Editing Tutorials - Prince

As we were not too experienced or familiar with using final cut pro I guess running into problem is no surprise. When we started of this project we were bursting with ideas of what we could include in our video for example effects. There was only one thing that was holding us back....we didn't exactly know how to do these effects on final cut. At this point we were feeling low and were starting to lower our standards and ideas. I guess there was just one thing we forgot, we had a weapon at our disposal, something that could turn anything impossible, possible.....the internet. All we needed to do really was to search up "how to do this" and " how to do that" and it will just put up in front of us within seconds. So we decided to search up different effects or problems we encountered and used websites such as youtube to help overcome these problems..

Speed

One of the biggest problems we had whilst making our video was the speed. The timing of our artists lip syncing and out audio file did not exactly match, this was a disaster at that time, as every professional video has the lip syncing and the audio working together. No matter what we tried or what we did it just was not working. To overcome it we searched it on you tube and came up with this..

Colour

Another problem we encountered whilst making our music video was that some of our clip either looked too dark or too bright. We needed to find a way to change this as it was making our music video look very unprofessional. As we did before, we decided to call on you tube to help us out.

 

Adding Effects

We wanted our music video to look different from everybody else in the class. To do this we had to obviously come up with something unique. So we decided to search on youtube for possible effects that could make our music video stand out.

The Most Expensive Videos Of All Time - Jessica

In order to know not only how much directors put into creating their music videos and what makes music videos so expensive, I researched the five most expensive music videos. 

1) Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson - Scream (£4,330,290.89)

This video was created in 1995.  When looking at this video, it becomes more obvious why the video was as expensive as it was. With the use of various transition editing, throughout out the video which would have been produced by the new developed equipments, therefore it would have been more expensive then than now. Additionally this video includes many props such as jet black electric guitar, chairs, statues, paintings etc. Majority of the video consists of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson in a "spaceship". Overall the main cost of this video would come from the narrative/performance within the video.

2) Madonna - Die Another Day (£1,673,951.46+)
This video was created in 2002 for the theme to the James Bond Movie (Die Another Day). The stunts and props used throughout the video is the main attraction of the music video, as well as the duplication of Madonna. From my knowledge of filming, the director must of had to film every clip (with the two Madonna's) twice - a man/woman playing the Madonna that isn't her. The several stunts means that money would need to be spent on hiring professional (add the different ones here) as well as a stunt women who features are similar to Madonna to stand in for the sections that can only be done by professionals. Additionally watching the video I notice there are some fighting scenes which contains Madonna doing martial arts; (not to ridicule Madonna, but I don't think she can fight) moreover money would need to be spent on teaching Madonna martial arts.

3) Puff Daddy - Victory (£3,713,036.57)
This video was created in 1998. The full video is approximately 7:59 minutes long. From my research victory is the replica of the movie "The Running Man" and Puff Daddy is basically the replacement of Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is a lot of rain, heavy duty explosions and pyrotechnics, motorcycles and choppers with with armed men. I noticed the known actor Danny Devito is used in the music video as the news reporter following Puffy's progress throughout the 'game show'; along with Dennis Hopper who plays  (if you have seen all his movies, you would not be surprised) the main villain.

4)Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker (£1,550,056.85)
This music video was situated in a cinema, obviously the cinema would had be rented out (costing A LOT). Similar to Madonna music video (Die Another Day) there are two Mariah Carey's along with a fighting scene (and not to ridicule her either - she can't fight) so the director would have to do extra filming (doing each scene twice) as well Mariah Carey being taught how to fight. Additionally the first clip there is a choreography which includes around 20 dancers (including Mariah Carey) therefore money would have need to be spent on the dancers as well as a choreographer to choreograph the dance.  Furthermore there is a animated section of the music video, moreover from my research in order to create that section of the music video an animator would draw up a storyboard of the section which would be animated then create using a computer.

