Group 5 A2 2016/2017: Evaluation Question 1

Music Video

Costume

For our groups music video, we adhered to the conventions of grime. As most grime music videos artists wear hoodies, jackets, trainers and jeans, and the colours of these clothes are usually in darker colours such as black or dark blue. I though our group should adhere this principle, examples of these costumes are in the music video by Stromzy called 'SCARY.'

Dark green hoodie:

Black jacket:

In my groups music video, we used mainstream and casual clothing that sticks to the conventions of grime. Types of clothing we used are hoodies, jackets, jeans and trainers.

Examples in my music video:

Trainers: normal foot-ware worn by artists in grime music videos

Character is wearing a black hoodie, this is seen in most grime videos

Jacket is a North Face jacket, trendy and casual.

Props
My initial ideas for props were watches, cars, headsets, pouches, bags and mainstream and casual clothing etc. These prop ideas conforms to the conventions of the grime genre. In the music video my group and I able to put some of these ideas into place, we could have included more items but due to our groups time restriction our options were limited.

Phones

The phone is used to show Goodwin’s factor on the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, as the main characters lyric “got ‘em on the phone n I said T wuss hapinin,” after this it switches to another character on the phone answering the main character. The phone allows the audience to see that this is a youth who is fully engrossed in the technological age, allowing most audiences to relate as many people have mobile phones. It is shown to be the main and most important form of communication in today’s time. An example of phones used in grime music video is ‘Pick Up The Phone’ by Belly Squad x Abra Cadabra and another example is Krept & Konan’s ‘My Story’ music video.

Example of phones in our groups music video:

Example from real media texts: Example from real media texts:
Krept & Konan -‘My Story’ Belly Squad x Abra Cadabra - Pick Up The Phone

Cars and Police cars/vans

My group and I for some scenes used a car, as most grime music videos features cars. The car was not an important prop, but I felt that the use of a car ensures our music video conforms to grime conventions and it was the perfect prop to use in a carpark. The car used in the video creates a sense of realism as the audience sees that the car belongs to the characters, audiences with cars are able to relate with the characters. Furthermore, the car used is a normal and affordable car instead of an expensive car like a Lamborghini, adding more realism to our music video.

The police car and police van were used in the music video for the audience to get a feel that there is potential criminal activity in this area. It also has the effect of making the audience think that the characters in the music video may be involved in criminal activity, even if the video does not show the characters undertaking criminal acts.

Cigarettes

My group and I decided to include a scene with a character smoking a cigarette to create more realism. As it shows it is normal for the characters to smoke in their lives. Real grime media texts do show smoking scenes and by using this in our groups music video it shows that our work is the same as a professionally made media texts.

Pouches and bags

The pouches and bags used in the music video are seen in most grime music videos. Grime artists use pouches as a display or to ‘show off’ but it is also used to carry small handheld possessions such as headphones. In today’s society, it is seen as a very convenient tool among today’s young adults and as it is used by artists in grime music videos, pouches are even more appealing for young adults to be able to mimic their favourite artist. Also, the bags used in most grime music videos are trendy and mainstream type bags. These bags are also designer bags with logos such as Nike or Adidas, which young adults are also able to mimic. Uses of bags is seen in Wiley Ft Devlin’s – ‘Bring Them All’ and a pouch is used in Stormzys song - ‘SHUT UP’

Pouches and bags in me and my groups music video:

Examples of pouches and bags in real media texts:
Stormzy - 'SHUT Wiley Ft Devlin – ‘Bring Them All’ :
UP': (Pouch used) (Bag used)

Gun

My group and I decided we would use the gun at the end of the music video to portray the main character being killed. The usage of the gun emphasis the danger that lurks around the lives of most grime artists, this type of danger and violence is seen with rap artists. The sound of a gunshot is in the track as a gunshot can be heard at the end of the audio footage, which was very convenient for me and my group. As my group and I felt that it was appropriate to show a visual of the gun being pointed at the main character and then the scene cuts to black with the sound of a gunshot following shortly after, rather than showing visual footage of the character being shot which would be considered as too explicit for some audiences. This makes the ending less explicit and adds mystery and ambiguity which I feel the audience will find interesting. Most grime music videos do not use guns, but it effectively shows the danger and violence in the music video and the gun contradicts a line of the lyric which is, ‘Don’t worry about me.’ The gun contradicts it as the character says ‘Don’t worry about me’ repeatedly throughout the video but at the end the character is killed. Examples of violence with guns is shown in Krept & Konan – Dunya.

Example of a gun used in the music video:

Example of guns used in Krept & Konan – Dunya:

Location

Using previous research, me and my group knew that we needed to use an urban location for our music video. We believe it would give the music video more realism and our product is the same as real grime music videos. Furthermore, I felt that it would give the audience a sense of realism as audiences will be able to relate to the similar environment in our music video.

The location my group and I decided to film at is Ealing. Ealing was the perfect location to film as it as an urban area filled with locations that fits in with the conventions of grime. A few locations we filmed at are Ealing Car Park, block of flats for domestic scenes, Ealing Council building and alleyways.

1) Ealing Car Park

Location shot:

Examples of car park scenes in the music video:

2) Block of flats - for domestic scene

Examples of domestic scenes in the music video:

3) Ealing Council Building

Location shot:

Examples of scenes taken outside Ealing Council building:

4) Alleyways

Examples of alleyway scenes:

Narrative

In most grime music videos, the artists show experiences of their past. These experiences could be about friends, family, childhood events or even traumatic events. Personally, I wanted our groups music video to lean towards a story type narrative so that the music video would have a bigger impact on the audience. The music video begins with the main character and his friends have a brief altercation with two characters, then it has numerous scenes in a variety of locations, this was done to show a depiction of the characters day and how it progresses into the main character death at the hands of the two characters seen before.

Beginning of the music video:

End of the music video:

The main source of inspiration for the story narrative is from the grime music video Krept & Konan - 'Dunya.' In 'Dunya' the music video starts of with an introduction scene with the characters talking to each other, next there is an altercation with the police and then the music starts. Our music video is similar to a real media product and this will attract more audiences, as our product is similar to a professionally made music video.

Krept & Konan - 'Dunya.' :
Opening:

Altercation:

Camera Work

1) Tracking shot:

2) Close up shots

3) Low angle shots

4) Eye level shot:

5) Mid-shot:

6) Long Shot:

7) Group Shot:

8) Pan:

9) Two Shot:

Editing

During the editing stage, I used the editing software 'Final Cut Pro' on the apple iMacs to edit my groups music video.

1) Slow-motion effect:
The slow motion effect is used to slow down a particular scene to highlight its importance.
E.g. The phone call scene

2) Reverse Clip effect:
The reverse clip is something that is unique and we thought it would work well in out music video

3) Fast motion effect:
The fast motion effect was used near to the end of the music video

4) Image Stabilization:
Image stabilization was used to stabilize a shaky scenes so that the scene will be less shaky and is clear.