Wednesday 24 November 2010
QuEST - The Samba Thelonious Theory (TGA OFFICIAL VIDEO))
Song: QuEST - The Samba Thelonious Theory
Creative Team -
Directors: The Greedy Anorexics
Associate Director: Zackery "Long Head" Small
Camera Technician: Marcus "Cee Major" Stanley
Executive Producer: Craig MPH
Editors: The Greedy Anorexics
Stylist: Kojey Radical
The Greedy Anorexics art collective take a moment to showcase the slick rhyming style of American rapper QuEST and his track "Samba Thelonious Theory" from the up and Coming Project THE REASON: A DEFENSE MECHANISM.
We chose this song because we relate to creative wordplay melodic sounding and wanted to share what good music can help a team create.
We cranked up the volume, kicked back and fell in love with the song instantly; the beat took us back so the video features vintage visuals almost like a video from the late 80's early 90's and some psychedelic graffiti painted by The Greedy Anorexics very own Sir Mone, Dfine, Kojey Radical, Kelz, Chris, Astro, Scooch one, Shucks One "The Idiot" and Tizer
STAY YOUNG! WE ARE FUTURE
Cast
Kojey Radical as QuEST
Sir Mone
Dfine as
Craig MPH
Chris Astro
Scooch 1
Ed Spoons
Shucks
Tizer
Kelz
Special Thanks to Alice Odele; Dovile and QuEST, Palcia patataj
Saturday 13 November 2010
Kid Cudi - Day and Nite video analysis
Kid Cudi “Day and Nite” is modern hip-hop music video that takes reference to 90’s stoner movies with British pop culture styling. Kid Cudi has personified him self as the “lovable stoner” in terms of P.R and this video highlights his character in the public eye. It was directed by French direct So-ME who also directed the popular D.A.N.C.E video by Justice
The video is set in a typical British corner shop with a title that references the name of the song, it combines both performance and narrative and follows Kid Cudi as he works a late shift in a corner shop after smoking narcotics in the back room, during the night Kid Cudi’s hallucinations begin to take form.
As the video begins we are introduced to comedic (possibly improvised) dialogue in which the store manager is shouting at Kid Cudi, the dialogue pokes fun at the popular media confusion of the pronunciation of Kid Cudi’s name; the store manager calls him “boodi” instead of “buddy” because when Kid Cudi first emerged as an artist people referred to him as “coodi” instead of “cuddy”
Once the music begins we see Cudi retreat into the store staff room and reemerge one clip later coughing up smoke to highlight the fact that he had been taking drugs, the consumption of low grade to high grade narcotics are a popular convention of many hip hop videos and opening the video in this way highlights what kind of image Cudi is trying to portray and helps you to understand what kind of video this is.
As well as following the narrative in the store we also see his performance in front of soap detergent boxes called “Cudi Soap Flakes” decorated in the style of “Cillit Bang” cleaning product which is an instantly recognizable reference and brand because the Cillit Bang commercials were very popular close to the time of release of this music video
Throughout the video we also get shots of hallucinated scantily clad women dancing around suggestively, this is a reoccurring visual representation of women in music videos and a classic convention of hip hop music videos.
The video uses a lot of invisible editing but many of the clips are put together in time with the music, the color palette of video matches the upbeat tempo of the song with yellows reds oranges and blues. In terms of costume Kid Cudi is dressed in work uniform to match the mise en scene of video but he always wears a black and green G Shock Watch that doesn’t exactly match his costume but shows individual styling and reference the growing trend and popularity of G-Shock Watches.
As the video continues we get a chance to see what type of character Kid Cudi is and how he’s been marketed with the way we performs and reacts to things in the shop; as this is first Music video distributed to the UK public its important to see how they build up his star image
The hallucinations shown range from humorous to conventional of the genre like a dog
Friday 12 November 2010
Manic Street Preachers – Post cards from a young man, a refreshing and honest reflection of the bands willingness and progression in music arranged into a clear understandable and hauntingly memorable magazine advert and album cover; when editing my own I wanted to incorporate the chilling details that go into making a very well composed Album cover and magazine advert.
