Planning: Pre-production paperwork

Pre-Production Paperwork

As part of our planning, we needed to complete some production paperwork. This is essential for our music video because the importance that came with the paperwork. The paperwork includes consists of risk-assessments, location recce, risk assessments and other additional important information. These documents highlight risks, get permission from actors and was vital to complete this paperwork before we started to film.

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Risk Assessment.

Client Release Form

Production Schedule

Planning: Group roles

Group Roles

Introduction

The Group roles are made up of various roles that are essential for a music video. The production roles will consist of the main roles. Producer, Director, Editor, Location Manager, Lighting Operator, Storyboard Organiser, Camera Operator, Costume, Hair and makeup, Storyboard organiser and Cast Control. We nominated someone for each role that is suitable and capable of doing each role. This includes looking at member strengths and weakness and the production is based on our abilities and experience.  

Roles

Producer

Emeka: As a group, we have decided to make Emeka the producer. The main reason why is due to the quick and helpful decision he makes, as well as considering input from the team. Also, he is proficient at dealing with problems we may face during our filming stage as he is already experienced from last year when he was producer for the short thriller opening scene. He has practical communication skills which will help the whole team as he can deal with the cast and crew in an effective manner.

Director

Gulustan  As a group, we decided that Gulustan should be the director. The reason why we chose Gulustan as she has good skills in managing groups. Additionally, she is able to describe her ideas clearly to everyone in the group which makes our roles easier and helps them understand what were trying to do in each scene. As well as giving everyone concise feedback, Moreover, She is able to give back constructive feedback which helped us in the long run.

Editor

Elliot: I was nominated to take on the role of editor as because of my consistent and hard working with his work. In addition, I have a quite thorough and go into detail in with my work which will help us to create an effective music video, iveAlso, Elliot found it interesting and enjoyed editing during AS Media which concluded in him being chosen to do Editing during A2 Media additionalI'vecreated highly decent youtube videos. 

Location Manager

Gulustan: Gulustan was chosen to be the Location Manager. The reason why we chose this role because. She has chosen some suitable locations to film our music video. Also, she has very good communication and negotiation skills which will work on the group's behalf.

Lighting Operator 

Elliot As a group we also decided that I should be lighting operator. The main reason why is because I was well informed of the different lighting techniques as well as what they represent, for example, high key lighting presenting positivity. This can help us with creating the atmosphere and the mood of the music video. Also, my creativity will benefit us using lighting as I am aware where it is appropriate to place the lighting.

Storyboard organiser: 

Emeka- Emeka was nominated to be the Storyboard organiser as he was able to visualise all our ideas and combine it into one initial idea. Also, he asked for input from the group and added it into the storyboard which made it more effective as he will be able to picture each shot. Additionally, he knew the song like the back of his hand which is important when creating a storyboard.

Camera Operator: Gulustan & Emeka

We decided that Gulustan and Emeka should be camera operators as we have knowledge on cinematography techniques and they are confident

with how and which ones to use while filming. 

Costume/Hair&Makeup: 

Elliot:  We chose Elliot to take care of Costume hair and makeup as he is organised and is good with time scheduling which helps as he will be able to know which costume is meant to be worn where. Also, he is passionate about fashion and is successful at combining outfits to match certain genres of music.

Cast Control:

Gulustan: Gulustan was nominated to be responsible for cast control as The main reason was she was able to be serious/professional and gain the attention of the cast when necessary.

Conclusion

Overall, production roles allow us to assign each member of the group with roles that are suitable to qualities and strength and weakness. We decided to allocate roles for who was best suited to that role and certain roles are more significant than others are.

Planning: Editing

Editing

Introduction.

One of the most important parts of the music videos is the editing in the post-production process. They are various types of editing techniques that we can use to make our music video more effective the audience. In this post, I will be discussing what techniques I am planning to use to ensure the music video is entertaining to the target audience.

Fast paced editing.

Since the music video itself is at a fast pace after the first 20 secs. I need to ensure that when editing the music video. This is important especially during the lip-syncing. Because of the nature of the song and the lip-syncing needs to be on point. Additionally, some scenes will need to be sped up which can be done in final cut pro.

Seamless editing

The music video must be also seamless throughout the music video. For the final music video, we need to ensure that it feels seamless. It allows the artist to stand out more in the music video as well as avoid confusing the audience especially since the fast-paced nature of this video and allows a smoother video. It is important that Seamless editing also has a big impact on the audience since it does not confuse them compared to jump cuts (which are usually purposely done). In addition, during our research, task one of the most popular editing techniques in the music video. Is making the music video look seamless.