Advisement during Music Videos - Jessica

Brands are increasingly embedding their products within music videos in their advertising; this creates an ease of targeting their audience. Products placed in music videos never disappear, as long as the video exists, so does the advertising campaign. This solidity is different from other ads which may be played before or after the music video, this is because (especially if the music video is a hit) the video is most likely to be played more than a single advert (imprinting the product in the audience mind). Music videos are particularly influential among younger audience, therefore brands which are longing to  'woo' 18-25 year olds demographics, are taking full advantage of this.

A quote I learnt, which to me I believes sums up advertisments embedded within music video:

"Product placement promotes consumer identification, interaction and conversation around a brand"

Diet Coke, Sony, Dating Site (Plenty of Fish) and Wonder Bread are just some of the brands that play the latest leading roles in a selection of music videos, and according to PQ Media, the trends are set to grow rapidly, bringing high returns on investment for brand owners.

Britney Spears' video for her hit single 'Hold it Against Me' featured Plenty of Fish, Make Up For Ever, Radiance (Perfume by Britney Spears) and Sony.

Lady Gaga's video for 'Telephone' presented viewers with the Virgin Mobile and of course the legendary hairstyle, Diet Coke - aka the eccentric pop star's 'hair rollers'

According to a report released last week by PQ Media, the money spent on product placement in recorded music grew 8 percent in 2009 compared with the year before, while overall paid product placement declined 2.8 percent, to $3.6 billion (£2,493,247.45). Patrick Quinn, chief executive of PQ Media, said that revenue from product placement in music videos totaled $15 million (£9360660) to $20 million (£12480880) last year, more than double the amount in 2000, and he expected that to grow again this year. For years, the opportunities for product placement  in music videos were limited. MTV was the dominant outlet for videos, and its policy prohibited blatant plugs in videos, so the network would often blur brand labels or ask for a new version without the placement. However there are a few occasions when music channels (MTV, Kiss) do not blur out blatant plugs in videos.

This is our own attempt to add promotion to our video:

 

Conventions Of Different Genred Music Videos - Jessica

Pop Music Videos 

There are many convention commonly used in pop videos, in the video below is the video Katy Perry - Last Friday, I have used this video to show the conventions.

 Upbeat - Instantly as you play the video you can hear the upbeat song. Pop genre songs majority of the time are upbeat with a fast pace. 

Bright Colours - Also as you can see there is a use of bright colours. Pop videos to mimic the pace of the beat (exciting, fast, up-tempo) use retro, bright, block colours to create that fun, party atmosphere. In this music video the colour hot pink, yellow, purple etc. are use continuously throughout the video.

Locations - Location based on the lyrics is usually party/club scene, as the intention of pop music is to generally be played in clubs or at party. Likewise in this music video the location used is in a house to create a house party. 

Costume - Pop genre similar to hip hop videos always have a variety of costumes. For example in this music Katy Perry costumes changes from a dungaree with a turtle neck, to a bodycon skirt and crop top. There is also a part in the music video where she is wearing a long medieval gown.

Instruments - Unlike rock/indie music videos you tend not to see instruments in the music video for example Ke$ha - Tik Tok, however nowadays pop music videos do not always tend to stick to that convention; Katy Perry - Last Friday Night, is a great example as there is a saxophone solo performance in the music video. 

Dance Sequences - Pop videos tend to have a dance sequence in their music videos, this usually to encourage the audience to dance, as well as making the music video more entertaining.

Heavy Metal Music Videos

Similar to Pop videos there are conventions which are used repetitively used in metal music videos. I have decided to use the music video 'Psychosocial' by Slipknot to highlight these examples. 

Dark Lighting/Setting - Heavy metal music videos always have a sinister atmosphere to it. As you can see in the Slipnot video, the lighting is very dark, there is fire in many of the shorts giving it that 'hellish' setting.

Performance Based - Majority if not all metal music videos are performance based. Slipknot   music video is a beautiful example. As you can see all instruments used to create the song is shown in the video; the band is performing. 

