Case Studies analysis

All my case study you can find in my previous blog post

Analysis for case for rap case study

Dave- Wanna know

Type of video

This is a typical rap video as it a mixture of narrative and performance based. With this song especially he talks about how nobody wanted to know him before he started to do well for himself and the video doesn’t give clear indications that it’s narrative as there isn’t anyone acting out the story line/ what he is saying however there is some indication as the film wasn’t filmed in England which is where UK rap videos are normally filmed but this one is filmed in Italy which indicted his financial growth and success which he talks about in the video. I say it’s also performance base as the start and extras dance to the words in some clips for example when Dave sings the lyrics “and all my man will be running to the money like ahh” they all do the running man. By mixing narrative and performance it makes the music video interesting to watch as it is different to other UK Rap music videos, which means more people would watch it which could potentially increase the amount of views. This music video got 13,919,969 views on YouTube in 11 months and 85,020 likes which is good for a video of its calibre.

Representation of stars
The main star is presented as unique and successful through his costume. As he is the main star he is always in the centre (forward) of the shots to emphasize his importance as he was the one who wrote the song, further more when in a group with the other stars he wears bold colours hoodies one has florescent green and the other is bold red while they wear neutral colours like white black grey and navy. The main star has gold teeth which denotes wealth and success however unlike many rap videos he is not wearing any gold chains so that fact that he has a little gold could represent that he is doing well but not yet where he aims to be. Instead of the wearing a chain he is wearing the rosary which shows his faith which could suggest to the audience he is still grounded this idea is then supported when he said “I used to spend a grand a week stunting on some ho** but Prada boy retired I don’t rock designer clothes”…”I told my mum I will give her everything I own” This is the reason why all the stars are wearing Nike as some things Nike sell can be pricey but is affordable compared to Prada or Tommy Hilfiger and this humble representation could be seen as postmodern. This is something that the target audience can relate too as they will also be wearing brands like Nike and Adidas which can convey that he is still himself before he got the money he has now.

Camera

There isn’t  a variety of camera angles used in this music video at the start of the video it uses a worms eye view looking up to the sky and buildings then it does a fast cutting rate between that shot and another location which is in sync to the beat of the clicking sound  which is repeatedly done throughout the whole music video  and from the on the camera continues to be straight on this can be symbolic of the fact he started fro the bottom and worked his way up and the reason they haven’t used birds eye view may be because he isn’t as high as he wants to be.

Target audience

I would think that this music video has a target audience of the ages of 15-21 mainly males with a afro/Carib ethnicity. I say this due to the genre of music, the attire of the stars which appeal to that age and there isn’t many profanities used. The fact that the stars look like their target audience will encourage their audience to buy the record as well as protection the video has received.

Elements i'd like to incorporate 

This relates to my ideas for my music video if I chose this genre of music because i would have a main star and extras in the back like in this video, singing and dancing along as this is so common its almost a conventions of a rap video.
The editing technique that I like so will be incorporating from this case study to my music video, is having the cutting rate dependant on the beat for parts of the song as this makes it more interesting instead of having a straight cut.
Furthermore i will having simular costume attire as "Dave-wanna know" because this is a convention of rap music so just by the look of the music video before playing it, the attire would attract my intended target audience, and they would automatically assume the genre of music to be rap. However like this particular music video the main star will be awarding a bold colour.

Analysis for Afro beats case study

Mr Eazi leg over

Type of video

This music video is more so a performance based video than narrative as in the lyrics he isn’t telling a story but talking about a girl he likes however there are clips which give narrative like when he is with one girl and it looks as if they are having a conversation (he lip synches to her). In the majority of the scenes there is an ethnically diverse large group of women who are dancing. Many afro beat song are performance based due to the upbeat music and not many have a clear story line. There aren’t many themes but I would say the motif is the women in the hall dancing as the majority of the cuts seem to be of the women dancing when there isn't narrative clips.

Representation of stars
The stars are represented as the ideal woman, in terms of appearance and in some scenes as submissive. In which you can see through the women’s costume which is black heals with black tights and different variation of the same black leotard this connotes a uniform which could denote unity or could be to emphasis his ideal woman as they are all the same as in shape with big thighs and bottoms. Which has been sexualized by the media so by showing off these body parts it emphasises the ideology that women are sexual objects.

At 1:11 you can see an establishing shot where he is sitting down and a woman is standing up in front of him and he has his hand in his mouth this is to show that he finds her irresistible showing that being sexualized is her power over him. This ideas is emphasized with the lyrics “baby girl you distract me with that bum bum”.

Post modern

This does have elements of post-modern as he has gone to the priest to confess his sins as he tells the priest about this woman he has had sex with normally in any music video sex is glorified and so is seeing women as only sexual beings.

Camera

At the start the music video the camera is straight on however when the women start dancing it tilts up to them it does this often when they are dancing this may be to show off their assets, and could symbolise their power over men because they are sexualized. Many of the shots are establishing  and only when you see the location inside when he is in the confessional room the audience realizes he is in a church and the women look like they are dancing in a hall. They use a steady cutting rate which is not dependant on the beat however it is not too slow that the viewer will get bored of watching it. They rotate around the dancers at a low level when they dance on the floor only showing three at a time in one shot. Like most music videos they edited the name of the song and director at the start of the music video in bold white font to stand out.

Target audience

At first I thought their target audience was for African males aged from 15 to 23 as the half naked women would appeal to most males and the genre of the music would appeal to African people,  however if it was just for African people there would have been more native language, so now I think it is for a wider ethnicity. To engage female viewers they had many dancing clips, especially at the end the stars are covered up wearing bright coloured clothes while doing a dance that is less sexual.

