Female Artist- Actress. And Male Role!

When choosing an Actress to feature in my music video there were a lot of things that i needed to consider.

• It would be useful for them to be a member of my school, as the majority of my video will be filmed in the school's photography studio!
• They need to be confident.
• Be willing to stay after school to film
• They need to have rhythm and the ability to lip sync.
• Generally fit the part of an R&B artist.

My friend Alice has agreed to take on the role! I am aware that the typical R&B artist is black, but I am confident that I can choreograph Alice well enough to fit the role! She conveniently took Drama at GCSE and AS level, and is a confident person with both singing and dancing experience. 

We both have the exact same school timetable, therefore we will be able to film during our free period's and after school! She has also agreed to be dressed in various costumes and wear suitable makeup, in order to have an R&B artists appearance! 

Alice's boyfriend, Luke, has kindly taken on the male role for my music video! The male will not make very many appearances throughout the video, as the focus will be predominantly on the female artist, but I know that these two will be comfortable acting beside one another! 

Now I just need to get my storyboard checked over with the pair, so they are aware of my plans for the shoots!!

Brooke Hogan!

Considering there have been concerns raised about the artist of my track being Black, I decided that I really need to push myself to make my music video convincing enough!
A thought suddenly occured to me that I was a aware of a white female R&B artist, Brooke Hogan!

Her music videos are sparse (She does not have video's for the majority of her songs) and the ones she does have are quite cringey. However I do like how she looks at the camera giving a direct approach (Goodwin's theory- notion of looking.)



Location Inspiration- Studio.

I recently came across this music video to Madonna's song (featuring Pharrell) "Give It To Me". Although her musical style is more of a dance/pop genre, I picked up a lot of ideas for my studio location that I plan to include in my music video. 

I love the white background, it is exactly the kind of thing I am aiming for! I particularly like how there are various different angles of Madonna in this location, and how jumpcuts are used between each of them. Below is an example of how we see a close up of Madonna, then the movement of her feet to a long shot of her moving 'rhythmically'- it doesn't seem to be a choreographed dance which is also what I am aiming for. She is moving to the beat of the song! (Relationship between Music and Visuals- Godwin's theory) 

I also like the split screens featured in the video. I found a similar idea earlier on in my research in Alexis Jordan's music video "Good Girl". I think these are also really effective and plan to re-create them fitting into my own music video!

I will definitley be taking my inspiration from this music video and putting it to good use in my planning!

Record Labels?

In order to choose the appropriate record label for my track, I have been researching various R&B artists to find out who they are signed by.

Rhianna

Rihanna was originally marketed as a reggae singer since she burst into the music scene in 2005, with styles of pop, R&B and dancehall. Her music includes various styles of musical genres, including contemporary R&B, dance-pop and the Caribbean music styles of reggae and dancehall. She is signed by, Def Jam, SRP and Roc Nation. As Rhianna's music has a similar style to my track, I will definitely be looking into these record labels to see if they would be relavant for my Artist!   

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez's music includes two different styles of musical genres R&B and Pop. 'J-Lo' is is signed by two record companies: Epic Records and Island Records. As I have looked at her work previously  and it relates to my track, I will be looking at these record labels as I think they could be relevant for my track.  



Leona Lewis



Similarly, Leona Lewis' music includes both Pop and R&B genres. Her music is very similar to my track, although she started off by singing 'Pop' songs after winning the X factor, she has gradually fallen into the R&B style of musical genre. Her latest music is comparable to my track, therefore choosing a record company that she is signed by could be relevant. She is signed by both Syco music (simco Limited) and J Records. Syco music predominantly signs artists associated with talent shows such as X factor and Britain's Got Talent- hence why Leona started off with them! Therefore this wouldn't really be very significant for the artist of my track, but I will definitely be looking into J Records! 

In the slide share below, i have presented my research on Record Labels, and come to a conclusion for the most ideal Record Label to sign my artist!!

Record label research

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Focus Group- 21st September

During today's lesson we pitched our idea's for our music videos. It really helped me to hear some feedback from the class and has made me more aware of what I need to focus on in order to achieve a successful R'n'B genre music video. 

• Firstly, The singer of my track is a black female artist. A concern was raised that my music video would not look realistic enough without featuring a Black female. This worried me at first, and I started to wonder whether I would be able to use the track at all. However, I have come to the conclusion that as long as I understand and present the correct technical elements of a R'n'B style music video, then this should not be a problem.
• From this discussion I have also decided to use no more than three locations for my music video: I will predominately film in a studio (the Photography studio in my school) This will uphold the R'n'B genre technical elements.
• A suggestion was made to include different shots with various different outfits, as I am not going to be using many different locations, this could make the video more interesting!

This 'focus group' meeting has made me feel a lot more confident about my music video, I now just need to get creative!!

Including a Relationship between the Lyrics and the visuals.

Throughout my music video I want to show a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, therefore i have decided to focus on the lyrics from my track:

uh
uh c'mon
watch out
uh c'mon
oh oh.....