Costume  - The costume is clothing is always dark to fit the theme of the video, black is prominently used in their attire. In the case of this music video not only are their attire black but they are also wearing scary looking mask.

Fast Pace - Heavy metal songs are always fast pace, electric guitars are constantly used to usually get the audience adrenaline 'pumping'.

Camera Angle - Camera angles are always shaky, to mimic the chaotic setting as well as the fast pace of the song. 

Hip Hop Music Videos 

All Hip Hop music videos all share similar conventions. Using Trey Songz ft T.I - 2 Reason, I will underline the similar conventions used.

Props/Location - Similar to pop videos nowadays hiphop songs are situated in a club or a house party. Although they are also some hip hop music videos which are located in a expensive house. The theme of wealth is prominently shown through hip hop music videos, therefore props such as expensive cars, expensive alcohol even literal money is shown. For example in Trey Songz music videos, it is in a club, there is expensive alcohol everywhere, along with many beautiful girls. 

Costume - To follow the theme of wealth prominently shown in hip hop music videos. The attire that the artist wear are usually very expensive, which not only makes them look wealthy but promotes the clothing line.

Promotions - Hip Hop videos love to promote products in their videos, from perfumes, clothing to cars and alcohol. As you can clearly see in this music video the expensive drink is Grey goose is promoted as well as french drink. 

More On Target Audience - Sath

According to UKtribes there are many types of young people out there in the world, their social groups have various names such as; boy racers, chavs, indie scenesters, emos etc. All of those groups of young people fall under bigger social groups which narrows things down. The big social groups are; aspirant mainstream, mainstream, urban, alternative kids, and leading edge. 


Aspirant mainstream consists of Trendies and Rahs. The brands that most of them use are; Amazon, Jack Wills, H&M, Topshop, and iTunes. The media brands that are most common are; Vogue, Timesonline, Channel 4, Twitter, Elle, and Facebook.

Mainstream consists of; Ravers, Townies, Chavs, Boy Racers, Sport Junkies, Street rats, and Casuals. The popular brands that people from this social group uses are;Nike, Umbro, River Island, Reebok, Primark, Nintendo Wii, Sports Direct. The Media brands that are most common are; OK!, The Sun, Youtube, ITV 1, and Facebook.



Urban social group consists of; Get paid crew, Blingers, DIYers, and Trackies. The brands that are most common in this social group are;Nike, Youtube, Yahoo, JD sports, Blackberry, Adidas, New era, and Playstation 3. The media brands which are common amongst this social group are; BBC 1xtra, Channel 4, Kiss 100, AKA, Facebook, and MTV Base.

The Alternative kids social group consists of; Gamers, Emos, Scene Kids, Skaters, Metal heads, Young Alts. The most common brands in this social group are;Amazon, American Apparel, Play.com, Nintendo DS, Topman, Quiksilver, Vans, and Xbox 360. The most common media brands in this social group are; Xfm, Eurogamer, 4OD, Youtube, NME, Facebook, Kerrang, and Myspace.

The Leading Edge social group consists of; Hipsters, Geeks, Craft kids, Indie scenesters. The brands that are most common in this social group are; Nike, Wikipedia, Converse, Ebay, ASOS, Urban outfits. The media brands that are most common in this group are; Flickr, The Guardian, Twitter, Vogue, and Xfm.

Melanie Fiona '4AM' Music Video Analysis - Prince

Prince thought it would be a good idea to repeat what we did for the Miguel adorn music video for our Melanie Fiona music video. He took out some time to write down the most used shots and camera angle in this music video. Seeing as the story line of the music video was going to be the same as the original it would only be right that we knew what the shots in the original music video portraying (e.g feelings, hunger, hard work...). It also helps as we now know what shots are needed to make our video look good and as professional as possible. 

Examining A Hip Hop Album Digipak

I decided to analyse a digipak, showing how professionals carry out the conventions in comparison to our own.