The advert is simple, clean cut and has direct clear messages and pieces of information shown through strong bold type face with mild vintage fades to match its old and worn concept and theme, the Manic Street Preachers use a greyscale palette to represent the albums departure from their frequently heavy metal style sound and decided to go for a more radio focused direction
As James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire have described this album as “one last shot at mass communication” it is important for this advert and album to reach out and be visually pleasing to a wider audience; the approach is softer more refined then there past work and even though this album is a follow up to Journal for Plague Lovers the cover work doesn’t follow on from the intense painting style they previously used.
Evaluation of Planning
The song we will be using is of the Hip Hop genre and so we decided to make a video that suited the characteristics of the genre but with changes as well.
We plan to have our actor stand alone in the video performing to the song whilst using props and projected images to link to the lyrics, for example when the artist QuEST says
"Let these stars hit you till you fall and lose your balance like the "Roc boy"
We have decided our actor will hold his hands up over his left eye in the shape of a diamond to represent the Rocafella recording label. This is to create a direct intertextual reference for fans of Hip Hop to enjoy and recognise instantly.
Many Hip Hop videos focus largely on the performer and not the performance and so we will try to do this as well, although we have not neglected the performance.
Our actor will also have three costume changes for each verse, each one hopefully symbolising what the artist is trying to convey through his lyrics whilst also keeping our own twist on the video concept.
As the video progresses we hope to show that our performer is conscious about his image as he changes costume three times in order to stay looking "fresh" and on trend.
We will also have a projector that we will use to place certain images on top of our actor to use as a form of props for example when QuEST says
"Worldwide the scriptures get me spotted on the atlas"
We plan to place a globe on to the actor with an arrow pointed to a certain part of the world in order to symbolise the performer having his place in the world.
As the beat changes in the song we we cut the video to match for example when the chorus plays we will show a kaleidoscope to go with the chilled music during the chorus and hopefully not to confuse the viewer by showing fast paced camera work whilst the music is very slow paced at the time.
We will use plenty of close up shots to get the viewers accustomed to the artist and also to work with the conventions of the Hip Hop genre's music videos as the artists tend to try to show themselves off in their videos.
Our video's main hook will be that our actor will be performing in front of a projector so that a video is playing on top of him and so the viewer will have two different things to watch.
We also plan to reference such Hip Hop videos as "Brooklyn Girls" by Charles Hamilton, in this video Charles Hamilton is seen wearing Monster Beat headphones by Dr. Dre throughout and we plan to do the same thing in our video.
We plan to have our actor stand alone in the video performing to the song whilst using props and projected images to link to the lyrics, for example when the artist QuEST says
"Let these stars hit you till you fall and lose your balance like the "Roc boy"
We have decided our actor will hold his hands up over his left eye in the shape of a diamond to represent the Rocafella recording label. This is to create a direct intertextual reference for fans of Hip Hop to enjoy and recognise instantly.
Many Hip Hop videos focus largely on the performer and not the performance and so we will try to do this as well, although we have not neglected the performance.
Our actor will also have three costume changes for each verse, each one hopefully symbolising what the artist is trying to convey through his lyrics whilst also keeping our own twist on the video concept.
As the video progresses we hope to show that our performer is conscious about his image as he changes costume three times in order to stay looking "fresh" and on trend.
We will also have a projector that we will use to place certain images on top of our actor to use as a form of props for example when QuEST says
"Worldwide the scriptures get me spotted on the atlas"
We plan to place a globe on to the actor with an arrow pointed to a certain part of the world in order to symbolise the performer having his place in the world.
As the beat changes in the song we we cut the video to match for example when the chorus plays we will show a kaleidoscope to go with the chilled music during the chorus and hopefully not to confuse the viewer by showing fast paced camera work whilst the music is very slow paced at the time.
We will use plenty of close up shots to get the viewers accustomed to the artist and also to work with the conventions of the Hip Hop genre's music videos as the artists tend to try to show themselves off in their videos.
