My favourite location is the prison cell idea, as it’s something that I feel no one else will think off or attempt to do. Asking to film in a public place is very hard and tricky as there are loads of complicated procedures that are needed to go through. As we are A2 media students we have tried our best to find somewhere we can film that will give us the most effective result. I am really passionate about using a prison cellar as its a plain boring room that we can use to do loads of creative things too. Therefore I have decided to call up the HRP prison in Peterborough and ask if we can have permission to film in this dangerous public place. When I called the HRP the woman from the operations department told me to send a letter through the post asking for permission as this is the most formal way of getting our message across to the correct people.
Here is the letter that I’ve sent to the HRP prison:
I’ve tried to make this letter as formal and persuading as possible to increase the chances of getting a positive reply response. If this letter isn’t successful we shall find other alternatives for location. This is the reason why im asking for permission first from the prison center as we can say we have tried and considered this area. If all fails we will still have plenty of time to think of other locations to use that will still link perfectly to our desired narrative. This shows our organisational skills during this project, showing we have good knowledge of the media industry and thinking like ‘real’ media students.
This is a photo that I’ve taken before I decided to post the letter. The letter has been printed and folded in a formal and presented way, to show we want this opportunity and willing to make an effort. Both addresses are on the letter so they can post us a reply with contact phone numbers if they need more personal details. The address on the envelop has been specially printed on, with a second class stamp.
For this section I will be searching and organizing areas that could be a useful place to film our music video.
The ‘Trapped room’
I will be trying to find some building with a simple room that would be a perfect place to give the impression the artist is trapped.
After being ambitious with the storyboard and narrative, Ive asked a local estate agent if they have an building that is being refurbished that we could use, as it would be helpful to have an old white room with no objects within it, the feedback we got from our Estate Agents ‘Brightmoves’ was successful as they mentioned they had an apartment located in stand-ground which the owner agreed we could use of media purposes. We are keeping in close contact with ‘Brightmoves’ to have up-dates in different locations which would be ideal to use, therefore keeping an open mind.
This is the flat in standground that has some potential, it’s an empty house with plain white walls that would be good when creating the blowing letters scene, editing will look more clear again a plain, simple background.
I’ve also phoned our nearest prison in Peterborough to ask if we could use one of the prison cells for the day to get some shots taken. Below is a screen shot from Google maps of the prison that we might consider using if we are allowed to get access in the building.
This is a new-ish building modern prison for both male and female and I think it would be perfect for the idea of being trapped. This area is easy enough to access for all members of my group and therefore is ideal if permission is successful. If we were to use this location we would need to ensure we don’t use an establishing shot of the build with any logos as this could instantly show where we are, which possibly could cause problems with the company. Therefore the best idea is to film in one room that is plain and simple that doesn’t show where we are in the shots.
Nottingham Rail Station NG80 This is a bird’s eye view of a map of Nottingham when Modey and I went to visit Nottingham Trent University. We came across a few buildings that became mysterious locations which we could possibly use in our music video. These locations that we found, we right next to the main railway station where old buildings had bullet smashed glass windows that had been shot, bricks cracking and solid white metal bars across the window to prevent the public from access inside this dangerous building.
From this photo that was taken right next to the train station, we immediately knew that we would need to get some sort of permission to get inside of this dangerous building as it wasn’t been looked after and would be harmful if we decided to hang around there for long. Even though we thought this building looks broken, rough and secure on the outside, we felt like if this would be one of our chosen location areas we could simply film from the outside, as the appearance as a whole would produce an effective piece of work, and will fit well within our theme. Only dilemma was, the location was at a good distance away from Peterborough and therefore hard to get access. If we were to use this location again, it would need to be held in the middle of October/November time; which might not give us enough time to finish and meet the deadline.
Outside the trapped room “The real world”
In some of the shots that we are carrying out is in an alleyway, which would preferably be in Peterbrough Town somewhere for example MilllField as the location can tend to be ‘rough’, which will add a cool effect, as the alleyway will look old and broken.
Alleyways
Pekirk Village
I’ve been recommended to view this alleyway in Pekirk, peterborough which belonged to an old building, which had been noticed as perfect for our music video. This Alleyway is currently in between two detached houses, which means we would need to check with the owners of these two houses if we are able to film for a few hours in this location.
From the image taken by myself, I think it will look really effective in our video, as its a very dark confined piece of space that look really old. I think this would be the perfect solution for our alleyway scene or when the actor is trapped in a tight space, as from the looks of this spaces its extremely narrow. Not only does this dark small alley way effective and syled to our specifications its also a very reachable located for the whole group to get to. Due to our school being located in Glinton, this alleyway is in Pekirk which is only a 15min walk. Therefore if we decided to use this location in our media product we can all work to the location in minutues. Overall its a very convienent, accessible, location which is suitable for what we need, however this chosen location does require permission from the owners of the house in which its built on, which could be an disadvantage.
Queensgate Alley Way…..
These are the main under bridges that are located in Peterborough’s town. They are a few alley ways that allow people who access one end of the main roads to another. I think these would be a good location to consider as its a public place and to some people being in a public place doesnt allow them to be themselves. Therefore in that respect they would begin to feel trapped, not only this but I beleive its an easy place to get access too as the whole group wont have any excuses about traveling arrangments.
