traditional theme in a music video?
[A] Contemporary (Modern and Flash)
[B] Traditional (Olden)

15. Do you watch fast/lively or slow/calm music videos?
[A] Fast/lively
[B] Slow/clam

16. Do you prefer a light hearted video or a scary and action pack video?
[A] Light hearted
[B] Action packed
[C] Scary