Our video's main hook will be that our actor will be performing in front of a projector so that a video is playing on top of him and so the viewer will have two different things to watch.
We also plan to reference such Hip Hop videos as "Brooklyn Girls" by Charles Hamilton, in this video Charles Hamilton is seen wearing Monster Beat headphones by Dr. Dre throughout and we plan to do the same thing in our video.
SAMBA THEORY: RED
Just for good measure we chose to do a 3rd shot of more professional type shots, we wanted the shoot to look like an advert for a clothing brand as well as an album cover or digi-pack prior to editing.
The shoot was inspired by the autumn warmth , bringing action to the earthy colors and vintage styling of this season. The garments were carefully selected and put together to highlight the eye catching red bow tie and Product Red Monsterbeat headphones; Levi tapered denim and a clean cut shirt from the Zara Man collection sits wonderfully underneath the vinatage styled cotton cardigan with elbow patches and hand knitted scarf, the footwear is from supra to give the look more of a trendy edge.e
None of the images below or above have received any digital editing but will receive minor edits later on.
SAMBA - KEY DATES
• On Monday the 18th October Kojo and I spoke to Mr Hitchinson in order to organise using the theatre to film, Tested the projector in the theatre to decide whether we would use it or not. We began to plan for the filming in order to decide how it would work. After school we then took pictures from our initial video shoot and began to edit the first draft.
- Tuesday the 19th October we continued editing of the first draft of the video.
- Thursday the 21st October the editing for the first draft was completed and was uploaded onto YouTube.
- Saturday the 23rd October we held a photo shoot in order to promote the video.
- Wednesday the 27th October Craig and Marcus went out and took pictures of possible locations to use in the final version of the video.
- Monday the 1st November we filmed footage that would be used for the images projected onto our actor in the final video.
- Wednesday 3rd November we began to edit the footage they we planned to project and uploaded it to YouTube once it was completed.
- Thursday 4th November Kojo and I went to collect the props whilst Craig and Marcus set up the filming equipment and projector in the school theatre. As a group we spent the whole day in the theatre filming the final version of our music video. We also filmed a Behind the Scenes video of our filming.
- Friday 5th November we began editing of our final video.
- Monday 8th November to Thursday 11th November Kojo edited the first two verses of our final version of the music video whilst I edited the Behind the Scenes video and uploaded it to YouTube. Craig, Marcus and I then continued editing the final video
- Tuesday the 19th October we continued editing of the first draft of the video.
- Thursday the 21st October the editing for the first draft was completed and was uploaded onto YouTube.
- Saturday the 23rd October we held a photo shoot in order to promote the video.
- Wednesday the 27th October Craig and Marcus went out and took pictures of possible locations to use in the final version of the video.
- Monday the 1st November we filmed footage that would be used for the images projected onto our actor in the final video.
- Wednesday 3rd November we began to edit the footage they we planned to project and uploaded it to YouTube once it was completed.
- Thursday 4th November Kojo and I went to collect the props whilst Craig and Marcus set up the filming equipment and projector in the school theatre. As a group we spent the whole day in the theatre filming the final version of our music video. We also filmed a Behind the Scenes video of our filming.
- Friday 5th November we began editing of our final video.
- Monday 8th November to Thursday 11th November Kojo edited the first two verses of our final version of the music video whilst I edited the Behind the Scenes video and uploaded it to YouTube. Craig, Marcus and I then continued editing the final video
Product Placement
To give our music video a more realistic feel we wanted to use techniques that established music artists in the hip hop music genre may use; after some visual research we discovered that the most popular product that Hip Hop artist use most recently are the new Monster Beat by Dr Dre headphones.
Music video by Charles Hamilton
performing Brooklyn Girls in Monster Beats
Product placement is used as a form of sometimes-subliminal advertisement, but is used very frequently in ads, movies, and music videos; often enough
sponsors of the media in question may ask for their product to be placed within certain scenes for our music video we wanted to make it appear as if the monster beat by Dr Dre headphones are part of our product placement.