Storyboards are a way of showing graphic organisation by the use of serious of illustrations or image which is displayed in a sequence. The purpose of a storyboard is mainly for pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity. For my media course I shall get together with me group and create a storyboard by using a combination of ideas and including it into one illustration story line. By the use of combining all our ideas we have managed to come up with some story plan that will help enhance the narrative of our music video.
This is our story board of some rough ideas what the narrative could be and what time of camera shots will be used.
Shot 1: This song is going to be a really interesting way of representing the songs title. The letters will be blown by a powerful fan and the printed letters will blow away from the fan, entering the this room. The lettering will preferably be still movements used my a camera layering in the editing stages. Each individual letter will begin to create the title of the song and promote the artist. This will be done by using a long high angle shot of the room.
Shot 2: This high establishing shot introduces our character to the scene as he walks through a door from real life to his mind. We have metaphorically used a door as a prop to his mind, to represent different sections or chambers of his deepest darkest thoughts. Within this shot, costume and editing are major influences on creating the right ‘feel’ to our video, and hopefully the audience will see we have drawn influence from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and given it an urban touch.
Shot 3: This will be an extremely high angle shot from the corner of this empty room, as we mainly wanted to give the illusion of the walls climbing higher, with the character/artist looking very vulnerable.
Shot 4: Will be a direct shot of joey (Kid Cudi) looking outside a window, whilst tightly gripping onto the metal bars which represents he is trapped in a prison cell. The lighting of this shot will be very dark, as we shouldn’t film the camera directly at the light otherwise the character will be completely black and hardly visible to the viewers, however this is the effect that we wanted to give.
Shot 5: This will be a very hard shot to create and therefore will be taking a risk. It’s going to be a midshot/close up on Joey’s face, and ith the use of the ‘cookie cutter’ we will split the screen in half, directly in the middle of his face. One half of his face shall be reality and the other side of his face will be animated, or if this is not possible to create with our skills, we will use our innitative and use an alternative idea of having the other half of the shot of him still trapped/or in the real world.
Shot 6: Shot 6 is an early idea at an ending where we reveal to the audience that the man has been living life all along and that all the events show in the video are an average day for him. By using this show we have turned the concepts of work and the stress that city life creates into metaphorical situations in which one person is stuck doing something they don’t particularly like (in this case being trapped). Although this idea may change, we intend to create an ending which interlinks with the beginning, In this example, the man may walk into his office which is in fact the white room at the start (scene 1). This will thicken the narrative and encourage repeatability of the song within the audience.
In this section I will be discussing with my group a range of different ideas that we could do in our music video that might relate to the song choice. This would help us to fully understand the lyrics of the song and with the use of our imagination think of a narrative that could easily link into the song, so everything makes sense. First of all we all sat down and had a hard copy of the lyrics which we read through whilst listening to the music. We kept pausing some parts of the song and then had a group discussion of what ideas we could come up with that chorus we just listened too. By doing this method we could come up with some really good imaginative narrative ideas that will match perfectly with the song we are going to do “Trapped in my Mind”.
Idea 1. The first idea is about a man who is lying in a hospital bed dreaming about something very surreal and usual like an unwanted dream. In this dream he appears to be trapped in a white box with walls too high to climb out of, and he is trying to find a way out of this box or room. When he is in this box he begins to hallucinate and then appear to be falling somewhere. Whilst he is falling weird things happen to him with the use of animations. He will also get flash backs for his life which will explain why he feels so trapped by his insecurities. Towards the end of the song he see’s a big bright white light, and he is torn towards this light which will then have a jump cut to the hospital bed with an extreme close up of the hospital heart rate monitor with the heart beeping then slowly begins to stop with a big beep, signifying that has walked to the bright light and ended his life.
Idea 2. This guy is having a normal day at work stuck in an office and from his appearance he looks a bit like a computer geek, then suddenly he gets sucked into some sort of trapped video game and he can’t escape unless he finishes the game. He need to complete all the challenges that get in his way correctly making the correct choice, otherwise he could be trapped forever in this surreal computer generated world. He is surrounded by so many different options and choices and he need to be clever and think ‘outside of the box’ for the game to be completed.
Idea 3.Instead of being trapped in a white box or room this guy is trapped in a prison cell surrounded by plain, dark walls and heavy metal bars. He forgets about what the real world is like as he has never been outside of this cell. He thinks he is getting crazy but his craziness is normal for him. He wants to get out of this prison but at the same time is scared, as he wouldn’t know how to react and act around normal people. For most of his life he has been surrounded by criminals so he has always learnt to be very defensive of himself. This will be shown my the use of his body language and motion of the song choice. Jump cuts and cut away shots will be shown of the prison cell to the outside world. Where the outside world will be surreal and within the bars will be reality, as this is the perspective of how he is in his life. Normal to him in locked up in a cell. He tries to find a way of escaping but is uncertain of the choice he is about to make.
The Idea that I really like is Idea 3 as I think it will look really effective if it was held in a real life prison as I can imagine a lot of experimentation with lines and shadows with the criminals looking really scary. And then the use of animation and illustrations can be mainly used in the real world. Showing this different of worlds for different peoples perspectives. I believe that this type of narrative can be a lot of fun to create with a very unique ideas and story line, even thought this idea is quite complicated, confusing and ambitious, therefore not exactly following Suzy Davis advice exactly, but i know this idea will give us the ability to use editing to the max. After some sensible considerations we as a group have decided that the whole concept of using this idea would be way to confusing, the decided to drop the idea. However we still wanted to use some elements of the idea to recreate a much better idea. Story3 is mainly based on the confusion of Kid Cudi and is shown by him not being used to the outside life away from jail. So we would have shown how he would of been trapped in society, but like I said this idea was way too complex for what we needed, and it would have been hard to show the confusion, due to jail usually being associated with being trapped and not the outside life.
