Music Video - Main Text

Here is my group's Main Text.- A remake of Kendrick Lamar's music video for the song Swimming Pools.

Digipak - Ancillary Text

Here is my groups Digipak.

Inside panel is on the 1st row and the outside panel is on the 2nd Row

Magazine Advert - Ancillary Text

Here is my groups magazine advert.

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Shooting Schedule

This shooting schedule enables us to remain organised and on track to completing the task. The above image shows which days we are going to film. We were able do this by completing the storyboard.

Phase 3 Planning - Lyric Analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Swimming Pools

In this post, I will be looking at the lyrics of Swimming pools. I'll be doing this to analyse any subtext that they may have and also to see if we can emphasise the words and the message in our video, and can cater the music video to specific words.

This is the Hook or bridge of the song, basically a section between chorus and verse. These can be interpreted as commands, suggesting that the culture of drinking is regimental and is just repeatedly done and done again. This could mean that drinking loses meaning as it becomes second nature and the idea of drinking means nothing as it's second nature. Perhaps it could mean when you have the mindset of wanting to drink, you'll drink for any reason. This could signify how dangerous it is and how drinking needs to be moderated, as if you start to drink for any reason, it will become a vice.

This is the first part of the verse. This where the Golden flask iconography comes in. This lyric outlines the reasons of why people would want to drink. This suggests every person starts out differently when it comes to drinking, but they end up as the lyrics say living their life by it.

This is the first part of the chorus. Fulfilling rap conventions by including racist slang, there to relate to people of African or African American descent. It also talks about peer pressure as it's someone saying to Kendrick you need to drink more. By incorporating the swimming pool imagery, it could suggest how enormous and how encapsulating the drinking culture is. It could suggest how you can see how massive drinking can be, but once you 'dive in' the negatives can just go away.

This is part of the second verse where it's Kendrick's conscience talking to him. This could suggest how powerful your conscience is when someone is drunk. It could also suggest that drinking causes an internal battle in oneself as you have your conscience battling your brain, or how drinking brings out a different side to someone and a struggle to act normally is created internally.

Incorporating these ideas to our music video can be pivotal in determining how successful it will be. By understanding and putting our own ideas as to what the lyrics mean, can give us direction as to how we want to present the song. By analysing the lyrics I have gained more of an understanding as to what the lyrics can be, and how they can be worked int our video.

Phase 3 Planning - Storyboard

Here is our storyboard for our Rap Video. Not all of it is here, however it outlines most of the ideas we have. Most of the shots will be for visceral pleasure, so we don't need to plan chronologically.

The music video itself will be a mix between a chronological and abstract narrative. This will be achieved by blending together the story of the lead character getting drunk at the party then realising  how bad it is mixed with visceral shots, as to keep the story fragmented and making it last the whole length of the video.

The main theme of the video is how drinking in excess is bad, and we hope we can show this through the main characters actions and how they look to other people.

I think the music video we will create will not be stereotypical of other rap videos. Most rap videos like to show a lavish lifestyle and one element of that is through alcohol. Usually alcohol is shown as a way to have fun and chill out. With our video we plan to show the negative side of partying and drinking, as we believe it matches the songs lyrics.

Phase 3 Planning - Music Video Analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Swimming pools

As part of making our own music video, it's important to look at the original music video for the song. This will give us ideas on how the artist wanted to portray the song, and gives us an idea of what type of theme we should go for and whether we conform or subvert it.

00:00 - 00:35 Intro of song and Hook

• First 10 seconds has no music and tells us the artist, the name of the song and the director.
• Next 12 seconds we see Kendrick defying gravity and falling through the air in a red leisure suit and gold chain. The red is there to stand out against the black background and the gold chain is there for iconography. 
• It pauses for a fraction of a second suspending him in air.
• Next 12 seconds features smashing bottles and a woman posing for the camera. These two alternating shots match the hook section of the song, with the smashing bottles shown for the deep voiced commands and the word 'drank' for the girl. The bottles are there close up and show the audience how fragmented and tiny the smashed pieces get, perhaps a metaphor for how fragmented people's mind can be once they start drinking. 
• As with rap video's, it features an attractive girl, and this could be just to conform to genre conventions.

00:35 - 01:02 Verse 1

• For about 10 seconds, it alternates between 2 shots. One being a long shot through an open door of Kendrick sitting, in what looks like the bedroom of an abandoned house with a bottle of liquor by his side, and different shots of the house and bottles of alcohol, each cut is in time with the snare drum sound in the music.
• The next 8 seconds features shots of Kendrick in the house and what looks like a night club of some sorts, however it;s hard to tell as it's on screen for a few seconds.
• The next 7 seconds feature different shots of Kendrick dancing in a room of the house, each cut is to the beat, and is one beats one and three. Each shots alternate between normal paced and slow mo.

