5. Tinie Tempah- Frisky

15. Conventions of a garage music video

- From the research I have attained, and the garage music videos I have studied, here is my list of the conventions of a typical contemporary garage video:
- Lip syncing- usually to rapping
- Long shots of the dancers if
- Change of costume- usually hoodies, and a lot of black
- A huge variety of shots to correspond with the fast beat
- If the arist is female, 'moment of pleasure' artist may have eye contact with the camera
- Perhaps a narrative but most videos are set in a black underground setting
- Montage editing
- Match on action
- Concept
- Cuts are usually on the beat
- Moving camera to enhance any movement in the footage
- Muted footage
- Cutaways
- Close up of the singers/rappers face
- Point of view shots
- Shaky camera to make the dancing seem more lively
- Music video will always feel dynamic throuh the overlaying of images
- Anything is possible in the video
- A strange conceps- unreal concept that could never happen in real life

16. Album covers

Here are three album covers from the garage genre. I have analysed the mise en scene and am trying to find similarities and differences, and what they all have as a common trait.

1. So Solid Crew- 'They don't know' album :


2. Pure garage


3. Garage classics


Based on the research I have done, it is clear that these Garage album covers share similar conventions but at the same time fall into two groups:

The archtype of a garage album will have no image, but will instead connote the genre with the bold colours and writing. These are effective as they are conspicuous and create the impression that the CD will include many different artists and will not just focus on the one

The other type of garage album seems to focus on the 'sexy' image by using half nude girls to advertise the CD. These girls always seem to be in a tropical setting even though most garage is derived from the UK. Therefore it seems that the artists use these girls in order to connote a sense of wealth and materialism.

These CD covers have influenced me as I have to follow the conventions of my CD cover, however I have decided to use the 1st catagory as I don't feel like the 'sexy' image looks typical to the Garage culture, to me, it more so looks like American RNB.

I will take away the bold writing and colours from these CD'S and use them to draft my ideas for my own.

17. Record label research

Here is some research on three record labels from the genre of UK garage.

1. Bingo Beats:

Bingo beats is DJ zinc's record label created specifically to deliver premier league music from selected artists across the globe. In particular, garage artists. The label is based in East London and has been on the go since 2000 an is still alive today.

Here is example of some beats that are available to buy:
Sigma - All blue (Bingo)
Culture Shock - Quiz Night (Ram)
Sigma - High top (Dub)
Dkay - Waxd rmx (Metalheadz)
Hazard - Busted (True Playaz)
Taxman - Moonraker (Propaganda)
Digital + Spirit - Phatom force (T Power Rmx)
Sigma - Ragtime (Dub)
Commix - Satellite vip (Metalheadz)
Cyantific - Outer limits (Critical)

2. Profilic Recording:

Profilic Recoding is based in Leicester. They will be some new audio during the course of this year and can be followed up on We Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace for up-to-date news and goings on. The selection of garage beats available is said to 'keep underground dancefloors bumping until the early hours'. Here are different beats that Profilic Recoding provide:
- The Volcano Riddim kicks things off with dramatic strings and a speaker rattling bassline.
- The Thekla Riddim goes down a wobbly, almost techy route whilst The Flux Riddim sees more strings and thumping bass take the boom factor up to 11.
- The Phoenix Riddim closes the EP in style with a rising, jumping bass workout.

Profilic Recording is a very popular record label, with over 80’000 combined hits on youtube and while in clubs there’s been continued support from dubstep’s biggest names including Skream, Benga and Toddla T, that underground momentum has now developed into Radio 1 plays from Zane Lowe, Annie Mac and Fabio and Grooverider.

3. Polydor
Polydor Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group and is currently headquartered in the UK.Polydor Records was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. It was first used, as an export label, in 1924. Deutsche Grammophon claimed the rights to the His Master's Voice trademark for Germany, where HMV recordings were released under the Electrola trademark.