Development of idea 3: The 4th story was that Kid Cudi wakes up from his sleep. But once he wakes up he realises that he is not fully awoken, therefore being trapped in his mind, this links to the song and creates a cool story to help the video flow. In this dream he is trapped in a white room, this is his dream which he is trapped upon. Kid Cudi looks for ways out and cannot find the exit, and all the video would show his struggling and being trapped in this one room then in the end maybe escaping from this dream that he was trapped in. This story is very simple and seems really cliché to me, maybe I have seen the idea been used and cannot remember, but I do feel that this idea is used and just do not think it has enough to run us through the whole video, whilst still keeping people interested in the music video. This is why we have not chosen to create this idea due to the lack of content available from this story arc.
Further Development/Final: This idea can be developed from our brainstorms (which was done vocally, not written) was the idea that Kid Cudi wakes up and enters a room from his living room that he has never seen before. From this he is trapped in this room, but constantly keeps reappearing in different confined places and once he tries to exit these rooms he re-enters the room he was initially trapped in. The idea is where ever Kid Cudi goes he always ends up in the room he randomly entered at the start. This idea gives us a lot of content due to the different locations that can be used to keep interest in the video. The room at the start initially is his mind, so he actually is going nowhere at the end. But inside his mind he is entering many different places and ending up in the same place (his mind). It is simple and gives us a lot of content due to the availability of many spaces in the music video. It is also relevant to the song and has content from all the ideas into one simple idea to help branch out into the final music video for Trapped In My Mind. This narrative is much more suitable due to its simplicity compared to the start of our ideas which were more ambitious that led to so much confusion, where working as a group became difficult as we all had different understandings. Therefore this one idea is perfect giving us plenty of locations and planning to do, plus adaptions for improvements.
Product placements is a form of synergy is its something that can be strongly overlooked as its usually associated with marketing and advertising. Music and advertising have been linked together for a long time now starting with Chevy from Don Mclean in “American pie” to the song “Pass the Courvoisier” from Busta Rhymes. The main reason for this connections is that the music performer heavily depends on advertising money to support their career.
Commonly, the money artists receive from product placement will directly pay for the music video itself, which saves massive amounts of money costs. As the main deal with advertising can help to reduce the ever-increasing cost of music video productions. For example usually more than 25% of production costs can be paid off from the use of product placements deals with big branded companies.
Lady Gaga
Music Videos are now cram packed with product placements. A recent example is Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s track ‘Telephone’. In this video alone there are nine separate plugs:
1:34: Heartbeats earphones. 2:06: Virgin Mobile. 2:17: Diet Coke. 4:15: Virgin Mobile (again). 4:24: HP Envy ‘Beats Limited Editon’ laptop from Monster. 4:28: Plenty Of Fish dating site. 4:44: Chevrolet. 5:37: Polaroid. 6:24: Wonderbread. 6:36: Miracle Whip. 8:31: Polaroid (again).
Its insane how much product placements Lady Gaga & Beyonce uses in this video!! Which makes me question:
when does product placement get “too much”? When does it cross the line and become “unethical”? Or, should it just continue to increase more and more?
Overall, as a group we are thinking about using product placements as it would make our music video stand out whilst also fulfilling the main conventions of music videos. I personally like the idea of using “coca-cola” in our music video as its a cheap product placement to use, plus is greatly recognised and accessible anywhere. Not only is using diet coke a good idea for a placement but big brands like Apple would be good to use too.
In this section I will be exploring some music videos that I thoroughly enjoy but look more deeply into the technical aspects of it. Such as the use of camera angles, editing, mise en scene, and movement that could be beneficial to the music video I will be eventually making. From watching music videos on ‘Youtube’ and ‘MTV’ I have found music videos that have attracted me greatly that have also inspired me within my work. They are Owl city’s debut song fireflies, The Pen story which I thought was amazingly creative and imaginative. Therefore I shall be researching in depth some music videos of my appeal and find one that links perfectly with my song choice.
OWL CITY- FIRE FLIES
Owl city fireflies get really upbeat and catchy towards the end and main chorus. I really love the use of different types of toys that are hidden and shown with in bedroom. It reminds me of when kids have these dreams that their favourite toys come alive in the night when no one is looking. From this video it indicates what goes on in a child’s mind and the surreal of the video makes it appear more fascinating. I do find this video very dark with hardly no lighting as the main lighting if from the toys LCD lights or phosphorescent lighting, however this technique does look effective as does follow my theory of the story line. However this music video links mainly into the category ‘Disjuncture’ as the band prefers to show their originality and uniqueness as an individual group. Therefore Owl City don’t always make much sense due to the heavy use of abstract imagery.
THE PEN STORY
This video instantly attracted me due to its creativity and originality. I never seen a music video much like this as the use of photos makes it so much more amusing. This video is a perfect example of Amplification as it has a very clear narrative to follow. From the first shot it immediately tells me that the song has something to do with a very important anniversary as it says on the envelop “50th Anniversary” which from knowledge means the ‘Gold wedding anniversary’.
The camera angles within this video is not very obvious as the main attention is the use of layering photos to make it look like the character is moving etc. But you can notice some camera movement as the camera is sometimes on a tilt/angle to make it appear like a high angle shot or low angle shot.