01:02 - 01:28 Chorus

• The first 10 seconds features fast paced editing, with shots of Kendrick dancing in the house with the editing slowed down, shots of him close up but the camera is blurry, Kendrick in the red suit falling, and a woman with a sheet of material (possibly clothing it's hard to tell). There are some repeated elements seen before in the video and also new elements for the chorus.
• The next ten seconds feature alternating shots of Kendrick either falling or rapping and the girl from the beginning of the song walking towards the camera.
• The next 6 seconds feature a front facing Kendrick falling, as to show his dead pan expression, a bottle of alcohol which corresponds to the lyrics 'swimming pool full of liquor' and shots of him rapping

01:28 - 02:07 Hook and Verse 2

• The first 14 seconds features the hook and this occurs 8 times, there are 8 cuts for each one showing a party. The lighting is red, and could symbolise danger, suggesting this next verse could be about the dangers of alcohol and it's effect on you at parties
• The next ten seconds feature Kendrick and alternating shots of him drinking alcohol, this is shown in a quick pace, then shots of him stumbling around the house, edited at a slow pace. This shows the actions and consequences of alcohol. The singing is there to replicate Kendrick's inner conscious
• The next 18 seconds shows a change in style of rap, from the quick and altered voice of his inner conscience, then comes his normal rap, and also a change in scenery. From the red lit party is replaced with what looks like a warehouse with a cage of lights with Kendrick in the middle rapping. These shots of Kendrick rapping are alternated with the girl featured twice before, sitting down, looking broodingly into the camera.

02:07 - 02:33 Chorus

• There is 13 seconds of alternating shots between the party and shots featuring 2 Kendrick's in the same shot.
• After the first portion of the chorus, it then goes to shots shown in the first chorus.

02:33 - 02:46 Hook

• This section just features Kendrick in the red suit falling.

02:46 - 03:12 Breakdown

• This section features lots of fading out of shots. We see Kendrick falling into a swimming pool and it fades to black.
• Then for the next 12 seconds it's shots of Kendrick ghost riding (walking next to a moving car which doesn't have a driver) next to a modded car, there are about 4 shots that fade in and out of each other.

03:12 - 03:37 Chorus

• The first 8 seconds is of the party and each shot is cut in time with the snare of the music, like the beginning.
• The next 12 seconds combines the intro and chorus, featuring shots of Kendrick stumbling at the party and the bottle smashing/girl posing combo.
• Next 7 seconds features bottles smashing and a pool setting, matching the lyrics of 'dive in'

03:37 - 03:56 Outro and Hook

• The falling imagery ends with Kendrick landing in the pool, then being pulled out of the pool. The editing has slowed down by this point, to signify it's the end of the song.

Phase 3 Planning - Font Ideas

When choosing for Fonts for ancillary tasks, it's important that we choose a font that looks appealing to fans of the genre, and one that we feel represents our products. Here are 3 fonts that we all found that could be used for our products.

This font was found on Dafont. My group and I like the look of it, and the distorted image links to the idea of having an altered mind to when drunk. A drawback we found was it may be seen as hard to read.

This font we felt suited the genre and was what caught our attention, and it more readable than the first font.

We chose this font as we saw how unique it was amongst other fonts we looked at and we think that it'll stand out and be remembered in our products.


To get an idea of what our audience would prefer, we asked people to take a short questionnaire on which of the 3 fonts they preferred.

Out of the 3, River Drive was the preferred font of choice. Whilst this was the most preferred choice, when asked if it suited the genre of rap, 3 out of 5 people said that it didn't. The 2nd most popular choice, the Nervous font, was considered more of a rap font than River Drive. When choosing what font we want to use, we're more inclined to go with River Drive, however Nervous is another good option and we hope to use it as a secondary font somewhere in our texts.

Phase 3 Planning - Setting and locations idea

For our Music video, the Idea is to have a house party, as it's a typical location for where significant drinking could occur.

We haven't found a specific location that would be free yet. However most houses feature the same type of rooms and are very similar to one another. So here are some ideas as to what locations could be used for.

Kitchen

• As the kitchen is where food and drink is kept, it can be used for where alcohol is predominantly seen.
• The kitchen can be used for where people can chat and socialise with others, as is common with a party.
• In terms of our video, we'd use this room to show alcohol consumption as well as a party atmosphere.

Living Room

• This room is also used for socialising, the sofas and cozy atmosphere is always popular at parties.
• The use of sofas result in people sitting next to one another, meaning we can document those relationships.
• In terms of our video, we'd use this room to show alcohol consumption and how it affects relationships, as people will be close to each other and stationary. We'll show a negative message as this is what we want to show of excessive drinking. We'll show things such as party members looking on at the main character who is intoicated, people lying down or slouced over with alcohol in hand and people moving away from those who are drunk.

Roof

• This location will be used for the lead character to be alone and isolated from the party.
• The weather and the sky can be used to evoke the characters emotions.
• The view of the city can be used as a reflection of how small the main characters problems are small, so when he goes up to the roof, he can seek some clarity. 

Other Locations

Hall

Stairway

Storage

Outside

Gantry

Music Room

These locations can be used for solely visceral shots. They can be used to break up from the locations that move the story forward. The use of more locations also enable us to utilise more ideas that may not be achieved in the main locations.

