Intial Ideas for 4 AM - Melanie Fiona

For our initial ideas I decided to make a glog. this allowed me to plan out all our ideas in a more creative way through layering images and adding the actual.
to watch and use the actual glog, please go to our Initial Ideas Glog Post

Firstly, we separated out ideas into images and text.
The images displayed items such as clothing, location and equipment
The text explained our two plot, which would be shown in the video through performance and narrative.

New Song (The Name and Reasons)

For a number of reasons we have had to change our song. This was mainly down to;

1. Location?
Firstly, our first location let us down because they had change management due to their lost contract. this original location was Acacia hall.

2. Location PERMISSION
Secondly, our second location didnt let in to film because all of the arrangements we had made with them were all vocal and over the phone, this led us to being blocked in on the day because there was no written contract.

3. Main character AVAILABILITY
Thirdly, our main character was male and it was really hard to find a guy willing to do it , this made really hard to find a lead until we finally had one. But when it came to filming he kept letting  us down, therefore limiting our time to actually film. 

4. Main character willingness to do the video.

In the end he got impatient and quit all together, leaving us with no lead.

This has left us with the decision to change our song completely. Our new song is called 4am by Melanie Fiona, a R&B artist who was recently signed to ROC Nation.

We have chosen this song for multiple reasons. Firstly we think that the bat and the lyrics of the song show exactly what the R&B genre has as some of its stereotypes. Secondly, we think that this is also a good example of an R&B sing without rap within it. This would allow us to use as many of the R&B conventions to make our video successful in its field. Thirdly, this song contain an emotional, heartly vibe to the song, making us able to tap into the protagonist emotions of the current situation. This would help us greatly when picking the narrative and how it should be portrayed. However it also has a vixen edge to her tone of voice, this will enable us to use darker colours for hair, wardrobe and make up.

Practice Shots

In order for us to get our filming right we have decided to split up the shots into groups so that each member of the group can have practice shots of what we would need on the day of filming.
Firstly, we asked Sath and Prince to work with a male to shoot medium close ups and side way shots as well as moving shots to show how the male lead would capture the video.
Here is a video with what they had come up with:

This would not be the male lead we would be using however, he shows some of the ways our male lead would be filmed.

Shot Analysis

This is the analysis of the shots used in the music video for 'Adorn'

Cast - The People that will feature our Music Video

Cast

In the music video there will be one main male artist and two female artists/dancers.

This is one of the two female artists/dancers. Shanike is going to be our main girl. Sarah will only be used during the performance scenes

This is the main male artist. The reason why he was chosen was because he is able to look the part for the video and he can also act for the music video.

Album Digipak Research

An album digipak is a form of packaging often used for album cover and in recent years its contents. It has been patented by the company AGI - Shorewood, a holdings company.

All about Digipaks
An album digipak would consist of the features such as:

Have a type of thick paperboard or card which would have been folded into a book style

Card outer binding, to bring the lyric sideline book together.

Two or more side trays which are capable of holding the CD to the case

Has a protective UV coating on the paper to ensure longevity and durability

The teeth of the packaging are brittle to allow the digipak to remain light.

In the diagram above, it shows the different sides of an album digipak and how it would fit around a CD.
The two end sides show where the CD would be placed and the little details such as the teeth and ridges that would be holding it in place.
These places would be see through as it would allow the accompanying leaflet to slot inside.
The accompanying leaflet would often consist of:
Notes of how the album first came together
A note from the artist themselves, often addressing their fans
The album track list
Lyrics to the singles that will be released
Contact details such as phone number, management, record company etc.
Sometimes it might be a photoshoot of the artist in the background of these spreads.

Some have even tried to make them recyclable by having them made out of renewable materials such as sugar cane and made ridges with the back packaging to get rid of the use of teeth.

Here some examples of digipaks that have become iconic to both the masses and in R&B.

Auteur Research

Fir our video we were asked to do an auteur research. An auteur is a french word originated from author. It is filmmaker, usually a director, who exercises creative control over his or her works and has a strong personal style. This can be also referred to the star image of a music director.

in a music video this is sometimes used to give a new artist a boost in the industry when they are seen to work with a well known music director or music producer.