KID CUDI – Pursuit Of Happiness (Megaforce Version)
Click on the image to enlarge so text is more visible..
Here I have annotated each shot that I liked and why I think its good. Kid Cudi’s video has been cleverly done from the use of interesting camera angles and movements used in each frame. He has used creativity in a complete different way, without the need to have much animations, he has used a lot of props to make this amazing piece of art which makes it inspiring when I need to make my video. If we decide not use animations or illustrating the use of clever technical props and unusual camera angles will be used to make it appear surreal. This video is an Amplification music video as it follows the story line in a way but uses surreal objects to add creativity and a positive sense of humour.
Videos I don’t particually want to take further!!!
These are some music videos that i’ve looked at that I think might not be exactly suited for our ideas and for other various reasons.
Katy Perry last friday night:
This music video has a great sense of humour with the use of mise en scene and narrative. Which is really inspiring however I felt that the lip syncing at the beginning is really bad, as she is wearing those really big braces its off-putting when she starts signing. Therefore I personally felt uncomfortable. However I like the idea of using bright colours and the sense of comedy humour in this video, I think I would get pretty bored of watching it more than twice. It isn’t my personal type of attraction.
Therefore I don’t think I will be getting much inspiration from this music video when I begin to design my media product.
Ed Sheeran – You need me, I don’t need you
This is a music video from Ed Sheeran. I’ve been observing his music videos and came to notice that all of his official videos are in black and white with a very depressing narrative. From his newest official video “you need me, I don’t need you” uses Disjuncture as the video doesn’t follow the narrative story line for the lyrics. Therefore it appears completely random. What I like about this music video however it the clever way of using a ‘cool, young teenage boy who appear to be doing some dance when it really is sign language used of people who cannot hear. I like this idea as it shows that anyone can watch and understand his lyrics in his music video! However towards the end of his video it began to get extremely boring, this is not a good thing if the audience gets bored and doesn’t want to watch it again. Ed Sheeran also never uses himself in his music video. He will always get someone who is acting then he would occasionally appear towards the last 10 seconds of the song.
From watching this music video, I believe I will not be using inspiration from it as it doesn’t attract me in any way, apart from trying to broaden the target audience.
Group Discussion
As a group we have been using the social networking site Facebook to communicate when out of school. We have been discussing what type of music videos have inspired us, that could give us some inspiration for our media product, also what songs we really like that has a personal meaning. We all have different opinions but this is a good thing as it allows us to have an open mind about what type of music video we can experiment with.
I’ve been posting videos that I think would be a really good idea to use, for example more of the illustration and animation side of the video world, trying to get the boys to realize how the artistic music videos look the most effective.
Whereas the boys had another ideas of music choice as they posted music videos that had a lot of fast movement and a wide range of camera angles continuously. Therefore we all agreed to combine all the ideas of what music videos we are greatly inspired by and use a mixture of animation, camera angles continuously and will be relying on the editing to produce the movement.
Im really glad that we used Facebook as another communication network as we were able to discuss anything, ideas, problems, inspiration and sharing all our ideas that can be put together. Modey and I were also finding videos that were all based on animations and posting tutorials, so we can independently learn a new software that will benefit us for our media product.
“To obtain permission to use a work protected by copyright, you must determine who is the copyright owner of the material you intend to use, contact the owner, and request the right to use the work in the territory and format you intend, and — in some cases — pay the owner a fee. Often the most difficult part of this process is finding the owner to ask permission to use the work.”
Kid Cudi’s personal permission:
In order for our media group to use the song within our music video, we would firstly need to email Kid Cudi for his permission, and any thoughts or issues that he might have on us using his song. From basic knowledge we knew that it would be a legal requirment to get permission from the artist or management for us to use their song for personal purposes. However as we are media students we wouldn’t be publishing it as a copy righted song, but we do feel it would be best to ask Kid Cudi if we are allowed to use his song that is not very well known for our media video
This is the email that we sent to him regarding what we would like to do with his song.
Unfortunately we did not get a reply from him or his management team. Therefore we will still proceed with the making of our media video, and maybe try to email him again something during the course of the project.
Copyright is a law that helps protect creators by giving them exclusive rights to their work. Once a work is under copyright, it is then illegal to use the work without the permission of the copyright owner.
How does copyright effect my decision to use music?
Music that has been recorded on a published CD is normally protected by 2 copyright laws. To have the ability to use the recording of the music within my work, I would need to get permission from both copyright holders. These are the record company and the artist publisher itself.
The second permission is for the recording itself. To get this, you would approach the record company that released the recording. The record company holds the copyright for the actual performance of the song captured and mastered on tape and released on CD. The symbol for this copyright is the letter (P) inside a circle. (look on the back of your own Cds, you will see these symbols in use)
From this information it suggests that having a sync license means you have permission from the publisher to use the music but it doesn’t give me the right to use a specific recording for the work. For that I would need the following:…
What licenses do I need?
Here are the licenses you need for the right to use music in your media project:
Synchronization License – This license is issued from the music publisher. The Synchronization License (often abbreviated as sync license) gives you the right to “synchronize” the copyrighted music with your images and dialogue
Master Use License – This license is issued directly from the record company. Fees can range from several hundred dollars to millions of dollars depending on the popularity of the music.
Overall from this little section of research, I have learnt that even though I’m only using the music for educational purposes. I really just ask for permission first before I can officially use my desired song in my media product. Therefore I will sent an email and write a formal letter regarding song permission use, which will be sent out to Kid Cudi and his personal recording company.
