Planning : Creating An Online Mood Board

In this task I had to make a moodboard for my chosen song. I used www.goodmoodboard.com to create it. My moodboard consists of pictures that relates to my song, artist and genre. I chose pictures that will show the though process when considering mise en scene, the logos of Twitter and Instagram to signify his online presence and also common conventions of similar artists to help me piece together ideas for my video.
Click the link below to see the full mood board:
http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/uXaADq6I/share

D-rey - Day Off ft. Puppz

Research : Who Are The Target Audience For My Artist?

Daniel is a huge fan of hip-hop, grime and rap. He listens to music at every opportunity  he gets whether this be on the way to work, while at work and at home. His biggest passions are surfing the web and going to live gigs and festivals. When he is not watching live performances he listens to his favourite artists on different type of media such as iPhone, iPod and iPad. He also listens to music using YouTube, Spotify and Vevo. Daniel specifically only listens to his favourite genres and no other. He deeply hates anything between classical to scream rock and only listens to rap.

Living in London he can go to his favourite live gigs and festival mostly whenever he pleases. This includes going to watch Skepta at 'Live Future Underground Red Bull' and attending 'Wireless' to watch Drake, Chance the Rapper, JME and Lethal Bizzle. He mostly dresses very much like his favourite artists, like most hip-hop fans. Daniel's friends also share the same interest and they travel to the performances and dress the same way. Their favourite song from their favoured artists would be either 'Know Yourself' by Drake or 'King Kunta' by Kendrick Lamar.

Daniel follows all of  his favourite artists on most types of social media. This includes following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. He likes to see when his favourite artists are performing next and when they are bringing out new songs, albums and mixtapes. He doesn't regularly read magazines on the artists because he just follows them on the internet.

He spends most of the day working as a project manager at a post-production company, saving up money so when the next big festival or gig comes along him and his mates can buy tickets instantly to reserve their spot.

Research: Existing Music Video - Action Bronson ft. Chance the Rapper, Baby Blue

Introduction

This particular introduction for 'Baby Blue' is in comedic fashion and is used to pull the audience before the song has even started. It features Action Bronson playing 3 characters in a barber shop talking about the Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight. Although this has nothing to do with the song itself it would still appeal to the audience.

Performance

Performance is very popular in a hip-hop music video. It gives the audience a feeling that they are at a live performance which would appeal to a lot of fans who aren't able to afford to get to a live gig or concert. 

Colour Of Clothing
When Action Bronson sings the chorus (which is quite downbeat) he wears a light blue suit which can be to represent his 'blue' feelings and also matches the name of the song 'Baby Blue'.
The chorus is:
'Why you always all on my back? huh?
Why you gotta do me like that? huh?
Why you gotta act like a B***h,
When I'm with you?
Baby girl I'm blue'
From reading the lyrics I can see that the blue suit can be used to strongly represent his feelings and also to match the words and name of the song.


Interlude

An interlude is similar to an intro, apart from it takes place around half way through a music video. This particular interlude takes place at 'McBronsons' where Action finds his future wife and impresses her when he takes down a thief who tries to steal all the money and all of the cheese fries. This, as well as the intro, is not meant to be taken seriously and is used in a very comedic way

Cuts To The Beat
The cuts that follow the beat is purely to engage the audience because the cuts are pleasing to the eye.  This appears in almost every music video and the cuts will rarely mismatch the beat as it makes the music video look unprofessional and doesn't look paired or synced with the actual song. 

Research: Existing Music Video - Joey Bada$$, Christ Conscious

Mise en scene

Jewellery
Jewellery is an important convention in hip-hop music because nearly all artists like to show off their wealth to signify power. The large amount of jewellery also signifies that they have 'made it' which is a huge status in the big hip-hop genre.

Clothing

In this music video Joey is wearing dark clothing which, compared to other hip-hop videos, seems to be a common convention. He also wears a jumper which has the name of his home town. Representing where they grew up seems to be a very popular thing among rap artists with Kendrick Lamar and the NWA constantly referencing Compton in their songs, being a couple of examples.

Performance and Close Ups

Performing in your own music video is something you always see in a rap/hip-hop/grime music video. This will make the audience feel a lot closer to the artist and almost forces them to take in the lyrics.

The close ups also back the idea that it is a live performance which would appeal to people who can't come and watch one of his performances, as well as this being a common convention in Hip-Hop so the audience would expect to see this anyway.

Illustration

People have come to expect a story in their music video and this is exactly what Joey has done in 'Christ Conscious'. The song is about reaching a new level in the Hip-Hop genre and eventually ascending into the 5th dimension with a 'Christ Conscious'. The way this has been woven into the music video is that he starts of the music video in a cave, then appears on the street, then the top of a building, then into space.



Research: Existing Music Video - Kendrick Lamar ft. Drake, Poetic Justice

I had to make notes on a similar artist from the same genre because D-Rey has not yet released a music video that I could analyse.

Split Screen

The split screen allows the audience to see two views at the same time. The split screen usually shows two scenes that are happening the same time but this isn't necessarily the case 100% of the time. The split screen ruptures the illusion that the screens frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye. The split screen technique happens again at 2:47 in the song where in one side of the screen Drake is leaving a message on his phone, and in the other side it shows the phone that Drake is trying to call.







Close up on the artist
A close up on the artist will appeal to the audience because it gives it a feel of a live performance. Also this is a very common convention in hip hop songs and the target audience will expect to see their favourite artists in the music video. There is also bright white lighting shining onto his face which puts all of the attention onto Kendrick Lamar which labels him as the 'main man' in the video.

Cuts that follow the beat

The cuts that follow the beat is purely to engage the audience because the cuts are pleasing to the eye.  This appears in almost every music video and the cuts will rarely mismatch the beat as it makes the music video look unprofessional and doesn't look paired or synced with the actual song. 

Rewind

The rewind technique is used to appeal to the audience and to add a range of different shots in the video. When the rewind is used in Poetic Justice (2:14) the lyrics repeat so the scene repeats and matches to add effect. 

Women objectified

This is a common convention in hip hop music and the target audience would expect to see this in a music video. It is a common convention in rap music also and it has become the norm over time to portray women as 'sex objects' in music videos. These perceptions misrepresent women in music videos and portray them as objects which suggests they are powerless.  

Birds eye view

This camera shot puts maximum attention on what is on the screen and also allows the audience to see the entire scene in one shot. The main object in the birds eye view shot in Poetic Justice is a man who has just been shot and it suggests that the camera is looking down from heaven, giving the viewers further assurance that he has been killed. There is also a kind of 'drifting' movement from the camera which gives it a feel that he is slowly drifting away from the real world. 

Mise en scene

Sunglasses, sunglasses and jewellery are very common in hip hop music videos and this helps portray the music and the genre as 'cool'. The jewellery shows that the artist has lots of money and wealth and spends it on his appearance becoming more attractive to women. 

Research : Detailed Research Into Chosen Artist (Name of Artist)

D-Rey is an unsigned artist who has been writing and recording songs from the age of 13. His first mixtape was titled 'I dunno yet' and was released in May 2012. His next mixtape 'Day Off' was released in June 2013. However his latest mixtape was meant to be released in summer 2015 but was scrapped.
His website is: http://d-rey.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dreykickit

He released a promotional video on JCtv freestyling:


One of the songs from 'I Dunno Yet' is here:

AS media grade: Reflection

On results day I felt disappointed because I felt my coursework was to a good standard. However I was only semi prepared for the exam and I should have started revising earlier than I actually did. If I did start revising earlier I would have remembered a lot more media terminology when it came to analysing the video clip.