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.

Next steps analysis.

Now that our group has progressed in analysis for the rap genre and rap videos and we've looked at the demographic's we need to cater to, we can now specify our analysis on what we'll do for our own music video. We've really focused on two aspects of the video and have extensively thought through what we'll do.

Now as we've picked Swimming Pools to be the song we make a video from, it's important to explore different aspects of the video. In the original, there's a marginally negative representation of gender. I say marginally as it's not overly negative, however the females in the video are shown to be objects of desire, as they don't add anything to the video, they are just there to look good. Now some people may see that as a huge negative, I believe as they aren't meant to be the focus of the video and they're not being mistreated or grossly misrepresented, I believe it's only marginally negative. With our video, there won't be a focus on gender, so men and women will be represented equally, as we want the focus to be on the negatives of excessive drinking. The narrative will be mixed, with the main focus being on the main character and how drinking is affecting him, whilst depicting other people drinking and also with visceral shots to represent drinking and to fit with the lyrics of the song.

OUR VIDEO
For our music video, we want the setting of it to be in a party. The idea of it being to represent the negatives of drinking and peer pressure in getting someone to drink excessively. This isn't stereotypical of rap videos, as usually drinking alcohol is associated with partying which is what rappers usually advocate in their songs and videos. We also think the setting will be entertaining and will appeal to an audience, as an entertaining video was the most voted for in our questionnaire. Some problems will be organising a 'party' for us to get the necessary footage and also as some of the actors are under 18, making it realistic will be a challenge. However we can these are problems that can be worked around.

50 Cent - In da club

Schoolboy Q - Collard Greens

Usher - Yeah

R Kelly - Ignition

To submerge our audience and make them feel like they're at the party, we're thinking about using hand held camera work. This is again to make it entertaining, as they can feel like they are at the party. Also we feel this will be the most effective way to show the negatives of excessive drinking and peer pressure as well, thanks to the handheld camera not being fixed to one spot, can capture a lot more footage of the party.

Our take on the music video is positive, as we plan on subverting the stereotypical messages of drinking loads and partying is great by showing the consequences of these actions. We want to set it up by drawing people in and then subverting their perceptions of rap videos and the lifestyle most rap videos condone. We hope by going against stereotypes, we will catch people's attention and the music video will be memorable.

Album covers: Do they require the artist upon them?

The long play record, or album to you and I, has been in existence for nearly 70 years. The albums themselves have artwork on the cases that hold the albums, to save them from looking boring to the average consumer and die hard fan. The idea of having iconic album artwork can be just an illustrious honour as having an iconic album itself, and most commonly they go hand in hand.

A quick search of 'cool album covers' on the internet produces list upon list of thousands of people's opinions. And as a result of this, begs the question 'does the artist need to be on the album cover?'

Here are some albums from the aforementioned 'cool covers' list, and a link to the whole list.

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/music/50-coolest-album-covers#gallery-15

The Beatles - Abbey Road

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

Now, for those who are eagle eyed, out of those 3 covers, only one had the artists on them, suggesting that having the artist on the cover isn't important to how well the album sells.

The Plot Thickens!!

Now, those covers spanned all genre's. My group's practical coursework is focused on the rap and Hip Hop genre, so it makes obvious sense to focus on that.

Now using 3 lists, we can really get a big grasp of famous album covers from the Rap and Hip Hop genre.

Links below
http://uk.complex.com/music/2011/10/hip-hops-50-greatest-album-covers/
http://www.capitalxtra.com/xplore/lists/best-hip-hop-rap-album-covers/
http://genius.com/discussions/51734-Best-hip-hop-album-covers

And upon looking at them, here are some things I have noticed.

• Album covers vary from person to person. Seems kinda obvious but a point to highlight nevertheless. One artist may have an album cover that is more artistic and will not feature the artist at all, whereas other artists will have themselves on the cover.
• The further back the years you look, the more likely you'll find the artist on the artwork

Here are examples of album covers with and without the artist on the album artwork.

These are some of many examples, showing the point that the decision to have an artist on the album artwork is neither here nor there. There are famous albums which incorporate both ideas, and it's not necessary to use one or the other to achieve success.

When looking to make our digipaks, we shall look to what modern album covers look like and will probably incorporate ideas used by rappers and artists that the group enjoy, as to ensure we stick to modern conventions and ensure we have our own input on the product.

Star Theory!

Most musicians nowadays, are not only known through their music. Through many other forms of media, an artist is treated as a marketable brand over a long period of time. Their face becomes well known and is used as an advertising tool.

Richard Dyer says that these musicians or 'Stars' are constructed and artificial. The Usp's which are a part of the image can be copied and parodied, as the person becomes associated with the image, and are virtually unrecognisable without them. The stars are made to appeal to audiences which will then generate more money for the record company. An example of this is the young boy bands who are manufactured to cater to the new generation of 7-12 year olds that come around every 4 or 5 years.

Outside of music, the 'stars will represent certain cultural attitudes and promote certain ideologies, and the more interested the audience, the more it enhances there 'star quality'. Stars will start out as ordinary people, and then become constructed figures. They act as representations as to what people should look like and aspire to be. However, there image is constantly assessed, and for it to maintain the same effect they have on most people, their image had to change with each album.

Kendrick Lamar

As we are choosing one of Kendrick Lamar's songs for our main text, it's important to look at him in terms of how the star theory can apply to him. Music videos are a way to express oneself, and someone who has a lead singer persona would be essential in an advertisement music video. However we want to go with a more abstract/cinematic video, something which is common in rap video's more so nowadays. Kendrick Lamar doesn't create a celebrity image in the same as other mainstream rappers do, so in our video we think it isn't essential to do so.