Elements i'd like to incorporate 
If I do afro beats what would inspire me about this music video is the dancing and the clips of narration as it is interesting to watch and will keep the audience engaged. Further more the rotation of the camera when the stars are dancing using different levels is something that I would like to incorporate into my won music video as it is different. 

Analysis for R&B case study
Destiny's child Bootylicious

Type of video
The song doesn't have a story per say but is saying empowerment and self love saying so throughout the song they act out what they say for example when Kellie says "swing my hips slap my thighs " she carries out them actions it is narrative more so at the start of the music video when they are all together and then when the location changes and they are being filmed individually it becomes more performance based as they have backup dancers behind them dancing with them too.
there was many recurring themes in this song a is with the editing they would cut from the girls being together to their individual groups with the dancers and keeping cutting between that. Another theme was their location as they were similar as it all had patterns and even the bold colours with their outfit and the location which always matched.






Representation of stars
The stars were represented as the ideal woman (aesthetically pleasing ) as it is what the song is about as they have lyrics such as "looking sexy looking fly baddest chick" and even in the title Bootylicious, although its not a real word we would think that it is a blend of the words booty and delicious which is objectifying them as women showing them to be nothing more than their bodies'. This idea is supported by their choices of close up shots as at 00:30 there is a close up of Beyoncé belly and hips. It has always been ideal to have a flat stomach and wide hips which gives you an hour glass figure, so by having small clips of their bodily features which are seen to be ideal, it is supporting my point and subconsciously telling the viewer as the clips are only seconds long.
 Beyoncé is seen to be highlighted the most, which can infer that she is the more ideal than the other two lip synching actresses. You can see this in many aspects, in terms of positioning when the three are together she is always in the centre she also has the most camera time individually. how they show that all of the women are ideal is through costume as they were all tightly fitted short and cropped revealing a lot of skin and showing their figure which is all a hour glass which is deemed sexy.






Camera
There wasn't a variety of camera angles used in the music video, apart from eye level there were low angles when the actresses were by them self which could imply that they are at the Top (almost like the top of the hierarchy). However there was multiple editing techniques used such as fades to a black screen at the start of the video they allows has a fast cutting rate that was in time to the beat. Then they used a flash forward to show the next actress to be singing the next verse and they did this multiple times. They also used multiple cutaways, this gave the effect that other things are happening as this is more of a conceptual performance the cutaways are of the other stars dancing so this was just keep the audience entertained.






Target audience
I would say that their target audience is women from the ages 16 because that is when a girls body is developed so they will also be able to relate and celebrating their body being "bootylicious". The maximum age is 50 as that is when most women start to lose confidence in their bodies as it is no long the same after things like children. They would have a afro Caribbean background because the genre is typically listened to this ethnic group.
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Elements i'd like to incorporate 
I have not picked what R&B song I will use but SZA weekend will be narrative based as she has a story line so I will only inco  

Genres I am interested in

Ideas Task-Grime music video

initial notes

touch-little mix


mise en scene
costume- proactive, colour scheme, linked costumes
prop-none
location- multi coloured box
high key lighting - girl group upbeat mood






editing
cutting to the beat
fast pace editing
jump cut


camera
Pan
Track
Zoomed in


sorry- Justin bieber

Evaluation of practice lip synch video

I was in a group of four and we had to half an hour to film the different scenes around the college. We was told the lesson before to come up with a song we would do this practice lip synch video as well as how to film, zoom in and out, focus and other basic skills. My group and I picked Scrubs by TLC but this was decided last min as before we had picked Mariah Carey we belong together. We picked this not only because we all knew the words of the song but also it had a story in which it would be easy for us to re enact especially as we had a mixed gendered group. The rest of the lesson we was taught how to edit and started the editing process.

What I enjoyed was the filming process because I found it fun discovering how to use the camera these skills for the actual task.

What I found challenging was focusing the camera as it would often un-focus as the cast members would move far and near to the camera, so I would say this would be something I would have to practice so that for my real lip synch video it will be focused which would help the quality there for it would look more professional. However if I am still unable to master this I might have few clips of cast members changing their distance inn relation to the camera. When the camera was focused it was a shallow focus. Furthermore the camera was not still

Despite his that what I found the most challenging was editing this is because I feel like there was a lot to learn in a short period of time. In my groups music video there was a lot of black out/ fade out so I would like to learn other transition methods this would of have made the music video more professional

I feel we had strengths having non-diegetic sound as many music videos have non-diegetic sound but lip synch so it looks diegetic. In addition to this I feel like we chose areas to film where there was good lighting so it didn't wash the actors out however still bright enough to look like high key lighting which is what music videos have when singing a upbeat song like the one we chose. To add to this I feel like we used locations that were typical f a music video like stairs and a brick wall.

We could improve by using different angles and different kinds of shots instead of just establishing and close up we could do wide or OSS (over the shoulder). To further improve we could make our costumes (three girls) the same three colors to show unity to convey to the audience that we are a girl group as well as this we could sit at the bottom of the stairs as there wasn't as much light where we were sitting on the stairs. An to improve in regards of editing we could use different editing techniques like a jump cut and make the black out shorter as at the start it lasted for three seconds which looks like a long time. Lastly to fix the issue with the camera shaking we could try us a tripod or move the camera on a pan so it will appear more so still as is it not still the focus will not be on 

Pratice Music Video