Final Video

Shonttelle - The One Music

Final Ideas

As a group my partner and I were discussing what our final ideas would be for the video and we had come to a conclusion that it will be similar to the video below this video is 'Beyonce - 1+1'. It will consist of similar shots and angles throughout, I also believe that the genre of both videos will be very similar when compared with each other. As you will see when comparing both videos, both genres are similar as well as the camera shots. 

Mood Board

This is a mood board, it repesents all the emotions that occur during the video. The video will be uploaded in few weeks time after it has been edited.

Technical Analysis

Beyoncé - 1+1

Shontelle said that Beyonce is on of her biggest inspirations and is the reason of what she does now, and I can also say from filming this video myself that our music video is very similar to the video which I have just uploaded. Repeatedly throughout the video there is a constant focus on Beyonce from beginning right up to the end. This is similar to our own video where after all the editing there is also a constant focus on Shontelle throughout the video this is just one of the few similarities between our own music video and the video of Beyonce below.  

These 2 shots which I have just captured are from the video which I uploaded above and also from our own music video. The reason for uploading them is because they're similar shots from the music video above and from our own video which we created. As well as constant repetition of focus on the performer throughout the video, there are also similar shots from both videos as you can see below.

There is also similarities between these next 2 shots below which I have captured. As you can see even the positioning of both females from each video can also be compared  in a similar way. Even though the effects from each video are not the same there is also a constant effect throughout both videos which is another similarity. 

To conclude this part I can also say that both genres from the videos are the same. Both beats are similar with each other, which causes both Beyonce and Shontelle to carry out similar actions from start right up to the end of the videos. Also the beat from each videos are at the same pace as each other which again forces both Beyonce and Shontelle to carry out the same body movement and the same pace from start to finish. Below is our music video so that both videos can be compared for similarites.  

Digi-Pack Front Cover (1st Draft)

This was my first idea for the front cover of my digi-pack. If you listen to the song you will see that both the song and my digi-pack go together. The reason for the feet at the front is because in the chorus of the song it says "Stomp your feet lets get down". I thought it would be a good idea to represent it this way. 

   

Initial Ideas

This video was our original song that we were going to use for our video. Our first ideas that we manage to create together were having a club theme. But then we all agreed that wasn't going to work out, so we decided to keep the song but change the idea.

We then decided to have a repeated theme going throughout video, but changing something in every cut. For example having the same shot through the whole video but changing something every time it cuts and starts again. We got this idea from the video below. 

  

Auteur Theory

Colin Tilley

Colin Tilley was born June 27, 1988 in Berkeley, California and is an award winning music video director for Riveting Entertainment. He has written and directed music videos for famous artists such as Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, U.K. rapper Chipmunk among others; but he is most recognizable and frequent collaborator is Chris Brown. These two have worked on 10 videos together within the last two years including every Chris Brown's single from his gold-certified album F.A.M.E. except for "Beautiful People". Colin Tilley has won several awards including video of the year at the 2011 BET Awards for Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now" video and Best Male video at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards for Justin Bieber "You Smile". He was nominated for three videos at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards including best male video, best best hip hop video, and best collaboration video. The two videos that he received awards for are below; 

Chris Brown - Look At Me Now Ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes

Justin Bieber - You Smile

Video Analysing

The video that I have uploaded below was directed by Colin Tilley, the song was done by Chipmunk featuring Chris Brown and is called Champion. The video contains a wide range of different shots such as Long Shots, Close Ups, Track Shot and even many more. When watching the video you see with the different shots which gives the audience a sense that they're both on the run, but we don't know what from. This is shown when the helicopter is caught in one shot  above their heads, also when there is close up shot of Chris Brown in the tunnel this shows that he is hiding from something. Also during the video you notice that the background was edited and it changes form sepia, to colour, and then to black and white. This is done continuously throughout the video, and it conotates the emotions of the two artists while they're performing but at the same time it gives a cinematic feeling while watching it. 

Chipmunk - Champion Ft. Chris Brown

        

Star Analysis

Lil Wayne

Background/Young Days

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. a.k.a Lil Wayne he is an American rapper; he was born on the 27th of September 1982. He joined his first record label at the age on 9 called "Cash Money Records" which made him the youngest member of the group. In 1997 he joined a group known as the "Hot Boys", who debuted with a song called "Get It How U Live" (click on the link to hear the song)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsmD4S2RWa0. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the groups major selling album "Guerrilla Warfare" which was released in 1999; also in that year Lil Wayne released his own platinum debut album which was called "Tha Block Is Hot" selling over 1 million copies.  