18. Audience Research

Below is an example for a questionaire which I asked 10 people of all demographics to fill out. I did this so that I could learn what people think about the garage culture, and what the expectations are:

19. Questionaire results

Here are the results for the questionaire I posted above. I have converted them into a chart to make it visually easier to read:

It is clear from the results that there are a lot of people who indeed listen to the garage genre, which indicated that to produce a video for that genre will be a good idea. And I was not supreised to find out that 60% of my interviewees believed that this was to do with age. Garage is a very youthdul genre of music and usially is exhibited by young artists such as Tinie Tempah, who started out in his early teens. There was also no suprises when I found out that most people would visualise a garage artist in black hoodies, or some sort of obscuring clothing. Based on the research I attained, I also found the same thing; most garage artsits would wear black to connote their urban interests. I was, however suprised to find out that most people would expect a lot of people to be in a garage music video. This has been proved true by some music videos, however I believe that a garage music video could still meet the conventions without the crowd. Finally, the theme of violence seems to be pervasive in the garage genre. I have decided to break this convention as I feel that it is innapropriate and a garage video with a good concept would be suitable.

PLANNING-1. Initial Ideas

I have now been put in a group and will be making a promnotional package with Wesley Jury and Charlotte Puddy. We have completed a huge amount of research into what the conventions of a music video are and the conventions of a garage music video and are now going to proceed with polanning fro our garage music promo. We have chosen our song, "The boy is mine" remix by Brandy and Monica and are now trying to come up with a possible concept for our music video. One idea is to use a greenscreen for some of our shots and have the screen split in black and white. This would convey the difference between these girls.However at this point in time we still need to decide on costume and a clear plot to guide the music video. I have included a blog on this site which describes how 'Wile Out' by Ms Dynamite has influenced my music video, and how the certain concepts of her music video will be utilised in my music promo.

2. Roles in the group

Gabrielle- Director- in charge of scheduling filming and big decisions.
Wesley- Cinematography- in charge of the camera, filming and capturing the cinematographical frames.
Charlotte- Actress/Artist- The artist in trhe music video, the actress

We are all responsible for planning equally and ensuring we all have an input, the poster for our promotional package and the CD cover.

3. Technical support

To broaden our knowledge of the technicl aspects of making a music video, we participated in a workshop to get us familiar with technological machinery such as cameras and photoshop. We first of all went off in our group with a digital camera and took pictures of still objects but used our cinematographical knowledge to make them appear more interesting than they were- for example we thought about framing, camera angles and lighting. This was helpful as we were enabled to see the differences between an average long shot which shows the whole object, to a close/low angle shot which both made the object appear bigger than it was, and obscured information from us as we were unable to see the majority of it.
Here are some pictures of the shots we took:

We then had a lesson where we experimented on photoshop. We took some pictures of eachother in turn and we uploaded them to photoshop. We then experiemented with layering, colour and texture to basicly airbrush the images that we had and to give them a different sense of appeal.
Here are some exapmles of pictures we took:

Here are the photos we prosessed on photoshop:

We also used final cut express to make a trial music video. This was helpful as we were able to practice lip syncing and try out the greenscreen.

4/5 Song choice

The song that we have chosen to take foward and to produce a promotional package for is 'The boy is mine' by Brandy and Monica. It was written by LaShawn Daniels and Fred Jerkins and released as the lead single quater of 1998. The song's lyrics tell the story of two women fighting over one man, and my group thought that it would be a really effective concept to shape our music video on. The general idea of our music video is two girls confronting eachother at a party where they see the boy they both are infatuated with. Here are the lyrics with ideas for our concept:

The first 4 seconds is slow motion footage of people dancing at a party.
The 30 seconds after is purely drums. We decided to use a montage of shots to convey time. This includes people people walking, sped up footage of cars speeding down a road, sped up footage of the clouds drifting across the sky, a girl putting lipgloss on ready for a party, and most importantly, two pairs of feet, our main characters walking in opposing directions to the sound of the music. The last shot would be split screened and showing their feet walking in a building with lights.

There is then a sound effect in the track that sounds like it has been rewinded. This lasts for about 1 second. At this point it would be effective to rewind the feet going into the building then even faster, rewind the feet walking back to a black screen.

Why' d you do the things you do X20.

At this stage, the two girls are in different settings, and are getting ready for the party. They are putting on different coloured makeup, doing their hair very different hairstyles and perform to show their different personalities. The girls are lip syncing at this point.

