Planning: Copyright letter

Whilst planning a music video one of our tasks to create a copyright letter which I’d send to the record company of diplo music regarding the usage of one of his singles. this letter was purposely wrote to explain how this single will contribute towards our A Level grades. It was vital that we wrote this letter as it clarifies our intentions and stops the company from taking any legal actions such as getting sued.

 

Khaled jaffer

South street

Enfield

London

En3 4px

Dear copyright holder,

                                    I am writing to you from oasis academy Hadley 6th in order to request for authorization of the hit single 'Diplo- revolution.' we ask for permission for this audio simply to create a music video which is required in our A2 media studies coursework.

With your permission we will be able to produce a creative music video with the group I have been assigned to as our task involves creating a music video with a song of our choice therefore we chose of Diplo's hit singles. If we received your permission, this track would ONLY be used for educational purposes only and the OCR exam board moderator. It would be used for promotional reason and we have no intention to. In addition I would not like to stress you that this will be used for commercial use.

I and the rest of my group would be very privilege if you take our work into consideration and give the authority to use the audio. The artist and your company would of course be recognized throughout pre-production and through the actual video. A copyright notice with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send the full details.

Thank you very much for reading this letter and taking everything into consideration

We look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards

Khaled jaffer

Benjamina kilembe

Sezer karaman

Planning: Outline of the narrative

The song me and my group have chosen as our final idea is 'revolution' by the artist 'Diplo.'

 

Lyrics:

 

Can you see it?
The worst is over
The monsters in my head are scared of love
Fallen people listen up!
It's never too late to change our luck

So, don't let them steal your light
E eh eh eh
Don't let them break your stride
There is light on the other side
And you'll see all the raindrops falling behind
It's a revolution
Make it out tonight
It's a revolution
It's a reva, rev

Can you see it?
The worst is over
The monsters in my head are scared of love
Fallen people listen up!
It's never too late to change our luck

So, don't let them steal your light
E eh eh eh
Don't let them break your stride
There is light on the other side
And you'll see all the raindrops falling behind
It's a revolution
Make it out tonight
It's a revolution
It's a reva, rev
Oh oh, ooo oh, oh oh oh
Oh oh, ooo oh, oh oh oh
Oh oh, ooo oh, oh oh oh
Oh oh, ooo oh, oh oh oh
Rev, rev, rev, rev

 

       
The overall meaning of the lyrics distributes a positive response to those emotionally hurt by love and relationships. in addition it motivates people to stand up for something worth fighting for and rebel against anything stopping hence the title 'revolution.' The perspective could come from a male or female whih allows both gender to appeal to the lyrics. I would portray the lyrics by using a combination of both  narrative and performance based music video.

 

Planning: Analysing similiar videos

It is beneficial to analyse existing music videos from a similar genre because it helps us visualise how a music video within the club/dance genre is represented. Also it gives us the opportunity to study the genre in more depth knowing what features and factors gain a response form the audience. Our aim is to impact the audience so looking at successful music video's will give us insight on how we can do this like those. It is also important to see what is already out there and what might inspire us to come up with ideas we can use within our own music video. Developing an idea can be difficult so to have something to work from or compare to will ensure that the quality of recording within our music video will be of a high level. Another reason to which viewing other music videos is vital is so we can know that the concepts and themes within the r'n'b genre that we will be considering are themes that are looked at positively and in an entertaining way.

Rihanna ft Eminem love the way you lie (visual style of the video)

The music video expresses a negative and stressful vibe and we would like to have this idea in our video quite similar but shown in a different representation due to the age we are and the activities that we do will be different from the video. With the representation of the characters within the video would also be similar as the main star of the video would be shown the most/ shown singing the most within the video however the male would be taking his anger out in a hobby such as working out. The visual style of the video will be shown in the idea of the couple arguing in a bedroom. With the video it will also be shown in this way due to the editing style as the video will have back to back shots of the couple arguing, the male working out aggressively and her singing in a room. With the visual content of the video will mainly be shown through the cinematography of the video being filmed and also the editing of the video. This music video has a big influence on us when making our music video this is because of the idea/theme of the relationship of the two actors we want in our music video.