When it comes to planning and researching a song that would be well suited for my music video their were many ideas and suggestions that would be considered. We all decided to make a music video that would fit into the category Illustration or Amplification. The reason we wanted to make a music video under these categories is because it would feel more comfortable to make a music video that corresponds to the lyrics, so some sort of storyline/narrative would match with it. I also felt that using this style of music video would allow us to make a more original final piece, so full imagination and creativity was available. When doing some target audience research the most popular genre surprising turned out to be Alternative hip-hop/rap and Electro, therefore when deciding on what song to pick, we shall be looking at songs in the chosen genre.
OWL CITY
Owl City had two very In-dependable albums which gained mainstream popularity with the 2009 major lable debut album Ocean Eyes which successfully became a massive hut triple platinum single. “fireflies” and “Vanilla Twilight” are the names of the popular songs in this single.
Owl city has been described as a conbination of different genres, there include Electropop, synthpop,indietronica, ethereal wave,emo-pop, Dreampop.
Fireflies song lyrics:
You would not believe your eyes If ten million fireflies Lit up the world as I fell asleep
‘Cause they’d fill the open air And leave teardrops everywhere You’d think me rude But I would just stand and stare
I’d like to make myself believe That planet Earth turns slowly It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay Awake when I’m asleep ‘Cause everything is never as it seems
‘Cause I’d get a thousand hugs From ten thousand lightning bugs As they tried to teach me how to dance
A foxtrot above my head A sock hop beneath my bed A disco ball is just hanging by a thread
I’d like to make myself believe That planet Earth turns slowly It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay Awake when I’m asleep ‘Cause everything is never as it seems When I fall asleep
Leave my door open just a crack (Please take me away from here) ‘Cause I feel like such an insomniac (Please take me away from here) Why do I tire of counting sheep (Please take me away from here) When I’m far too tired to fall asleep
To ten million fireflies I’m weird ’cause I hate goodbyes I got misty eyes as they said farewell
But I’ll know where several are If my dreams get real bizarre ‘Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar
I’d like to make myself believe That planet Earth turns slowly It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay Awake when I’m asleep ‘Cause everything is never as it seems When I fall asleep
I’d like to make myself believe That planet Earth turns slowly It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay Awake when I’m asleep ‘Cause everything is never as it seems When I fall asleep
I’d like to make myself believe That planet earth turns slowly It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay Awake when I’m asleep Because my dreams are bursting at the seams
We considered using this song to help us create our music video as it has really interesting camera shot and movement in every shot. The lighting was also used in a clever way making it really interesting and enjoyable to watch. This song is really upbeat and jolly, making the target audience want to jump in and sing along to the words. Listening to this songs puts a smile on my face and instantly makes me happy, so If we were to consider this song, the narrative needs to be something that can signify the happiness of the song. When listening to the lyrics of the song I instantly get the vibe of creativity and fast shots repeated continuously, also if we were to do this song I would defiantly fit some childish animations using ‘flash’ or something to make the video just as exciting and fun as the actual song.
TINIE TEMPAH
Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper from South London, England. His debut album, Disc-Overy, debuted at number one on 10 October 2010 and was preceded by the number-one singles “Pass Out” and “Written in the Stars” and the top-five singles “Frisky” and “Miami 2 Ibiza”.
Genres: Hip Hop, Electro, Rap, Grime, Drum & Bass
Let go feat Emeli Sande
[Chorus] If you can see me, then you’re probably a little too close So you think you could love me, well you gotta be stronger than most Cause my ex didn’t like it, didn’t like it, no my friends they don’t like it, they don’t like it Somebody remind me When’s the right time, when’s the right time to let go
[verse 1] Uh, dear whoeva the fuck is listening, Tell me of the pleasures of being a normal citizen Cause all these fittins’ and Vivians keeping me from fittin’ in Why do I feel safer on stage than in my own living room My grandma say that if I leave my drink I shouldn’t sip again Ooh this tour has got me feeling tired like I’m itchin’ and uh even though it’s physical differences in my siblings that’s why I feel so down even at the top of the ____
[Chorus]
[verse 2] Uh, dear whoeva the fuck is witnessin’, Disturbing London independent black businessman Based on the work and the effort I’m gunna give this year Everybody’s getting the presents they want for Christmas, yeah Life is only ninety nine winters So I’m tryna bond with daddy even though I don’t like Guiness Don’t be confused by my image, I’m no fuckin’ public pin-up
But my heart won’t let me say no to a picture
[Chorus]
[verse 3] Uh, dear whoeva the fuck is, Fuck it, this is discovery hate it or love it I’m now officially the property of the public since licensing my album And signing a deal to be published But none of these songs are written for me, nor am I a puppet Journalists come for interviews but don’t stay on the subject Yeah, no, yea – are we done yet? Questions you’ve asked me hundreds, now can you grant me some rest Because I’m tired of it, I’m living out my dream, and I’m tired from it If music needed saving, I’d die for it Music’s where my heart is, I’m alive for it I promise
[break] If I’m never liked my heart might break Here in the dark, yeah, we’ll be safe I don’t care, no looking back I’ve never been, never been, this far from home
[Chorus]
This song kind of means something to me, its a song that I always listen too when im a bit down or stressed, as I personally believe it helps me relax. However the lyrics are catchy with a good beat that we could experiment a lot with. Tiny Tempah does have some fast rapping in some areas of the song but its broken down but the soft singing from Emeli Sande, which I personally believe makes the song more interesting. As the woman voice is a song makes it more amusing that having just non stop rapping, which somethings gets on peoples nerves. Also from the questionnaire research rapping wasn’t the most popular and therefore this song would be good as its broken down cleverly. When it comes to thinking of a narrative when listening to this song I instantly imagine a love story when a couple breaks up and they possibly have some flash backs to the memories they had together. or about Tinie Tempah not being able to fit in with his surroundings, feel alone and insecure.