His most successful album was "Tha Carter III" it was released in 2008 selling over 1 million copies all over the U.S within its first week of release. It included a number one single called "Lollipop"and also won a Grammy Award for the best Rap Album. This album was initially supposed to be released in 2007 but it was later released in 2008 after a serious delay, which was caused because majority of the tracks were leaked and distributed on mixtapes. Lil then decided to release the leaked tracks on another album which was titled "The Leak". This album was then released on December the 18th 2007 and the album "The Carter III" was released on the 10th of June 2008 which sold over 1 million copies within the first week it was released.  

Fashion/Visual Look 

Lil Wayne has his own unique appearance, and has changed his style of fashion, and look over the years. Below are some examples of images where Lil Wayne has changed his look.
As you can see from the first image, it is Lil Wayne in his young days when he was still in his group "Hot Boys"  and he looks unrecognisable, not only because he is young but because of his hair style and the fact that he has fewer tattoos.

Where as if you take this next picture below you can see that he has changed a lot in his appearance for example his hair has changed, he has a lot more tattoos than he had before in the picture above and he has less facial piercings too. 

Not only has Lil Wayne's appearance changed but as well as his style of clothing; this has changed alot over the years too. For example if you look at the first image below you can see that in his young days he dressed in more baggy, and colourful clothing.

Whereas now he is usually dressed in something different everytime you see him for example if you look at the images below they're different styles of clothing but they're similar too;but these two styles are both very different from his style from when he was younger. These two different styles have some similarities for example the same type of shades and the long hair, whereas in the image above he does not have any shades on or long hair. 

 

Genre

Lil Wayne markets himself in a way that was unique but is becoming very imitated, which is his key to the success of being on of the best rappers. Lil Wayne has dominated the rap spotlight since 2005 without releasing a formal studio album. Even hip-hop critics lose their minds and can't wait every time he drops a mixtape. Wayne is the most entertaining rapper alive, and "The Carter III" is one of his greatest albums. The beats almost universally fit his slow, freestyle-heavy verses and his penchant for unexpected lyrical turns. Lil Wayne also has always a high amount of views on his videos whether there he's own or he is featured in the song, but there is always over 1,000,000 views on youtube this shows that his music/videos are very famous and popular. If you look at the links below they will take you to the video see how many views the video has, there is also a few examples below. 

Lil Wayne - How To Love

(28,484,924 views)

DJ Khaled - I'm On One Ft. Drake, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne 

(8,593,348 views)

Lil Wayne - John Ft. Rick Ross - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fumBcKC6RE&feature=relmfu (28,503,092 views)

Lil Wayne - 6 Foot 7 Foot  Ft. Cory Gunz - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7tOAGY59uQ&feature=relmfu (36,906921 views)

Lil Wayne - Drop the World Ft. Eminem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErCAOMi5EGM&feature=relmfu (61,924,784 views)

Lil Wayne - Lollipop Ft. Static - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IH8tNQAzSs&feature=relmfu (86,031,584 views)

Lil Wayne - Knockout Ft. Nicki Minaj - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfYcOYMNuXM&feature=relmfu (35,069,925 views)

Media Representation

Lil Wayne's presentation in the media is similar to the way he represents himself on stage. Usually on the stage he is performs topless, and as you can see from the image below he is posing without a top on. Each of his magazine appearances gives an overall identity of his representation in the media.

For example if you look at the image above he is on the cover of the "Rolling Stone" magazine. The Rolling Stone is a U.S based magazine which is devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture which is published every two weeks. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jenn Wenner who is now publisher and editor of the magazine, and Music critic Ralph J. Gleason. This magazine represents Lil Wayne as a confident artist because he is topless in the image showing off a lot of tattoos all at the same time. That confidence is also emphasised by the facial expression on his face, also for someone who is 5'5 he doesn't look very small as the image makes him look bigger than he actually is.

     

Vibe music is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The magazine features RnB and Hip-Hop music artists, Actors and other Entertainers. Unfortunately the magazine shut down in summer 2009, and Vibe was then purchased by a private equity investment fund called InterMedia Funds. Lil Wayne again surprised his fans with a new style of clothing with the matching belt and underwear. He is again portrayed as a confident artist by his body language and style of clothing, because he is up right position wearing bright coloured clothing, which also shows that he likes standing out. 

        

Symbolism

The illuminati is a conspiracy theory that holds a global elite society that is trying to take over the world, in order to do this they need as many people involved as possible. The theory behind it is that those who join will have a successful career in their life, all they need to do is advertise their symbols. The illuminati have many different symbols for example if you look down below you will see a few pictures.

