Behind Schedule

Recently we have been behind schedule due to Tavonga's life being busy, we have have to result in basing our timings around his schedule so that it is fair on his schedule as well as ours. This has resulted in alot of set backs within our schedule however, we our hoping with Tavonga almost being done with his music in his college life, we will be able to get alot of filming done in the next few weeks.

Final Costume

Here are the hairstyles that I did my self for the music video, the first picture reveals the "works hair do"b that will be done in the narrative based part of the music video at the very start, this accompanies the storyline of the female character coming home from work. I feel this hairstyle represents her image well as it isn't to formal or informal.

The second and third hairstyle are hairstyles that are going to be used through out the music video, in and outside the house, these are hairstyles that are worn my people every single day and by using a simple ponytail like this it keeps the natural look that we were going for but also ensures that Tavonga is the main character.

This hairstyle is a hairstyle that was inspired by my research of Beyonce, and I though that this hairstyle would be used in the part of the music video where she looked more formal, possibly for the part where she is going out with friends as it shows her in a different light.

These are images of what the makeup will be like during the majority of the film, the makeup is subtle and light yet stylish as it reveals the woman to be quite a dominant character and reveals her character to be someone who likes the look after her self. I decided to used the winged eyeliner and natural eyeshadow tones to reveal her secretive/seductive side that is showed when her cheating is revealed.

Female Costume

Due to the fact there are multiple different scenes within the music video, I have taken inspiration from different hairstyles and outfits that have been used by famous and popular R&B artists. I have decided to take inspiration from music videos as well as events they have been to to show what representation I would have, however as a group, we have decided that although the female should look sophisticated and classy and be the main woman of the music video, she should still be in subtle clothing to ensure Tavonga is the main attraction.

I have decided to use hairstyles from music videos where the female characters look very natural and focus more of their natural beauty, I decided to use this look as we want the male character to be the dominant character and stand out the most as he is the artist within our music video.

Here I have chosen certain styles that I think would compliment the music video and ensure that the female character doesn't stand out compared to Tavonga's characters. They are all hairstyles that aren't seen as professionally done, which means that the music video is natural and homely which is what the lyrics of the songs are based on. We wanted to create a music video that looked like the couple when they were alone, so a hairstyle that looked like it was done as home fits the video.

Importance of Artists as Role models

Artists have a responsibility to serve as role models to our youth

I disagree with this statement as I feel music artists have the right to express their own personalities and emotions through their music. I feel that artists and musicians choose to be artists as they feel that they can express themselves through it and if that is stripped back just to be ‘appropriate’ and suitable for a specific target market then it isn't music that truly expresses anything- which is what music is all about. However artists do have to serve as role models to our youth through their actions, if only their goal is to target a specific audience, but they do not have to take any responsibility what so ever for what teenagers choose to listen to or the actions they choose to take because of artists lyrics. For example, an artist like Chris brown was seen as a heart throb known for his expressive dancing and old school R&B yet his music has slowly changed from being about love to being more about the sexual experiences he would like or has had with women which has taken the young loved R&B singer he once was, however, I feel that over the years as he has gotten old, he has developed to create music that is more about what he wants to write and sing about rather than impressing a target audience of young girls who seen his as a teenage crush. 

Chris Brown's change

This has also been portrayed with the likes of Justin Bieber who has taken a different approach and created songs more for an older audience than create music videos and songs that are seen as “soppy”. I feel that with Tavonga’s role as an artist, we should express him to be more a character that expresses his own views and style rather than an artist that follows in the footsteps of others.

Justin Bieber's change

Tavonga's Ideal Brand

After knowing Tavonga for over 5 years, I have thought of how I can incorporate some of his personal life into our music as it creates more of a recognisable brand that people would recognise him from.From what I know of him, I understand that his ethnic background is very religious and him and his family are from Zimbabwe, so he lives in a very strong Christian house hold. Tavonga goes to church every Sunday which is an important thing that he never usually misses.

Another factor that is important to Tavonga is his fashion sense, he is often inspired by the likes of Kanye west and other artists such as Chris Brown who inspire him to wear the latest fashion as well as improvise and create his own fashion style.I feel that with fashion being one of the main factors that drives people to love artists more, I think his brand should lead with a heavy fashion based look as well as incorporating his live for Christianity of the digipack so that the audience have a look into his personal life, which is what fans like to witness. Audiences like to feel more connected with their favourite artists so by placing some personal features within the images will help the audience engage with Tavonga.