I think with the locations made available to use in the college, we have used them effectively. I believe the kitchen and roof are conventional of rap videos and parties in music videos. However the other locations are not as conventional and I believe will be more eye catching to a viewer, as they're not used 

Phase 3 Planning - Audience feedback

This is some feedback we gained from our Prelim Video, all of it is positive.

With the feedback given, we'll have an idea of what we can do in our music video that would please our audience. This also gives us confidence in the video we will produce.

Phase 3 Planning - Copyright Permission letter

For the right to use an artists music in our video, we have to write to the artist to ask for there permission to use it.

Here is our letter that we will use.

The letter reads,

Dear Sir or Madam

I am a student of Media studies at A level and would like permission to use your song Swimming pools by Kendrick Lamar, for a music video we are planning to produce as part of our course. This would involve having the track play over our video that we have produced originally as an interpretation of the song. This would be for educational purposes and not screened to an audience.

This was written by Aidan in our group, and we'll all use this letter for permission.

It's important to get Kendrick's permission for the use of his song, as he's the only one that can claim ownership of the song. No one but him can claim copyright of the song or use it without permission, unless an agreement is made, for example the letter we wrote to him.

Phase 3 Planing - Props and costumes

This is an update post for our coursework.

Costumes

The costumes for our coursework will depict general teenagers. There isn't a focus on costume as they're to represent modern teenagers, so naturally each persons style will replicate someone on the life matrix scale.

For our main character portrayed by |Brandon, we thought we'd make him wear a shirt similar to the one that Kendrick Lamar wears in Schoolboy Q's music video for the song Collars Greens. We're doing this as it is common in the Rap genre for video's to reference other videos.

 Props

The main idea is to capture a party vibe inside a household. This can instantly be achieved with shot glasses, bottles of alcohol and red plastic cups, as these are all common place in a party and match the conventions of a typical party.

We have an idea of  having some multicoloured liquid in place of alcohol. This is purely for visceral pleasure as we hope the different colours would look pleasing to the eye of the person watching.

A cassette player will be another object featured in the video. The idea being a callback to older methods of playing songs. We want someone to press play on the cassette and have the song play, giving the illusion that  they start and finish the song. We're going to have their identity as ambiguous as to create an element of mystery around the track in the narrative of the video.

The only object out of the ordinary will be a golden flask. This will act as a motif throughout all products, and it's purpose is to epitomize the idea of anti drinking. By making alcohol look like the nicest thing to have, hence the gold colour and how gold evokes connotations of being the best and being powerful, we can show how alcohol isn't the best thing and is a stark contrast.The idea comes from the holy grail and how it's appearance and the idea around it looks appealing, however to drink from it will bring dire consequences. 

Prop overview

With the large quantity of shot glasses and cups, we plan on creating the image of excessive drinking. With the golden flask making an appearance throughout the whole video, we want to show the idea of the golden flask representing alcohol dependency, and how an addiction to alcohol can stick with you and is hard to overcome, hence why we're showing how drinking in excess is a bad thing

Representation of men and women

In our video, we're not going to put an emphasis on gender specifically. As our main message is about the negatives of drinking, we're showing the 2 genders as equal, as they both have an aversion to the excessive drinking, which is the message we're trying to convey, but ultimately we want to show both genders in a positive light.

Phase 3 Planning - Initial planning for Digipak and Magazine Advert

These are some initial ideas our group has for our ancillary task, in making a Digipak and magazine advert.

Digipak

• We're going to have the pictures the same as images from our video, this is to have synergy across all products
• One idea was to have a golden flask on one of the panels. The golden flask there to replicate the holy grail, something that's hyped up and made to be the greatest thing to man, but once you get to having it, there's a small chance you'll get the desired effect from it.
• We're thinking of using motion blurring to gain viscerally pleasing reception of the product. Personally we all think these will look good so we hope to use them.
• We plan on using a dark colour scheme, it's common with the Rap culture to use dark colours. It's common as darker colours are associated with gang culture and are seen as more dark and powerful than lighter colours.
• Another idea was to include some city shots. This is to establish setting to all products, and by showing such a large city to represent isolation and loneliness. This is because the message we want to put across is how alcohol can make you isolated and lonely if you overindulge and let it take you over. The connection to isolation and the video we have picked is how drinking in excess will isolate you from the people around you. Alcohol as a 'drug' is fine when drunk responsibly, however with misuse and excessive use produces problems.

Magazine Advert

• The magazine advert will largely carry on ideas from the Digipak, to ensure synergy across all products.
• We were thinking of showing the Golden flask spilling as one of the main images to accompany the advert, as it's the easiest way of showing iconography in our products.
• Dark colours will again be used.

Moral Messages of print texts

With our print texts, we plan to promote awareness of the dangers of drinking. With a dark colour scheme and the golden flask we hope to put the emphasis on this object which is associated with false dreams, like the holy grail. This subverts the genre as most rappers will rap about drinking in a more positive way. We've opted to have no people on either texts and just solely focus on the props used in the video.

Phase 3 Planning - Preliminary Video

This is our Preliminary Video.

We made a shot for shot replica of a 30 second clip of the music video for Roses by Outkast.

We did this to get an idea of what music videos are like, and by doing this we are now more prepared for filming our actual music video.