  

As you can see from the two images below you can see that Lil Wayne presenting both symbols from the images above. Lil Wayne has had a very successful career so far he may be part of the illuminati, or he may just be incredibly talented, who knows? But from the two images below it is a too hard to say that he isn't involved.

Finding the Right Music

When researching music I will be using websites such as www.unsigned.com to find music, this is because  of copyright. I am using this site to find potential music, and to give me potential ideas of what our group will be using for our final ideas. Below is a screen capture of the information about the site.

unsigned.com is where amateur artists upload there music. This is an advantage because the music is copyright free; so all those who need music for whatever reason unsigned.com is the site to use, the music is all free which is also another advantage 

Chris Brown - Look At Me Now ft. Lil Wayne Busta Rhymes

I have posted this video up as part of my research to find my favourite videos. This video  is one of my favourite because I enjoy the dancing and lyrics; this video is by Chris Brown and features Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes. The genre of this music is rap, and the video is very popular receiving over 63 million views. Lip synching is also another key convention which is used in this video, although there aren't any musical instruments in this video the choreography has been done well with the music especially the beat. Overall I must say that the video conveys well with the music of the song not just the choreography but the surroundings in the video also go along with the music.

Andrew Godwin Theory

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

Chris Brown is well known for being a triple threat, he is extremely talented at singing, dancing and also acting. His genre is usually rap/hip hop, and if you look at the video without any sound you realise what genre the song is. This is due to what is being seen in the video for example the costume and the style of dancing that is going on. As you can see from the video above he is doing both rapping as well as dancing and because he does them both so well that he attracts a large audience of various ages, hence the reason why the video received 125 million views.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

Lyrics:

[Chris Brown]

I don't see how you can hate from outside of the club,

You can't even get in?

HaHaHaHa!

Let's go!

Yellow model chick

Yellow bottle sipping

Yellow Lamborghini

Yellow top missing

Yeah yeah

That sh-t look like a toupee

I get what you get in 10 years, in two days

Ladies love me

I’m on my cool J

If you get what I get what would you say

She wax it all off, Mr Miyagi

And them suicide doors, Hari Kari

(Hook)

Look at me now, look at me now

Oh, I’m getting paper

Look at me now

Oh, look at me now

Yeah, fresh than a muthaf-cker

[Chris Brown]

Lil n-gga bigger than gorilla

Cause I’m killing every n-gga that

Try to be on my sh-t

Better cuff your chick if you with her

I can get her

And she accidentally slip fall on my dick

Ooops, I said on my dick

I aint really mean to say on my d-ck

But since we talking about my dick

All of you haters say hi to it

I’m Done

[Busta Rhymes]

Ayo Breezy

Let me show you how to keep the dice rolling

When your doing that thing over there, homie

Lets go

Cause I feel like I’m running

And I’m feeling like I gotta get away, get away, get away

Better know that I don’t and I won’t ever stop cause

You know I gotta win everyday day, goooo

See they don’t really wanna pop me

Just know that you never flop me

And I know that I can be a little cocky, nooo

You aint never gonna stop me

Every time I come a n-gga gotta set it then I got it going

Then I get it, than I blow, than I shudder every little thing

That he be doing cause it doesnt matter cause I’m gonna dadadadada

Then I’m gonna murder every thing and anything a badaboom a badabing

I gotta do a lot of things, and make it clearer to a couple n-ggas

That I’m always winning and I gotta get it again and again and again

I be doing it to death and now I move a little foul

A n-gga better call a ref, everybody know my style

And everybody know I’m the the best

When I come to doing this and Im banging on my chest

And I bang in the east and I'm banging in the west

And I come to give you more and I never give you less

You will hear it in the street or you can read it in the press

Do you really wanna know whats next? lets go

See the way we on, we be all up in the race and you know

We gotta go, don’t try to keep up with the pace

We struggling and hustling and sending in and getting in

And always gotta take it to another place

Gotta taste it, then I gotta grab it,

And I gotta cut all through this traffic

Just to be at the top of the throne

Better know I gotta have it

(Hook)

Look at me now, look at me now

Oh, I’m getting paper

Look at me now

Oh, look at me now

Yeah, fresh than a muthaf-cker

[Lil Wayne]

Man f-ck these bitch ass n-ggas how yall doin?