Banks - This is what it feels like (artist)

The star’s representation is clearly seen and is able to be identified by the audience due her being the only one in the video. Her body language, facial expressions and also her overall attitude as a sense of seriousness was portrayed by the star.

The star is portrayed to be lonely and serious as she is seen in an isolated  house all by herself laying on a bed, staring into the blue etc. looking down at the floor. The lack of movement reinforces this star representation.

Long shots of the artists to show body language.

Close up shots to capture stars emotions, results in the audience feeling a sense of sympathy/empathy towards the audience

Leona Lewis - trouble (content & structure)

Using  Leona Lewis, because of the narrative and themes such as relationship and break ups.

The star representation: 

The close up of the artist to portray the intense emotion such as when she is crying.
Close up  of her singing staring into the camera.
Medium shot of Leona Lewis showing that she is in pain, long shot is used when shown new location within the music video.

The location: 

The house is where the location of the relationship occurs and both of the characters are shown in the bed, seen most happy as this signifies  the peak of their  love relationship. 

Outside: representation in the dark night at the end of the music video. This highlight loneliness being alone.

The use of costume in the music such casual clothing for the both characters are fancy there's not much to emphasis on the style. The plain clothing can which is conventional to the age group of  the target.

Iconography:

The broken glass at the beginning of the music video can portray that there are problems within the relationship showing that both of the characters are unhappy and heartbroken.

The picture lying on the floor outlines the problems within the break up and relationship themes. 

The lighting:

The use of low-key lighting  is used when both of the characters are together to imply that the relationship is going downhill and both of them  have no future together anymore. everything is not like it used to be like. 

The natural lighting used at the end is shown that she's alone at night.

Editing:

•  The use of editing fit well with beat of the song.
•  Slow paced  used to reflect the pace of  the song and what is being sung about
• Editing gets faster when the problems occur in relationship.

By looking in to three similar music videos, it has helped me to realise what techniques that worked well in other videos will work well in our video. From further analysis I now know how they make their music videos professional and therefore appeal to a large audience.

Planning: Final idea

Introduction

After analysing three of the initial music video ideas, me and the rest of chose the most conventional music video that I thought would be most effective and appealing towards the target audience. The song I chose to re-create a music video for was that of Diplo's song 'revolution' which belongs to the club and dance genre. I choose this as it was the best choice in terms of performance and narrative based.

Why have I chosen this song?

The reason why my groups decision to choose this song as our final idea is due to the lyrics as they were repetitive and somewhat meaningful which would allow us to really compliment the video when editing it and putting everything together. However, the artist and the actual song aren’t seen as mainstream as they are from the club/dance genre. The beat are repetitive which allows the audience to learn it very fast and also remember it in the future. when the beat drops it allows the audience to relate to it as they can then convey a connection to their lifestyle and make them feel as if the video is directed at them. In addition, this helps form a relationship between the artist and the audience.

Mise-en-scene

The Mise-en-scene will be used effectively as the characters will be dressed in clothes to work out with. This will allow them to look like they're motivated and ready to achieve their goal also the audience can relate back as the characters outfits will looks similar to what some of our target audiences wear on a daily basis, weather they are athletes or body builders. From looking at this I've decided to use this specific kind of costume because even though the genre of the music is club/dance, is can also be used as motivational music.

Star image

The artist star image are together one of the main and most important elements within a music video as they both help create a positive response from the audience in hope to visual appeal and attract them to watch the music video. There were many star image motifs used within the music video in order to make the artist recognizable and easy to identify by the audience. A variety of different camera shots were used such as close ups, mid and long shots in order in order to capture a different perspective of the artist. Furthermore, I’ve decided lyrics and pace of this song will suit the narrative I have planned for this music video as we plan to film two young adults going through a phase of a troubled relationship they have just been through. 

Lighting

natural and low key lighting will be used throughout the music video as it helps set and maintain the atmosphere of the scenes. In addition, this decision was made with the audience’s expectations in mind as they’d expect the club/dance genre music to be very gloomy. However, high key lighting will be used during for the apperance of the artist as she will be singing, looking back at old picture from when her relationship was at a positive state. This is effective as it promotes her star image as she will be the centre of attention.