Jump Cut

It also nesccary at some points in the music video to have a jump cut. In the music video, they are several scenes that require jump cuts. This includes the third scene in which the artist is walking down Tottenham retail park while rapping in which there are several jump cuts to show flashbacks.  In addition, there are several plot points in the narrative in which that there is a need to be a sudden dramatic change.

Slow Editing

One scene in particular that stick out requires us to have an establishing shot, however, this scene needs to be at a slow pace. This can be achieved by using slow motion editing. One of the options I can achieve is slowing the clips down so its playback slower.

Planning: Storyboard

Storyboard.

The storyboard represents the planning of the shots in a Graphical Format. The storyboard allows us to plan the music video shot by shot. And it includes how we are planning to film each shot. The characters, lighting, sound, dialogue as well as an description. This will be extremely useful especially when it comes to filming the final video and during the editing phase. Also we have also identified key scenes and considerations that we need to look at during the filming. Creating a storyboard allowed us to plan the music video more easily.

Planning: Audiences

The audience.

To ensure any music video is a success, it is important to know about the audience since it gives an insight into the expectations with music videos. In addition, who is likely to watch the music video so we can meet the expectations of the audience. It is important to ensure that the music videos can meet the needs of the audience and we need to do adequate research. This can range from looking at various music videos in that same genre or by questionnaires, so suitable data can be collected about the audience. As a result of doing this research and collating the data that we have gathered and some planning, we then decided on the music video genre of our choice and we also found out the expectations of that target audience.

Age, Gender and Ethnicity.

After doing our research about our target audience and the genre, we would likely to do we then need to find out who is likely to watch the music video. We did by evaluating the questionnaire and we found out the following things about our target audience.

• Hip Hop is suitable for males and females
• The genre is popular with teenagers and young adults between the ages 18 -32
• In addition, the ethnicity of the audience can appeal to all.

Income Bracket/Status

According to the research did we also found about the income bracket and the status of our target audience, which is working class/students/unemployed individuals. This is because the genre is most favoured also, this relates to age since that age group is likely to be in this bracket. The audience is likely to be students who are in full-time education and who wouldn't be employed compared to other groups. Moreover, they are also likely to relate to the genre because of the themes of the genre such as money, issues in society. etc.. After finding out our target audience/bracket status it can help us choosing the audience to relate to.

Interests/Hobbies

In addition, we also found out about our target audiences interests and hobbies to help us with our research. Because our audience is of the age, they would experience new things that may have never have experienced before and the audience we are targeting are quite impressionable. In addition, most young audience will be engaging with the music video moreover, would usually share music videos that they like via social media. Therefore, the music video needs the music video to impress the young audience. Therefore, we would need the music video to impress so that they will be able to share the videos with others. 

Audience reaction

• Audience Engagement. – Is an important to engage the audience with our music video? As the audience will react to the music videos in different ways according to our research. This is because of the different age groups, hobbies and income brackets, which was discussed. In addition, we would need the music video are able to relate to our target audience. Moreover, most hip-hop songs have subcultures evident within the music videos, which the audience can relate to. Which can cause a positive or a negative response from the audience.
• Audience Expectation. – We also need to consider the expectations from the audiences because everyone will have somewhat different opinions because of the artist and the genre. This could be because of a variety factor, which would include gender, age, hobbies etc. Some of the audience maybe expecting various intertextual references, motifs and star image. Since Hip-hop is, also a mainstream genre we will need to factor in mainstream expectations as well to ensure our customer is satisfied. 
• Audience identification. – According to one of the dyer theory, the artist needs to be constructed so they can be portrayed as ordinary but extra-ordinary to the public. Which we need to take into consideration. After researching and then discussing our audience and what they most likely to listen. To we have found a suitable song as well as a suitable artist as well as a star image that we would like to portrayed in the final version of the music video.

Conclusion.

We have identified our target audience to be this group because the song reflect and the genre is likely to appeal to this genre the most. This is because the convections of the genre as well as the music video are popular with young audiences. The narrative of this song is also quite popular with young audiences and some of the audiences can relate to this song in particular. Moreover the music video could be popular with both genders.

Planning: Copyright letter

Coppyright letter

Introduction

After Choosing our final song choice. It was imperative to get permission from the copyright holder before we could proceed in producing the music video. This is because if we didn’t get permission the music video may have gotten taken down which would cause issues moreover its illegal to use someone else content without permission from the copyright holder. Therefore, we would need to send a letter asking permission to use the song in the final Product. This will be sent via e-mail to the copyright holder.

