Planning the Editing

A variety of editing styles are essential in a music video as it is more entertaining that a music video that has no editing styles in it what so ever. If a music video was to have no editing styles it would be hard for it to keep its audiences attention. Using editing styles in a music video will it stay smooth and good to fit the songs narrative or storyline. Editing styles consist of fade to black, fade out, fast editing, slow editing and flashbacks. Using these editing styles will help the audience keep up with the music videos narrative.

One of the editing styles I will be using will be a fade to black. Fade to black is when everything on the screen slowly turns into black so that you cannot see any more images. The reason I have chosen to use a fade to black in my music video is because it notifies the audience that that part of the scene is over. Or it is to add emotion to that particular scene. Fade to black will be effective towards the narrative of my video as it will add emotion to the feel of the song. This editing style is conventional to the soul, R&B genre music as most of their music is narrative based.

Fade out will be another editing style I will be using in my music video. Fade out is when the images on screen will fade into different images on screen. The reason I will be using a fade out in my music video is so that the music video goes smoothly and goes with the narrative of the song. This editing style will build a relationship with the audience as it will be easy for them to go along with the narrative, fade outs are so that the audience don’t get lost within what is happening.

I will be using straight cuts in my video as straight cuts help portray the narrative in the music video in a simple manor. A straight cut is when the camera cuts from one shot to another, but you can understand where the camera is. A straight cut will help reflect the narrative of the song by keeping the narrative at a following pace. This will help build a relationship with the audience by keeping the narrative simple and easy to follow. This editing technique is conventional to the R&B, Soul genre music as it keeps the narrative simple. I was not able to get an image of this type of editing as you can not capture it in a picture.

Another editing technique I will be using in my music video will be a jump cut. A jump cut is when  the camera cuts from one shot to another, unlike a straight cut, a jump cut will be in a complete different location that from where it was before. This will help reflect the narrative of my song by showing the audience lots of different locations of where the artist is. This will help build a relationship with my audience as the jump cuts will be from my artist singing to a different part of the narrative of my song. I also was not able to get this editing technique in an image as you can not capture it in an image.

Costume

One piece of clothing that I will be using in my music video will be a Mitchell & Ness snapback hat. The colour of the hat I will be using will be blue with a grey beak. This type of head accessory will appeal to my target audience as snapbacks have become rapidly popular amongst the younger generation.

The reason that I have chosen to use a snapback in my music video is because it is an accessory most people will wear when they are out and about and because of this the audience will be able to relate to the music video. This sort of hat would be conventional to the R&B genre music as R&B artists are with fashion trends and everything they wear is appealing to their audience.

This will show my audience that my artist is with the fashion trend and can dress quite well. My audience can respect this sort of image and would dress like this. Some of my audience might already be dressing like this.

Another piece of clothing that I will be using in my music video will be a generic denim shirt. The colour of the shirt that I will be using will be blue. This will appeal to my audience as denim shirts look good if they are worn with the right clothes. The audience will like this as it will give them an idea of how they can wear denim shirts.

The reason that I have chosen to use a denim shirt as part of the clothing in my music video as they look good and are quite fashionable to the younger generation. This clothing is conventional to the R&B genre music as the artists are fashionable and know how to dress, and in R&B music videos the artist always looks good as it is part of their image.

This will represent my artist as quite fashionable and that they know how to dress. My audience will like this image and will be able to relate to the music video more as they will see that my audience is just a normal person and can have the same problems as them.

The trousers that my artist will be wearing will either be chinos, black skinny jeans or grey skinny jeans. Beige chinos are very popular and common amongst the public in this era; this goes with skinny jeans as well. Any of these will go well with the audience as they are seen as fashionable.

I have chosen to use these as they look good when they are worn and also because they are popular amongst most of the younger generation. This look is conventional to the R&B music genre as they are popular and they look good and the audience like to see their artist looking good as it gives them ideas of how to dress.

This will represent my artist as fashionable as most people can’t pull of skinny jeans, by this I mean that they won’t wear them as they don’t know how to wear them properly to make them look good. My audience will like this image as it looks good, it will also give the audience ideas of how they can wear them.