Brandy: This verse will be Brandy, who is the 'sweet girl, the more femenine girl out of the two. Her lip syncing at this point is very humbly and sweetly two her reflection in the mirror.
I think it's time we got this straight
Let's sit and talk face to face
There is no way you could mistake
Him (a shot of the boy in the photoframe) for your man are you insane

Monica: Monica on the other hand is the more aggressive singer and she would be putting on heavy eyeliner and would haver more of an attitude.
You see I know that you may be
Just be jealous of me - directly to the camera lip syncing
Cuz you're blind if you can't see
That his love is all in me
At this point I would want to include the green screen and have a close up of Brandy's face lip syncing to the left in the space. The actress would be infront of a white screen to connote innocence.
Brandy:
You see I tried to hesitate
I didn't wanna say what they told me
He said without me he couldn't make
It through the day ain't that a shame
Same as for Brandy, I would use the same shot for Monica but this time over black.
Monica:
Maybe you misunderstood
Cause I can't see how he could
Wanna change something that's so good
But my love is all it took
This is the chorus, and all good music videos have a change in atmosphere through lighting, costume and pace to distinguish the chorus so we would change the setting and the time to the day before, and both girls are in daylight, battling it out.
Both:
You need to give it up
Had about enough
It's not hard to see
The boy is mine
I'm sorry that you
Seem to be confused
He belongs to me
The boy is mine
Here i think it would still be effective and use the greenscreen but to also have shots of the boy in the middle lookind distressed has he doesn't know what girl to choose.
Monica:
Must you do the things you do
You keep on acting like a fool
You need to know it's me not you
And if you didn't know it girl it's true
The girls here are also becoming more hysterical over the boy and there are a lot of shots of the boy in a picture on a phone, in a photo album, in a heart pendant.
Brandy:
I think that you should realize
And try to understand why
He is a part of my life
I know it's killing you inside
Brandy and Monica convey stress over this boy. They are back to their different settings and are getting ready to leave for this party. They are walking down the road hysterically ready to fight over their crush at the party.
Both: X2
You need to give it up
Had about enough
It's not hard to see
The boy is mine
I'm sorry that you
Seem to be confused
He belongs to me
The boy is mine

The party scene. And the confrontation between the two girls.

As this song already has a video, we are going to do the remix which is the garage version of this song. We therefore have to make a video which has the conventional elements of a garage video. here is the garage remix for the song:





It is clear from the lyrics of the song, that Monica is more dominant than Brandy. Therefore I would want Brandy to be portrayed as th emore innocent of the two, then Monica to be portrayed in a more aggressive way.

6. Image Concept

Our music video features two different girls who are fighting over 1 boy. We have already selected our two girls:

1. Anfel Sali
2. Emma Burns.

and the boy in the middle:
Nordine.

We have decided that Angel, who is to play Brandy, will play the sweet innocent girl and will therefore wear pinks and have femenine makeup. However we still need to incorperate the garage look so therefore have to make her appear 'urban aswell. I have therefore likened her to Alicia Keys where she in some cases looks urban/femenine. Here are some pictures for Brandys image:



Here are some pictures for Monica's hash 'in your face image:






So the actresses for Brandy and Monica will be completely different from one another and this will be shown through the mise en scene and performance in the music video.

8. Concept.

1. There is a slow motion shot of a party scene which is heavily influenced by Ms Dynamite's Wile Out. (screenshot)
2. The urban atmosphere is set through the use of fast and vibrant shots. These shots connote setting, and also inform us that there are two girls involved in the music video.
3. There is a brief rewind of footage and we are introduced to the two girls, Brandy and Monica. The girls are getting ready in their two different environments to go to this party.
4. The girls argue in an outdoor setting to convey that they are really infatuated with this boy.
5. There are shots of the boy appearing very distressed and confused as he doesn't know which girl to choose.
6. Back to the part scene, the girls are all dressed up, ready to get to the party to confront eachother once more with this boy.
7. Cliffhanger ending.

Here is the video for 'The boy is mine' original where some of our concept derived from.



Our music video is going to be different from th eoriginal as the garage genre will determine a different mise en scene and cinematography. Additionally, there will be a sharp contrast between the girls. In the original, there isn't a difference on contrast at all.

