The audience generally really liked our idea of the whole suicidal element, although they advised us to be sensitive about this as it is a really serious subject for many people. We agreed with our audience and we thought that we would put up a disclaimer in the beginning of the video where it warns the audience about the sensitive scenes. Furthermore, our thoughtful audience was concerned about how I would keep up with everything if my partner was going to be in the video, and I think we will need at least one more person to help us out when we are recording our video.
Overall, we didn't really need to change anything. We just need to figure out who'll help us when we are recording the video and also help us with the suicide scenes.
The summary of the video is really similar to our idea for our music video. It is about a guy cheating his girlfriend and it basically shows the audience how angry the girl gets and how she almost tries to take revenge (she doesn't go overboard when she's taking revenge). Throughout the whole video, the effect they use is slow motion and I really like this idea as it is not something we usually would see in music videos and its also the best way to emphasizes sadness. I think it contrasts how unexpected the whole situation was for the girl overall. She cries and feels really heartbroken. Her and her friend scratch the guys car whilst another girl is inside the vehicle, which portrays her anger. It was also obvious that the guy really cared about his car because when the flashbacks were seen, his car keys were always visible to emphasize its importance to him, so she deliberately did this to take revenge. She takes all of his belongings outside and burns them, almost as if she wants to burn the pain and every memory away or that it showed how much her heart burned because of him. I thought this was effective because usually people would just throw the clothes away but she destroyed them and she destroyed her feelings with it.
This music video is narrative based because it tells the story of how the girl dealt with a really heartbreaking situation. Like I mentioned before, she has flashbacks of the good memories she had with her boyfriend, she shows us how she feels through the use of her crying about the situation. She deals with the problem by burning the guys clothes and by scratching his car. There were moments of when she and her friend were shouting at the girl he cheated on her with. The video tells us the story of her reaction and her feelings towards everything that happened.
Throughout the video, she was in role, being the character she was in her song. There were absolutely no lip syncs in the video but there was a lot of dialogue between the characters, however the track was playing over it. For example, whilst the girl was scratching the guys car, the girl in the vehicle was shouting at her and the other friend helping the other girl was shouting things back but we didn't hear any dialogue as the music was being played.
There were a variety of camera angles/ shots used such as extreme close ups of her face when she was crying, close ups in the flashbacks (this could symbolize the contrast between her emotions and feelings) mid shots from the flashback scenes, and the scenes where she is burning the clothes, wide shots of her scratching the guys car. These are all used for different purposes to either show the emotion, the importance or the detail of each scene. Special effects were only used in the last scene where she was staring at the burning clothes, the screen started to fade/ black out just like her feelings towards this person. Furthermore, the whole video was edited in cutaway techniques, possibly to illustrate how fast things happened which contrasts the actual effect of the whole video (slow motion).
The target audience is clearly for people who have been in a relationship but have been cheated on, possibly teenagers and over. As it is a relatable subject for many people, it would attract them into buying this record, which is also how she would connect to her audience as they understand what it feels like to be heartbroken.
I really love the idea of the whole video being in slow motion, we would definitely use this as an effect in our video. I think the slow motion effect would describe/ help people understand the situation really well.
Keyshia Cole - Trust And Believe
This video is both narrative and performance based as it has flashbacks, present day and lip sync scenes of her heartbreak story. The video starts off with the present day, right after when she finds out that she is being cheated on by her boyfriend with her best friend. She is behind a door and her boyfriend is yelling for her to come out from the other side of the door. Suddenly the video goes into fast paced cutaway between two scenes of her singing/ lip syncing and flashbacks. I like this editing technique as it not something we see in videos all the time. The fact that it's fast paced illustrates how unexpected the situation was for her and also portrays her feelings/ emotions as she is shattered and heartbroken. It also a contrast of the track as it is a slow song but it goes really well with the video as they have dialogue in between the scenes. After this scene, she starts to sing to the camera, almost connecting to her audience because she gives direct eye contact to the camera. Then it goes to the flashbacks and more cutaways between the present day and her singing directly to the camera. Towards the end there were scenes of her in a white, thin draped material, singing in the rain, but this time she is not singing directly to the camera, its almost as if shes singing to god (as she is looking to the sky) because she want the pain to be taken away (praying almost through her lyrics). She then takes her boyfriend back as she is in love with him but then actually catches him cheating on her again. Her best friend and her boyfriend run out of the house and go inside the car, driving really fast. They have an accident and both die. The video ends with her in full black clothes, throwing two red roses at the house steps she stayed in (possibly her boyfriends or best friends house) to illustrate that she is heartbroken yet respectful enough to visit them. The two roses could also symbolize their love or the friendship/ relationship she had with them both. Keyisha is the main character in the video. She lip syncs and has dialogue in between scenes. The reason why there is dialogue is because this video is a short story, so it explains what happens from beginning to end and how she gets through it. This music video has a variety of camera angles/ shots such as medium shots in the scenes where she is lip syncing to the camera, possibly to show how angry and painful she felt through her facial expressions and body language. There were wide shots in these scenes too. Furthermore, there were bird eye view shots of the moment she locked herself in the room in the beginning, when she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with her best friend. This was done to see her body language and facial expressions too as she was unexpectedly shocked and heartbroken. The fact that she didn't cry in the video shows how much of a strong personality she had.