Viral Marketing: Testing The Projections
Testing the quality of project, before filming we wanted to make sure our vision could be carried out effectively so we decided to make this comedic viral video to drum up some interest and test out what kind of projector we should use.
After recording this we ran it through imovie, and uploaded to social networking websites for it to be shared to our viewers.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Samba Theory:BLACK (Look 2)
After some market research we discovered our original look was interesting but didn't exactly grab the target audience we wanted
so in this shoot we decided Black is the new everything, we let the garments speak for themselves. Clean cuts and simplistic details. The Jacket was custom made and tailored by House of billiam; Levi tapered denim slid nicely into Nike Air First flights with purple detailing to match the Timex Ironman watch
The images below have no received no editing, and could possibly receive minor tweeks in photoshop later on
The projection video
after much discussion we began to film a second video; we felt the first video didn't have enough direction or quality consistency, we chose a more urban and gritty setting and upgraded the original camera to the 550d as planned. we filmed the whole music video in this setting and I edited the first verse and chorus together on final cut pro then looped it so we can use it as a projection video when film the main bulk of the actual music video.
Samba Theory: Look 1
At this point we wanted to decipher exactly what kind of look we wanted for our artist, we discussed as a group what items of clothing would best communicate the artists style but at the same reflect and mood and tone of the music video. We chose to go for a fitted black blazer with a splash of red accenting, to match the in season nautical style striped long sleeve t-shirt and finish it of with some cream chino's and geek style clear glasses, we chose this look as we wanted our artists to be different but relatable; we thought we'd market our artist as a little more then "the average joe" but give a unique style that fans could identify with.
Video Analysis
Alien Ant Farm :- Movies
The band Alien Ant Farm are well known for their quick pace, quirky and interesting videos that often reference popular culture, the music video titled “Movies” is no different, and follows similar pattern.
The whole video is set in a movie theater, although the video uses slight narrative most of the video is performance based which is a common convention of the rock genre. The band sit in the front row of the theater which is displayed with a wide shot from the front to show a packed room. The lead singer of the band jumps into the screen closely followed by the other band members and they begin to perform to the cinema audience on the cinema screen while parodying/referencing iconic movies from the last few decades.
The theater is introduced right at the beginning of the video which gives the viewer a direct correlation between the title of song and the direction of the video, after the group dive into the screen and start to perform we see the audience start to jump up and start moshing which is a distinct reaction and style of dance in most rock genre videos. The first performance the band give doesn't reference any movie in particular but is performed in a way that seems to parody the bands performance style; the video is fast paced and has a high energy which follows the pace and mood set by the song its self.
In the following performance we see a tribute to the ghostbusters movie (1984, directed by Ivan Reitman) , with the band dancing and performing in full ghostbuster costume. They fire beams from their guitars with effects borrowed from the original movie; in between the references we get shots audience reactions to whats happening on screen and scenes from the original performance scene. Many of the audience characters are dressed to parody American teenage movie character stereotypes of the time ( Cheerleaders, Rocker kids, Emo kids, Ditsy blond etc). The music video also chooses to reference Mel Stuart's Willy Wonker & and Chocolate Factory (1971) ; Alien Ant Farm are dressed up like oompa loompa's, popular and memorable characters from the original movie. During this section of the video we also see another reference to the Movie Willy Wonker were an audience member begins to expand similar to the character violet who transforms into a giant blueberry.
The biggest and most memorable tribute from the video is the karate kid scene which happens in the middle of the video, which takes a break from the performance based conventions and breaks into dialogue similar to the original movie in which we get a cameo from Noriyuki "Pat" Morita a lead actor from the movie and pop culture icon which provides an interesting talking point which may lead more people to watch the video.
After this cameo, the performance from alien ant farm begins again. The video follows similar pattern, giving Edward scissor hands a minor tribute shortly after, towards the end of the song we see the audience run into the screen and join alien ant farm in performing and dancing.