The shoes that my artist will be wearing will either be blue boat shoes or a pair of vans. Boat shoes will appeal to my audience as most people like the look of them, the same thing as vans although they are easier to wear than boat shoes. They can go with pretty much any clothes.

I have chosen to use these shoes for my artist as boat shoes look good and are formal and can be quite difficult to make them look good with what you wear. Vans are another option as they look good but can look good with almost any clothes. These shoes are conventional to the R&B genre as they are popular amongst their audience and they look good when they are worn right.

This will show my audience that my artist can dress well and that they know how to wear certain clothes and make them look good. My audience will like this and can respect the way that my artist dresses as he is fashionable and looks good wearing the clothes.

Artist Identity

John Stephens ‘John Legend’ went to the University of Pennsylvania; during his time there he was in a band that used to perform in some shows. His lead vocals on the groups recording of Joan Osborne’s “One of us” received critical acclaim. Whilst Stephens was in University he was introduced to Lauryn Hill by a friend. Hill hired him to play piano on “Everything is everything”. He took time to hold a number of shows around Philadelphia, eventually expanding his audience base to New York, Boston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. After he was finished with university he started to produce, write and record his own music. He then released two albums independently, his self-titled demo in 2000 and ‘Live at Jimmy’s Uptown’ in 2001 which he sold at his shows. Stephens became a management consultant and during this time he started working on his demo and started to send his work to various labels. In 2001 Devo Springsteen introduced him to the up and coming hip-hop artist Kanye West. After signing to West’s label, he chose his stage name from a nickname he was given by the poet J. Ivy.

Stephens released two albums independently, his self-titled demo in 2000 and ‘Live at Jimmy’s Uptown’ in 2001, this is before he was signed to a label with Kanye West. In 2004-2005 he released the album ‘Get Lifted’ selling 116,000 copies within the first week of release; it then went on to sell 2.1 million copies in the United States and has sold 3 million copies worldwide. 2006-2007 ‘Once again’ was released, again in 2008-2010 ‘Evolver’ was another album that Stephens released. ‘Wake Up’ was shortly released after Evolver. John Legend’s most successful single is ‘Ordinary people’ from the album ‘Get Lifted’ in 2004-2005 where Legend uses his talent with the piano and vocals.

John Legend – Ordinary People

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIh07c_P4hc

In this music video, ordinary people; the links between the lyrics and the visuals are throughout the whole song. An example of this would be when John Legend sings, “At times we get sick of love, it seems like we argue everyday” as these lyrics are sung, the two actors you see on screen are arguing about their relationship. The links between the music and the visuals would be John Legend playing the piano, you see him on screen playing the piano and that is the song in the music video. The music video is in black and white, this can make the title of the song more understandable, “Ordinary people” no one in the video is special, everyone in the music video is in black and white so it makes everyone in the video more ordinary. The style of this video is quite clever; as John Legend is playing the piano you can see couples argueing and having problems, this is shown like this because it is not a thing that rarely happens, it happens all the time all around us.

 This music video would be aimed at a more mature audience, this is because the song is about people in love and they are having problems with their relationship. This music video goes with the codes and conventions of the R&B, soul music genre as it reflects how some people's lifes are. The acting in the video represents how people react and deal with these situations, some of which are worse than others. This music video is narrative based, what legend is singing about is what you see the actors in the background doing, it all relates to what he is singing.

In this shot it looks like John Legend is concentrating on something or possibly staring into the distance. Legend looks very clean and well groomed in this picture; his head takes up most of the album cover and the rest of the album looks like a frame, as if his head is a picture to be framed on the wall. This shot is a close up and his facial expression shows that he is concentrating.

John Legend – Once Again

This is a long shot of John Legend playing the piano; the piano shows him to be a musician who creates the piano verses in his songs by hand. In the background you can see that he is on the street, this shows us that playing the piano and making music is part of who he is. He looks quite smart in this picture as he is wearing a blazer with a white shirt underneath.  He is sitting on the piano facing to another direction looking into the distance.

