Kian devine proposes three ideas for music videos interpreting the song "All the Stars" by Kendrick Lamar. The first idea takes influence from contrasting light music videos and features an urban skyline with neon colors and timelapses without actors. The second focuses on a single actor walking with symbolic meaning correlated to lyrics. The third features an urban setting with special effects to feel unrealistic. Kian analyzes strengths and weaknesses of the ideas and chooses the first idea, describing using slow moving shots, closeups, and editing to the beat to focus on surroundings and create an open narrative.

1. Initial Plans
Kian devine

2. Idea Generation
• Select a song/track that you like [or don’t like!]
• Generate three ideas for music videos employing styles, techniques
and conventions that we have looked at in previous sessions. Explore
how you could interpret the song differently using different methods
• You can add any extra info you think is relevant, images, mind maps,
etc
• For quick mind maps you could use bubbl.us to generate these

3. Remember…

4. Idea one
• I will create an urban music video, and will take heavy influence from contrasting
light in music videos such as “all the stars” by Kendrick Lamar and “stronger” by
Kanye west. The song I would use is “all the stars” as the slow beat and calming
tone would go well with an urban skyline. This will go well with an “aesthetic”
and abstract look as my music video would want a relaxing calm atmosphere to
it. I am wanting to include many time lapses also to create an overarching story
for the videos. The colors I would mainly use are bright neon colors but very
sparsely as I think it'd suite the atmosphere more. An idea is to also have nobody
actually in the music video and just to focus on the scenery and and the
surrounding environment. Focusing on the contrast between urban and rural life
would be an interesting thing to look at but keeping an open story and letting
viewers have their own interpretation of the story and meaning lets the viewer
feel involved and invested into the music video

5. Idea two
• My second video would be to focus on simplicity and a single actor,
walking down a straight path, with a hidden symbolic meaning that
correlates to the lyrics. I will use “all the stars” again for this idea.
This style of music video would take heavy influence from music
videos such as “feels like summer” with its sole focus on the main
actor, but with things happening on the borders of the screen, out of
the viewers concentration, so they don’t take much notice of it. This
will feature a dark colour scheme such as my first idea but I also plan
on having slightly more light in my shots on this idea as it has more
visuals to look at than the first idea. Trying to make sure the viewer is
entertained in this type of music video is key as certain music videos
in this style can like personality and not divert the viewers attention
to the areas needed.

6. Idea three
• For my third idea, I will another abstract idea by having a relatable
and realistic, urban setting and a classic style of music video such as
asap rocky’s “praise the lord” but have heavy special effects to feel
unrealistic and cartoonish. Aa few mainsteam hip hop artists do this
style of music video to stand out and show their unique side. Such
music videos as “sicko mode” do this very well by having outlandish
effects that connect scenes together which makes the music video
feel smooth despite the effects. The shots that will feature are plenty
of mid shots with multiple people in and a few closeups of the main
actor in typical situations of an urban lifestyle such as maybe in a
takeaway or getting a bus. The colour will be fairly lifeless and tonal,
with a few contrasting bright colours to get the viewers attention on
certain areas.

7. Mind map of ideas
[summary of ideas]

8. Summary
• 5 strengths of your ideas you could use
• .my ideas are all different and give me lots of points of views for different interpretations for a music
video
• None of my ideas are boring and not fleshed out enough, they have sufficient detail
• all of my ideas have substance and a reason to use them, I included reasoning behind all my choices and
showed where they were past used and the how well it worked
• All my ideas came from research and music that I personally enjoy and have an interest in
• the ideas I have used have had previous success so is a known way of creating a successful music video,
meaning it is definitely possible for these ideas to work
• 5 weaknesses of you ideas
• My ideas arent as creative as they could be, many are revisions of past music videos
• My third idea doesn’t have as much detail as id like, meaning it would be harded to pull
• The first two are abit ambitious and would be hard work to pull off
• I don’t really have any ideas about any scenes, just the concept of the video itself
• I havent spoken about any types of shots other than close ups, meaning that I might limit myself the shots that will be
used.

