Music Video Planning

For our music video we have decided to shoot it in the college studio and make it look like we are creating the song as we go along. The inspiration for this idea is the Beats commercial featuring Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar where they are trying to make a track and are struggling to get it right. It was this idea of breaking the rhythm of the song to show a trial and error process that drew us in.

This subverts the norm of hip hop videos because very rarely do you see the creation behind songs, you just get the final product and you don't get to see how the process might have gone down. It leads people to believe that songs are created out of thin air without problem, when in reality there is usually a countless amount of hours that goes in to the creating process.

The track that we have chose to use is Lewis' own track called 'Humble Beginning' which he created with another student last year as part of his media course. We thought that this would be a great opportunity because it would seem a lot more natural for him to be performing the song if it is actually him. Also, this avoids any copyright issues that we might encounter with songs from high profile artists, and furthermore if Lewis wanted to promote the song when he is able to focus on music then he has a video to go along with it.

With the idea of 'being humble', we could could two ways with it. As is shown in Kendrick's 'Humble', he subverted the idea of being humble, showing things like him posing as Jesus at the last supper. The other option is to conform to the idealism of 'being humble', which is the route that we want to take

Music Video Ideas

Music Video Ideas

Rap music video

Either a non copyrighted song or Lewis’ song

Typical rap video, shots of the performer lip syncing to the song combined with landscape shots and other cut away shots that give the video a level of cinematography. Handheld camera shots of the artist that have a lot of movement to match the energy of the song. Shots are typically intercut at a fast pace to also maintain a high level of energy. Locations will be local, shooting at parks, alleyways (to give a gritty low budget feeling, also reflect the context of the music). Song is played multiple times while filming to make sure that you have enough coverage to be able to cut through multiple camera angles to keep the video from becoming repetitive.

Narrative Video, focuses more on a story in the video. There may still be shots of a performer lip syncing but the majority of the video will be used to tell a story (either relating to the subject matter in the song or something unrelated. ‘She Knows’ by J.Cole is a good example of a narrative based video. Although the narrative isn’t largely based on the subject of the song, it does have some links to it. Narrative videos require a higher level of continuity relating to this like the weather, shooting conditions, locations etc. This would require a lot more planning than a standard non narrative based video as not only do you have to think about performance shots but also come up with a short story that is easily achieved and able to be incorporated in to the video.

Studio Performance, shoot the video in a studio environment such as the college’s music studio. This could include pull focus shots of the music equipment in the studio and shots of somebody in the engineering room recording the song. This would give the feeling that you are watching the artist create the song, even though the song would have been recorded before and this is a reenactment. A good example even though it isn’t strictly a music video is

which is an advertisement for a Beats speaker featuring Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar. The video shows them recording a song but also breaks away from the studio environment when they can’t figure out what the song is missing. This is a good guide because it shows the artist passionately performing the song and also the producer recording him. It includes cut in shots of Dre adjusting sliders on his module which are shot at a low aperture giving a shadow depth of field. The camera movement in this video is either slow or completely static, showing a less distracting view of the artists in their element. The video has a high production value, being that it is a for a big company. It is shot in a huge wide open studio, which wouldn’t have been where the song was recorded, but the video is shot there to give it a grand feeling, subsequently portraying the product in a luxurious way.

J.Cole - She Knows

Illustrating:

There is only one point in this video that illustrates the lyrics, and it doesn't illustrate them in a clear way. During the hook of the song, Cole repeats the line "She knows, she knows" which on first listen you would assume that he means his woman knows he is being unfaithful to her. However it is the opposite, with Cole talking about a woman knowing that he has a girl at home that he has to be loyal to. Linking to the video, there is a mid shot of the boy's mother and Cole getting undressed implying that she is being unfaithful to her husband, which goes against these lyrics.

Amplifying:

The video is entirely narrative based and contains no lip syncing of the lyrics.

Contradicting:

This video builds a narrative that leads up to a scene that reveals a contradiction. The video details an adolescent skipping school with his friend, doing illegal activities such as breaking in to property and smoking and when he goes home he finds his mother cheating on his father with J.Cole. Throughout the song Cole is talking about him having to turn down a woman at the club or party because he is loyal to his woman at home, and that he 'can't be what the woman' wants.

Cutting To Music:

The video is mostly cut to music, which is aided by the fact that the song has a strong constant beat. An effective moment that cutting is use in the video is when Kyle catches his mum cheating. When he realises, the music cuts out and you get diegetic sound of his mother saying his name. There is a moment of suspense with no music, and then the music comes back in cut to a shot of him running out of his house, followed by a tracking shot of him and his friend running down the street. I think it's a very effective moment as the energy of the music matches the mood of the moment very well.

Genre:

The genre of this video is purely narrative. It tells a story of a young man skipping school with his friend and finding out that his mother is cheating on his father. The video has a high production value, being shot well, edited well and is colour graded to make it look more like an excerpt from a movie than a music video.