This is a video hosted by David of The Savage Experience that gives you a detailed insight into the term 'Auteur' and explains its french roots.

From this video we can take the idea and apply it to music video and the narratives within that often constitutes a storyline, plot or scenario seen in modern life.

The would be needed for our music video as we have a narrative combined with the performance. for example personal style would have to be injected into our video to show the style of genre as well as the audience we would want to attract and watch it.

As you can see his name as been altered during that editing of his video by the director to kind of give him an edge and for him have have a recognisable image that people relate to as he is a new artist.

This was later used y the record company to mould his image for others to recognise.

Music Video Director Research

A music video director is someone who would direct a music video just as a film director would direct a film. Their job is to come up with an idea for the music video, along with input from the artist and the co directors and shoot the video, edit and then put it into production.

A common trait of a music director would be similar to that of a film director; they would usually have their own individual style and would mostly stick to a genre of music e.g. R&B.

Colin Tiliey

                                                                  This is a video of behind the scenes footage of Colin Tiliey
                                                     video directing for Nicki Minaj.

Tulisa:

• "Live It Up" featuring Tyga

Conor Maynard:

• "Turn Around" featuring Ne-Yo

Justin Bieber:

• "Never Let You Go"
• "U Smile"
• "Fa La La" featuring Boyz II Men

Nicki Minaj

• "I Am Your Leader" featuring Cam'ron & Rick Ross
• "The Boys" featuring Cassie
• "Freedom"

Rick Ross:

• "Bag of Money" featuring Wale, T-Pain & Meek Mill

Tyga:

• "I'm Gone" featuring Big Sean
• "Faded" featuring Lil Wayne
• "I'm on It" featuring Lil Wayne
• "My Glory"
• "Make It Nasty"

J. Cole:

• "Nobody's Perfect" featuring Missy Elliott

50 Cent:

• "Girls Go Wild" featuring Jeremih

DJ Khaled:

• "Take It to the Head" featuring Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & lil Wayne

French Montana:

• "Shot Caller" (Remix) featuring Diddy, Rick Ross and Charlie Rock

Chris Brown:

• "I Can Only Imagine (ft. David Guetta and Lil Wayne)
• "Next 2 You" featuring Justin Bieber
• "She Ain't You"
• "Look at Me Now" featuring Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes
• "Yeah 3x"
• "No Bullshit"
• "Deuces" featuring Tyga & Kevin McCall
• "Strip" featuring Kevin K-Mac McCall
• "The Matrix"
• "Don't Wake Me Up"
• "Don't Judge Me"

Mary J. Blige:

• "Someone to Love Me (Naked)" featuring Lil' Wayne & Diddy
• "Why" featuring Rick Ross

Young Jeezy:

• "Ballin'" featuring Lil Wayne

Keri Hilson:

• "One Night Stand" featuring Chris Brown
• "Lose Control" featuring Nelly

Diddy – Dirty Money:

• "Ass on the Floor" featuring Swizz Beatz
• "Yesterday" featuring Chris Brown
• "Your Love" featuring Rick Ross & Trey Songz
• "Looking for Love" featuring Usher

New Boyz:

• "Better with the Lights Off" featuring Chris Brown

Ciara:

• "Speechless"

Melanie Fiona:

• "Gone and Never Coming Back"
• "4AM"

 This is specially helpful as this is the video we are trying to recreate with our own ideas.

Chipmunk:

• "In the Air" featuring Keri Hilson
• "Champion" featuring Chris Brown

Jeremih:

• "Down on Me" featuring 50 Cent

Lil Wayne:

• "John" featuring Rick Ross
• "No Worries" featuring Detail

JLS:

• "She Makes Me Wanna" featuring Dev

Soulja Boy:

• "Mean Mug" featuring 50 Cent

Wiz Khalifa:

• "No Sleep"

FreeSol:

• "Fascinated" featuring Justin Timberlake

Katy B:

• "Witches Brew"

Jason Derülo:

• "It Girl"
• "Breathing"

Lil B:

• "We Can Go Down"

Tinie Tempah:

• Invincible feat. Kelly Rowland

Red Café:

• Fly Together feat. Ryan Leslie & Rick Ross

Fat Joe:

• Another Round feat. Chris Brown

Dappy:

