Update on everything

So... Its January and everything in accordance with my music video, digipak cover and poster are in full effect, the first shooting day was done during the time I had off at Christmas and I am now working through editing, adding special effects and generally making everything sharper and to the standard that I would like them to be at.

In terms of my Research and Planning, I feel that it is going well, however, there are still quite a few things that I need to research and give my idea on how to make it apparent to my audience how I am going to make it seem like my story will seem very realistic.

For my target audience, I feel like I have conducted sufficient target research work in order to gain the idea of who I am aiming my music video at (both males and females from the ages of 16-21). I have done this through the use of a quantitative and a qualitative analysis (a filmed focus group [check out my youtube video!] and an online questionnaire [another blog post conducted late last year]).

In terms of my characters, I believe at this moment in time that I have got that covered and will only have one character throughout the music video (View my character profile to see who it is!). In terms of how he acts on camera, he is very confident and shows obvious signs that he is following the conventions through the way he speaks, the way he looks at the camera and he looks very comfortable.

I feel like although I have completed my final treatment now (hopefully my story doesn't change again) I have not created a sufficient image for you my audience, as previously mentioned, so, be patient, it is coming, and hopefully you, my audience will get a better idea of what I am trying to film. If I do a storyboard, it will create a shot list for you and me to follow.

In terms of my time management, I feel like it has been okay because over the space of 5 months, I have posted 30 blog posts now and I feel like my story has really come along pretty well.

For the aspect of the digital technology/ICT, I will be posting some screenshots of the software that I will be using soon (Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop)

Furthermore, what I am thinking of doing on top of this in order to give you a better idea of how everything is going to look, I am thinking of publishing another video, perhaps a behind the scenes of how everything is going to look, maybe explain my shot list and my story board as well. However, this is dependent on whether or not I will be allowed to at a later date.

Costumes and Props for my Music Video

This blog will be about the costumes and props that I may be using in my music video. I didn't feel like there were any props that were necessary to be used throughout my music video without it seeming like there was a bit too much going on. Therefore, there will not be any props present in my music video.

There are 2 costumes that my main character will be using throughout my music video, the first will be a suit. Excusing the obvious fact that the person who will be wearing the suit will not be David Beckham for me, this is what the main character will look like. He will look formal and will seem like he has been working for a rather long time, and this is why he will be tired and frustrated. I feel like this will make him mix in and make him seem like every other member of the public who wants to look formal for his work and is a hard working person who wants to provide for himself and for his family. The only things that should be taken from the image below is the suit, because my mise en scene will be a lot darker and gloomier to captivate the better and more meaningful emotions that I want, and also because the actor will be shorter and probably not smiling much.

The second part of the costume will be the protagonist ripping his tie off and revealing a gold chain underneath. Unfortunately, in this image, the person does not have a gold chain, however, this will be a placeholder until the second day of filming. The tie will be the thing to come off because it will look like the only thing which is holding everything together. After the tie comes off, it will be replaced with the gold chain which connotes completely opposite things to the tie. In this image the mise en scene is actually rather good because it isnt too bright and it isn't too dark, this will be the similar scenery that I will use when he is rapping. The shallow focus will also be something that I will use because this will show more of a focus on the rapper and that is something that I would want and would be a better fit for a Hip-Hop/Rap music video.

The second overall costume will be of the protagonist wearing his own casual clothes which shows how he is expressing himself and doing what he wants to do which is the main aim of the music video - for him to express himself. He will probably be wearing something either smart casual which will go away from the convention. I would like it if he wore this because it will show that he is no different to everyone else who wishes they could go off and express themselves and do what they want to do. Although the colours are rather neutral, they will stand out due to the colours of the background, furthermore, I may also make a shallow focus on the protagonist therefore meaning that it doesn't matter what they wear because they will still stand out. Furthermore, in a way I feel like this type of attire he will be wearing fits the Hip-Hop and Music video conventions, something bright and something that looks expensive that maybe the rapper would want to flaunt in the real music video.

Shooting day 1

So Shooting day 1 was a success, I have now covered around a minute and a half of the song so far, I have also edited the song to be around 3:30. However, there were some issues with outtakes on the tube. Due to the fact that the tube was constantly jumping, the video was not smooth whatsoever. Therefore, on the second (and hopefully the final shooting day) I will take that shot again, maybe on a different railway line because that way it will be a bit smoother to shoot.

On the other hand, the roads were really quiet which meant that Oliver and I could take as many takes as we saw fit. Furthermore, in front of the camera, Oliver looked really confident and seemed to follow many of the conventions that I have described in my blog for Hip-Hop conventions. Furthermore, for the majority of the shots they were tracking shots, however, I am hoping for the next shoot to do some more shots such as the orbiting shot which will be for the ending.

In terms of photos taken for my digipak, the day was very successful. I managed to take some photos for the character profile, and take some test shots to give myself a draft so that I can understand what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I need to do in order to make what I have described perfect.

Treatment 3rd Draft

This will hopefully be the final draft of my treatment, there have had to be some changes to the storyline, due to issues with my original story.

Logline

The objective and overall storyline for my music video is to show a man who was about to go to work but instead he decides to do his own thing and instead of going to work, he scraps work and speaks the truth about current affairs that are going on in society today.

