Risk assesment

Drama Studio
Hazard list for filming in the drama studio Below is a table showing possible risks of filming in our schools drama studio and how we will combat there risks to ensure a safe filming session. This is where we will filming the narrative part of our music video.

Risk                                          Danger                            How we will make it safe
Wet floor of drama studio        Slipping danger               Make sure the floor is dry before filming
Lose cables                              Tripping                           Make sure all cables are neatly out of the way Sharp objects on floor              Cuts                                 Sweep the performance erea thouroughly Crossing the road                     Traffic accident               Make sure there is no traffic coming Obstruction of fire escapes      Asphyxiation, burning     Make sure all fire exits are clear and known


Warehouse

We have chosen to use an abandoned warehouse to use for our main performance with the artist, as it represents an urban and beat down background, linking to the idea of a struggle to fame which is common in R&B. The benefit of using this as our location is that it shows a good representation of the song accross all texts. This is a picture of the warehouse we are using.

Below is a hazard table of the warehouse we wish to film in for the performance part of the video with our singer.

Risk                                         Danger                              How we will make it safe
Broken glass on floor              Danger of cuts                   Sweep performance area
Slippery metal staircase          Slips and falls                    Shoes with good grip must be worn
Fire exits obstructed                Burning asphyxiation        Make sure all fire exits are known and clear Wet floor                                  Danger of slipping            Make sure floor is dry before start
Crossing roads                         Traffic accident                 Stop look listen

Facebook audience research

Beyonce: 38 million likes
                 Most popular age group - 18-24

Drake: 26 million likes
            Most popular age group - 18-24

Rihanna: 61 million likes
                Most popular age group - 18-24

Iyaz: 1.9 million likes
          Most popular age group - 13-17

Jason Derulo: 8.6 million likes
                       Most popular age group - 13-17


From the Facebook figures we see that the higher profile artists that have 20 million+ likes have a 'Most popular age group' of 18-24. However the lower profile artists that have sub 10 million likes have a 'Most popular age group' of 13-17. I believe that for our target audience we should take into account the higher profile artists age groups as R&B is a mass marketed product instead of Indie music which is more of a niche market.

R&B Digi Pack Analysis

I have analysided Jay Z's The Black Album digi pack as he is R&B, some of his music may be seen as similar to our song, so I have looked at his digi pack to get idead for what to do in ours to make it an authentic R&B digi pack.

 

 

As shown in the front and back of The Black Album shown above, the name of the album has been taken very literally when designing the Digipack. The CD disk inside, and the inlays also follow this theme through with black backgrounds and in places, black and white pictures of Jay Z on top of the plain background.

 



'Black' is the theme of the album, which could appear as a sign of Jay Z embracing his ethnicity and showing the world he is proud to carry his ethnicity and culture through into his music, for everyone to see and hear.

The inlay consists of many pictures of Jay Z collaged fitting many on each page, a lot of the pictures include him with other celebrities, such as Beyonce, Eminem and Timberland, as they feature on this album somehow, next to the pictures it says thanks, and explains the part they blayed in the album. This is a convention of R&B as it is in a way, showing your popularity and friendships with other celebrities, gaining interest of fans of not only Jay Z's music, but the other artists too.

This album is very plain, and not the most eye catching, as Jay Z already has his own huge fan base that would go out especially to buy this album, he does not especially need to make it stand out, as he will still sell millions of copies to his existing fans.

The back of the album is simple, with the track list at the top in white, with a big empty black space below it emphasising emptiness of the space below, making the buyer question why the layout has been designed like this.

This Digipack has a 'PARENT ADVISORY - EXPLICIT CONTENT' sticker on the front, which is crutial in an album that has gursing or inapporpriate lyrics in it. We will definitely need this on our Digipack, as we do have some cursing words in our song. This is common in R&B music, used to express their emotion.
The CD also has a price tag, and a bar code which we will include on ours also.

Audience Research Demographics

I have carried out Facebook audience research into Frank Ocean as he is an R&B artist that could be seen as similar to ours.