General Information:

Album Cover Research - Melanie Fiona And Others - Sath

To begin creating the digipack for our music video for the song 4AM, we needed to look further into digipacks. The best place to start was by looking into album covers for the artist Melanie Fiona as she is the artist of the song 4AM.

Melanie Fiona's fist album was called 'The bridge', it was released in 2009. The album cover for the album consists of a close up of the artist's face, the picture seems to be a side portrait shot with Melanie facing the camera but looking past it to the right. It gives us a sense that she is looking back at something which could be her past. The photograph is presented in a grey scale format and shows a lot of the shadows in the picture. There is very little highlights shown but gives there is enough which helps define the face of the artist as well as parts of her hair. There is also a white spotlight on the wall behind the artist which goes with the colour scheme of the album cover which is black, white and grey.

Melanie Fiona's next album was called 'The MF life' and it was released in 2012 which is a three year gap between her two albums. At first sight when you compare the two album covers, you can notice that her second album cover has a lot more colour than her first album cover. In this album cover, the picture is a long shot which shows a side view of her leaning down against a lamp post. The picture is taken on a sunny day and has a lot of bright colours as well as a purple heart in front of the lamp post. Since this is titled the MF life, i think that the warm bright colours and the atmosphere of the picture is shown to put across the nature of Melanie's life and her personality.

The next album cover i am going to be analysing, is the album cover for '4' by Beyonce Knowles'. I chose to analyse an album cover of Beyonce, as she is another R&B singer and that is the genre of music that 4AM is from. For this album cover, the colour scheme consists of black, yellow, and pale green. The black and yellow is shown using Beyonce in a medium shot showing her with both of her arms over her head. The idea of Beyonce having her arms over her head, it looks as if she is relaxing without any care for what she is doing. She is shown to be topless with a long black furry coat hanging over her shoulders to cover most of her torso but leaves her belly showing. There is a lot of golden jewelery used in this album cover, it is used to show the wealth and status of Beyonce as she is a well paid artist.

The next album cover i will be looking at is for the album 'Talk that Talk' by R&B singer Rihanna. This album was released in 2011 and was the singer's sixth studio album. This album cover consists of a close up of the artist's face. She is shown wearing an sleeveless top with a lot of eye make up and lip stick. She is also shown sticking out her tongue which shows us the nature of Rihanna and her personality in the album. There is a big 'R' on the top left hand corner of the album cover in grey which is used to represent Rihanna. The album name is written on the wrist of artist almost making it look like a tattoo which helps it blend into the photo and makes it look natural. 

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

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.

Music Channels

For our music video we have to consider music channels that we would want put video to be promoted and broadcast on. As our song as R&B we would have to take that into consideration and broadcast the video on the niche as well as the main channel which would allow the video to reach people who just listen to this particular genre but the mass audience who listen to multiple genres.

Black Entertainment Television, better known as BET is a cable TV channel that has been broadcast since January 25 in 1980. It was the first TV channel which was target especially to the black (African American) community.  It was first founded by Robert L Johnson but was sold to Viacom in 2003. This made the channel the first black owned enterprise on the stock market.
It was originally shown as a two hour block in channel, Nickelodeon but due to high demand they made a separate channel.

I have decided that our video would be shown on their flagship programme, 106&Park. 106&Park is a music countdown show on BET which allow their viewers to get a daily incite to their most popular shows. It also give a direct promotion to up and coming artist who are black or who sing in the R&B, rap or blues genre. They also include a walk of fame, where an artist who have been continuously popular and their songs have been on their chart that they transfer them to the hall of fame. consequently, they have given to permanent titles of Mr and Mrs 106& Park to Bow Wow and the late Aaliyah.

 



Their website displays their Icon in the middle while they have separated the different ares that the site promote.
They have also incorporated the Breast cancer research sign into the icon, indicated that they join with other charities as well as their own.

 The play list allow the viewer to see what they have to offer and to recommend other artist similar to the artist that a viewer might already know, introducing a new artist giving promotion and gaining them new fans.

