Hypothesis of target market

Mood Board

 Photo One:  This photo is from the actual video we are re-adapting, its used in our mood board to show the need of back-up dancers in our video.  It’s still undecided how many back-up dancers we will use, but it will mostly be two to four

Photo Two: This photo is of what will be happening in the opening scene, when the led role wakes up to a text from her love interest


Photo Three: The shisha pipe is an object that we plan to use as a prop in the video in an attempt to build-up its Mis En Scene. Shisha Pipes are often used in the Asian culture so it helps reinforce the Asian theme of our video

Photo Four: The phone is part of the props that will be used in the opening scene and a few other scenes. Its function is to show the communication in narrative scenes between the couple

Photo Five: The love heart is used to represent the main theme of the song which is love.


Photo Six: This picture again is of a heart but this time the heart is filled with pills, this is to connote how ‘addictive’ her boyfriend’s love is which is what she is constantly singing about in the song.  The song is also named ‘addictive’.


Photo Seven:  This picture of the couple hugging is what the end scene of our video will be, the couple re-uniting at her house.

Photo Eight: The picture of a bar is used to represent the bar scenes that will be in our video in the abstract shots. The bar we will be filming is one that’s in my home

Photo Nine:  A picture of Avril Lavergine is used to represent the performative aspects that will be in the video

Photo 10: A picture of a bindi is used because we would like to use it as part of the costume to again promote the Asian theme of the video

Photo 11:  The picture of the well known rapper ‘Cassidy ‘ is used to show the stereotyped look of a rapper, wearing heavy ‘bling’ and a cap to the side which was very fashionable in hip hop culture at the time

Photo 12:  This picture is of a club scene which we will attempt to re-enact. We were keen to film a re-enacted club scene because it’s a typical convention of an R’n’B/Hip Hop videos. If we do decide to do this we will look into the rental of halls and get a group of peers we know to be in it.

Photo 13: The last picture of the lady in the sari is a similar sari to what the lead role in the video will be wearing most of the time

Music Video Treatment

Song : Addictive
Artist : Truth Hurts
Year : 2002


Synopsis
The video is about a female who is declaring her love for her boyfriend and listing all the great qualities about him . Her boyfriend who we believe is the rapper in the video is also doing the same and is explaining the list of qualities he loves about her too.  In the video majority of the scenes are abstract and performative in our adaption we have decided to use the above two approaches along with a narrative story. The narrative will relate to the lyrics, for example when she says things like 'tonight is waiting' we will have scenes of the singer getting ready. Most of our performative scenes will be dance routines , this is also good because in the early 2000's dance routines was a very typical trait of R'N'B videos. The abstract scenes may be random shots of party scenes like in the original video

Locations
The two definite locations we would like to use are a bar in my house and my parents bedroom and the studio in our school . The studio will be used for the dance routines and majority of the performative scenes , the bedroom will be used for the getting ready scenes and I'm not too sure about the what will be filmed in the bar scene.

Lighting
We plan to make some scenes brighter than others for example scenes when shes with her boyfriend. High key lighting will be used in scenes with them together to connote happiness and joy . Lower key lighting will be used in scenes where the main singer might be trying to be viewed in a lustful manner .

Editing
We originally wanted to have very fast cuts but we felt this wouldn't match as much with the music so we plan to have a medium paced shots

Camera Shots
(see shot list)

Mis En Scene
Most of this will be made up by the costume we choose to use and the props along with the background

Filiming and Editing
We will be editing our work on final cut pro on Mac computers and filming our video on a Sony HD camera. For our Digipak and CD advert we will be using a HD Nikon camera that belongs to another group

Music video Genre Analysis

Truth Hurts - Addictive
In the following paragraphs we will discuss how the video fits typical conventions of its genre.

 Observation One:  ‘The club scene’
Like various other Hip Hop/R’n’B songs that we analysed a club scene or party scene were often displayed in the video. In the early 2000’s videos of this genre were almost expected to have scenes like this. Even though the lyrical context of these songs didn't always have something to with parties, the producers obviously felt the club scenes were a necessity in reinforcing the songs Hip Hop/R’n’B genre.