 

 

From the 2nd picture, I have learned that although Frank Ocean is not one of the most well known R&B arists, he has quite a lot of likes on Facebook and a fair amount of the users are talking about him right now. From these demographics, I can also see that the place where Frank Ocean is most popular is in Los Angeles, showing that this State in America listens to R&B. This may be as Frank Ocean comes from America and lives there, but it is also to do with the fact that a high percentage of people there listen to R&B music. This screen shot also shows me that Frank Ocean has a young target audience age group, being 18-24 year olds, this would be due to the hip hop style of many of his songs, along with the swearing and unsuitable lyrics for young teenagers.

 

From researching furthur into Frank Oceans audience, I have a better idea of our artits target audience, as it would in many ways be similar to these demographics.

Analysis of Black and white music video

As we are using a black and white effect on the footage of our R&B music video, I have decided to analyse a R&B black and white music video by Kanye West and Rihanna called All Of The Lights, the black and white effect is only used for the first 1:05 of the video, meaning this is the only bit I can analyse for our video, but there are some interesting points I can analyse.

This shot is similar to one we are using in our music video as we have a shot of the dancer walking to her dance studio. The black and white effect adds to the effect of sadness given, as it is dull. This song and ours both portray some kind of pain, which is enhanced by the use of black and white filters.

 

Again, this close up of the girls face is similar to shots we will use in our piece, the use of black and white simplifies the picture, making the background blend in, so the girl is the main focal point. She is also framed in the centre of the shot, drawing the eye towards her. The black and white adds a classy theme to the shots.

Progress post

Today in our lesson me, Miles and Jon have been deciding on good locations to film in and what we will need to do for our risk assessments.

How artists are filmed/Performance

This video contains 3 R&B artists collaborating in one song, this is one of the reasons I have chosen to analyse it for how R&B artists are filmed as you see this throughout the video.


Low angle shots are used frequently in this video, giving the artists power and making it appear they are looking down on you. This is common in R&B music videos, as the artists often go for the 'powerful' look which usually links to their song. This song especially links with the power aspect as they lyrics are "We gon' run this town tonight" making them look like the leaders of a crew/pack/army of people, other shots of the video back this up, showing crowds of people looking up to the artists.
The pictures below show the low angles, making it look although the viewers are looking up to the artist. This pictures also portray an intimidating image of the R&B artists as they have very straight faces, and almost look angry. This again is a feature of R&B videos, the artists keep a straight face (especially male artists)

There are some cult images in this video, which could be taken as intimidating such as Rihanna making the Illuminati triangle. This is something that artists often do to show rebellion and iconic originality as many people don't know what the Illuminati sign means, this would enforce the enigma code making the audience want to find out what it is.

This image is of all three of the R&B artists, this shot is close to the beginning of the video, straight away enforcing the style of this video as it shows they are wearing black, and you cannot see much of their face/features, creating a sinister, intimidating feel to their image. In the last picture, Jay Z is covering his face with a scarf, linking to the cult image given from the video.

The next screen shot from the video shows a cross dissolve/fade between Rihanna and the crowd of followers the R&B artists appear to have surrounding them in the video. This is a good effect as she is almost in front of them in the shot, giving her power over them. The raised arm in the air also gives off the idea that she is rallying her troops for battle. There is a strong war theme of this video due to military outfits and the people with fire and such.

This is something we may do in our video, a cross fade between our artists face singing, and the girl character dancing in the background, giving an effective shot of both our narrative and performance.

The shot of the artist pointing at the camera below makes the audience feel although she is singing directly to them, Rihanna is making direct eye contact too which is an important thing with R&B conventions as they connect with the audience and build up a relationship with them.

These shots focusing on Rihanna do bring in sex appeal and femininity. The first image shows a prominent pout from a side shot of her face, making the video appeal to the male audience as she is an attractive artist so they are still using this slightly in the video although they have stripped most of it away.