• Rockstar feat. Brian May
• Good Intentions

Bow Wow :

• "Ain't Thinkin' 'Bout You" featuring Chris Brown

Six D:

• "Best Damn Night"

Labrinth:

• Last Time

Hugo:

• "99 Problems"

Sean Garrett:

• "In Da Box" featuring Rick Ross

Tank:

• "Sex Music"

Lloyd:

• "Let's Get It In" featuring 50 Cent

Jawan Harris:

• "Another Planet" featuring Chris Brown

Shontelle:

• Perfect Nightmare

Jessie and The Toy Boys

• "Let's Get Naughty

Miguel - The Artist

MIGUEL
For our media project we have decided to do the song, Adorn by the R&B artist Miguel.
Miguel's Website

History

Miguel Jontel Pimentel was born on the 23rd october 1986. he was first signed to Drop Squad Records after graduating from high school in 2000, due to a change of image he signed to Jive Records in 2007 where he released his first album All I Want You. although the album wasn't successful immediately, it became a sleeper hit and gradually went up the album chart in the Billboard 100 until it reached certified gold, selling 404,000 copies in the US alone.

Image

His image is very prominent and is often seen as the first indicator to his music. He is all known to have a smart hipster style. He is known for having tight suit with quirky accessories. The colours he usually wears are either bright and bold and black with a futuristic.

The first image displays Miguel signature style by having the qurky bow tie along with the suit like cardigan. As well as this he also has his staple futuristic glasses, which are seen in alot of his looks.
We would be taking inspiration of this by using both a bow tie and a pair of Ray-Bans, taking inspiration from his glasses.

This is another one of his looks where he uses the glasses again and he has more of a rock edge.

I alot of his clothes also consist of leather jackets, which  we would also be adapting for our video .

Albums

All I Want Is You

Kaleidoscope Dream

Animatic For Our Music Video

Jessica and I had left Sath and Prince in charge of the animatic and this is what they came up with. I felt that this was successful because that got the shot in time with the lyrics and I felt that the shots were carefully thought out.

This is what they got up to behind the scenes:

To begin with, Prince and Sath started watching the official music video for our song choice 'Adorn'. As they were watching the music video, they wrote down the different shots and angles in the music video.

  They wrote down every single shot that was used in the entire music video and the length of each cut. By the time they had finished the entire song, they had a couple pages of shots to group and analyse.

After they had all of the shots, they started analysing them to show which shots were most used and how effectively they was used.

Once they had analysed the different shots used in the actual music video, they started to write down shots for our own music video.

Once the shots were written down, they drew them out so we can put them onto our animatic.

Once they finished the drawing, they had uploaded them onto the computer and cropped them out into smaller pictures of each individual shots.

Once all of that was done, they opened up 'Final Cut Pro' and inserted all of the pictures and the song.

Once they had all we needed onto final cut, they started putting pictures onto the timeline according to the song.

Location and Costume Shots

Here is an animoto of the clothes and the location that will or may be used during our video.




Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

Song Choice And Lyrics Analysis

Song Choice and Lyrics Analysis

We have decided to create a music video for the song, Adorn by Miguel. We have chosen this song for multiple reasons. Firstly, we feel that this is a prime example of the male R&B genre without it including rap within the song. This will allow us to use conventions of the R&B genre within the video and it will turn turn out realistic and successful. Secondly, it is done by a male figure which allow us to interpret more views from both sexes which can often make a video more approachable to the real world if it was to be chosen. Thirdly, the song includes an older, new jack swing sound which allow us to more away from it being a typical R&B vulgar video to it being classy and looking a lot more naturally effective. Fourthly, the artist allows us to use his star power to bring a swerve and sophistication to our main character and the back up dancers.

Finally, the song allows us to include both performance and narrative and the performance within narrative, often seen in the R&B genre. This would allow our video to fit in with other videos around today successfully. the bet of the song would allow us to create close up of moving object even though there wont be a band present.

We decided to create a poster, displaying the lyrics, the analysis and what the artist wanted it to portray and the way we would portray it in our music video.

Pitch For Our Music Video

In order to make our music video process more professional we had to create and present a teacher for our teacher on our song choice and music video ideas.
During our pitch we decided to made a mood board on our school board.