Planning Cinematography.

Music Video: I Wanna Be

Artist: Chris Brown

Director: Saby

                                

It is essential to have a variety of camera shots in a music video because it gives the audience a better understanding of what is going on because they can see what is happening from many points of view. For example they can see exactly how a character is feeling by their facial expression in a close up, or they could see where a character is when a long shot is used. It also gives the video a better effect and makes it more interesting to watch because if it was from the same angle throughout the whole music video it would get boring. Different camera shots can also get the audience in touch with the characters feelings.

Extreme Long Shot: In my music video an extreme long shot will have to be used at one point because I believe it is the most effective shot as you can see everything within this shot, the only thing you cannot see is the characters facial expressions but that could come in handy at some points. By seeing what is all around the artist in this shot it may give the audience a message or understanding about the artist as it shows personality more. An extreme long shot could be used to start of my whole music video as it sets the location.

Close Up: Every music video should contain a close up because it is the most important shot when recording a music video, in my opinion. This is because you need to be able to see who the character is and their facial expressions which can tell a lot to the audience. A close up is the most effective shot and can get in touch with the audiences feelings the most. This is seen as a reaction shot. I have chosen this shot because my song is a very emotional and in touch with your feelings song so I will need to show a lot of emotion and that’s what the close up will do.

Medium shot: are always useful in music videos because sometimes it is unnecessary to have their full body showing in the shot. Whereas when you have a medium shot you can see their facial expressions but you’re not so close to their face which makes it effective. I have chosen this shot because in my music video I will have clips that contain two people being romantic so it can show a lot of emotion through a medium shot even because you can see the background too. This can build a relationship with my audience because they can get in touch with the characters feelings because they can see their facial expression and body language at the same time, alongside the background.

Extreme close up: Extreme close up is very effective when trying to show emotion very powerfully because if somebody is very upset doing an extreme close up is the most effective to showing it as you can see extremely clear of their facial expression and the main focus will be set on their eyes and your eyes show the most emotion. In an extreme close up you cannot see anything else but their head which is good because then nothing else can distract the audience and they have no choice but to understand what the character is feeling. In my music video it would be good to use an extreme close up because my song is linked with a lot of emotion so it is a good form of way of showing it.

Long shot: is something everybody uses in their music videos without a doubt. This is because it enables the audience to see the full body of the character, usually this is to show a characters outfit. This shot is good because you can see everything and also see the surroundings behind a character which makes it good. I have chosen to use a long shot because I’d like my audience to have a clear understanding of what is going on and by using a long shot they can see everything which makes it clear what is going on. In a long shot, you can see a characters body language, the location, and their outfits so it shows you everything in one. The only thing you are unable to be clear on is their facial expression but that’s where body language takes over and you can tell by seeing that.

Music Channels.

The target audience for MTV Classic will be of an age range from 35-60 as it plays all music from back in the day. Hence the reason it’s called classic because it’s not playing R&B or Hip Hop, it plays more of pop songs, such as Michael Jackson. Some other artists that get played are Elton John, and Queen. This Channel is part of MTV which has many different branches such as MTV Base, MTV Rock etc., The logo is full black because it represents MTV as that’s the company it’s from, however where it says the Classic it had orange behind it as this represents it’s a very old music channel, plus it’s not very bright and up in your face as young people would like it, it’s very calm and soothing.

The music channel VH1 plays classic music alongside the best of rock n roll. From this you can see that the target audience will be of a higher age and more old generation, however the music channel does still play recent up to date music so it may also attract a younger audience. The target audience will be from ages of 13-40 depending on the viewer’s choice of music genre. A few examples of artists that get played on this music channel are; Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Bruno Mars, Pink & Katy Perry. The logo appeals to the target audience as it uses 4 different colours which are all very bright and happy colours, it reflect the type of music that gets played too. VH1 gets sponsored by MTV as well as it producing many different                  channels such as MTV Dance or MTV Hits.

The target audience for the music channel Flava is from boys and girls from the ages of 15-23. This is because the music channels plays R&B and Hip Hop, however it is different to channels such as Kiss because it plays more music for the younger audience and sometimes will play garage music which is what young people enjoy as it’s what gets played at parties and when your younger you party much more than you would when your older. A few artists that get played on this music channel are, J Cole, Nicki Minaj, Big Sean & Chris Brown. The logo appeals to the target audience as its looks like the sort of logo that will be used on a club event which young people obviously like to do so they will assume it plays music they can party to so they will watch it because it reflects them.

