Linked production: research and planning

1. Confirm your production brief. You write this yourself but it's absolutely crucial this is clear, appropriate and achievable. You should have done this already - the original blogpost was here - but it may have changed as a result of your preliminary exercise.

To create a music video that inbodies the representation of youth culture, objectification of women and the portrayal of black people. Your production should demonstrate an understanding of the way music videos use camera shots, sound and editing to communicate a story and ideas to the audience.

2) Research: detailed notes on at least THREE texts similar to what you are creating. What are the key conventions? What can you learn/borrow from the examples you have looked at?

Playboi carti 'fetti'
The shot selections in the music video is something similar to the what we are trying to create. This is because although the song has the artists miming the lyrics of the song we see other moments in the music video where the artists and extras are doing their own thing. In our case it will probably be the main character looking deep in their thoughts or showing the person travel wherever they are going. The video has a variety of fast and slow paced shots which correlates with the pace of the song. This can definitely be utilised in our production which would be relevant for most songs. The lighting is something we could which seems to have been adjusted through either the camera settings or editing.

Also, the mise en scene does definitely have an effect on the audience because of the use of drugs, alcohol, and the dazed faces of the artists and extras. This is because they are constantly showing this objects in the music video and we could use this in our video to emphasise a particular object or person.

AJ Tracey 'Buster Cannon'

The location with the lighting is something we are looking for because it seems like the artists is in the city rather than an urban area that we would expect to see in most hip hop songs. We capitalise on the availability of the lights in the city. Plus the pace of the song can be replicated in our music video because there will be a mixture of fast and slow shots and transitions. This will be a key factor of making our music video fit the conventions as it should be wild with showing off luxurious places with exotic lights (target audience's pleasure).

Rob Stone 'Chill Bill'
The intro of this song is something we can definitely use for our production because it shows off quite a bit of the setting. We want to have these type of shots in our music video. Also, there is a particularl scene where we see someone posing next to a police car which denotes they are mocking them connoting the disrespect they have for theme. In addition, the mise en scene is something that we could implement ino our music video from this video. For instance the setting constantly is changing in the music video and they act differently in different settings. For example, when they were in groups they were just doing their own thing but when it was the three rappers together they would tend to mime the lyrics.

AJ Tracey 'Luke Cage'

This music video could be argued to be contrapuntal to the setting even though it connotes gangster lifestyle or the ghetto. This is because it is an English rapper who has decided to rap with the same British rap/grime style in an American setting which seems unusual. However, the feeling an audience would get from the song is still similar to those rap songs in the UK because it's the same artist and the same issues/narratives he raps about. This means that we may be able to use an American or other foreign song for our music video as long as we portray similar cultures, beliefs and conventions in the music video. Furthermore, we see good use of the setting being shown in the music video again which we should definitely use in our music video. Especially the beginning of the music video which shows a lot of New York and it gives the audience and understanding of what the song will be about. Therefore, establishing shots and long shots will most probably be necessary for our music video. It will also give the audience a variety of perspectives of the settings of the song.

ASAP ROCKY 'Be Somebody'
This song uses unique visual effects that all seem to have the same theme; there are various shots from horror shows/movies with many colours running over it. This is used alongside the typical conventions of hip hop where gangsters are smoking and women are being objectified. It could be argued that the music video infers the song follows more of the conventions of alternative rap because the audience don't see the typical stereotypes associated with hip hop music videos. The effects could be used in our music video with the editing of the song. It could also work in our favour for being able to meet the 3-4 minutes of the song. Especially as our music video could potentially have conventions of alternative rap as we won't be able to get access to guns, drugs and all the illegal 'props' hip hop artists use. As long as the video follows key conventions of a hip hop song, our production should look professional.

 

3) Project schedule: when will you shoot and edit this production? Make this a week-by-week schedule leading up to Easter. Key dates: we break up for Easter on Friday 31 March and the final deadline is Wednesday 19 April.

We are looking to start filming on the 4th of Saturday and/or 5th of Sunday. Filming on the weekend should give us enough time to shoot a lot of the music video because we have more control of the natural lighting. This weekend will be used for filming the shots in London so it's essential we get the perfect shots so we don't have to keep travelling back to the city. Also, the weekend after we are looking to continue filming other shots which will be closer to home. So this will be in the borough of Ealing where the shots of groups of people will be taken which is necessary as it reflects the themes some of our critical investigations cover. 

Editing will begin as soon as the shooting of all shots are complete which we hope will be around 19th March or maybe even sooner.

4) Script - see the BBC Writers' Room for advice/script formatting. If you're making a music video, you'll want to write a treatment instead. This is an example treatment that I provide for GCSE Media students studying this topic. For print productions, this means writing all the text for the cover, contents and feature articles. Write this in Microsoft Word so you can proofread and spellcheck the work before moving it into Photoshop. 