A lot of attention was paid to the mise en scene, using a high amount of detail when it come to creating the tributes. The scenes were highly decorated with movie memorabilia, right down to the instruments the band played; for example in the Willy Wonker scene the band played instruments made from candy and used candy canes as drum sticks. In the Ghostbusters scene the band played in a library similar to the one from the movie, while using a similar color pallet that would make the reference instantly recognizable.
Casting for the video was also well down, the video used a lot of reaction shots that require a decent level of acting from the actors.
The video also used a lot of special effects, the 3d effect was the most memorable. In some scenes the band let parts of their instruments or body emerge from the screen towards the audience which has become a particular convention of most movies that hit the box office in the 21st century. The band even referenced them selfs in the Edwards Scissorhands tribute. A giant pair of scissors emerge from the screen and start to cut the words AAF into an audience members head.
The video didn't venture too far away from Alien Ant Farm's past video in terms performance; the band is known for there outlandish dancing and random body movements like in their video prior to this “smooth criminal”
The video has over 2 million views on the Internet which could be due to all the intertextual references used in the video that may make the viewers want to re watch and spot some of the more minor details used or even re live some of there favorite scenes that may caused moments of nostalgia
THE SAMBA THELONIOUS THEORY LYRICS
Hello my ladies, Hello my fellas
Lets get this money
Ayyy
Q and thelonious (uh uh)
We owning this (uh)
Like you aint knowing this!
So let these stars hit you
Till you fall and lose your balance
Like the roc boy ,mmmm
I open up my mouth
And come out fresher
Than an altoy
That rap shit
Giant pain and silence
Kill that wack sh*t
That 20 pounds of composition
Books up on your mac sh*t
World wide the scriptures
Get me spotted on the atlas
Banging beats
And placing minor competitions in a casket
Dodging traffic, please
You couldn’t hang a rope on oak trees
Reasons why I keep my standards
Higher than a nose bleed,
Higher than a hippy in the 60’s,
Smoking dope weed,
Higher than a Sixer,
Calvin Mercer and his colleagues,
Higher then Pacino sniffin' soda
Watching Low Bleed,
Admire verbal essence as I proceed,
Please just let me breathe.
Hello my ladies, Hello my fellas
Lets get this money
Ayyy
Q and thelonious (uh uh)
We owning this (uh)
Like you aint knowing this!
Im tryna get that Irv Gotti money
Back when rule was sporting head bands,
And dudes shouted murder like they slipped
And see a dead man,
Guess I gotta walk through muddy waters like I’m Red Man
Tryna keep my balance like a headstand,
Come up out that swamp without a stain obtain my land and chuck a deuce up,
Running into strangers who convinced themselves they knew us,
Interviewers interview us,
Staring at the reporters,
Like we basic and oblivious
To shit they try and throw us,
And we laugh,
Chuckles to the mattress with the knife cuts,
Glancing at the models with the nice buts,
Who like us,
Precise cus’,
Fade into the 97’ escort,
Word to my barber,
Cut the check though,
Please just let me breathe.
Hello my ladies, Hello my fellas
Lets get this money
Ayyy
Q and thelonious (uh uh)
We owning this (eh)
Like you aint knowing this!
Time is of the essence
So I always count my blessings
More than mishaps,Rappers still complaining out whats wack inside
Their chit chat,
Acting how a b*tch acts,
Makes me wanna quit rap,
Like Christian Ward did,When Maino hit him with that bitch slap,
Clown face crying through the smiles I tend to force now,
Hoping I don’t run into the act of being brought down,
Notoriety has got me questioning my self worth,
Guess I’m in the state ere all my thoughts are drawn from hell first,
But,
Lessons of living got driven like the artist acts,
Keep a steady hand,
When facing drama,
Calling all the shots,
Homie its hard as rock,
Rolling on a honest block,
Hoping that them liars never breed,
Please just let me breathe.
Lets get this money
Ayyy
Q and thelonious (uh uh)
We owning this (uh)
Like you aint knowing this!