KID CUDI
Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi(born January 30, 1984), better known by his stage name Kid Cudi sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American rapper, singer and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single “Day ‘n’ Nite” reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. “Day ‘n’ Nite” is part of Cudi’s debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day. Cudi has also worked with Kanye West, Common, David Guetta and other artists signed to the GOOD Music label.
Kid Cudi has various types of subgenres these include: Hip Hop, Alternative hip hop/rap, Alternative rock and Neo-Psychedelia
The Prayer My heart thump not from being nervous
Sometimes I’m thinking God made me special here on purpose
So all the while ’til I’m gone make my words important so
If I slip away, if I die today the last thing you remember won’t
Be about some apple bottom jeans with the boots with the fur
Baby how I dream of being free since my birth
Cursed but the demons I confronted would disperse
Have you ever heard of some shit so real
Beyond from the heart, from the soul you can feel
And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take But please don’t cry, just know that I have made these songs for you And if I die before I wake I pray the lord my soul to take ‘Cuz I’m ready for a funeral
My mind runs I can never catch it even if I got a head start God please tell me I am feeling so alone way I don’t need to worry ‘cuz I know the world’ll feel this nigga Blessing in disguise but I am not hiding who I am open your eyes bro If I ever met you, I appreciate the love yo Girls that I dated, it’s ok I am not mad yo Unless you stabbed me in the heart, no love ho, this shit is so I’ll Play it back from the top if you recognize real
And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take But please don’t cry, just know that I have made these songs for you And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take ‘Cuz I’m ready for a funeral And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take So please don’t cry, just know that I have made these songs for you And if I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul take ‘Cuz I’m ready for a funeral (I’m ready for the funeral, I’m ready for the funeral)
When I first heard this song the theme of being trapped occured to me. I am determinded to find a song that has good lyrics that could include some form of realism and surrealism that could have different forms of media like illustrations for the scene to be surreal, and being trapped trying to escape from this nightmare. This song is quiet slow and therefore if we were going to create a music video, we would need to make the footage slow too, so its contrasts perfectly. I’m uncertain about this song as its not my ideal choice however with my imagination and ambition to succeed, I can see this song being good for an interesting unique narrative that will attract the audience from the use of the video.
OR
Trapped in my mind
You see, I’m trapped in my mind, oh, I’m going trippy
Oh, I don’t think I’ll ever go
You see the walls are so high that I couldn’t climb them
So I don’t know which way to roll
Well, I’m stuck in rewind though I’m looking forward Damn, I wish I knew what went wrong I’m sick and I’m ill, my mental got me Oh Lord, please help me pull through
You see the sun seems to shine when I am not looking Oh, it seems a trick every time Things do get out of hand once a while inside my mental Hey, I took a hell of a run
When I see what a soul I know I am not lucky Yeah, I like to pat my own back It’s a gift and a curse since my birth, I’m in a prison Oh, I’m happy right where I’m at
I’m trapped in my mind and I know it’s crazy Hey, it’s not that bad at all When you think of the world, I know it’s crazy Hey, I’m not that bad at all
You see I’m trapped in my mind and I know it’s crazy Hey, it’s not that bad at all When you think of the world, I know it’s crazy Hey, I’m not that bad at all
I’m trapped in my mind and I know it’s crazy Hey, it’s not that bad at all When you think of the world, I know it’s crazy Hey, I’m not that bad at all
Oh, I’m trapped in my mind, baby I don’t think I’ll ever get out Oh, I’m trapped in my mind, baby I don’t think I’ll ever get out, yeah
I am trapped in my mind, baby I don’t think I’ll ever get out
I don’t think I’ll ever get out
This song also links in really well with the theme of being trapped ” you see the walls are so high that I couldn’t climb them” signifies that he is trying to find a way to escape but there is no way out. So it occured to me of the idea of being trapped in a small white box with high walls travelling quickly higher and higher the longer he is in there for. Another idea that I came up with from these set of lyrics was the idea of Kid Cudi being trapped in a cell in jail, locked behind bars. As I believe that if you were trapped in a small room in jail there is no where to escape as your fully surrounded by metals bars and cement. “Im trapped in my mind and i know its crazy, its not that bad at all, when you think of the world, i know its crazy, hey its not that bad at all” when it says “when you think of the world” this is what gave me the idea that he is trapped in a cell, wanting to know what the real world is like, as he has forgotten what it is like to be free.
As you can tell from above these lyrics to this song has given me an overload of ideas that we could use, even though personally I dislike the song as its not my type of music, however the boys in the group love it and believe its the perfect song to do with my ideas of the narrative. For my next post I will be discussing all my ideas of what we can use, and looking at some existing music videos that can inspire us even more.
Therefore Kid Cudi – Trapped in my mind is the song that we as a group have decided to use for our media studies music video A2.