9. Final idea – artist/title/info
• Name of track / name of artist “all the stars”- kendrick lamar
• Brief biographical background kendrick lamar is an american born rapper
that is 31 years old and is known as one of the most skillful hip-hop artists of this
generation. He has found recent success in his music for the film “Black Panther”
which was especially powerful for him due to his interest in his own ethnic
background, which he occasionally puts in his songs
• Links to other artists Not many artist can say they are on the same caliber as
Kendrick, but artists such as Kanye west, drake, jay Z and specifically J. Cole have similar
rapping styles and like focus more on the lyrical side of their records, unlike other modern
day rappers that use the beat and rhythm to carry the song.
• Genre info The rap genre has seen huge growth in the past few decades, from starting
off as mainly an underground style of music, to a rap artist winning album of the year. Rap
had started at neighboorhood block parties thrown by an African-American group in the
1970’s in the Bronx. It has now transformed into many different meanings and allows each
rapper to have their own style and interpretation on the genre.

10. Final idea – track summary
• Summary/analysis of track [consider meaning, content, duration,
pace and style of the song]
• The meaning is of kendrick lamar coming to grips with his african routes and
exploring african way of life. There isnt necesserily a plot for the music video but
it is just a series of back and forth shots between lamar and SZA. Each shot has
its own meaning and “story” behind it, such as a group of children standing
around lamar looking to him for guidance but then the shot fades into another
shot of the stars in the shape of the continent of africa. You see a contrast
between the two artistis, SZA exuding joy in her actions and dancing while lamar
is her counterpart, silent and serious, only singing the lyrics which have a more
serious meaning such as “I hate people that feel entitiled”. The pacing is slow in
the music video, focussing mainly on a single shot and not much movement
going on with the singers themselves, but with extras on the edges of the shot.

11. Final idea – your idea
• Your creative concept/video synopsis [describe your interpretation,
use of imagery or narrative, genre conventions, etc]
• for my music video i would like to create a story and narrative that is
open to interpretation, allowing the viewers to create their own story
as they please. my music video will also feature no actors and mainly
focus on the surroundings and urban life. this is so that it feels more
relatable and the audience can connect with it more, almost feeling
like nostalgia but i would almost like to include elements of time and
space by adding timelapses and add a deeping meaning to the
narrative.recording my video at night is key also as this creates a calm
atmosphere for my song but also helps to drown out any details of
the surrounding, leaving only the outline of objects so nothing takes
the overall attention of the viewer.

12. Final idea – techniques and styles
• Video techniques/style/conventions to be used [include how you intend to
implement these]
• in my music video i would like to focus on only having slow, moving shots to
help make sure it doesnt feel too linear and boring, but also moving just
enough to keep the viewers attention. adding closeups would be good way
of prioritising an object as it helps keep the video feel moving and shifts the
point of interest. editting the clips to the beat is vital as it makes the music
video more smooth and helps it to correlate with the song itself and since
my song is quite slow paced and has a regular beat, it should be easy to clip
the video to fit the song itself. i also plan on having a very simplistic fake
made out of stars to add a supernatural element to the video but also to
make it sing the lyrics so it doesnt feel completely lifeless with the lyrics just
being played at the viewer, its almost as if theyre being sung to.
•

13. Summary
• 5 strengths of your ideas you could use
• 5 weaknesses of you ideas

14. Potential research targets
• researching the original “all the stars” music video would help me
understand how the went the pace of the song at certain sections and how
they split up each chorus. it would also help me to understand what tone to
use in my video and how serious i should make it. Looking at other music
videos in that genre could help me too, especially by looking at different
tempos of songs to show how they differ from one another solely for the
speed of the song. An example of this is “stronger” by kanye west and how
that music video has the same night time, nostalgic setting but since the
song is more fast paced, they add action and more editting than slower
tempo songs. and in one of the scenes in “heartless” he creates a relatable
scene by having him smoking in a casual way with the nostalgic, urban
background but this is also one of the slowest points in the film, almost
making it a break from the rest of the video, allowing the viewer to relax
•