Right at the beginning of my research and planning I produced a survey asking my fellow classmates and friends "What do you see when you watch and R&B music video, performed by a female artist?" (see here) and the most popular answer was "objectification." I feel that I have been concentrating so much on location and the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (e.g. the diva attitude- female rejecting the male) that I have neglected the idea of objectification, which is very popular in R&B music videos. In order to achieve the most accurate result, it is crucial that I include this element. Another point raised during this particular survey was "dance routines" as of yet, I have not planned to include a choreographed dance routine, however I feel that if I did, I could kill two birds with one stone, and present objectification during a routine. I have started to look into R&B music videos which incorporate a choreographed dance routine (which is the majority of them) and feel that this particular video by R&B/Pop artist Brittany Spears- "Baby one more time" fits well with the results to my survey.
Throughout the video there are scenes of Brittany wearing a crop top and tracksuit bottoms whilst repetitively dancing to a choreographed routine. The crop top emphasizes her midriff area, and I feel that including a similar costume throughout my music video would make it really authentic to the genre. My plan is to choreograph a similar routine, and have Lauren dance whilst sporting a costume comparable to Brittany's in this music video!
Due to unforseen curcumstances I have had to make some drastic changes to my music video in order to meet the upcoming deadlines! The female artist from my music video will now be performed by 'Lauren Mills.' Although this will mean altering and changing a lot of detail for my ancillary tasks, I haven't been very happy with the current designs that I have produced, and have a lot of ideas to improve the overall authenticity of my two products. Looking back at the album covers I came across whilst researching female R&B artists, I have noticed that they include an extreme close up, head on, shot of the artist. I was unsuccessful when trying to re-create something similar during my previous photo shoot, so I am aiming to achieve this during my filming session tomorrow.
I will also want to have a long shot of the actress for my magazine advertisment, as recently whilst editing I have found this to be really effective. I want to recreate something similar to the album cover by Jennifer Hudson, where she is looking away from her name.
As the actress has changed, I will now be using the name 'Lauren Mills' instead. I intend to find a really effective font for the title of the actresses name (as her album will be self titled) I really like the simple white fonts that are featured on both Leona Lewis's and Kelly Rowland's album covers. If I could find a similar font I feel that I could make my ancillary tasks really authentic, and fit the style of my genre!
Latest Filming Ideas!
I have gone against filming a 'bedroom scene' as I feel that this will ruin the continuity of my footage, but I have come up with some new ideas to assist the continuity. After coming across Ashanti's music video- 'The Way That I Love You.' I have really likened to the idea of the 'paparazzi style' footage and photo's that are featured throughout the video. I have been concerened as to how I am going to feature the male actor throughout my music video (successfully showing that he has cheated on the female artist, as she is singing about him taking her for granted) I'd really like to include some paparazzi style photo's between my footage, using really fast edits, taking shots at different zooms etc. presenting the idea of the male actor being unfaithful towards the female actress. I feel that this will break up the footage slightly and make it more exciting, rather than the whole music video being filmed in the photography and drama studio. I have decided that I will use the screen in the drama studio to create a 'silhouette' effect of the actress, I feel that this will look really effective during the split screens that I am planning to use throughout the video, particularly at the beginning.
During today's lesson a concern was raised about my prime location- The studio. As a lot of students will be using the school's photography studio in their videos, I feel the need to make it look unique and perhaps altered slightly, considering the majority of my footage will be taken in this location.
I came across this music video by the former R&B girl band, The Pussycat Dolls- 'I don't need a man'.
I am aware That this involves more than one artist, but it does predominantly concentrate on the main singer Nicole Scherzinger. I really like how the footage has been edited, the beat of the song is very quick and the editing meets the speed! The shot changes are very fast, and the footage has been edited with various tools such as a 'grainy effect' and also black and white.
I also really like the zooms throughout this video, and feel that this allows a lot more movement to the footage, without literally moving the camera. Although I will be doing this, I am inspired that I can also create movement when filming on the tripod (when it comes to editing.) These zooms are really fast creating a relationship between the music and the visuals (Goodwin's theory)
It also seems that certain shots have been cropped slightly during editing?
The whole video is shot in the same location, but adding these zooms and crops (along with the fast jump cuts and props!) makes it a lot more interesting! I really want to include a lot of these ideas in my own music video, although my track doesn't have quite as fast of a beat, i feel that i could work around the song and re-create these filming/editing techniques to fit the track am using! I would also like to try changing the background colour, this could also make my video look different to others who are using the same location!
Whilst doing some Mise en Scene research, I came across this music video by Jennifer Hudson- Spotlight. I particularly like her attitude towards the male character and the way they have been positioned and filmed! I am not so interested in the 'caressing' shots, but i do however really like the pushing away, and the males gestures!
Since starting the process of creating a music video for my chosen track (17) i have been researching other music videos with the same genre. I stumbled across the music video for Alexis Jordan's 'Good Girl'. I found some really interesting shots which I hope to re-create in my own video. I feel that the song style is very similar to the track i have chosen and i've been inspired a great deal.
I particulary like these split screens, there is a relationship between the music and the visuals, as it is time to the beat. I really hope to achieve this technique in my on video.
