2. This still advocates our main theme in our
video, Basketball. Basketball is a theme used frequently in
music videos, particularly Rap/Hip Hop videos, therefore
we knew it would fit perfectly. Due to previous research we
made, we were made aware that Jay Z, the artist we were
portraying, was a huge fan of the sport. This helped
determine whether to focus our video on this as we did not
want to choose a completely random, irrelevant subject.
We carried on the black and white filter throughout our
video, and also for our digipack and magazine cover.
We also included numerous crowd shots in our
video, shot by a member of our group. This
created an authentic concert feel, giving off a
fun, energetic vibe. Shots of the crowd are often
included in many music videos, such as Green
Days video for ‘Kill the DJ’. These sort of clips
always make the video seem more
genuine, thus by using them, portray the artist
as honest and down to earth.
3. We chose to include lyrics over some shots as after
researching many videos, we spotted it in Kanye
Wests video for ‘Good Life’. We felt this worked really
well and enhanced the lyrics as it allowed the
audience to grasp them more. In addition to this, we
only used capital letters for all lyrics, as this made
them stand out more and seem bolder. We continued
this onto the digipack and magazine cover to ensure
they all continuously flowed on from one
another, rather than using a mix of lowercase and
uppercase, which could look unprofessional and
rushed.
This still shows our use of the green screen, in
which we used a picture of an American bridge.
This helped signify the American theme we were
also following, as not only did we name the
album ‘Made in America’, we also were keen to
support our artists (Jay Z) origins. We felt this
choice of image really helped support our
American theme and to endorse this, we were
given a variety of feedback comments on this
particular part, the majority very positive. This
helped us understand the audiences desires for
a music video, therefore we chose to include
various other green screen bits.
4. Another recognisable sign that Jay Z uses is
the ‘Illuminati’ hand gesture. We chose to
include this in our video as the audience may
relate more having seen it used by Jay Z.
This supports the amount of research we have
undertaken, and shows how we precariously fit
our video around our artist.
This still shows our use of split screen in our video.
This demonstrates higher quality editing
skills, something we aimed for to ensure our video
came across as professional. We also used it in a
way where the artist contrasts the crowd.
Another great example of split screen use is Michael
Jacksons video for 'Billie Jean'. As Michael Jackson
is an extremely well known star in the music
industry, by using the same style of editing
demonstrates thorough research.
5. The image above shows our magazine cover,
advertising our album. After researching Jay Z's
previous posters, it became apparent that he
aimed for a serious ambience, eg. the serious
facial expressions. Therefore we used the
image of Harlie with no expression. Continuing
on with the black and white theme was a
convention we found Jay Z using as well. Also
above is an example of an official Jay Z
magazine cover. In addition to this, it is evident
Jay Z has chosen to inject a small amount of
colour, which is something we felt worked well a
contrasting with the black and white.
For our DigiPack, we followed Rap/Hip Hop generic
conventions for an album cover for instance the quote.
Many artists nowadays rely heavily on portraying
themselves as knowledgeable and sagacious. We also
included many images from New York, the origins of our
performer. These allow the audience to understand the
performers background, more so than not including them.
Another powerful image we used was the top left, where
Harlies face is concealed. This follows a theme of
identity, where we attempted to get the point across that
the album and lyrics should be enough to get the
audience enthralled rather than having to show his face.
6. In one part of our video we included authentic
footage from Jay Z’s concert. Here is a still
showing one fan dancing in the crowd, by
including this depicts our performer as down to
earth, as he clearly enthralls his fans. Moreover, it
also presents him as close with his fan base as
they are happy to get into the fun, energetic
mood.
In many Rap/Hip Hop videos, clips of the
audience are included. In my opinion, this worked
very well, as it always suggests a good
relationship between the performer and fans.
Finally, we chose to create a ‘night life’, ‘urban’
feel, and by using dark and light spotlights we
created this. This worked well at generating a
generic New York night time feel, as below is
an image we attempted to replicate. As the
image below used colours, and we followed a
black and white theme, we focused only on
these colours.