Through out the time I have known him, everyone he knows and that I have personally known have always seen Tavonga as a character that is always positive and sees the good in everyone, I feel that this is a part of his personality that should be shown as I feel with artists such as Chris Brown, it reflected negatively when he had the incident where he hit and beat up ex girlfriend Rihanna. I believe that an audience respond better to an artist who has come from a bad background and has brought them selves up to be an artist who is respectful and positive such as Jay-z 

Audience Survey

I decided to create an audience survey based on the costume of Tavonga's character that he is playing, We decided to create this survey to test what types of costume an audience likes, we decided to narrow it down and keep to popular fashions worn by Kanye West and Justin Bieber as they are known to be highly fashionable celebrities however, we chose certain popular fashions that they are known for to see what our audience likes the best and why. This will help us narrow our costume choices down and we will be able to match up Tavonga's clothes as closely to the fashions as much as possible.

From knowing that Tavonga's is a highly religious character in his personal life but also takes his fashion choices seriously, we wanted to base his fashion choices on both so that we have a sense of his personal life which an audience likes to connect with.

After 10 people from our audience age range did our survey, we found out that fashions based on Kanye were most popular as he is mostly popular and has a high career in fashion, the audience also added that they found Kanye's fashion suited Tavonga's appearance as they have similar features and they feel his fashion is mostly recognised as "today's fashion".

Key Representations

 Trey Songz is represented in the music industry as being a heartthrob to teenagers as well as adults, he focuses his music on the theme of love and sex which targets this age group. In a lot of his music videos he is often showing off his muscular figure to reveal this point and to attract the more female audience that he desires, this is a pointer that maybe we don't want to attract due to his religious background and the song being about his one true love that has broke his heart. However, there is elements of Trey Songz's persona that could feature on the digipak that would attract more of a female audience.  Drake is often shown and is famous for his emotional characteristics that he portrays in songs which links closely to the lyrics of 'So sick', Drake is often placing his hands in his head and concentrating more of the emotional side of a woman rather than the physical side, which reveals real-life situations that couples have been in. this is a characteristic that we want Tavonga to have as it portrays the lyrics of the song and I believe with Drake being names as one of the biggests artists in the world, that this version of Drake is something all audiences warm too and prefer compared to a character like Chris brown.

Within the Music video of 'Ayo' chris brown right at the start is portrayed with mass amounts of money as well as gold and expensive luxuries that his audiences would only wish for, this is something that is well known from this character, however I believe that this representation of him portrays him in a negative way as an audience feel that they can not connect with him as they can with artists such as Trey Songz and Drake.

Essential Brands Of An Artist

Chris Brown

Chris Brown first arrived on the music scenes when he was just 15 years old, he was discovered by Tina Davis, who was working for Def Jam Recordings at the time. "The first thing that hit me was his unique voice," which is what Davis said when she first heard his voice and instantly thought he would be a star.

From this, Brown has become known to be one f the most influential music artists in the R&B scene working with the likes of Justin Beiber, Rihanna, Jay-z and Kayne West as well as being a fashion icon to teens and adults using his good looks and charm to help him along the way.

He has sometimes been compared to Michael Jackson because of his dual talents as a singer and dancer.

Chris has developed his career by winning multiple Grammy's in the music industry and going into the acting scene by featuring in hip-hop dance box office hit  "stomp in the yard". However despite everything he has achieved, he is most known for his looks which charms his dominant female audience-attracting them with his bodily tattoos as well as his famous dance routines.

Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham(also known for his stage name 'Drake' is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor.

 Drake is well known for his rapping and being involved with 'Young Money' group(which is an American record label founded by Lil' Wayne) involving Nicki Minaj, Tyga, Bow Wow and T-pain who are a group known for their eccentric rapping. 

Drake has used his emotional songs about love and heartbreak to make him known in the world of music and has recently become a heart-throb for teens since his change in appearance

Iconography

In order to keep a continuity within the music video and to challenge the conventions of a music video, we have decided to use a form of iconography that will allow the audience to understand the music more. Iconography is an object or sign that is played throughout that links to a subject within the storyline, we have decided to choose a red rose to portray this is a hope to portray the love that the two characters once had and we will use a scene where the rose is surrounded by the smashed glass to show how the love has been destroyed by the female character cheating.
The recurring motif will be shown 3 times through out the music if multiple stages of the breakup and romance of the couple, once when she first receives, then on the bed side table during the chorus then at the end when it will be dropped in slow motion. this revealing the good and worst times of their relationship but also by using it with the male character on his own, it reveals how it was more sentimental with him rather then her, again revealing her lack of commitment.