After we had asked our target audience what music genre they prefer to listen too, we have decided to widen this knowledge and ask people who their favourite artist is and why? This will hopefully help us find some songs that has potential to be used in our final music video. By getting more target audience research on people’s thoughts about the music industry and what music artist they most like to listen too, we are able to connect with the audience in a more personal way. We have tried to ask a range of different age groups who were willing to give us some feedback, as this will broaden up our knowledge about music artists/bands and work out which artist or band is the most popular to our chosen audience. By asking people why they like their chosen artist or band will allow us to find out what impact the music industry has on people, and what makes a music video more effective? Is it the bands itself or is it the way the video brings emotion and meaning to their appearance, lyrics and narrative that is shown in the videos?
This is a video of the results we have managed to get.
It majority of people have mentioned Kid Cudi as their favourite sola artist that is currently storming the charts. We could now go even further into detail are ask random people whats their most liked/played song of Kid Cudi to give us our final result of which song to do. However some of Kid CuDi’s songs aren’t published like his mix-tapes that isn’t very well known, due to it now having any music video along with it. If we would decide to use Kid Cudi it would be better to find a song that isn’t well known to allow us to gain full potential of creativity and originality to our final media product.
For this section I have done some market research to get a rough idea what people want when it comes to music videos. In my group we were indecisive about what song and music genre we could do, therefore it was hard for us to pick what type of song we were greatly interested to do. So we asked people about what type of music genres they most like to listen too.
Below I have created a questionnaire that will help me decide what music genre to choice to the most popular answer. I’ve asked 50 random people in my school and the feedback I was given was very interesting.
The results that came back were really interesting as the most popular genre that people loved to listen were Electro and Alternative Hip-hop/Rap. This helped narrow down what type of music we could use for our music video.
Now we have found out what people enjoy listening to it will help us massively to find a song that people will enjoy in the suited genre. There are loads of very popular well known artists and bands that are specified in this genre.
I have also gone around to random people and asked them what genre they enjoy, as I personally wanted to make sure I was doing as much market research as I could to receive a solid, clear answer. This is the results I’ve managed to get, please watch the video below.
There are over thousands of music genres within the music industry, here I have narrowed it down to a few. I am also taking into account that I am aiming at a target audience of between 16 to 20 year olds, so therefore I will be focusing on the more relatively modern music genres and trends which are most likely to appeal to this age group. I will be again using Wikipedia as my trustworthy reference to define and generalise the terms of these music genres.
Below I have created a rough brain storm of the genres that I think will suit this audience with some artists that I know fit well into each genre:
Art Music (Classical music (European) Religious)
“Art music (or serious music or erudite music) is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition. The notion of art music is a frequent and well defined musicological distinction, e.g. referred to by musicologist Philip Tagg as an “axiomatic triangle consisting of ‘folk’, ‘art’ and ‘popular’ music’s.” He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. In this regard, it is frequently used as a contrasting term to popular music and traditional or folk music”
Examples:
This is a music video of Katherine Jenkins. I fell in love with this song when I heard it as I knew it was originally from the rock band “Evanescence-Bring me to Life” song, however Katherine managed to turn this rock band single into a classical opera song. Therefore I believe if links perfectly with arts music as she was very clever and creative in turning an opposite music genre into her own style.
TRADITIONAL MUSIC
Traditional music is the term increasingly used (e.g by the Grammy Awards) for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at theterminology section of the World music article. Other organizations have made similar changes, although it remains common to refer to traditional music as “folk music”.
ELECTRONIC
‘In the mid to late 2000s, bands formed that mix elements of post-hardcore “with a hybrid style drawing from both screamo and electronica.These bands and others have introduced the use of synthesizers and keyboard instruments in post-hardcore music. Auto-tuned singing vocals and synthesized screaming vocals are attributes of this style. These “newer hardcore/electronica hybrid bands” often play songs that contain “dancable beats, with some breakdowns splashed in,”and are known for “mixing… metalcore drums with electro beats, dissonant guitar chords with infectious leads, and poppy synths.”In this fusion style of music, it is not unusual to hear a “heavy shout ring out in the middle of a collection of technical guitars and pummeling drums.”‘
Examples:
BLUES
“Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre[1] that originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.[2] The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, roots rock, is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blueschord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound.”
“The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues-rock evolved.”
This video is from the famous blues composer Eric Clapton.
COUNTRY
“Country music (or country and western) is a blend of traditional and popular US musical forms traditionally found in the Southern United States and theCanadian Maritimes that evolved rapidly beginning in the 1920s. Distinctive variations of the genre have also emerged elsewhere including Australian country music.”
“The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music came to be seen as denigrating. Country music was widely embraced in the 1970s, while Country and Western has declined in use since that time, except in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it is still commonly used. However, in the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups created the music that became the Western music of the term Country and Western. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres.”
Examples:
This music video is of Taylor Swift and her song “mean”. Her style of music is very unique as her voice is country like but not all her music are country style, as she also does contemporary pop.
HIP-HOP
“Hip hop music is an American musical genre that developed as part of hip hop culture, and is defined by four key stylistic elements: rapping,DJing/scratching, sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing. Hip hop began in the South Bronx of New York City in the 1970s. The term rap is often usedsynonymously with hip hop, but hip hop also denotes the practices of an entire subculture”
Examples:
This song is from the Black Eyes Peas! normally these days they are creating music that now belong in the dance genre, however before dance became the new fashion all their old songs were really urban hip hop style, which made them very original. People liked them because of ‘different’ style of music. There single ‘Lets get it started’ inspired me the most as the beginning of the song is extremely catchy with the boys saying ‘Runnin Runnin Runnin Runni’ in an repetitive funky way.