They have split it up into categories such as Best of, Latest Videos and Mix tape reviews, yet another platform for new up and coming artist. this is prefect for our artist as this was one of the songs and the debut album. 

 What they also have is BET Top Picks, this allows a chart to see what were the most popular picks of the day just in case the viewer who has just come to the website also wants to see it.
This particular one includes;
The cypher which is a part freestyle designed for their hip hop awards that is hosted every year.
The tribute to the late Chris lightly who took his own life earlier in the year. he was an influential music producer.
and finally Rick Ross' performance at this years  BET Hip Hop awards.

MTV Base is a music channel that has been broadcast in the united kingdom and the republic of Ireland on July 1st 1999.
The channel is a sister channel of the fellow channels such as MTV Rocks, MTV Classic and MTV Hits. This channel mainly focuses on the music genres of R&B, Hip Hop, Reggae and Soul and later introduced Urban to their list.




MTV Base Channel 
I have decided that if I didn't put the music video on BET's 10&Park I would broadcast the video on the show The Lick. This is another music show but however they do not do their own separate countdown and they rely on the chart according to their artist genre such  as the official urban chart and the base chart.

 Similar to the BET website, MTV Base also have a play list for their music which is popular at the moment for their target audience, which is also my own. However they also have a special feature button which directs you to the music video if the song and runs on an automatic video feature in the centre of the page.

As you can see our song we have chosen for our video is already in high demand as it is in their MTV Playlist.

Even though BET have a advantage of a music countdown that help up and coming artists and video we would go with MTV Base first because of their popularity in the UK already and more UK listeners tune in them where as BET is an American channel and only be considered if we wanted the video to go international and overseas.

Influential Music Videos

Below I created a collection using Prezi of the most influential music videos according to me.

Copy of Influencial Music Videos on Prezi

Target Audience

My Target audience would be the Hipsters and Get paid crew.
Below I have put together a mind map of my target audience and image evidence that I researched from UK Tribes.

The UK Tribes website

Next Jessica and I decided to create an interview type video to show what our target audience would expect in a music video and what they like.

Firstly, we got a group together of similar characteristics which they all listen to similar music video I decided to create and interview with them. I asked them questions such as:

"What do you typically expect from a music video?"

For the information we have received from the interview allowed us to create a storyline that is relevant to the video and its lyrics as well as making a performance scene that fits the stereotypes of the R&B genre.

"You know when like the little doggies running around"

By Elliot Stedman

Textual Analysis on Stooshe

The song black heart is the most successful song of girl band Stooshe's career to date. The song peaked at number 3 in the UK Singles chart, and well in other British and European countries.The song was produced and written by Future cut with a collaboration with Jo Perry and Shaznay Lewis. The video was directed by Matt Shawski and was released on the 29th April 2012.





The video displays clear characteristics of the R'N'B genre for the following reasons. Firstly, the video has the performance within the narrative which is common, using both the elements simultaneously. Secondly, there is a separate performance low lit coloured room which is different to the bright pop back drops and the darker palettes of the rock genre. Lastly there is a male protagonist with which is often emotionally attached in the video. in this case it is the cheating boyfriend. Because they are a girl band, it is common in R'N'B to have matching coordinating outfits often having similar style or colour scheme. This would also fit in with the colour of the backdrop.

The video references the sixties studio performances seen in films such as Hairspray and Dream girls, but the video pays special homage to the girl band The Supremes. Using their iconic three piece setting and hand and body movements and gestures, in addition to the sixties style back drop, props such as the microphones, curtains and cameras. Stooshe wanted to show the grace and soul of the sixties without making it inaccessible to modern day understanding the video.

The lyrics and the video have a direct correlation with the visuals as the story of a cheater to portrayed through the character of one of the singers with the other two playing the supportive friends when they find out, warn then comfort her when she sees for herself what a cheater he is.
This take inspiration from the film dream girls as close friends look after each other through their relationships through, before or after a performance. As well as this, they sing in unison and create small actions to the lyrics.





http://www.metrolyrics.com/black-heart-lyrics-stooshe.html
"I don't like it when you break it honey."
When she says this it shows her singing to a light up mirror and then it shows a close up of the man with another woman. His face looks smug while he eyes up another person in juxtaposition of her saddened face in the mirror.