The idea of our motif is to make sure that it doesn't stand out too much but instead tell a story to the audience without actually narrating it

 We used the rose in the smashed glass so that it was continuous from the beginning flash forward scene where the glass was thrown in slow motion and we decided that at the end the rose should again be in slow motion to capture the emotional effect that their love is now over. The fact that the chorus is repeated at the end reveals that his emotions are playing over and over in his mind and he doesn't know what else to say and I think by using a rose to smash on the floor will leave a cliff hanger as well as end the song nicely. We will also fade this shot out with the song to a plain background.

Lyric Analysis Against The Narrative

I decided to compare the story board and lyrics to each other to see how our narrative and story matched up and linked with the lyrics, we had to ensure that that story linked with the lyrics so that it would be easy for the audience to follow and understand. I analysed the lyrics and placed the points of where certain parts of our story would go, I also wrote down why it linked and why we used certain shots within our story board. We decided that to ensure the story of our music video had a continuous effect, we would use the specific emotional pan shot of the male actor lip singing the song, this would ensure that the audience knew what and what wasn't the chorus. We found this to be an effect that Ne-yo uses in the original video and we found it to be a successful theme running through.

Finished Storyboard

In today's lesson, my group and I finish doing the story board, we decided to do a narrative based start which consisted of an argument between the two couple which was seen to be a fast forward of what is about to happen. The whole of the music video is based on how they started off good then how the relationship turned bad after the female character starting to become unfaithful. It shows the contrast between the two characters and we decided to use some split screen and time lapse to create a unique music video. We decide to include this to make it different from the original video that Ne-yo creates.

Storyboard

This is the first page of our story board- this is the narrative part of the music video where the argument is started and finished. We have decided not to include any of the music at the start and use the silence and show what they are saying by lip syncing and allowing the audience to figure out what they are saying. We have combined all of the opening scenes I found on youtube to create a scene that would link to the lyrics as well as creating an effective break-up scene. We have used the glass smashing from the Nicki Minaj break-up scene and have used the powerful female image from Beyonce's song "Irreplaceable". We have decided to use a slow-motion effect when the glass is broken on the floor to add more effect and drama which is what we want to create.
On an interview with Ne-Yo about this song Ne-yo stated "It's about the first time I fell in love with a girl in a way that I completely screwed it up. So it was a story that I didn't have to think really hard about putting it together. A lot of heartbreak went into that song, so that's why I think a lot of people dug it the way they did - because you can feel it." which is why we want to create a video that represents this.

We've used a pan shot in one of the scenes to show the male characters emotions from the back of him through to the front to truly reveal his emotions on the break-up, and we will do this on the woman to show the difference in emotion.

Requesting Song Rights

As part of doing our music video, we had to request permission of the production company that originally produced "So Sick". We had to do this to ensure that no copyright crimes were committed.
First, we decided to look at an existing email that was sent by one of the past A level students last year. We analysed this template and used it as a base for out own letter to ensure the formality of the letter as well as to ensure we covered every point we needed to make. Although we most likely won't receive a reply from DefJam, if any copyright legal action was taken, it would clarify us knowing that we sent a permission letter

We started researching into the song of so sick on multiple websites and found that the label of the song was DefJam, which is where we started to search ways in which we would be able to send this email, we also found multiple other facts such as they have worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West and lots of other world wide famous artists. We searched on the website and we were unable to find their email address which made us look into multiple websites to find their email or a manager who we would be able to send it too.
We found that DefJam was owned by Universal music production so we looked on their to find someone or something where we'd be able to send out permission letter, this took us to a link that would allow us to tell Universal what song we would request for, however later on realised this was for the US. We were then relocated to the UK site, where we found an email address of a woman named Laura who was the leader of this sort of case.
                                                  The email sent

Production Company- Def Jam

"So Sick" is a song by American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo. The track was produced by Norwegian production team Stargate for Ne-Yo's debut studio album In My Own Words (2006). The song was released as the second single from the album.

The record label that produced and distributed this music video was a record label called Def Jam Recordings is an American music label, focused predominantly on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group.

After looking at Dem Jams website and researching into what sort of artists they have on their label, as well as producing the original "so sick" song, I feel that Def Jam would be the best option for us to use. We will be contacting Def Jam and writing them a consent form about having permission for us to use their artist and song and placing it on a public sight.