John Legend – Evolver

In this shot, John Legend is facing away from the camera as if someone is calling him and he is looking over at who called him. In this album cover it looks like he is wearing a leather jacket which shows that he has style in the way that he dresses. This is a long shot; you are able to see his body language, which looks like he is turning around at someone.

John Legend – Get Lifted

Planning the Cinematography

A variety of camera shots are essential in a music video so that the narrative of the music video makes some sort of sense. It also makes the video more interesting than if the video was just one shot throughout the whole duration of it. Another reason why a variety of shots are essential is because it shows the artists facial expression, the clothes that they are wearing and their body language. The audience will be able to connect with the artist more if there is a variety of shots being used because from the shots they will be able to see what the artist is feeling if the shots are used effectively.

One of the shots that I will be using in my music video is a close up. The reason I am using a close up is so that the audience will be able to tell how the artist is feeling from their facial expression. Close ups make something the main focus; this gives the audience nothing else to look at but the thing that has a close up. This will convey a message about my artist as it will show the artists facial expression which will show emotion. So the close up will show what my artist is feeling at that point in the music video. This shot is conventional to the R&B, Soul genre music as these genres are usually about life and things they have experienced. This camera shot helps reflect the narrative of my song by showing the emotion my artist feels as he sings about this relationship he can’t get off of his mind. This builds a relationship with my audience as it shows them how the artist is feeling. This camera shot is conventional to my music genre as it gives the audience something to focus on and it also relates to the narrative of the song.

Another one of the shots I will be using in my video will be a medium shot. The reason I am using a medium shot is so that you can see the artist’s facial expression and some of their body language. This will let the audience know how the artist is feeling at this particular moment of the video, this will help convey a message about the artist as it will show the emotion felt towards the situation he is in. The medium close up will reflect the narrative of the music video by making the artist the focus of the camera. This shot is conventional to the R&B, Soul genre music as it shows the artists body language along with their facial expression, this lets the audience know exactly how the artist is by the way they are positioned. This shot will help build a relationship with the audience as it shows the emotion of the artist and the effect it has on them. Camera shots are conventional as it makes the music video more interesting as it gives the audience different shots of the artist.

A long shot will be another one of the shots that I will be using in my music video. I have chosen to use a long shot in my music video as it shows the environment of where the artist is. This shot will help reflect the narrative of the music video by showing the surroundings around the artist as he goes on about his day. This will helps build a relationship with the audience as the places he will be walking around people will be familiar with. So anyone that has been in the same situation as the artist will be able to relate to him. This camera shot is conventional in this genre music as it shows the artists body language and the surrounding to where the artist is, this will help the audience to understand how the artist is feeling.

An over shoulder shot will be another shot used in my music video. I have chosen to use an over shoulder shot in my music video as it shows what the artist is looking at. This shot will help reflect the narrative of the music video by showing where the artist goes to think about things that are playing on his mind. This will build a relationship with the audience as they can appreciate how the artist is feeling at that particular moment. This shot is conventional in this genre music genre as it will show the audience what the artist is looking at.

Within the R&B, Soul genre music, the artist usually sings about things that happen in life, experiences that have happened to them, or things that just happen in modern life. All of my shots are conventional to this genre music as they portray how the artist is feeling. In my song, the artist remembers a relationship where he thought he could have gone far with his partner but the relationship did not end up going so well. These shots will show the audience how the artist is feeling by facial expression and body language.

Locations and Iconography

Using a variety of locations in a music video is essential in music videos because it makes it easier to keep the audience engaged in the video; if it was just the same location all the time, it would be hard to keep the audience’s attention. Having different locations in a music video can also be because it relates to the narrative of the song being played.

The locations used in my music video are a bedroom, living room, the street and in a car. The reason I have chosen these locations is because they can be easily related to by the audience, it also makes the artist in the video the main focus as the locations won’t be high traffic with other people. This will enable the audience to build a relationship with the artist as it will show their facial expression and their body language.

This conveys a message about the artist as he is going about his normal life but he is still thinking about a relationship that went wrong. It shows that he is still hurt about what happened and makes the audience build a relationship with the artist as he sings about how he feels.