I’m Lil Tunechi, I’m a nuisance, I go stupid, I go dumb like the 3 stooges

I dont eat sushi, I’m the shit, no I’m pollution, no substitution

Got a bitch that play in movies in my jacuzzi, p-ssy juicy

I never gave a f-ck about a hater got money on my radar

Dress like a skater, got a big house, came with a elevator

You n-ggas aint eatin, f-ck it, tell a waiter

Marley said shoot em, and I said ok,If you wanted bullshit then I’m like Olay,I dont care what you say, so don’t even speak

Your girlfriend a freak like Cirque Du Soleil

That’s word to my flag, and my flag red

I’m out of my head, bitch I’m outta my mind from the bottom I climb

You aint hotter at mine, nope, not on my time and I’m not even trying

Whats poppin Slime? nothin five, and if they trippin f-ck em five

I aint got no time to shuck and jive, these n-ggas as sweet as pumpkin pie

Ciroc and sprite on a private flight

Bitch I’m enticing, guiding light, and my pockets white and my diamonds white

And my mommas nice and my daddy’s gay

You faggots scared cause I’m too wild, been here for a while

I was like f-ck trial I puts it down

I’m so young money if you got eyes look at me now, bitch

(Hook)

Look at me now, look at me now

Oh, I’m getting paper

Look at me now

Oh, look at me now

Yeah, fresh than a muthaf-cker

Okay,

Okay,Is that right?

Im fresher than a mothaf-cker

Look at Me Now" is a dirty south-inspired hip hop song that features American rappers Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes. According to Chad Grischow from IGN, the song features "a thumping bass, spacy synth and horn jam sounds." Electronic background mixes are also present in this song. Over a beat that evokes The Cali Swag District's 2010 single Teach Me How to Dougie, Brown sings that he's still riding high in a yellow Lamborghini, to boot before venturing off into a typically tasteless discussion of his manhood", according to staff members from Idolator. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times also wrote that on the song, Brown "double-time-raps about stealing girlfriends." Akshay Bhansali from MTV News wrote that "Look at Me Now" features "a fast-rapping flurry of awesome self-indulgence courtesy of Busta Rhymes, Lil Wayne and Chris, with an eerie downtempo beat cooked up by chefs Afrojack and Diplo." Afrojack told MTV News that the song was the product of a beat he passed to Diplo.

3). There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

There is a relationship between both lyrics  and visuals, it can usually be a tricker for the visuals and lyrics to be analysed. But what it is really doing is emphasising the quality and mood of the video. But it also increases the emphasis on the performance of the video. 

For example if you  take a look at this caption below, at this point of the video, when the bass kicks in the camera shakes, as if there is an earthquake going on. This done continuously throughout the whole video to emphasise the quality of the performance. Also when Busta Rhymes is rapping at a fast pace without taking any breaths, the camera again starts to shake as it did before at the beginning of the video. 

4). The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work

This video includes many unique close up of Chris Brown throughout most of the video. But the significant close-ups are of him as he is dancing. He dances well in time with the beat this goes well together; and also emphasises the sound of the instruments which are being used aswell. I have taken a few screen shots from the video, and as you can see from them there are a mixture of close-up shots of Chris Brown as he is dancing in time of the beat from the song.  

5). There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

Throughout the video there aren't many examples of the notion of looking, but the example I found is the image that is below This use of a screen within a screen allows the audience to get up close and personal with the artist. By giving an extreme close up of his face, and therefore his mouth, the audience can clearly see what he is saying, which is important as he is rapping at quite a fast tempo, making sure that the audience can remain engaged while it is Busta Rhymes part of the video.

The image below shows voyeuristic use of the female body. You can see a male and female dancing, with the male grabbing the woman in quite a sexual position, almost representing a sex scene, however the dancers are both fully clothed, allowing for a younger audience to also watch the video. This is something clearly important to Chris Brown as most of his following is a younger audience, so it is important for him to be able to connect to people of various ages. This being achieved through 'secret' sex scenes.

6). There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

As we know Chris Browns all time inspiration was Michael Jackson, and Chris Brown even dedicated one of his videos for him; but in this video there are a few references, that have been influenced from other sources of media in this video. 

For example the two screen shots below, one is from Chris Browns video and the other is from Michael Jackson performing on stage in 1995. As you can see both shots are similar from the poses and environment. The environment is similar because of the dark surroundings, the mist and the lighting isn't similar but is having the same effect. The lighting form the Chris Browns Video is backlight where as the lighting from Michael Jacksons stage performance is coming from a spotlight. 

The Brief

I have been given a task to to create a music 'promo' video, it must be up to 5 minutes long. I can either work in a group of up to four people or on my own. Individually or as a group a digipak (cover only) needs to be produced for its release on CD and also a magazine advertisement for the digipak. A critical evaluation will also be produced individually on my own.