Editing Research

Editing in a music video is one of the most essential parts in a video and could differ the music video from being unsuccessful to successful and the right editing and effects could change the amount of attention and profit a record label/company makes. Effects and editing have to be chosen specifically to fit a specific audience, so if an audience is younger , a record label would tend to use more colour and effects to make it more child-like where for an older audience, they tend to keep it more neutral and stick to simple transitions and camera work. I feel that editing plays a huge part within a music video as I feel an audience can judge a song based on the music video.

Production Schedule

In order to make our production simpler and quicker for the group and I, we have decided to follow a production schedule that would let us know if we were behind schedule and allow us to know what we have to do each lesson and outside of school.

Moodboard

I created a moodboard after we create out first initial spider diagram so that we have some idea in our heads what certain parts of the narrative and music video will look like. I have taken some inspiration from music videos as well as pictures from Tumblr that represent what we are thinking.

From creating this moodboard of pictures for inspiration, I have thought that
I will need to balance showing the good and bad sides of the relationship so show the story of how the relationship went bas in the beginning, this will ensure that the audience understand the narrative at the start of the music video.
I think we should focus a lot of the music video on the dominant character(the male) and emphasise his sad emotions to reveal that it was him that did wrong in the relationship-this will also reveal the woman to be the dominant and with something like her throwing a drink in his face would appeal to a wider female audience which is something that isn't done in modern R&B.

Final Song Choice

After considering the choices of 3 songs and looking over our focus groups, we have finally decided with Tavonga's consent to do the song "so sick" by Ne-yo, we found this to be a song that would be successful as we found that the lyrics of the song would be easy to conform too. We found that we would be able to create a love narrative that has gone wrong and with many music video's being based on this narrative, we will be able to incorporate different ideas from other R&B artists.
From looking at the focus group of year 13, they said that Ne-yo would have been the best artist as they found that it suited Tavonga's character a lot as they all know him from school and they also found that
Ne-yo's songs could create an easy narrative.

Setting

For the setting, we decided to focus more of the urban areas as we found R&B artists are known for their "street/Urban" style and look of their music videos, after looking at the videos that we looked at for our focus groups, we realised many of them were located in the streets or clubs and with us not being able to have the people or authentication to do it in a club, we have decided to focus more on the street side of the music video. We looked into areas based in Manchester city centres and have looked at unique buildings based in the Northern Quarter as well as other places that are quirky like places near Aflecks palace.

We also thought of using a bed scene that would hsow the good times they had it bed like cuddling as a couple then juxtapose this image with the woman or man sat on the bed alone to show that the realtionship is no more. We thought that this would be a good way to create the personal effect on the audience.

Initial Ideas

In Todays lesson, my group and I came up with some initial ideas we feel that would like to the story of the song as well as the lyrics that they tell. We decided on creating a narrative based story whic involved us showing the break up of the couple at the start of the relationship then through out showing good memories that they had, as well as showing how the break-up formed.

With what we found out, we were talking a lot about how we would be able to create a music video that would differ from other music video, we came up with including flashbacks and editing skills such as timelapse to create a music video that would tell a story in a different way. I have looked at the music video of Beyonce's "If I were a boy" as i know that the whole music video is based upon the flashbacks of their relationship and what differs this music video to any other I have seen is that half way through the song they switch roles so that instead of Beyonce acting as "if she were a boy", it changes so that now he is, which shows both perspectives and puts a meaning and a message behind the song inself, showing both men and women how they can act. We want to use something like this within our music video so that the audience are engaged by it though out. We aim to use the good and bad memories of the relationship in the past to show the journey of a relationship and use the black and white effect used in this video to convince the audience that the mood of the music video is negative and gloomy. I feel that this will exaggerate the theme of a heartbreak, which is what the lyrics are about. 

A technique we were thinking of using was a split screen, with the two characters doing the exact same thing eg. sitting on the bed, however acting very different from the breakup, we want to create it so that the male main character is upset and sad about the relationship as it was his fault it ended then the woman acting happy and satisfied with the breakup as she knows she deserves better, this way the lyrics and the narrative have a symbolic link.