JAZZ
“Jazz is a musical tradition and style of music that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.”
Examples:
Well, Micheal Bublé! where do I start? He has a very distinctive voice that is very lovable. His genre of music is jazz with a touch of pop as this is what was being played the most in the 20th century. If you were to become a famous artist then you will need to merge into trends which the audience wanted to listen to. Therefore Micheal Bublé used his own style of music that still fitted in perfectly with what the target audience wants.
The second link of Micheal Bublé song he sang called ‘feeling good’, is a massive hit that has been sang by loads of other artists. These artists include Nina Simone, Muse, Sammy Davis Jr., Bobby Darin, Traffic, Michael Bublé, The Pussycat Dolls, George Michael,John Barrowman, John Coltrane, Toše Proeski, Adam Lambert, Joe Bonamassa, Frank Sinatra Jr, Jennifer Hudson, Stephen Williams, and Alice Russell with The Quantic Soul Orchestra.
REGGAE
“Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.”
“Reggae is based on a rhythmic style characterized by accents on the off-beat, known as the skank. Reggae is normally slower than both ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually accents the second and fourth beat in each bar, with the rhythm guitar also either emphasizing the third beat or holding the chord on the second beat until the fourth is played. It is mainly this “third beat”, its speed and the use of complex bass lines that differentiated reggae from rocksteady, although later styles incorporated these innovations separately.”
Examples:
ROCK
Heavy Metal
‘Heavy metal (often referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in between 1968 and 1974 , largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are generally associated with masculinity and machismo’
This is video is Jadas Priest which is a very popular heavy metal rock band.
Punk Rock
‘Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars.About.com has described contemporary pop punk bands as having “a radio friendly sheen to their music, but still maintaining much of the speed and attitude of classic punk rock”.’
Examples:
This green day isn’t the most punk song that they have created as their genre is based in pop punk. However its the one I think its really successful. The video’s special effects makes it really eye-catching and attention grabbing to watch. As you can tell for the use of mise en scene, Green days clothing/hair style automatically shows what type of music their band plays.
Alternative Rock
“Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt rock or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became wildly popular in the 1990s. Alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge,Britpop, gothic rock, indie pop, and indie rock. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk rock, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.[1] At times alternative rock has been used as a catch-all phrase for rock music from underground artists in the 1980s, and all music descended from punk rock (including punk itself, New Wave, and post-punk).”
Examples:
This video is from the Veronicas, as I immediately knew that their genre of music is Alternative rock. I love their music because the Veronicas uses lyrics that happened to them in their normal lives away from the paparazzi. But also I feel that I connect with their music as some times are very inspiring with the use of language that I might of experienced or the people around me.
Versamerge is a band that I recently heard of when I went away to the Netherlands and caught my cousin listening to their music. I really like this group as they are a band that I enjoy listening too. Also their use of lyrics are meaningful which helps get the audience to connect and bond with the group more.
DUBSTEP
‘Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music, originating from London, UK. Its overall sound has been described as “tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals”.The term “dubstep” in reference to a genre of music began to be used by around 2002, by which time stylistic trends used in creating these remixes started to become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step and grime.’
Examples:
Skrillex is very popular with the young generation of people as dub step is widely listened to by teenagers. Skrillex has some really original funky computerized sounds within the music that makes it really fun to listen to. All the songs have been made my using special computer software with some added voices to make it interesting.
DRUM & BASS
‘Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to D&B or DnB) is a type of rave music which emerged in the mid 1990s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats (typically between 160–190 bpm, occasional variation is noted in older compositions), with heavy bass and sub-bass lines. Drum and bass began as an offshoot of the United Kingdom rave scene of the very early 1990s. Over the first decade of its existence, the incorporation of elements from various musical genres led to many permutations in its overall style.’
Examples:
Pendulum is an Australian-British drum and bass and electronic rock band founded in 2002.
While Hold Your Colour holds true to the drum and bass genre, Pendulum have since experimented with mixing other genres into their work. This can be heard on their second album In Silico, as well as the third album, Immersion. Immersion has a mixture of drum and bass and rock, as well as electronic influences. Their newer releases incorporate styles from genres such as alternative rock, heavy metal, dubstep and house music.
Pendulum are also known for their live shows, with a live band setup and advanced visual displays adding to the incorporation of their infusion of drum and bass with rock.
DANCE
“Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music.”
Examples:
There is a wide range of different artists and bands out their who aim to do dance music as its becoming very popular along with dub-step. However I came across Plan B with Chase and Status and immediately fell in love with this song. It is dance style that becomes really upbeat in the main chorus.
Inna is a dance artist who makes catchy and very provocative music videos. her style is to be very sexy and sassy within all her music videos but also uses upbeat tempo tunes that people like to listen to when ‘clubbing’. Therefore dance music like Inna will be mostly heard and played by DJ’s in all the night clubs as her music is good to dance too.
URBAN
“Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely ofhip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica and Caribbean music such as reggae, reggaeton, zouk, and sometimes soca (In Toronto, London, New York City, Boston and Miami). Urban contemporary was developed through the characteristics of genres such as R&B and Soul.[1] Virtually all Urban contemporary formatted radio stations are located in cities that have sizeable African-American populations, such as Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Charlotte, and Norfolk, Virginia, etc.”
Rachel Louise Taylor 