The locations reflect the lyrics of the song as it is just the artist going by his life, just thinking about his relationship that didn’t go quite right. It goes from him waking up in his room to him sitting in his living room to him driving around. As he does these things, it is always playing on his mind and he can’t stop thinking about it.

The locations in my music video can build a relationship with the audience as some of the audience might know that if there is something that plays on their mind that they will constantly be thinking about it wherever they are. To my audience that don’t quite understand how that feels, they can at least appreciate what it means. My music video is about someone who has a relationship playing on their mind and as they go on with their day they are still thinking about it.

The reason I chose this video is because it is simple yet effective. The audience will be able to connect with the artist through the video because it is in a place familiar to where they have been before because it is in a house. It gives the audience something different from what they have been watching.

A bed will be one of the props that I use in my music video. This is as the artist wakes up in the morning. I selected this image as people sleep in a bed. The purpose of a bed in my music video is as the artist wakes up in the morning. This will build a relationship with the audience as some of them will know, if there is something on your mind it will be on your mind when you wake up.

A couch will be another prop being used in my music video. This will be used as the artist sits on his couch thinking about his relationship. I selected this image as a couch is what I am going to be using for my artist to sit on. This will help build a relationship with the audience as they can understand how it is when you daydream whilst sitting down somewhere.



Audience Categories/Target Audience

A	You would expect people with jobs like this to not have much free time on their hands, so they won’t have time for music. If they were to listen to music it would be the mainstream that you hear on the radio; R&B, Hip-hop, pop, rap. This is because it is constantly being played.
B	People with these sort of jobs are more social, so the chances of music they are interested in are bound to be a mixture between mainstream, ; R&B, Hip-hop, pop, rap and rock.
C1	You would expect the people with these jobs to listen to Pop, Hip-hop or R&B. This is because these people are usually busy with their job and aren’t so concerned with the music that they listen to.
C2	R&B, Hip-hop, pop, rap and rock. Mainstream music because their profession makes don’t give them so much free time.
D	This would be between R&B, Hip-hop, pop, rap because that is the more popular music in this century and it is the most played.
E	These people are young, so they are probably with the more popular genre of music, R&B, Hip-hop, pop, rap. They have more time on their hands so they are likely to have a wider variety of music.

The target audience I will be aiming at will be in group E. This is because it is the younger generation and things seem to become more popular amongst the younger generation. The micro elements used in my music video such as Iphones, xbox 360 and the clothes worn, are all part of the iconography that I will be using. The younger generation will notice these things and give them a sense of familiarisation which can help them understand what is going on in the video. 

The editing and cinematography I use throughout my music video will all fit in with the narrative, this will help engage the audience in a more simple way. Using these techniques will lead me to a more successful music video and will help me understand how to make other successful music videos. My music video will appeal to my target audience as my audience will be familiar with the locations used.

Questionnaire Evaluation

The purpose of this questionnaire was to see what age group I should aim my music video at, and from the results I gained, I should be aiming my video at 16-21 year olds. This is because it gives me a wider range of ages to be aiming my video at, which from my results a high percentage of them were between these ages. My questionnaire also gives me an outline of what genre music would be better for me to make a more successful music video. 

 This has helped me to plan my music video by giving me a better idea of the music genre I should be picking for a more successful video. From my results, the more popular genre of music was Pop, followed by Hip-hop and R&B. I also asked what genre of music do they enjoy the music videos to. The results ended up being R&B videos being liked more than the other genres, followed by Dance. This is helpful as it shows me what genre music videos I will have to look into to be able to make a music video that is popular amongst its audience.

I gave my questionnaire out to 20 people to fill in and give back to me; they were 20 random people, so there was no equal amount of males and females. 20 people seemed like a good number to hand my questionnaire out to because picking 20 people out of random, who were willing to fill out a questionnaire would not take long, so it was very time efficient.

From my questionnaire I found out that the R&B and Pop genre were altogether the most popular genre’s listened to and the music videos watched, this is useful to me because I can plan my music video to be like the R&B and Pop genre. I will be using the results from my questionnaire to help plan my music video as is has given me a basic outline to what will help my video be more successful.