Scene 1: 

Main character will be in an urban setting which should immediately connote the youthful environment and modern/typical hip hop music video. This is because of the dull grey and white buildings and potentially weather which should give an audience an indication of the genre or emotion of the song. This scene should incorporate the themes from all of our critical investigations for example: the use of an urban setting should infer the characters involved in the music video and target audience will be aimed at young black people and possibly other ethnic minorities who are alooking becoming a part of hip hop. Furthermore, representation of women will either be added part of this scene or at a later scene. This scene will have the main character travelling from an estate to various places; this would be a bus stop and the train statoon.   

Scene 2:

Character now would be on a bus. This scene will be quick as we don't want a lot of the music video being of a bus journey. 

Scene 3:
Character now would be preparing to get the London underground. Here we will utilise the objects in this setting to get 1 or 2 second shots to emphasise the setting of where the character is now on their journey. This scene could potentially be longer than the bus journey but it depends on whether the area is packed as we don't want to cause conflict with the use of the camera and the public. But we can use some people in the background to emit a more realistic setting. Then we are looking to get a few shots of the character on the train which will be portrayed as emotionless.

Scene 4:

The character would be in the city and their emotion would change once the lighting brightens and the songs tone changes. 

5) Sketching and drafting - for video-based productions this means astoryboard - sheets available in DF07 or you can print out your own AQA storyboard sheet. For print productions, this means detailed sketches of all your pages.

6) Shot list - use Microsoft Word or a template like this to help you. Remember, you need a shot list whether you are filming or carrying out a print photoshoot - professional quality original images are essential if you want to reach the top level.

Shot no	Shot type	Description of shot	Timing
1	Close up/trolley shot	Main character leaving an estate. Camera behind main character following him/her out of estate. Slow motion	6 secs
2	Close up/low angle	Shot of main character with hood on covering most of his/her face. Camera only reveals bottom of face their face. Slow motion	6 secs
3	Long shot /establishing shot	This would be the setting or the name of the street/estate	6 secs
4	Close up	Character put hand in pocket pulls phone out. Slow motion	5 secs
5	Medium shot	Camera is behind the character who opens up a message from (slow motion)…	5 secs
5	Medium close up	Character  has an expression on their face (slow motion)	5 secs
6	Long shot	People playing football/cars driving past/other people in estate/other characters in estate acting chilling	6 secs
7	Medium shot	Camera is behind the character who goes off message app and enters music app (slow motion)	7 secs
8	Medium close/jump cut	Main character puts earphones in.	6 secs
9	Close up	Main character on bus journey with hood up	5 secs
10	Establishing shot	Shot of the environment or road signs and buildings	5 secs
11	Close up	Main character would look at phone with another message from...	6 secs

12 - close up - Main character looks outside window of bus - 7 secs

13 - establishing shot - Shot of train station logo shot fades out - 6 secs 

14 - medium close up - Shot fades back in and main character now is going to get on a train - 6 secs 

15 - close up of main character on train still with hood on - 6 secs

16 - establishing shot - the buildings and environment on the train journey - 6 secs 

17 - close up - Main character then leaves the train camera follows behind them - 5 secs

18 - medium close up - character steps into the city and is embraced by the setting - 5 secs

19 - close up - Main character pulls phone out and turns music off - 5 secs 

20 - close up - Main character takes off hood along with earphones - 5 secs 

21 - establishing shot - this will be a shot of lights - 5 secs 

22 - establishing shot - Shot of buildings with light to show off positive emotions - 6 secs

23 - establishing/long shot - Main character immerses their self to the city and camera captures their facial expression (more calm/slightly happy) - 6 secs 

24 - medium close up - Main characters phone goes off - 5 secs

25 - close up - Main character then mutes/turns phone off - 7 secs.

26 - establishing shots - shots of shops with cars going past - 4 secs 

27 - establishing shot - the London city environment which would be something more significant (landmarks) - 7 secs 

28 - long shot - Main character standing by building or wall as the camera zooms/moves backwards - 8 secs 

29 - medium close up - Main character is a shop (footlocker for example) looking at trainers or just window shopping - 5 secs

30 - establishing shot - of public just walking around London which gives off a sense of london culture - 5 secs 

31 - medium close up - police car with sirens driving fast - 4 secs

32 - medium shot - Main character walks past camera and camera turns in a fast motion (edited) - 4 secs

7) Mise-en-scene: casting/model details, costume and make-up, props, lighting, location scouting for video productions etc. Use photographs to document and plan your mise-en-scene - using your phone is acceptable for this.

Our location for our music video will hopefully be in Central London .

In our music video, the camera will be handheld,  following either, a girl/boy or even both, (as we need to incorporate the representation of women as well)  around Central London. Thecostumes won't be anything too over the top, just basic/casual tops and jeans. In terms oflighting, we will be shooting both during the day and at night, to show the city  life both during the day and night. In terms of editing, we will edit the shots in order to match the song so it is parallel. However, we may slow down some of the shots or even increase the pace to make it more like a music video. 

In terms of casting people to be in our music video, we will ask people in school if they are will to take part, or even outside of school friends, and make sure they are 100% committed.