"Do you feel like a man?"
When she says this she points aggressively at the mirror, personifying the mirror as if it was him and she was yelling at him. As she does this she thrusts her finger at the mirror whilst she looks aggressive, with her face all screwed up.

"You've got a black heart."

when they sing this they all turn to the side and put their hands on their hearts while looking solemn.

"He's big and he's bad, I Love him like mad."
As they sing this they do actions in sync to the music, flexing their muscles and looking aggressive. This mood is carried out throughout the whole video, suggesting that women can be strong in this kind of situation. Because of this, the video will appeal to their teenage girl fan base.

"Ah, sicker, sicker, I'm not feeling your mouth whatsoever."
when they say this they thrust their hands towards the microphones as if they were actually going to be sicker. the protagonist later gives attitude when saying 'I an it feeling your mouth whatsoever' as if to say that she is now rejecting his love.
"Momma he's the best I've ever had."
when they say this it show close ups of their face as if they were talking to their mums about their heartbreak. this is stereotypical as mum are usually the one to comfort their daughter if the situation occurs in real life.
"He got a black heart."
This time they once again put their hands on their chests but do not turn to the left. They look towards the camera before slowly closing their eyes.
"He's got such a dirty black heart in him, an it girls."
As she says this during her performance she looks as if she was talking to all the girls who could be watching this, that might in this situation themselves. Also she tilts her head to the back suggesting that she wants her girls to back her up.
Response: "Yeah."
Her friends then instantly reply to the word, yeah showing their support and their tilt their heads in unison.
"Ohh, yes I do."
When she says this she looks a lot more confident than when she found out about her lovers cheating, suggesting she has moved n from him.

The music and the video has a correlation as they use the stereotypical beat of the song commonly used in the sixties to lead in the inspiration of the video. Firstly, hey use the beat and the tempo of the song to control the way they sway in unison in the performance. The video is also slowed down in areas within the visuals in slow motion which closely fit in with the tempo of the music.

Secondly, they use the music incorporated in the song so the song was being sung as if she was asking for advice on the guy who has been cheating before she finally went admitted the problem hence why he song fitted perfectly sung in first person rather than on reflection.
Thirdly, they used the scratching of the old music player to start off the song and to introduced the track, making it sound more authentic and fit tin with the narrative.
The effect of the microphones also used this technique during the singing and especially when there is dialogue near the end, when one of them says:
"He's got such a dirty black heart in him, they all reply: yeah," this is to show interaction within the music which is used in the visuals.
Finally, they take the title into consideration, changing the background from pink hearts with them wearing pastel colours to the heart having black paint smeared all over them and their outfits become black.

I used photo shop to show all their faces during close ups while they were singing,
showing you all the emotion they had towards the subject and adding realism to the plot.
their eyes are all directed straight at the camera as if they were telling their
own target market,of which are teenage girls, giving them advice on this situation.

Within the video there are lots of close ups of the individual members of the group as well as close ups of the group as a collective. This was mainly because they wanted to highlight who was singing at the time to to give more recognition to the individual members rather than have a specific member who was more foregrounded.






However the protagonist was obviously favoured so that they can continue with the storyline accurately. The close ups also showed her feelings being hurt and feeling deflated after finding out about the affair that happened.








The notion of looking wasn't used on any of the artists themselves but on the male protagonist looking at the woman he had decided to cheat on his girlfriend with. There is a specific shot where it is a close up two shot showing them kiss, and the reaction from the three band members.

 This was mainly achieved by over the shoulder shots which allowed the viewer to see what he is looking at. the beautiful girl he wants to have.
The singer's face is blurred to focus the attention on this before foregrounding her once more for the friends reaction.