Here is the video for 'Wile Out' by Ms Dynamite- the garage vibe, some of the costume and make up and the party atmosphere is heavily influenced by her video:

9. Storyboards

10. List of props, makeup and equipment.

Locations-
PDH
A field/park
Bedroom
Girls Toilets
Street

Costumes-
Brandy- outfit number1 pink lipgloss, jeans, pink top. Outfit number2- red dress, makeup and curly hair.
Monica- outfit number 1- dark eye makeup, jeans, black boots, hooped earrings. Outfit number 2- dark, glittery makeup, hooped earrings, animal print dress, boots.
The boy - casual clothes, jeans.

Props
A mobile phone
A watch
Lipgloss/make up bag.

Here is some pictures which illustrate my vision for makeup. I believe that this will be a crucial element to convey their different personalities.

Emma (Monica) would be wearing very dark and smokey eye makeup to portray that she is promiscuous and determined to get what she wants. The image here illustrates how I would want her eyes to look. The smokey eyeshadow gives her a very 'sensual' image and would work well with the leather clad look she will be wearing.

On the other hand, Angel (Brandy) being the love struck, innocent and stereotypical girl she is, will be the complete opposite. Her makeup will be slightly nude and rosy to convey her innocence and naive nature. As you can see in the picture, the pink eyeshadow gives her eyes a soft glow, as does the soft blusher. The lipgloss will make her appear as if she is really trying to make an impression for the boy she is in love with, therefore she should inhabit a sense of pathos in the viewer of the music video as she simply isn't as strong as her rival.

11. Location shots

Girls toilets.

1. We are going to use the girls toilets as a setting when girls are putting their make up on.






Street at night
2. I believe that at street a night time would be an effective place to film as we could then use night mode to bring out the gir's features, giving it an urban effect.




3. Picture of a park

I don't actually want to show a park, but i more so want to use low angle shots here so the girls are against the sky. I could then speed the sky up to indicate that these girls are always arguing.

Here is another picture of the sky to illustrate my point:

4. PDH

This, with lighting is the setting for our party




5. Here is a wallpaper I found of an American skyline, I want to use this 'urban ideas in my digipak:

6. Bedroom

We could use two bedrooms to show the girls getting ready to go out. The bedroom would be different colours and show the different personalities.

12. Shooting schedule

Here is a shooting schedule. This is very important as it will determine where we can film and when:

13. CD cover designs

Here are some CD cover ideas that I have created. It is important that the CD cover represents everything the music video has to offer so I came up with three ideas to decide from.



i have decided to use the first design as it is simple, and it looks a lot like the typical CD designs for garage music. I took my inspiration from garage CD at this website: http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=8863

Here are some existing albums which share the same conventions as my 1st CD cover.

14. Advert Designs

Here are my drafts for an advert design.


This is effective as the design is bold and also corresponds with the CD design. The contrast in colour is similar to the design for the Japaneese yin yan, which is where i took my inspiration from.


Here is a picture I found on the internet which literally represents my idea of dichotemy:



Here are some examples of Ms Dynamite's advert designs. They are similar to my design in the sense that they feature a person or people, however they are different as my design is merely a silhouette of two people and you can't see any features:

FONT:

Font is a another mode used to illustrate genre of music.

As you can see in the first poster

above, Ms Dynamite has decided to go against the conventions of urban music by using very pink and feminine handwriting; the swirls and the italics. Perhaps, like Jay Z, she is trying to make a statement and show the world that she is not all the hard image she puts across, but there is a soft side to her nature that she wants to portray through her music also.

Even though CONTRAST as a duo are two different people, one being softer than the other, I have decided to still convey the urban theme through font by using a bold style. The reason being that many Garage albums I have come across focus on the writing, more than they focus on the image as the example conveys. I don't want to use the same font as this however, to show that there is

something starkly different between the girls, I have decided to use a really basic and blunt font to convey the simplicity of Yin Yan- black and white.

This font is called 'Gunplay' and has a very harsh affect regardless of what it is writing. It gives off an almost military and corporate feel and lacks emotion. I want to use this as it is a deliberate juxtaposition to the emotion in the song. It is also very familiar to jay Z's idea of 'back to basics' which he illustrated in his new album 'The blueprint III' where he used the basic form of human language to write the original form of the number '3'. This was to convey that he was going back to basics and stripping everything down; image and wealth, to convey what he

loves, music.