These shots show 'girl power' which is something Rihanna as an artist is known for, as she gives of the impression of being very independent. These low angle shots of her give her power over other characters in the video and over the audience again, this is a common convention of R&B music videos. In the bottom image, Rihanna is shown standing in front of the men in the video, giving her power even over them in these shots, which is sometimes unusual especially in the R&B genre, men are usually seen as powerful and protecting the women in the videos. This adds to the edginess of the video as it is breaking some usual common conventions of the genre.

Very dark lighting is used in some shots of the video, with a green hue to the shot, this portrays an evil nature as its dark, and green, both convey images of sinister darkness. The light is coming from behind both artists in the shots too making them look shadowy and their features are quite unrecognisable, again adding to the sinister effect.

These shots of actors in the video enforce the army of people shown following the R&B stars. Quick shots of lots of the characters faces are shown cutting in time with the beat of the music. These people again look dark and sinister as you cannot see much of their faces.

Our actor and costumes

These are some more pictures of the girl we are using in our R&B video for the ballet dancing scene. This is the costume she will be wearing for the dance scene of the video. We have chosen this outfit as it is simple but clearly portrays she is a ballet dancer.

Target audience figures

Based on our secondary research from websites such as facebook, youtube and quantcast, we have found a pattern in audience members of many R&B artists. These figures are not conclusive however we believe that our ideal audience member will be:

• Between the ages of 18-24, however there are also 13-17 year olds that would take an interest.
• Predominantly, the female population are seen to be the gender that listens to R&B music the most.
• Figures from quantcast show that the ethinic minority that listen to R&B music are Afro American.

Performance/Narrative music video

As in our video, we wish to have cross cuts between our artist, and a performance of a girl dancing (ballet) I have been looking at videos which include a performance of dancing to get ideas of lighting, angles and costumes for our own video. I have chosen to analyse Beyonce's Single Ladies video, as she brings the performance and narrative together, featuring the whole way through (although there isn't really a narrative, just the dancing) there is a strong performance from her and two other girls. Obviously we wish to do our video differently to this, but I will be looking at this video to highlight how the girls are shown when dancing, linking to how our character will be shown when she is dancing.



In this video, the three girls look very similar, although the artist Beyonce has a slightly different outfit and she has a metal brace around her hand. This makes her stand out from the backing dancers but is also highlights the lyric "If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it" where she points at her hand with the brace on, highlighting the feature.

The performers in this video are portrayed as very feminine as they are wearing heels, and small play suits which accentuate their curves. This adds sex appeal to the video, making it appealing to both the male and female audience. The girls also give off a feel of 'girl power' relating to the lyrics and name of the song "Single Ladies" showing they are proud to be single, and are dancing about it.

The lighting in this video is very interesting as it goes from back and white backgrounds every now and then in time with the music, the girls almost dance through the lighting creating a very good, eye catching effect.

The filming of this video is also interesting as it is one continuous shot which is just broken up by the lighting change. The camera gives a sense of following the dancers, adding to the effect of voyeurism for the audience. Sadly we could not easily do this in our video as ours is cross cutting between the narrative of the girl dancing, and the performance of our artist singing.

This video is completely in black and white -  a feature which we are going to use in our video. In the case of Beyonces video, it works well picking up their shaddows along with the white background, making the girls the only thing that stands out. This will work nicely with our dancing piece as dance routines always look nice in black and white, keeping them simple and pure.

The dancers perform a very similar dance, apart from a few bits in the song where Beyonce does a different thing to the other two, again enhancing artist image and making her clearly stand out.

Actions are used in places when dancing, correlating with the lyrics of the song, which we also wish to use in our R&B video such as our artist also.

People we are using in our video

We have chosen our artist who is shown in the pictures below. We have chosen this particular boy to be Joseph SoMo as he goes to our school, meaning we can film after school and such times. Also he has the right look to be our R&B artist as he is from the ethnic background that fits with our image and song. Andy also has some acting skills from doing Drama GCSE meaning he will be willing and able to do the things we wish him too such as lip sync.