The target audience is again
for people who have been in a relationship but have been cheated on,
possibly teenagers and over. As it is a relatable subject for many
people, it would attract them into buying this record, which is also how
she would connect to her audience as they understand what it feels like
to be heartbroken.
I really like the fast paced cutaway scenes of this video and we might use them between the lip syncing scenes that we will be doing in our video.
R. Kelly ft. Usher - Same Girl
This is also a narrative and performance based music video and it is about two male best friends who talk about the girl they love and are shocked to find out the similarities between them. They then assume it's the "same girl" playing both of them at the same time. So they decide to trick her by taking her out to dinner and both of them would show up so she wouldn't know what to do or what to say. As they wait for the girl, two twins arrive (so the girl in fact had a twin with a similar personality to her) the guys are shocked at this view they have, so now they are the ones who don't know what to say or do.
I really like how the video starts off with a black screen and from the middle the view of a city appears as it opens up. There are a lot of cutaways in between each scene for example when they are messaging through the phone, speaking through the phone and I also like how they have a split screen in the beginning too because it shows both of their facial expressions and body language as they find out that the girl they are both in love with are the same person. Furthermore, there were close ups of both of their faces when they were talking to each other on the phone. Extreme close ups were used also when they were describing the similarities of her features such as her tattoo, her beauty spot and her figure. Moreover, there were dialogues in between the scenes where Usher and R. Kelly are actually having conversations and some were sung by them both instead of having a separate conversation. The video ends with them both singing directly at the camera to connect with their audience and it closes down from the top and the bottom until it the screen goes black.
Usher, R. Kelly and the girl they assume that's playing with them are the main characters. They are all in character throughout the video. The dialogue in the video represents/ helps the audience understand what is going on, such as the "same girl" was cheating on them both.
The target audience for this specific music video is probably for their fans and for people who have been caught in a similar situation even though it is a little bit unrealistic. Its almost as if the music video had a plot twist to it, so it wasn't what the actual song/ lyrics were saying but they did it for entertainment purposes. The audience would be encouraged to buy it as it is a 'funny' situation to be in but the song would be purchased because many people could also relate to this situation where the same person is using/ playing with them.
I really liked how the cutaways of one scene (for example when Usher was talking through the phone, it was taken in many different angles and shots) would go with the beat of the song, so we could use this. But I also liked how there was a split screen. I think we could use this when Nana's girlfriend is calling him but he isn't picking up, instead he is getting ready to commit suicide, so it would be a contrast of their actions. (Nana would be very serious and concentrating on the water filling up the bath tub whilst his girlfriend would be worried about him and is eager for him to pick up the phone).
The track we'll be using for this coursework will be my friends song called 'Glass Wall' by Nana. As he is the writer and performer of the song, we thought that it would be best if he was in the music video himself. The song is about heartbreak, so it is a sad song. His girlfriend cheats on him with Nana's best friend and he feels really depressed and heartbroken so he decides to commit suicide in the end. We also didn't have copyright issues as the track belongs to Nana, which is an advantage for us. In the music video, we would need three people to perform, the best friend, the girl and Nana himself. This would symbolise their so called 'love' and the importance of their relationship for Nana himself and that nothing else was so important yet heart breaking in his life. We like the idea of the video being slow motion because its a contrast of how everything happened so fast and unexpectedly. This effect is also not always used, which would make it unique compared to other music videos. A video that inspired us with the whole slow motion effect was Jhene Aiko Comfort Inn Ending (Freestyle) video because her storyline was the same with her boyfriend cheating on her with someone else. We will include a lot of lip syncing in our music video, I think this will symbolise Nana's seriousness by looking directly at the camera/ to the audience, as it is a serious subject for him.
The lyrics of the song we chose are:
Verse
You took a broken heart, mended it then crushed it again
Man I don't even blame you, I was only trying to save you
But that only went and got my stupid self in a mess
Coz there’s a glass wall stuck between the both of us
Yeah I can see the real you
So many attempts trying to penetrate through your insecurities reaching out so I could feel you
(These first four bars of lyrics shows a personal account of
the regret of the main character for getting involved with the Ex-Girlfriend.
Which will be represented in the first three shots of the storyboard. Showing
the thoughts running through his mind) But I failed, so arguments turn into fights, and fights turn into wars
I’m tired of all the lies and the violations
Tired of trying to fight a never ending situation
Tired of feeling used for your own gain, what’s the point of fighting if you don’t feel the same way?