So let these stars hit you
Till you fall and lose your balance
Like the roc boy ,mmmm
I open up my mouth
And come out fresher
Than an altoy
That rap shit
Giant pain and silence
Kill that wack sh*t
That 20 pounds of composition
Books up on your mac sh*t
World wide the scriptures
Get me spotted on the atlas
Banging beats
And placing minor competitions in a casket
Dodging traffic, please
You couldn’t hang a rope on oak trees
Reasons why I keep my standards
Higher than a nose bleed,
Higher than a hippy in the 60’s,
Smoking dope weed,
Higher than a Sixer,
Calvin Mercer and his colleagues,
Higher then Pacino sniffin' soda
Watching Low Bleed,
Admire verbal essence as I proceed,
Please just let me breathe.
Hello my ladies, Hello my fellas
Lets get this money
Ayyy
Q and thelonious (uh uh)
We owning this (uh)
Like you aint knowing this!
Im tryna get that Irv Gotti money
Back when rule was sporting head bands,
And dudes shouted murder like they slipped
And see a dead man,
Guess I gotta walk through muddy waters like I’m Red Man
Tryna keep my balance like a headstand,
Come up out that swamp without a stain obtain my land and chuck a deuce up,
Running into strangers who convinced themselves they knew us,
Interviewers interview us,
Staring at the reporters,
Like we basic and oblivious
To shit they try and throw us,
And we laugh,
Chuckles to the mattress with the knife cuts,
Glancing at the models with the nice buts,
Who like us,
Precise cus’,
Fade into the 97’ escort,
Word to my barber,
Cut the check though,
Please just let me breathe.
Hello my ladies, Hello my fellas
Lets get this money
Ayyy
Q and thelonious (uh uh)
We owning this (eh)
Like you aint knowing this!
Time is of the essence
So I always count my blessings
More than mishaps,Rappers still complaining out whats wack inside
Their chit chat,
Acting how a b*tch acts,
Makes me wanna quit rap,
Like Christian Ward did,When Maino hit him with that bitch slap,
Clown face crying through the smiles I tend to force now,
Hoping I don’t run into the act of being brought down,
Notoriety has got me questioning my self worth,
Guess I’m in the state ere all my thoughts are drawn from hell first,
But,
Lessons of living got driven like the artist acts,
Keep a steady hand,
When facing drama,
Calling all the shots,
Homie its hard as rock,
Rolling on a honest block,
Hoping that them liars never breed,
Please just let me breathe.
THE PITCH
The song presented is a melodic feel good jazz inspired hip hop song from young rapper Quest and producer Thelonious with a quick pace witty lyrics and nostalgic sampling.
The mood of song takes you back to memorable moments in music without being a full-blown history lesson; easing in listener as the song proceeds
We feel with the direction of the video should keep up with the tone mood of the song, making it almost visually nostalgic without being overdone; the style of the beat is reminiscent of a classic J-dilla song from the mid 90’s. Listening to the track you can hear classic piano sampling colliding audibly with a 60 – 90 bpm
The song builds up gradually with lyrical content and then occasionally interjects with a old jazz sample which could be reflected in the visuals
In terms of directive styling we researched the work of Quest’s past videos and also the work of new creative directing teams like “creative control” While at the same time looking at concepts presented by other directors like Sanaa Hamri and BLKDMNDS. We enjoyed the pacing and styling of their videos and wish to implicate this in our videos.
We noticed in these videos the director used quick paced edits and a number of focusing and lighting techniques which the direction we’d like to take our video in.
We want to give the Artist, Quest a clear-cut image of a young witty rapper who’s creative and artistic direction coincides with his the direction of music when it comes to his styling and direction of his video.
For this video we want address the topics raised in to the video by the artist via video projection on to the artist him self as he narrates this through the lyrics. We plan to shoot a video in the style of the directors referenced and then project the video on to the artist and rerecord, similar to the techniques used by the band THE XX on the song Crystallized. We’ll include quirky costume changes and clever props that will help communicate things sighted in the lyrics.
The song opens up with a skipping sample and a Mario sound effect, we want to reference this visually On the projection we have an short clip of The video game character Mario jumping into a pipe Following this, the main star of the video jumps up into the scene as if he is emerging from the Mario pipe.