• Bow wow ft Omarian – Let Me Hold You (2005)

 Bow Wow is a young Hip Hop rapper who made this song alongside R’N’B singer Omoraion. Majority of this song in set in a house party even though the content has nothing to do with party. This is a prime example of when videos of this genre have party settings when the content doesn’t relate.


    •    Kelly Rowland – Can’t nobody do it like me (2002)

 This video by former destiny child member Kelly Rowland is a song about another girl not being able to satisfy her boyfriends like she can. Although the club scene in her video only takes up a small section it’s still present and has no correlation to the lyrics of the song

    •    Kelis – Bossy (2006)

 This being the most recent example shows that the use of party/clubs scenes was not a short phase in the r’nb and hip hop trends. Kelis’s video more than any of the previous exampls mentions partying in her song , however the main message is about her claiming to be a ‘boss’ which then doesn’t  have much to do with the choice of a club venue.

Observation Two: Use of a rapper ‘Rakim’
 Truth Hurts –The song ‘Addictive’s’ video uses Hip Hop/R’n’B conventions that was often used in the early 2000’s. This is the feature of having a rapper in an R’n’B singers video or vice versa. Although females were sometimes used as the rapper it was often male rappers featured in the most songs .This was due to the rappers often taking the role as love interest to the female R’n’B singer. The following is a list of examples where videos of this genre have used this same feature:

    •    Blu Cantrell Ft Sean Paul – Breathe (2003)

Sean Paul a well-recognised dancehall rapper was used in this video as the love interest. This song was about Blu Cantrell telling Sean Paul she thinks they should take things slow but Sean Paul disagreeing saying things are ok how they are.

•  Aaliyah Feat Timbaland – We need a resolution (2001) 

 Timbaland is a rapper/producer and is used in this video also as Aaliyah’s love interest.  In this song they are both putting forward that they have relationship problems and that things need to change

    •    Christina Millan Feat Joe Budden – Whatever you want  (2004)

 In this video Joe Budden is used as Christina Millan’s love interest however it’s a more light-hearted subject matter in contrast to the others.  In this song the two both talk about mutual feelings of wanting to have fun and get to know each other.


    •    Keyshia Cole Feat Kanye West – I changed my mind (2004)

 This is video is different to the others with the way it uses its rapper. Kayne West doesn’t actually have a rap in the video and is not portrayed as her love interest. The fact he’s just in it shows they believed just having a rapper in the video would be of relevance


Observation Three: ‘The use of Bhangra beats mixed with R’N’B songs’
Prior to our research and analysis of videos we were naïve to the fact that this song was not the first song to mix Bhangra and R’n’B beats. We found when researching on our song that a producer Timbaland had used this collaboration with a few songs. The collaboration was often used in the same time period of when addictive had been made. So the idea that this mix challenged its normal conventions actually turned out to confirm to them instead. Examples of other songs:

    •    Erick Sermon Feat Redman – React (2002)
(Also used in one of our analysis)

•  Timbaland and Magoo – Indian Flute (2003) 

•  Panjabi MC Feat Jay-Z (2003)

All the artists that featured in the songs with bhamgra mixes have been male hip hop artists so a challenge put forward could be that in our video it will be a girl R’N’B singer as oppose to a male

 Observation four:  The use of ‘backup’ dancers
The use of back dancers for female R’N’B artists in videos was very common in this time period and    still is now. For Hip hop videos it was more the use of many women in the videos without routines wearing revealing clothing dancing about. In truth hurts video they she has a round five backup dancers used for her, some of the following examples we will show are of more recent videos:
   

•   Beyoncé – Singles ladies (2008)

 This video was used as Beyoncé’s comeback single for 2008 , the whole video is a on-going routine with her and two backup dancers. Although backup dancers are a convention for R’N’B videos , she challenged the methodology their normal used in , by having the whole video as her dancing with them and no other scenes. This would have been very intensive and challenging to do.