The real you is like a butterfly, behind the glass wall but all I see is your ugly side
(This shows an oxymoron between track and video. Although
the audience will be watching them go through good times in his flash back, the
lyrics in the verse suggest that even though it was all smiles in the begging
it was a frustrated relationship this will be represented in the next six
shots) And now thanks to you, I built my own wall
I won’t ever let another woman drain me, I won't ever let another woman faze
Coz what you've done to me turned me crazy
And what I didn't realize was that trying to find the real you, only ended up I me losing myself
Ending up in me fooling myself, maybe you're the glass wall and nobodies behind it. (These lyrics lead up to the climax of the song where the
pace of the video begins to speed up, where he is about to catch his GF red
handed. Chorus begins when he walks through his living room door and facial
expression is shown from his reaction to what he see’s) Chorus
And I've been drowning in your love
I’m suffocation I can’t swim no more
So let me breathe
Let me breathe
Oh let me breath oh let me breathe
Once again, hey hey yeah yeah once again. (These lyrics represent the emotional drain and stress he
has gone through and has finally had enough. This is represented by him preparing
the bath tub to drown himself. “Let me breathe” represents the relief that
death will bring him being the only thing he believes will take a away the
pain)
we had a variety of locations (studio, basketball field, corridors/ stairs)
the main person in the video had different outfits on, just shows how we considered the things she wore according to her location.
we had parts where the person in the video was singing directly to the camera/ audience and parts where she was acting (narrative).
I enjoyed directing the whole music video and I also like how everyone in our group was giving ideas and contributing for each part.
Weaknesses
I think one main weakness was when the actress was lip synching the song because she didn't know the lyrics word for word, so she kind of had to improvise on that.
we could have improved the camera angles/ shots and used a variety to make our music video look more professional.
we could have added effects like fast forwarding/ flashbacks or slow motion.
Justin Bieber - Somebody To Love Remix feat. Usher
Rather than doing a storyline like he did with his previous music videos, this video focuses on a dance and choreography aspect. The video features Justin Bieber dancing along with several dance crews along a black backdrop, and a scene with ninjas and a flame outline. The video begins with Justin dancing with different members of the
crews with use of a spotlight effect, followed by Justin being flaunted
by a single female dancer. Then the video cuts to Justin performing Stepping (African-American)-style
choreography with two male dancers, shirtless with red hats and red
suspenders. With the aid of smoke, the video moves to Justin dancing
with Beat Freaks. Usher sings his verse along with The Syrenz as dancers in a room with metal chandeliers before uniting with Justin dancing in the scene aided by Poreotics. Then Justin and Usher sing and dance with Medea Sirkas in ninja attire in front of a background of Chinese calligraphy
("Love") and flames, before returning to the black backdrop and metal
chandeliers as Justin dances with Simrin Player and LXD in a scene with book bags. The ending features Justin and several of the dancers featured
performing group choreography before cutting to Justin and Usher with
the in front of the calligraphy and flames. There are a variety of camera angles in this video, especially because its an upbeat song. They had wide shots for the groups who were dancing, there were close ups of Justin's face when he was lip synching to create that bond with his young audience. Furthermore, there were medium shots of Justin and Usher when they sang together, this was probably for promotion so that both of the artists fandoms could make a connection. My favourite editing technique was when they got into that room full of flames because it was as if the motion of the fire flowed through the video, which was very unique and impressive. The also did this at the beginning where they used the smoke instead of the flames. Moreover, they used slow motion at 0:56 possibly to create a cool effect as it went well with the whole theme. We can clearly tell that the audience for this music video is for young girls as it is an exciting and jumpy video, the song is encouraging/ upbeat and Justin Bieber himself is very young also which would be a good reason for them to buy the record. I think we could use many of these elements in our music video, for example, the slow motion, the different camera shots/ angles, the spotlight effect (our main character for our video will be lip syncing directly to the camera in most scenes) and also the cut away edits were really good because it illustrated the fast paced music and almost the energy teenagers have, which went really well together.
Kiesza - Hideaway
I think this video is very unique for having a single shot through the entire video as Kiesza
walked and danced through the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn in New
York City. Even thought this music video doesn't have any editing techniques, the technique of using one shot throughout the video is very extraordinary. It must have been very difficult to record this because even if there was one mistake in the dance moves or her lip syncing, they would of had to retake the whole thing.
I like how Kiesza lip sync's and dances throughout the whole performance in the video. She targets the teenage audience, as teenagers do dress up and dance like her. The genre of her song is 'Deep House' so its more jazz, soul and funk. I think the audience could be encouraged to buy the song as it is not something we usually hear in today's music industry, but teenagers do enjoy it and this song has been #1 on the UK charts for a few weeks. I like how the camera angels change, for example when Kiesza walks, the camera is always in a wide shot but when she dances, the camera is a medium shot for a bit and then it goes back to a wide shot. Not many props were used either, but the taxi in the beginning was a good way of starting the video.
We might use the whole 'one shot' technique for one of the scenes where Nana realizes that he was cheated on. I also liked how they used many camera angels and shots, so we will definitely try to use a variety throughout the video.