Scuzz music channel is targeted at male and female’s around the ages of 12-45 this is because once you get to a certain age you don’t really enjoy listening to heavy loud music. The target audience is also only targeted at people who enjoy rock music because if you do not enjoy rock then what is the point of watching a rock music channel. Celebrities such as Green Day, Metallica and Lost Prophets get played on Scuzz regularly. The logo reflects the target audience as the font is presented in a rock way which is the style rock people enjoy, also it doesn’t really have a nice calm colour to it, it’s just plain silver which is most probably what their target audience enjoys.

Kiss has a target audience of boys and girls around the ages of 14-26 this is because kiss plays the most up to date songs of up to date celebrities. Also when you’re young you like to go clubbing and kiss plays songs that may get played at certain clubs. Kiss plays a lot of R&B songs, dance & hip hop. Some examples of celebrities that get played on this music channel are; Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Sean Kingston, Katy perry & Leona Lewis. The logo appeals to the audience because it has used a simple primary colour which is blue, and it works both ways as it can be seen as a unisex colour and not just for boys or just girls. It is also just a calm colour which reflects the type of music which will get played.

MTV has broken down into many different channels such as MTV Base, or MTV Rocks, this is because everybody has different taste in music so by making different channels with different genre music MTV is making everybody happy instead of just targeting one group of people.

Music channels are important when appealing to a target audience because a target audience is the most important thing when it comes to media because not everybody enjoys the same stuff as everybody is different so you need a target audience to help you have an understanding of what to play on your music channel and you must always think about what your target audience will like and what will keep them coming back to watch more of your channel.

There is a variety of music channels because there is a variety of people in the world. Also it gives you a choice of many different songs to listen to, for example if you was listening to MTV Base and a song came on that you do not like you could easily flick the channel over to a different one that is playing a song that you do enjoy. It gives people more options which keeps people happy which means they will keep listening to music channels.

I have learnt that the logo does make a difference when producing your music channel and you should use colours that reflects your target audience, I also learned that without a target audience you are unable to produce a music channel.

Identifying A Music Video

In Drake’s music video ‘‘Marvin’s Room’’ I am going to identify three editing styles and two camera shots.

In this shot it has dissolve as the first shot is still there as the other one is appearing and the first shot does not disappear until the second shot has completely shown, this gives the video an effect of showing you two different things at the same time. It also gives an effect of how the characters mind is working at that moment in time as with this shot it shows how drunk the character is that his mind is all over the place and he cannot see properly. This is conventional to the rap music genre because the target audience for rap is roughly around the ages of 16 - 25 and when you are around them ages you tend to go out a lot to parties and clubs, and when you go out you drink, so a lot of people may feel as though they can relate to what is going on in the music video. Close up shots are used to show the characters facial expression which helps the audience understand exactly how the artist is feeling. The lighting is not so great which makes the video hard to see but this gives us the same impression of what the artist is feeling, it shows that the artist is feeling down and the lighting is low and it shows how he cant see properly because of how much he has had to drink.

At this part of the music video the song plays in slow motion and during this the video slows down in time with the music using Slow Paced Editing, this gives it the effect as the music is just as slow, and it also shows how the character is feeling. But when it gets to him standing in the mirror it goes really fast all of a sudden using Montage Editing. Then quickly goes back into the slow pace when he starts drinking again. This shows us how drunk he is that he can’t think straight. This is conventional to his target audience and rap genre because when you are of the ages from 16-25  you do not want to watch anything boring and many different effects and camera shots make it interesting as something is always happening even if the character isnt doing anything it is still entertaining for the audience. It also makes it easier for them to understand what is going on in the music video. Medium shot to show the artists body language and from his body language and hand movements it gives the audience the idea that he is really stressed and irratated as he cannot stand still or stop moving. It seems as though he does not know what to do with himself. The artist is wearing all black and black usually represents a far from happy mood. This helps to show how down the artist is feeling.