    •    50cent – In the club (2003)

 This video released from 50Cent was when he first came out is an example of an early 2000’s Hip Hop video.  Many girls wearing revealing clothing is in this video as opposed to a few numbers of dancers with routines that aren’t de-individualized like in Beyoncé’s video

    •    Ciara Ft Missy Elliot – 1, 2 step (2004)

 This video is an example of an R’N’B video that uses routines again with the leading singer playing the main dancer. This one conveys to its genre more than Beyoncé’s single ladies because of there is a use of other clips and the routine is not on-going

Analysis of music video (Similiar to my video)

Aaliyah – We need a resolution (first minute)

In the first minute of this music video the two types of characteristic I identified were the abstract and performative components used e.g. there are often close ups of Aaliyah and some of her belongings (glasses , flowers) which has no relation to the lyrics of the song which is about solving an issue between her and her partner. Performative scenes are portrayed through the dance routines she has with back up dances within this first minute extract. The fact I was able to identify these two types in the music video show how important it is to convey whichever type I choose to do in a clear manner.
Within just the first minute of this video I concluded that nine different locations had been showed throughout that time frame. For just a minute that seemed like a lot of different locations but whilst casually watching the song it was unnoticeable the location had changed so many times it just flowed with the video making it visually interesting to observe. For obvious reasons like our budget and time will explain why it may be challenging to film in a large variety of locations however, I did pick up from this video the importance to have enough different images to keep viewers engaged and interested in the song/video.
The opening image to the song is of Aaliyah sitting down this again shows the abstract approach to the video. In the beginning of 'Truth hurts - addictive' an image of a lady's back with Henna is shown ,the combination of the image of henna and the sound of the music automatically conveys the Indian theme that will be taking place in the song.Whereas Aaliyahs opening image alongside its music doesn’t immediately show us the futuristic theme the video eventually takes on.
In the minute extract I analysed of Aaliyahs video the well-known rapper/producer Timbaland is featured as early as the third shot. This video was made in the early 2000’s a period where it was a common convention for Rappers to star in R’n’B singers videos, although it’s still happens now it’s not as common. ‘We need a resolution’ conforms to this convention by having Timbaland in the song and just by watching six seconds in we are already informed a rapper will be featured in this song . In ‘addictive’ the R’n’ B song me and my partner choose that was also made in the early 2000’s a rapper features in it however you don’t see him until his actually verse comes up. , so the stereotype of an R’N’B video of that era is not straight away reinforced. Anaslying this video has been extremely helpful because its made us aware that we need to film as many shots with different imagery as possible . If we had picked an Indie song , it would have been easier to get away with not as many different images in the videos as most of music videos of that genre take a less 'flashy' approach.

Textual analysis of music videos

Name of track: Can’t let go/Damn

Artist: Fabulous feat Mike Shaney and Lil

Year: 2003

 Genre Characteristics

This song is a Hip Hop/R’N’B song, the costume and props alone convey its genre.E.g. Fabulous ‘bling’ that he wears (a big chain and heavy diamond earrings). Also the prop of a flashy car is a convention used in this genre of video.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

The lyrics of these songs are about Fabulous developing feelings for another woman who is not his wife and having an affair with her. The visuals we see in this video is of Fabulous with two different women and buying them the same necklace representing the feelings he has for both of them.

 Relationship between music and visuals

In the first half of the song the music is slow and the visuals are of a narrative style showing the dilemma he’s in. In the second half of the song called ‘Damn’ the music takes a turn for a more upbeat tone. As this happens the setting of the video changes and the lights much become brighter. Also as the issue of the affair seems to disappear, the scene becomes him in a room surrounded by many women in revealing clothing.

Is there reference to the notion of looking
The male gaze is seen in this video near the beginning when fabulous walks in on his wife and the audience ‘see through his eyes’ his wife lying on the bed in her bra and knickers. The shot is a slow one that pans from her waist to her face and as she is only wearing a bra and knickers it’s portrayed in a sensual way

Is the video peformative , narrative or concept and how much of each

Most scenes are narrative, as the video is essentially the whole time is telling/showing the story of his affair. For example the scenes of him with the two different women. It is peformative mainly when the song changes to the ‘Damn’ segment but it also is performative in the first half of the song. E.g. when he wakes up and is performing on his bed.