Gave you chances on top of chances
Opportunities taken for granted
My reality is all your exshalities
Cause insanity
Why you askin'me?
Took my kindness for a sign of weakness
My own blindness cause my sadness
No longer am a slave over your madness
I am glad it's finally over

Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy
Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy

See I'm tired of all the games
That you seem to like to play
See what you can do for me
Is forget you knew my name
See your qualities are less than pleasing
I got more than one reason for leaving
It's time to close shop, open new chapters
See new beginnings is what I'm after
Get your skeletons up out my closet
Don't make me lose it, I just might lose it

Who do you think you are now? (Yeah)
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Can't believe)
Who do you think you are now? (Yeah yeah)
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Yeah babe)

Who do you think you are now? (Who do you think you are)
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Yeah yeah yeah)
Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy

See I'm tired of all the games
That you seem to like to play
See what you need to do is forget you knew my name
I'm a play ya to you've left
Cause you talkin' me to death
See I ain't even sad that I'm here all by myself

Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Yeah yeah)
Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Yeah yeah)

Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Who do you think you are now?
I can't believe you've got the nerve boy (Yeah yeah)

Oh oh
Yeah yeah
Oh oh
You've got the nerve boy
Oh oh
Yeah yeah
You've got the nerve boy (Got the nerve boy)
You've got the nerve boy

The first verse imediatley shows us that this is an inpowering song. "No longer am a slave over your madness I am glad it's finally over." The female artist is glad to be rid of the 'ex-lover' she is referring to. Therefore I will need to include a male, in order to maintain a relationship between between the lyrics and the visuals. The artist is obviously angry, I picture having the female pushing the male away, with her 'diva' attitude.
A music video, with an R'n'B genre, which contains similar ideas to mine is Rhiana's 'Take A Bow'. Although this song is slower than mine, the general idea of the narrative element is what I am aiming to achieve! 

Another video which shows a similar narrative is Beyonce's song 'Irreplaceable' This also follows the R'n'B genre. 

I plan to take inspiration from both of these examples whilst filming my own music video. The lyrics from both songs relate to my track therefore I believe including a similar narrative would work well!

Inspiring Music Video.

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.


Alexis Jordan - Good Girl on MUZU.

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.

Survey

Now that we have all been assigned our tracks, I decided to kick off my research and planning with a survey, in order to get some feedback on what others see when they watch R&B music video's. I asked some fellow classmates and friends "What do you see when you watch an R&B music video, performed by a female artist?" and these are my most popular results.


"objectification" - This was a very popular result. A lot of people said that they tend to see female R&B artists being objectified in their music videos. Wearing very little clothing, dancing obscurely with the camera focusing on particular parts of their bodies (e.g midriff, chest, legs etc.) A strong example was Christina aguilera's music video "dirrty" Which shows young Aguilera being objectified.   

"heartbreak"- A few others said that female R&B singers tend to sing about breakups. They will either be sad about an ending of a relationship, or the complete opposite, and have a "diva attitude" towards there unloving, most commonly cheating ex lovers.  

"dance routines"- This was a common answer, and many said that the majority of R&B music videos (performed by females) will incorporate some kind of choreographed dance, most commonly the female will be surrounded by muscly male dancers. 

"narrative" - Some people said that this genre of music videos will tend to contain some sort of narrative with a story line which fits the lyrics (Goodwin's theory- Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals) 




I found it really helpful carrying out this survey, and It has given me some initiative on how to start planning my own production. I plan to keep coming back to this original feedback in order to make my response as accurate as possible!

R'n'B music video conventions.

Main Task- Audio Track.

It is time to start working on our main task! We have been given a choice of 23 audio tracks to pick from, we each need to settle with one track which we will use for our music videos! 


Listen to all tracks here.


I quickly snapped up track 17, as each track could only be assigned to one person, and this was my first choice! The track has an R&B/hip hop genre which I decided would suit me best after researching the different types of music videos. I think this is a really fun track which is similar to many in the charts right now! I also think i will be able to successfully show a link between the lyrics/music and the visuals. I can't wait to start planning and processing my ideas! 

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew goodwin's theory

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Concept, Narrative or Performance?

As we will soon be making as start on our main task I have decided to look into the different types of music videos, to get an idea of what genre I would favor when it comes to choosing our tracks!

Concept.

Concept music videos are most often quite surreal. They are based around some sort of concept (idea). There is no set genre who use this idea for their music videos, but this type of music video is usually quite eccentric, so artists with contemporary, unusual music find this method applicable. 
Example- Gorillaz 'Feel Good inc'

Narrative.

Narrative music videos are a popular choice for the R&B genre. It contains a story which most often relates to the lyrics of the song. (Goodwin's theory: There is a link between lyrics and visuals) This can contain the artist of the song, but often uses other actors. 

Example- Eminem  'Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna'

Performance.

This type of music video quite simply shows the artist/band performing their 

song, this is most often on stage, but could be shot anywhere. The Rock 

genre predominantly chose this style but like the concept music video, it has 

no set genre.
Example- Kiss 'Rock 'n Roll all night'

After researching different types of music videos, I think I can identify Narrative as my favorite. I think this is because it includes my favorite music genre. I like the idea of having some sort of relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, and perhaps also the music and the visuals? Therefore when it comes to choosing my track I will be looking out for an R&B style genre, with interesting lyrics and beats!!