Towards the end of the video they make you feel as if you are inside the car driving, as the camera angle is from inside the car and you cannot see no character, in this part they use Cross Cutting as when the car is moving it keeps on cutting from different location really quickly, so you almost don’t see it change but you know that it has changed. This is conventional to the music genre and target audience because of the same reasons as above. The song is based on him being drunk so everything will relate back to that because teenagers and young adults enjoy going out and getting drunk at those ages. Drake is able to get in touch with people's feelings with not only his lyrics but his music videos too. The lighting is low because the car is outside at late times of the night so it would not be relevant to have bright lighting when the storyline is supposed to be based around night time/early hours of the morning.

In this part they have a Fade, from the girl sitting down thinking of the boy then once the screen is completely back it quickly goes back onto the boy sitting down really drunk. This part happens in time with the music, as the music slowly fades quiet as the screen is going quiet then once its black the music is completely silent for about 2 seconds then the music starts again just as the video comes back on. This is showing a story thoughout the music video which is conventional because people may get bored of just seeing singers always dancing around and singing into the camera.

 Throughout the music video there is always straight cuts, in this music video they do the straight cuts a lot very quickly aswell to get the story across very quickly without confusing the viewer. This makes everything happen quicker instead of dragging the story out and the veiwer getting bored. it also shows a lot happening in a short amount of time, showing a whole story in the space of 4 minutes and the audience are not confused and know exactly what is going on. Costume in this shot is conventional because it was the most fashionale outfit which was out at the time the song was released.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwyjxsOYnys

Should Music Videos Be Censored?

1)    The artist

If you look at an artist such as Trey Songz, he has very sexual music, but is just his style which makes him who he is so if he changed that he wouldn’t be him. People shouldn’t complain about it because if they don’t like it they don’t have to listen to it.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and only do what makes them happy so he is doing something that keeps him happy.

2)    The fans

The fans are not forced to listen to anything they don’t want to listen to so whatever they do listen to is their choice to do so. If a song came on the radio or music channel they could easily change it over.

A lot of fans relate back to Artists in many terms too so a lot of them listen to the music and it will help make their mood better and they feel as if they are not alone.

3)    The record label

The record label should do what they believe will keep the fans and everybody that may hear or view the song, happy. If they censor a lot of stuff then the song is basically not what it was supposed to be. Sometimes for example a song may have a swear word that rhymes and when you cut it out the song sounds silly, so it just ruins the song. Certain songs should be censored from certain radio stations and music channels but that would happen anyway because everything has a target audience.

4)    The parents- For

Any music can be played because a good parent would prevent their child from hearing certain music if they really wanted to.
Not all music is bad.

5) The parents- Against

Certain music can influence children to copy & sometimes it’s not always good things that are getting shown.
If they know it will be a problem with showing it on certain channels at certain times then they shouldn’t make it from the start and then there’s no risk of any problems happening due to the music.

6)    British radio stations

Certain songs should only be played on a certain radio station, for example they cannot play a Trey Songz song on Capital radio, because people are expecting to hear mainstream when tuning into that station.

Playing explicit music during the day could also cause them to lose viewers because if they hear nasty language during a song while in the car with their child they will change it over as it’s not what they want their child to be hearing.

Whether the song has a meaning to it or not, swear words are not really made for young children to be hearing.

British music television channels

The television music channels should have certain songs played after a certain time as they know children from a certain age will not be watching the TV as sometimes the music is too inappropriate to actually play where anybody can see it.

Identifying An Audience

Identifying an Audience

Category A are very wealthy top class people as they have jobs such as being a banker, a lawyer etc., and these jobs take quite some time to get into so they may be quite old so they are very mature and clever people therefor they may not want to sit there and listen to Artists such as Rihanna, however they may enjoy to listen to classical music so a good music channel choice for them may be MTV Classic.

Category B is people who are middle management such as being a teacher, or a graphic designer, therefor they may still be quite young, and may still enjoy music made by people like Usher, Category B workers would listen to a station such as Channel 4 music as they play a lot of mainstream which is what middle management should enjoy due to their jobs.

Category C1 Nurses, Office Supervisors and Junior managers, are people who are usually getting quite old maybe around the age of 40 therefor they enjoy their own kind of music that they used to listen to when they were younger so a channel that they would like to listen to is Bliss as it plays a lot of olden time anthems such as Madonna and Tina Turner.

Category C2 comes under skilled workers and tradespersons. C2 is very similar to Category C1 meaning they will enjoy the same kind of music, however another music channel that is similar to Bliss is VH1.