Once this is over, the performance beings; introducing the concept of video. A projection is played on to the stars face as he beings to narrate the lyrics of the song, also we’ll introduce the props for example
“hello my ladies” – The artist would pull out a Barbie doll and throw it away before pulling out a ken doll on the line “hello my fellas” . This would act as an intertextual reference to the rap stars Nikki Minaj and Drake and their Barbie and Ken like personification. For references to money we’d use monopoly money and make it rain down from the sky like the typical convention of many Hip Hop videos; while the rapper continues to narrate and perform, we’ll more visual representations of his lyrics on the project while at the same time allowing him to interact with the things projected. In between verses costume changes will occur
In verse one – The artist talks about him self and how cool he is so we want to reflect this in his costume; dressing him in key brand names that are considered “cool” in hip hop media
In verse two – the artist talks about money and how much he wants to get in his career; so to help reflect this we plan to dress him in more formal attire. Blazer, white shirt maybe even a red bow tie.
In verse three – he talks about the state of hip-hop, and how he feels about it so we considered in old school hip hop attire from the early 90’s
Both videos will be filmed on a Cannon 500D and edited on Imovie and Final Cut pro
The mood of song takes you back to memorable moments in music without being a full-blown history lesson; easing in listener as the song proceeds
We feel with the direction of the video should keep up with the tone mood of the song, making it almost visually nostalgic without being overdone; the style of the beat is reminiscent of a classic J-dilla song from the mid 90’s. Listening to the track you can hear classic piano sampling colliding audibly with a 60 – 90 bpm
The song builds up gradually with lyrical content and then occasionally interjects with a old jazz sample which could be reflected in the visuals
In terms of directive styling we researched the work of Quest’s past videos and also the work of new creative directing teams like “creative control” While at the same time looking at concepts presented by other directors like Sanaa Hamri and BLKDMNDS. We enjoyed the pacing and styling of their videos and wish to implicate this in our videos.
We noticed in these videos the director used quick paced edits and a number of focusing and lighting techniques which the direction we’d like to take our video in.
We want to give the Artist, Quest a clear-cut image of a young witty rapper who’s creative and artistic direction coincides with his the direction of music when it comes to his styling and direction of his video.
For this video we want address the topics raised in to the video by the artist via video projection on to the artist him self as he narrates this through the lyrics. We plan to shoot a video in the style of the directors referenced and then project the video on to the artist and rerecord, similar to the techniques used by the band THE XX on the song Crystallized. We’ll include quirky costume changes and clever props that will help communicate things sighted in the lyrics.
The song opens up with a skipping sample and a Mario sound effect, we want to reference this visually On the projection we have an short clip of The video game character Mario jumping into a pipe Following this, the main star of the video jumps up into the scene as if he is emerging from the Mario pipe.
Once this is over, the performance beings; introducing the concept of video. A projection is played on to the stars face as he beings to narrate the lyrics of the song, also we’ll introduce the props for example
“hello my ladies” – The artist would pull out a Barbie doll and throw it away before pulling out a ken doll on the line “hello my fellas” . This would act as an intertextual reference to the rap stars Nikki Minaj and Drake and their Barbie and Ken like personification. For references to money we’d use monopoly money and make it rain down from the sky like the typical convention of many Hip Hop videos; while the rapper continues to narrate and perform, we’ll more visual representations of his lyrics on the project while at the same time allowing him to interact with the things projected. In between verses costume changes will occur
In verse one – The artist talks about him self and how cool he is so we want to reflect this in his costume; dressing him in key brand names that are considered “cool” in hip hop media
In verse two – the artist talks about money and how much he wants to get in his career; so to help reflect this we plan to dress him in more formal attire. Blazer, white shirt maybe even a red bow tie.
In verse three – he talks about the state of hip-hop, and how he feels about it so we considered in old school hip hop attire from the early 90’s
Both videos will be filmed on a Cannon 500D and edited on Imovie and Final Cut pro
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