The next pictures are of the girl we wish to use in our narrative part of the video for the ballet dancer. She also goes to our school, so the same applies with making it easy for us to film. Phoebe is a ballet dancer and does it in her spare time meaning she is already skilled at what we need her to do.

Lyrics and lyric analysis picture (unfinished)

Joseph SoMo The Morning Lyrics

From the morning to the evening, complaints from the tenants, got the walls kickin like they six months pregnant

Drinking Alizé with our cereal for breakfast, girls calling cabs at dawn quarter to 7:00

Skies getting cold, flying from the north, rockin with our city like a sold out show

House full of pros that specialize into hoein, make that money rain as they takin off they clothes

Order plane tickets, Cali is the mission, visit every month like I'm split life living

Let the world listen if a haters caught slipping then my singers stay tight

Got my back like pippin, fast life grippin, yeah we still tippin

Codys keys paint a picture so vivid, fakes try to mimic, get girls timid, but behind closed doors they get oh so rigid

(Chorus)

All that money the money is the motive, all that money the money is the motive, all that money the money she be foldin

Girl put in work girl, girl put in work, girl put in work girl, girl put in work, girl put in work

(Verse 2)

Push it to the limit, push it through the pain, I push it for the pleasure like the virgin to the game

A virgin to that money, a virgin to the fame

So this my only chance and when I'm over only pray that I flow from the bottom, closer to the top, the higher that I climb, the harder I'ma drop

These pu**y a** singers tryna hold on to their credit so I tell them use a debit watch they image start to lessen I warned 'em like discretion

Why these singers testing, always fu**ing testing, why these singers testing

Sh*t that I got them on straight bar hopping to the music of the ambiance, get sh*t popping

Zombies of the night, singer’s aint talking, if they hyping to the crew get it in like pockets

Downtown loving, when the moon coming, only place to find base heads, and hot women

(Chorus)

Better slow down, she'll feel it in the morning, aint the kind of girl you'll be seeing in the morning

Too damn raw aint no singer worth her holding, aint no singer that she holding man her love is too damn foreign

(Chorus x2)

Below I have analysed the lyrics.
 

Elements of a Digi Pack

- Cover
- Back cover
- Spine
- Disc cover
- Inlays - 4 minimum, lyrics, pictures, thanks
- Legal jargon - special edition, explicit content, parental advisory, small print, barcode, copyright and year, blackberry/android scanner
- Freebys
- Extra footage and videos on disk
- Two disk
- Music and bonus CD's with behind the scenes and pictures
- Make the digi pack look desirable
- Personal message from artist (hand written with signature)

These are all important factors that we need to consider when making, designing and taking pictures for our own digi pack of Joseph SoMo.

Digipack

As well as our artists music video we will be designing and making a digipack, we did this in our preliminary task, meaning we already know the basics of what we need to do for this task. The digipack of our artist is crucial as with the R&B artist, they focus a lot on image, meaning we can enhance this and give our audience more of an idea of what our artist looks like, the digipack helps connect with the audience for this exact reason.
I will be creating a post saying all the things we will create in our digipack for Joseph SoMo.

The Script Hall of fame

Looking at the Hall Of Fame video we have realised that this video is similar to the style we wish our finised video to be like.

We are looking to use a similar idea as to the one within this music video. We are aiming to use an empty warehouse to set where our artist will be and we believe that this is a good example to use as it has the correct lighting and camera shots. This gives us something to compare what we plan to do despite there being a different music genre.

Within the first minute of the song we see that there is a variation of shots of the artist in this setting which establishes what is around (through the long shots) however the close up shots establish who the artist is. These establishing shot are key when filming a music video with narrative as it begins to show what the video is telling he audience.

Another part of the music video that we planto use as insiration to our video is the ballet dancing part. We would like to use it as a similar way to the way used in the video which shows the upcoming of a talent in ballet. This vide all shows us some effective shots used when filming a ballet scene such as a low angle shot of the dancer leaping over.