Category D is Semi Skilled and Manual Workers, meaning they have jobs such as a bus driver meaning it’s not the best of jobs but it’s something to get you started in the job industry meaning that they may still be quite young, and a young audience would rather listen to a music channel such as The Chart Show or MTV hits, because it plays a lot of different genre of songs but they are all the same kind like mainstream also.

Category E is unemployed, students and casual workers, due to this they have not yet grown up or matured so young audiences will enjoy music channels such as Flava, Channel aka and Starz TV, this is because it plays a lot of music that a young audience may enjoy, also when you are young you like to go out a lot and to a  lot of parties and them channels play quite a lot of party songs, so if somebody was getting ready to go out they would put on one of them TV channels. However Category E is also pensioners and they will not in any way want to listen to young audience’s music, it is not as calm as what they may enjoy as they are around the age of 60+ so a music channel that they will enjoy to listen to is the same as Category A, channels such as MTV Classic and VH1.

Artist Identity

Chris Brown’s career

When Chris Brown was 13 years old he got discovered by a local production team, Hitmission Records, they discovered him by going to his dads gas station looking for talent. Hitmission Records then gave Chris Brown vocal coaching and arranged a demo package in New York to seek a record deal, Chris Brown then moved to New York around the same time that this was all taking place. Chris then went and auditioned at Def Jam Recordings infront of the A&R executive and immediately she loved him and offered to sign him all in the same day. Unfortunately this only lasted for two months before Tina Davis lost her job, but Chris Brown asked her if she could be his manager and she accepted and promoted him to labels such as Jive Records, J-Records and Warner Bros. Records. Chris Brown was then left with the choice of which label he would rather be signed to and he chose Jive due to their success with young pop artists. He then got signed to Jive Records in 2004. Chris Brown is signed to Jive Records still up to this day.  Chris Brown has won various awards over the years, this includes best male R&B artist, Favourite male singer and best hip hop video alongside many more awards.

Chris Brown has 7 albums, here are a few of his most successful.

-          Chris brown – sold over 2 million copies in the USA.

-          Exclusive – 295000 copies sold in the first week.

-          Graffiti - 102,489 copies sold in the first week.

-          FAME - 273,346 copies on its first week.

Chris brown managed to sell thousands of copies in just one week

The style of Chris Browns music video ‘With You’ is narrative and performance because throughout the video he is dancing, but the song is also him singing about a girl so it does show him seeing her in the music video. The purpose of the music video is to attract a young female audience and could be to show them that he does have a soft side to him. The target audience will be for girls aged 13 – 25 because he is a young music artist. I believe that Chris Brown made this music video to try and get in touch with the young female’s feelings and maybe end up with a bigger fan base due to this.

The style of Chris Browns music video ‘Kiss Kiss’ is performance because he is dancing in every location throughout the music video, however it does have a small narrative during the video of him being a nerd but it is more on the sarcastic side of things. The purpose of the video was likely to be a party song for people to dance to at parties as it is very up beat and exciting. The target audience for this will be young boys and girls between the ages of 12-19 because the boys may be attracted to the females in the video & the girls love Chris Brown too. I believe that this song was made to show his talent of dancing, his sense of humour and his different style of music.

The style of Chris Browns music video ‘She aint you’ is performance because he is dancing throughout the whole music video and he has backing dancers aswell which makes it look as if he is performing on stage for us. The purpose of the video is to show a cool and laid back Chris Brown but also show that he is very on the romatic side of things. The target audience will be set for girls aged 12+ because the video is just all set on Chris brown dancing and that is all many girls would like to see. In my opinion I think this song was made to make girls feel special coming from Chris Brown and for him to show his loving side.

Album Covers.

He is not dressed up smart he is just in a normal jumper that he may like to wear on a normal day.

The camera shot is just a normal close up of his upper body and mainly face.

He is just sitting how he would feel comfortable & normally sit. Just being himself.

 

The writing is more posh than the first album. Because it’s called exclusive they are trying to make the writing look exclusive.

He is dressed smart but trying to make it look more cool and comfortable.

He is dressed smart but casual.

This shot only shows the top half of Chris Brown, this is to show that everything else to do with him or around him is irrelevant.

He is just standing straight staring at the camera with glasses on; this may be trying to show a very cool side of Chris Brown.

His body posture is standing up straight with a serious face; this could be to show he is more grown up and mature since the first album.