Video Content

The video convent I plan to implement for the song is very conventional as I aim to follow Michael Goodwin’s theory of music videos being performance, narrative or concept based. I plan to make mine performance and narrative based in order to help boost my artist star image in hope to visually and lyrically appeal to my target audience. I believe keeping my video performance and narrative based with a little bit of concept footage which will fuel my audience’s interest as well as making the artist recognizable. I plan to implement a bit of Mulvey’s Male gaze theory within the music video as we plan to have a mix gender of characters in order to visually appeal to our audience.

Rihanna - we found love

'Rihanna - we found love' was one of the music video which influenced my decision to create my decided music video. This is because of the conventional elements it used such as low key lighting which relates to the genre of the music. I also liked the fact that a good and well thought of narrative was put together which allowed the artist star image to be clearly seen in order to make the artist more recognizable and appealing towards the audience. In addition the uses of editing were very familiar to that of our planned music video as a lot of jump cuts and Montage shots were used. Cinematography was also used such as long shots and close ups in order to promote the artist star image. Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory was also exploited during this video as it consisted the artist dressed explicitly which relates to the representation of them seen as a sexual object to visually pleasure men.

Planning: Audience

Why is it important to know about audiences when creating a music video?

It is important, when creating a music video, that a specific target audience has been identified to aim the music video at as this will decide upon the type of micro elements you will use in order to appeal to them in hope to form a relationship. By knowing the exact target audience you’re aiming your product for, you can then manipulate they’re reactions/perspectives of things.

Audience categories

The audience category for my music video will be from E to C1 as this is a mainstream genre of club/dance which wouldn’t appeal to those in Categories in bewtween E and C1 due to factors such as annual salary and age differences. In addition, you wouldn’t associate a professional in category A listening to club/dance music. 

 

My music video audience category:

age: 14-35

gender: unisex

race: diverse culture

audience category: E-C1

income bracket/status: lower class-lower middle class

hobbies and interest: partying, working out, playing a sport, urban lifestyle

 

Audience reactions

The music video I plan to create will use all of the audience reactions to an extent however, identification and placement will be at focus. The reactions allow the audience to feel as if they can relate to the music video and the artist based on the attitude of being so motivated and energetic. We will use mise-en-scene elements in order to promote the artists and others lifestyles in hope to turn him into a commodity. Our audience may also reaction differently depending on their perspective of the text, cinematography such as close ups will be used to portray other people rather than just the artist therefore they may not exactly create a relationship with the audience.

 

 

Identifying the target audience for my music video is very effective as it allows me to plan a clear outline of what I plan to do in order to ensure that my music video is able to relate to my target audience also appealing to them whilst meeting their expectations.

 



Planning: Questionnare and Graphs

In order to understand what the audience’s viewpoints and demands from a club/dance music video I carried out a questionnaire that consisted of 15 questions and then then put the feedback into graph form.  The purpose of doing this was to make me understand clearly what makes a target audience enjoy and listen to the genre of my choice (club/dance). I would then be able to use this information and decide on what I should use and what I should not use when  producing my music video product. 

Age:

Gender:

Occupation:

 

Do you like the Club/dance music genre?

Yes

No

Do you prefer Club/Dance artists which are materialistic?

Yes

No

 

Do you prefer the current Club/Dance songs compared to how they were ten years ago?

Yes

No

 

What would like to see a Club/Dance artist wear?

Vest top

Suit

Baggy clothing

Hippy clothes

 

Which structure of a music video do you prefer?

 

Narrative

Performance

Concept

Do you like Concept of diversity within the music video?

Yes

No

Do you believe that the narrative of the music video needs to relate to the song?

Yes

No

Do prefer a narrative with a message behind it?

Yes

No

Would you accept some concept of notion of looking?

Yes

No

 

Would a location help allow you to understand the genre?

Yes

No

 

Which location is relevant to a Club/Dance song?

   Club

    Festival

Gym

Beach

 

What lighting should be used to represent the star?

Top lighting

Under lighting

       Back lighting

 

What lighting should be used to represent the narrative of a break up?

High key lighting  

Low key lighting

Natural lighting

 

How often do you think we should see an artist in a music video?

A lot

Not too much

Hardly present

 

How old do you expect the characters in a music video to be?

15-19

20-24

25-29

30-34