The video will be set initially at a house, probably mine. As the song is to do with skipping school I have an idea of the first shot being of him awaking after sleeping in, so probably a bedroom setting. The video needs to relate to my target audience of teenager/young adults, so the room will be messy and contain items that can be recognized with people of that age.
I then intend on doing some shots of the artist relaxing around the home - kitchen, lounge and garden shots. The lounge particularly to illustrate the lyrics, for example 'supposed to be in class but I ain't goin. Let's chill on the couch, see what's on the telly where we won't love the house'. This can again be done at my house, although I fear some elements of the mise-en-scene could possibly make the video look too English with an American song. I then have the idea of using some action shots of the artist at the basketball court, as this will tie in well with the genre and also give the video something interesting. Although this will not follow complete illustration of the song, it is still something that is often a convention of existing videos of the genre.
Ideally, if money was not an issue - a fantasy location would be in America, in an urban area such as New York. This is because my video would be easily identifiable with fans of the genre, and will have connotations of successful artists that have also made videos there. It would give authenticity to what I am trying to convey rather than having to pretend in a way it's something that it's not.
I like the style of this video, and take inspiration from the fact that the scene is obviously English, with the cup of tea, council flat etc. as this is something I am going to have to tackle when using an American song, but this video pulls it off well.
I decided to set up a twitter feed for the artist in order to gain publicity and make them seem more professional as an act. It also means that posts can be made about progress towards albums and concerts etc. https://twitter.com/#!/SCool_1
This video contains a montage effect of predominantly footage not related to the song, with brief shots of the artist singing. What I think is really clever about this is the way the clips appear to be often not linked in terms of what they are showing, size, colours, theme etc. yet when strung together they work perfectly for the song - and the irrelevance of them goes unnoticed.
In this video something I particularly like is the idea of using the different sets of dancers to resemble the different sounds or instruments linking to the song. Not only does it show synchronization, to look in time with the song - but also amplification, with the video enhancing the lyrics to make them visually represented.
What I like about this video is that give or take some performance shots, the majority of the video is not linked to the song. It uses the artists from the band, but it is footage of just general life and fun - which ties in with the song when the two are put together and works effectively. A lot of it doesn't make sense but it doesn't matter because each shot just shows what the band are like in their free time, and links with the fun nature of the song.
In this video I like the use of colours, along with continuity of a theme throughout the entire video, whereas most tend to change (for example the theme of halves is shown in a lot of shots). There are also several elements of disjuncture yet they all seem to fit in with the tempo and rhythm of the song, so are effective.
Before creating my video, I conducted market research in order to identify the market to which I am aiming to appeal to. I found that the genre I am using is not the most mainstream, i.e generally not reaching no.1 in the charts or being widely popular such as artists like Rihanna. However, I found that hip-hop does often make the top 10 - with artists like Drake, Professor Green and Bad Meets Evil proving popular. I also found when looking at festival line-ups that hip-hop acts are again not the most popular, with the occasional performance from artists such as OFWGKTA and Eminem. I found that artists similar to mine usually appeal to smaller venues such as o2 academies, where specific audiences of fans attend.
In terms of music videos, they don't tend to be huge projects costing mega money as with pop music e.g Michael Jackson - Thriller. Instead they tend to be simpler videos, with often expensive items to reflect the artist and what they are trying to show, such as designer clothes, jewellery and cars. As some of this will not be achievable (expensive cars) I shall not try and replicate this and instead focus on the fact my artist is young but talented with the focus more on fun. Example of a low budget video of the same style/genre:
Sam Cool is an 18 year old rap artist from Leicester. He started off selling mixtapes out of his rucksack at the age of 14 and has since then gone on to release his debut album 'Senior Skip Day' which went to number 8 in the iTunes chart. The music is similar to that of artists such as Wiz Khalifa, who even features on one of the tracks - as well as taking inspiration from the likes of Notorious B.I.G and the Beastie Boys. His name comes from idolizing rapper LL Cool J as a youngster, taking this on to use as a stage name which has stuck. Sam's aspirations for the future are to become a successful producer aswell, with many tracks on the album being produced by friends such as Chevy Woods. He plans to make his name fully by appearing at a festival in the summer of 2012, after being inspired by performances such as Odd Future at Reading festival earlier on in the year.
I have chosen to do an illustration style video for the Mac Miller song 'Senior Skip Day'. The song is about one day a year wear the 'seniors' in American high schools take a day off. I feel this could be illustrated effectively with the use of peers in the video, whereas songs with older band members/artists would be harder to create effectively.
I have chosen to analyse this video as it is very simplistic yet effective, using only a few camera shots. The effects used are visually impressive, but I believe can be recreated easily and therefore this video has inspired me with ideas for use in my own work. I found the video when it was a suggested on YouTube, I decided to watch it as I have heard of the artist before and liked some of his previous tracks. I feel watching it over YouTube influenced me to watch more of it than I would have perhaps whilst flicking through music channels on TV. This then meant I then watched the entire video and had the ability to read comments about it, look at its like/dislike ratings and other information about the song. Conventions of the genre of the song (Grime) that I recognize within the video are firstly, the costumes. The dancers in the background are dressed in all black, baggy clothing with trainers - this is a style often associated with other grime artists such as Skepta and fans of the genre. Other conventions are the way in which the artist moves when performing, with arm movement and 'swagger', alongside references to money - typical of the genre. It departs from the conventions of the genre in some ways, for example, the setting of the video is in what appears to be a school gym - whereas usually videos similar to this will be shot on the streets, in clubs etc. My guess would be that this video is designed to appeal to existing fans of the genre, whilst also attracting new audience members due to it's unique style. The target market would be approximately 14-24 year old male and females in my opinion. The text assumes that you are this kind of person, by using slang such as 'mug', 'spitters' etc - words that don't tend to be understood by people that aren't grime fans or are old enough to not talk like it. The lyrics make reference to events and people that the audience are expected to know, such as 'Shaq at Saxon' and 'Micheal Jackson' which relates to assumptions that are made about age (assuming that the audience are old enough to know about these events). The video does not shift in style at all throughout, it maintains a consistency by having the same camera angle, costumes and performers which is unusual for a music video as the style tends to change - with different settings, costumes etc. Due to these elements I would say the video is fairly untypical, however it still does use the conventions of its genre so in some respects it could be considered typical.
I chose to analyse this video as I felt it was a good example of an 'amplification', as well as enjoying the song. I encountered the video after being subscribed to the YouTube channel of the band, which created a sense of excitement for me before I even watched it. This possibly influenced my opinion of the video more than if I had just randomly viewed it, meaning I probably enjoyed it more than others. Conventions of the genre (Hip-Hop) I recognize are evident from the beginning. The video opens with a signpost from an American town, with Hip-Hop being predominantly associated with the USA. This is followed by a mid-shot of 3 black Males 'hustling' on the street. This is another convention of the genre, due to connotations of money and the fact that the Hip-Hop industry is mainly made up of black males. A close up shot then shows one of the mens socks patterned with cannabis leaves - something again used in relation to the genre. For example, it can be found in many Hip-Hop videos with links to Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa.
This video contains lots of fast shots, with short cuts enhanced by the flashing lights and imagery. The main shot throughout is a mid-shot/close up of Mike Skinner the lead artist, with changing environments behind him and parts of lip syncing parts not. The flashing lights go well with the music, with the funky guitar sounds and references to other texts such as Alice in Wonderland.