Plot

At the beginning of the music video, the main character will be sat on the train, bored, melancholy and miserable. He will breathe a big sigh and as he does this the song will appear to get louder and as a result, the music video will begin with the emotion of sadness and annoyance. The protagonist then leaves the train and the station generally. After this, there will be a short cut to the protagonist walking through the streets and will be lip syncing the words to the song. As the song goes on, there is a another singer in the song (Damian Lemar Hudson). Who sings some notes, while he is doing this in the song, the protagonist of my music video will be on a skyscraper in some conventional Hip-Hop clothing. This will show him happy, confident and content. The transformation of the music video will exclaim to him what the song did to so many people through the words that were said throughout. From the start of the song where the main character is all alone and upset to the end, where he is confident and basically saying "Look at me now!".

Media Language

Throughout the music video, the media language for the majority of the shots will be tracking shots while the protagonist is lip syncing to the camera. However, at the beginning of the music video, there will be solely a medium close up. Furthermore, at the end of the music video will be an orbital shot of the protagonist with all his confidence glowing off him.

Black Spiderman Lyric Analysis

Logic talks in this song, through the lyrics about how whatever race, religion, colour, creed, and sexual orientation a person is they should be proud of it and also respect other people's differences because nowadays things such as the ones mentioned are what differentiate the human race from being united. 

Logic said: "This song is the celebration of unity and a world built upon division. People say things like I don't see color, I just see people. To which I retour you should see color, you should see a black man, a white woman, a brown little girl or any other color of the rainbow."

Logic talks about the stereotypical portrayals of Jesus as a white Caucasian.  

Praise Black Jesus now call the preacher

Maybe Jesus was black

Maybe Jesus had dreads

He explained in his video on Rap Genius: 

"I had a whole conversation with Killer Mike about Jesus. And he really educated me and hipped me on it. But I just don't see Jesus being hella pasty. It just doesn't make sense when you think about where he comes from.

But I don't know, I'm not here to argue about religion. I'm not here to say what Jesus was or wasn't. It just comes down to the fact that me saying, "Black Jesus," shouldn't make you feel a way. So what maybe Jesus was Black. You know how many Black households I've been in and they got Black Jesus?

There is legit Asian Jesus on people's walls. I've gone in their house and they got Asian Jesus. I swear to god. These things exist, but I've been so used to seeing white Jesus, everywhere. It's not about that. It's not about religion.

This is about racism. This is about depicting what is or should be or shouldn't be. Let Spider-Man be Puerto Rican, Black, Asian or whatever. It doesn't matter."

Speaking to Billboard magazine, Logic pointed to the song's lyric, "Do what you love, and don't wonder what it could be" as emblematic of his objective for his music. "This is the fight for equality for every man, woman, child, race, religion, colour, creed, sexual orientation," he said. "If you don't like that, you're an evil person."

Although I have linked it many times throughout my blog, I feel like this is the most justified post to date in which this video is relevant.

These are the lyrics that I am going to be using for my music video and the ones which I wont be using are the lyrics which I havent annotated, I think this will become more apparent when I do other things such as my shot list video showing my progress and also my editing timeline showing where everything is going to be placed.

Digipak Mock Up

This is how I would like for my digipak to look after all of my photos have been taken, I would like for it to be a 3 page digipak cover

In the top right, you will be able to see my front cover, the bottom left is the inside left cover with the top middle being the back of the digipak.

The bottom photo is the inside of the digipak itself and the top photo is all of the outside.

The photos that I have drawn are going to be a sort of transformation of the protagonists' day, for example, at the start there will be photos of the main character sat down on the train and looking all bored, however by the end, the back cover will be the main character on top of the sky scraper with his hands out. It will be like the front cover however, it will connote a different message in my opinion. In the front cover, I want the message to be like "What is the point?". However, on the back cover, through the image I want the message to be something like "Look at me now!" I feel that with these images and the conventions of Rap/Hip-Hop posters and digipaks, the mise en scene and the semiotics play a major part, as mentioned previously.

Potential Photos for the Digipak covers (Part 1)

In this blog post I am going to publish some of the potential photos that I am going to use for my Digipak covers.

Throughout my digipak my aim is to show the transformation of the actual music video though the photos taken, the emotions shown and costumes being worn.

 

I think that this will be the front cover for my digipak with the words "Black Spiderman" running somewhere in the sky which will show to audiences what song the digipak is for. I have chosen a plain road and chosen to show certain things such as cars and not an empty road to show that there is a sense that the protagonist of my music video is living a normal and regular life which is similar to that of every other working class person. The Mise en Scene of this photo is very symbolic, the deciduous tree to the left also shows symbolic meaning as it seems worn down and overall very bare, and I think at this stage where the music video shows this and in the digipak while he is still wearing his suit, I this this is very meaningful. Furthermore, the fact that he has his back to the camera also tells me the fact that he isn't very confident and I feel that this is reinforced throughout the music video because at the start he is playing music through his earphones on the train and also refuses to look at the camera which suggests timidness.

I believe for the inside cover it should be one of these 2 photos. These two photos show a very melancholy and rather sad and depressed emotion which as mentioned previously relates to the lyrics which have been mentioned previously. The body language of him also suggests a sign of frustration and fatigue. Therefore, I want these photos to seem as realistic as possible. I feel that through his body language, that I have captivated the emotion of anger and frustration.

Artist Profile

This is my character profile, my main character is Oliver Bokmans who will I have previously posted a video of where I made an attempt to lip sync him with the song. Luckily for me, Oliver is able to speak really fast and he is also into the Rap/RnB genre of music. Oliver fits some of the generic conventions for this because of his confidence to look at the camera because one of the generic conventions for Hip-Hop is to look at the camera and show confidence in what you are saying. Furthermore, another advantage is that some of the costumes that Oliver has to wear throughout the music video seem fitting and makes the video more realistic. The emotion that he puts into stressing every single meaningful word is also an advantage for me as it symbolises the seriousness of the song and the message that I am trying to send.

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2