Narrative Ideas- Break Up Scene

I have taken this break up scene from Nicki Minaj's song "right through me"which is based on the narrative of a couple trying to sort through the problems within their relationship. I have chose to look at this break up scene as it involves a script based narrative which is what my group and I discussed about having at the start of the music video. Within this music video, i like the way it is the woman that is seen as the dominant character, which is something that isn't seen often in R&B music videos. However, you can also seen the softer side of her which reveals her to still be in love with the male character. This is something that we aim to reveal as Ne-yo's song is based on the same story however, we aim to make the woman being the one walking out and the male character(Tavonga) being the one doing the chasing.
This break up scene has been told so that the break up has already happened as Beyonce is kicking him out of her house, this break up clearly shows her to be the dominant character in this as the lyrics show her to have money and say that she can find another man in a minute. Its a song that empowers women and makes women out to be independent. This song was clearly made to appeal to the female audience and the narrative of the women being the dominant character I believe makes women like the narrative more.
This break-up scene is from the song from Chris brown and Justin Bieber "next to you" it features the dad of the girl telling her never to see Justin Bieber again. it involves Chris Brown waking up to the girl not being in his bed etc. and him panicking with a car blowing up, this creates more drama as the audience believe that the girl is dead. This would be a good narrative to use as it allows the audience to be more involved with the narrative,however we would have to think of different ways to create more drama as we don't have the equipment and money to allow props to be blown up.

Reflection Of Our Focus Group

We have carried out a focus group with one group which is our own media class of year 13's. The session was very helpful however, as we asked a range of questions which aided our initial ideas of how we were going create a music video for the genre of R&B. I had created a consent form so that the class were happy to take part and Eboni created a power point of visual aids which included pictures of R&B artists and extracts of music videos from these artists. This formed the base of our questions and helped narrow down our talk which would give focused and detailed answers.

Firstly, we informed the group about the background of R&B with some information about general conventions and how it had changed over time. We asked what the audience already knew about R&B and who their favourite artists were in general to see if anyone's favourite artist was in fact, an R&B artist. This was not the case however, once we discussed certain artists from this genre, it appeared that they were still very popular with our group. By asking these sorts of questions we were able to question why they liked certain artists and what about them made the stand out from other artists.

There were some older R&B videos mixed with some newer ones and so we could show this comparison to our audience. When asked which type of R&B was better, the audience response was generally that an older type video was preferred as they gave more of a sense of reality. They didn't like the newer videos as they focussed more of wealth and success which came across arrogant as well as the desirable, sexual representation of women which was not approved by many. With the male audience of the focus group approving of the women being represented as sexual, they still found that whilst it is ok for a woman to represented as sexual, they found that the way the women were represented in Miss independent (classy and dominant) was more attractive that limited clothing.

A question that was put forward questioned whether narrative videos were more popular or performance based videos. We showed them extracts of Drake's 'Started from the bottom' which is very much followed with narrative and compared it with Usher's 'Yeah' which is predominantly a performance by Usher himself. The audience were again mixed. Some people enjoyed the story telling element of the music video as it was something to follow however, the more popular choice was the performance based video of Usher as it focuses more on the song itself rather than a story which allows the artist to dance to his own music and let the music do the work.

Focus Group

Consent Forms-Year 10/11

We formed a letter of consent for parent to give us permission to allow them on our blogs/the internet.

Challenging stereotypes

Before we came up with an initial idea, as a group we decided we wanted to challenge stereotypes and conventions to make the music video unique to appeal to the audience. Therefore we have included a male protagonist in our initial idea that is chasing a female because in new R&B is using women being portrayed as the sexual object, where as in our music video we want to portray them as being beauty. This will make our music video unique to new music videos and create a differ with the music video that already exists from the song.

Here are some stereotypes that typically portrayed within music videos:

The first stereotype is the empowerment of women, Here Beyonce is shown to be the dominant character of the music video of "Bow Down" and all the male characters obey her, this has recently become a popular front that women put on in their music videos as feminism has become more and more popular,they often create this appearance to target the younger and older audience to see them as role models. Beyonce has used her popular title as "Queen Bee" to target this audience and can taken this to her advantage by create a look that many people will remember.

Here,Chris Brown is sticking the typical stereotype which is where men flaunt their money and wealth and see them selves as the dominant. They see them selves as higher than women and often portray them as sexual objects and nothing more. this means that male artists often create their music videos to attract a dominant male audience of teens-30 year olds who like explicit views of women. This is something that never appeals to women, however with Chris brown often being seen as an attractive artist, women audiences are still attracted to see him.

Within Beyonce's "Why don't you love me" music video she is portrayed as being a domestic housewife who obeys her husband and is crying as she is appreciated enough. At the start of the video she is seen doing chores and blowing up a car engine which shows women in a light of being unable to do male tasks. Whilst she is doing this, she is wearing very revealing clothing/lingerie which shows her sexual appeal. This music video attracts both men and women with both  the sexual reference as well as the empowerment of the lyrics.

Here Rihanna has portrayed her self as the sexual character rather than a male doing it. It is clear she wanted to attract a male audience which is what she did.