Coppyright Letter

The copyright letter I created ask the artist directly for the permission to use the music in our music video. We included the purpose and we also explained what we’re planning to do it including uploading it YouTube. Below is the copyright letter.

Research: Censorship

Censorship and music videos

Introduction 

Censorship is when music videos are having restricted access to certain age groups or blocked because they may be deemed inappropriate for some audience and the case for all audience. This can be done for a variety of reasons such as the music video maybe the music video was to controversial, received negative reviews, and the frequent use of bad language. And music videos maybe blocked in some countries because of political, religious, military and moral reasons which may be given a negative impact. Censorship can happen to any genre however its mostly likely to occur to certain genres such as Rap and Hip Hop.

The difference between explicit content and explicit lyrics.

The difference between explicit content and explicit lyrics is that content is what is shown to the viewers and lyrics is what the artist is singing. Explicit lyrics are when the use of profanity used in the music video/song or that they contain sexual content which is unsuitable for ages below 18. However, this would be depending on the context of the song and who’s the song aimed at, usually when this happens the music would be cut or “beeped” if it was aimed at audience that was less than 18. If the song was consistently having explicit lyrics this would lead the song to being banned because of non-justification of profanity for a music video. 

Explicit content is when the music video is showing the audience that may be deemed something that would be unsuitable to show the audience. This could include nudity, sexual content, graphic content and shock. This would depend on the context again however its more likely to be banned or cut. Even then these music videos would have to be 18+ because due to the nature of the content. There have been various music videos have been cut because of these reasons. Such as Robbie Williams “Rock DJ” - If the content gets censored on the CD or on the music video it would now get a parental advisory logo to warn parents that this music video/song may be unsuitable for younger audiences. This would also mean that it would be up to the parents or the child guardian if its suitable for that child to listen to.

What things get censored

Below is a list of that is was likely or is grounds for a song being censored or banned. 

• Excessive use of profanity 
• Explicit content
• Violence
• Religion
• Culture
• Race
• Sexual violence
• Incest
• Politics
• Shock
• Based on true events
• “Corrupting the young”
• Controversy

Songs that have got censored because of the content includes

• Like a prayer – Madonna - Banned in Italy for several years because of the religious mocking and included blasphemous imagery.
• Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke – Censored because of the nudity and sexual content.
• Rock DJ – Robbie Williams censored because of the gore shown in the music video. 

Lyrics and radio censorship.

Songs that are played on the radio need to adhere to Ofcom rules. One of them is to ensure that all music is suitable for all ages until the watershed which is at 9pm. To ensure that radio stations can adhere to the rules and that the song is suitable for all ages they are various in which the radio station can censor the song. The radio station can play a beep over the offending word another option is also put a scratching of a disk sound to cover the offending word. Which is seen in Chris Brown’s music video “loyal” to censor profanity to ensure that its suitable for all ages. Another option would be that the bad language would be cut from the audio this would mean there was no audio for a brief second 

Difference between cut and banned. 

The difference between a music video getting cut or getting banned depends on the context of that music video. If it gets cut it means that certain scenes in the music videos weren’t appropriate and that they should be cut to avoid offending people or for being too gory, sexual or because of the content however it would also have meant that its only certain parts of the music video weren’t appropriate. However, if the music video got banned it would have meant that the music video throughout was inappropriate and therefore cannot be released.

Advantages and disadvantages to censorship

They are various advantages and disadvantages for censoring music videos. The main reasons they should be censorship it because it protects children from watching music videos that may not be suitable for them to watch another reason it. The problem with any form of censorship it means that people have a right to listen to it even if it may unacceptable to some people. Another issue is that the government shouldn’t step in to regulate music and music video unless it’s necessary it should be up to the record labels, artist and the production company to self-censor the music video without action from the government. Another problem with censorship from the artist point of view is that restricts creativity for the artist if they have adhered to rules.

My opinion on censorship in the music industry is that they should be censorship up until a certain point. It should be to individuals about what is suitable for their children rather than the government censoring it for them. However, it should be up to the artist, record label and production company to ensure that music videos have appropriate warnings to warn the audience about any content that maybe seen as vulgar, sexual etc.

Conclusion

In the final music video I need to ensure that the song I chose and the context of the music video is suitable for all ages without having to resort to censoring the music video itself.  The genre I am aiming to use for my music video is pop which is known for the use of profanity however this would depend on the context of the music video as well the content within the music video. I would need to think about will the music video is likely to offend anyone and would also need to ensure that music I pick doesn’t contain any sexual content, nudity and/or violence.