Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE.

Illustrating:

There are multiple points throughout this music video where the lyrics match the visuals, the first one being:

"Ayy, I remember syrup sandwiches and crime allowances
Finesse a n*gga with some counterfeits
But now I’m countin' this"

During these lyrics, Kendrick is lying down on a table surrounded by dollar bills and holding a machine that is spitting out money. This reflects the theme of being rich and overcoming a struggle to have a lot of money is he is basically bathing in dollars.

Another example is the lyric:

"My left stroke just went viral"

And during this lyric there is a shot of Kendrick on a car playing golf, to reflect the 'left stroke' lyric.

Amplifying:

During the majority of this video, Kendrick is lip syncing to the lyrics, which is pretty much a staple in hip hop nowadays. Whereas other genres feature a lot of abstract videos that do not include any lip syncing, hip hop tends to favour this type of video, which allows the artist to amplify the mood that they want the song to convey.

"If I kill a n*gga it won't be the alcohol" is paired with a shot of Kendrick behind a window with multiple red dots on him, grabbing his crotch and maintaining a cocky stance. This amplifies the lyric but also contradicts it at the same time, as he goes against what he is saying by looking drunk and aggressive.

After the lyric:

"My left stroke just went viral"

Kendrick hits the gold ball which is timed to be right on the beat, further elevating the instrumental. This works well because when people hear the song without the video, they will hear the lyric and instantly visualise the video.

Contradicting:

The main contradiction in this video relates to the subject of the visuals and the subject of the song. Throughout the hook on the song, Kendrick repeats the phrase:

"Sit down, be humble"

This goes against the visuals which show Kendrick being braggadocios and indulging in vices such as money, women and fine food+ wine (The Last Supper Reference). This may have been done to imply that Kendrick is exempt from his 'Be Humble' refrain and that he is above other artists.

Cutting To Music:

Right at the start of the video after two lines, the beat kicks in and the camera cuts from the establishing shot to low angle medium shot. Also throughout the song the video has a fast cutting pace which is often cut on the beat.

Genre:

The video is both a location and an experimental video. The video is shot in a variety of locations, presumably throughout L.A., including a church, the Los Angeles river and various back alleys.

Release Forms

Promotional Video Health and Safety

Health and safety was one of our main focus' at the theatre. Once thing we did was kept the amount of wires we used to a minimum, to avoid any trips and injuries.  For the majority of the close up shots, we were sat on the stage but right at the front all the way to the right, so that no performer came close enough for us to get in their way. Also we had to come off the stage and back on multiple times throughout the night when we were shooting various angles. With the stage being quite high off the ground, we made sure to use the steps at all times and were cautious when carrying the camera equipment around. We got to the venue early (about an hour before the event began) so that we could meet and talk with Amy to finalise what types of shots she wanted and also where would be best to film from to avoid any disruption and hazards. Also one of our concerns was making sure the equipment was not in the way of anybody and there was no chance of people tripping on it. To ensure this was not a problem, every time we were not using a piece of equipment we put it in it's respective bags and took them to a side room off the stage so that they didn't pose a hazard.

Promotional Video Evaluation

For our promotional unit, we (Jack & Lewis) produced a short show reel style video for our college's annual award show, Spotlight. We started by contacting the event's organiser with the idea to record it and produce a video, which they agreed would be useful. Then we got all of the talent release forms signed for all the participating students that would be in the video. On the night we took two cameras and two tripods and filmed a lot of the night so that we would have a large selection of footage to edit with.

The biggest problems that we encountered were technical issues to do with our shooting gear. Firstly, one of the tripods would not lock into position meaning that a few of the shots were handheld. Obviously this is not ideal but we combatted this by using things like the handrails as a resting platform for the camera so that the camera shake is kept to a minimum. To further minimise this we used the 'Warp Stabiliser' effect in Premiere Pro to stabilise it in post production.
Another problem that we had was that the cameras that we took out from college both had low battery. To combat this problem, we had to alternate between us recording and charging the battery so that we had a good coverage throughout the night.

For most of the night, Lewis was behind the crowd capturing wider shots that encapsulated the whole stage and Jack was on the side of the stage, getting close ups and medium to long shots. This worked well for us because it allowed us to intercut between varying shot types to maintain a high energy in the edit. To also further this, Jack moved around from one side of the stage to the other to try to keep the footage as varied as possible between each shot.

In terms of parts that went well, I think that the video itself came out well and is completed to a professional standard. We decided to keep it short and show the parts of the night with the highest energy rather than make a long winded and slow paced edit. I think this worked well for us because the video shows the night in an exciting and fast paced manor which will attract more people as opposed to the latter. Also, I think our communication skills with our client were good, as we conversed back and forth discussing the purpose of the video and gained feedback from the client. At the start of the video, music was the main concern for us as we were skeptical about getting a suitable track that would be free of copyright but we were quickly able to find a Soundcloud account that specialised in original copyright free music and after browsing the tracks we find an upbeat jazzy style track that suited the energy that we wanted to convey.

In terms of other improvements to our video, I think we could have looked in to bringing lighting of our own to brighten up the stage a bit. While it looked pleasing to an audience, the camera's were less sensitive to the light which meant that the footage was all shot at around ISO 800 meaning we had a bit of grain and the footage wasn't as clear as it could have been had we considered the lighting situation more. Another improvement would have been to use a handheld stabiliser for the cameras to give us a smoother look with the handheld shots. Although it didn't cause a major problem, some of the shots shift and move around a small amount which in the eyes of a client would signify unprofessionalism.

There was a lack of planning when it came to measuring the success of the video, due to it being unclear how we would see if we had succeeded in creating an effective video. Over time, it will become clear if the video does it's job, based on the amount of people that turn up to the event in coming years as compared to this year. However, we would've benefited more from a quicker way of seeing. One way we could have done this would have been a questionnaire that we could have sent out to friends and college students, asking questions such as "Did this video increase your interest in the event?".

Altogether I think that this unit was a success and we are very pleased with how everything came out, from the forms to the video, the editing and the feedback from our client.

Questionnaire Feedback

This was the questionnaire that we sent to our client Amy. It is based on a satisfaction rating ranging from Very Dissatisfied to Very Satisfied.

This was the feedback that Amy left us. She said 'very satisfied' for all f the questions