Chosen Genre Of Music (R&B)
R 'n' B is sometimes known as urban R 'n' B. It is not to be confused with earlier R&B (rhythm and blues), a style of black American music combining jazz and blues which emerged in the 1940s.
A good example of a R&B arstist is Rihanna. Rihanna is an R 'n' B artist. Most of her songs have a Reggae influence, which could be understood because of her Caribbean origin.
Urban R 'n' B combines elements of soul and hip-hop. It often uses:
tight drum programming
disco-influenced string sounds
good production techniques
vocal arrangements often with close harmonies
hip-hop influence
We have decided to base our music video on the R'n'B genre as it is inspiring and we thought it'd be interesting to use the conventions that make a music video R'n'B.
R'n'B originated in the U.S. where African Americans made their music with some pop influence after the disco era of the 80's. Notable artists include Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, R. Kelly, Janet Jackson, Aaliyah and TLC all of whom brought the contemporary R'n'B mainstream.
Now in the 2000's, R'n'B has changed to accompany the start of a new millennium. Artists like Usher, Beyonce, Chris Brown, Rihanna and others have combined R'n'B with contemporary pop, dance pop and electro pop.
Album covers that are used to market R'n'B music mainly are associated with gold chains, diamonds, a defined style of text, graffiti, studio lights, jewels, silhouttes, dark and bold colours, microphones, stereos and headphones, crowns, hats, an image of the artist his/herself, etc.
Chosen Music Video to Remake
The music video we decided to base our narrative on is Heart Attack by Trey Songz.
This is the song we chose out of the R&B genre, the reason why we chose this particular song was because it was based around love and relationships and in today's society there are many young couples who have relationship problems and this video shows this. The lyrics that are used in this song are relevant to the narrative we will use, e.g. 'Cause I'm slowly breaking down/ Even when I hold you close/ And if I lose you/ I'm afraid I would lose who/ Who I gave my love to'. These lyrics correlate to our stereotypical narrative as it is all based on love. For instance the word, 'gave' in the lyrics mentioned above, is in the past tense, indicating that he longs for the past and how their relationship was before.
Names of the characters- Trey and Kelly
The places we were thinking of shooting our music video was:
- at a bus stop (near school)
- a bedroom (at a hotel or at home)
- at a park (South Park)
- town center (City centre)
The reason we were thinking of filming in a bedroom is because of the physical intimacy that is associated with a bedroom when there is a couple present. This is the case in our music video, because of a narrative story that is based upon these two characters.
As the title of the song that will be playing against our video is called 'Heart Attack', we decided it'd be best to use a bedroom, with the male character in bed and the female character at his side. This would be sensible because typically, when a person is ill or physically unable to move, he or she would be lying down on a bed.
The shot we will film first is the one of Trey and Kelly in the park. This will take place next week between 11.20 and 1.20.
We have chosen to do it first because it is a short distance from school and it is accessible to every member of our group.
The costumes we need for Kelly are a bodycon red dress. This will connotate that she is the main focus of attention in the shot, as this colour is bold and red is the colour of love. This costume will be used when we would film in the park. An alternative is another item of clothing having the colour red.
The costumes we need for Trey in this shot are black trousers and a typical white shirt. This will show that he is smart and cares about how he looks so that he can visually appeal to his girlfriend.
This pitch provides an interesting and short synopsis of our narrative.
Changes to our narrative:
Re-thinking our narrative, we thought of the girl getting with another boy, giving the previous boy a 'heart attack'. This can be shown by the boy throwing a tantrum, or pushing a chair. Because of this, the start of the video would show the teenage boy on the bed by himself looking through images on his phone of him and his girlfriend.
We decided to include match on match action at the end of the music video. This would happen when the boy sees his girlfriend with another boy.
Date: Friday 24th January 2014
Time: 3 to 4/5pm
Location: Gym in school
A good example of a R&B arstist is Rihanna. Rihanna is an R 'n' B artist. Most of her songs have a Reggae influence, which could be understood because of her Caribbean origin.
Urban R 'n' B combines elements of soul and hip-hop. It often uses:
tight drum programming
disco-influenced string sounds
good production techniques
vocal arrangements often with close harmonies
hip-hop influence
We have decided to base our music video on the R'n'B genre as it is inspiring and we thought it'd be interesting to use the conventions that make a music video R'n'B.
R'n'B originated in the U.S. where African Americans made their music with some pop influence after the disco era of the 80's. Notable artists include Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, R. Kelly, Janet Jackson, Aaliyah and TLC all of whom brought the contemporary R'n'B mainstream.
Now in the 2000's, R'n'B has changed to accompany the start of a new millennium. Artists like Usher, Beyonce, Chris Brown, Rihanna and others have combined R'n'B with contemporary pop, dance pop and electro pop.
Album covers that are used to market R'n'B music mainly are associated with gold chains, diamonds, a defined style of text, graffiti, studio lights, jewels, silhouttes, dark and bold colours, microphones, stereos and headphones, crowns, hats, an image of the artist his/herself, etc.
Chosen Music Video to Remake
The music video we decided to base our narrative on is Heart Attack by Trey Songz.
Storyboard for our Main Task
Below is a story board we have created for our chosen song "Trey Songz- Heart Attack".
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We created this storyboard on iMovie by first drawing all of our shots and taking picture on photo-booth and then transferring all these files to an iMovie project. On iMovie we were able to put the song on top and also have short transitions which made the video more fun to watch.
Below is a story board we have created for our chosen song "Trey Songz- Heart Attack".
Shot List for Heart Attack
Here I have made a whole shot list for all the frames we will be doing for our music video. In this piece of planning I have also included camera composition as well as the locations.
- First shot ( long shot)- on the bed and the man is ill and the woman is kneeling across the bed.
- Second shot ( close up shot)- the woman is kissing his hand.
- Third shot( long shot)- them staring at each other.
- Fourth shot- (long shot)- the woman is about to show the pictures to the guy.
- Fifth shot (close up)- playing the video/picture on the phone.
- Sixth shot (long-shot)- of both the characters at the bus stop
- Seventh shot(close-up)- of the bus timetable
- Eighth shot(mid-shot) - of the guy looking at his wrist even though he has no watch.
- Ninth shot( mid-long shot)- of the girl looking at her phone.
- Tenth shot(mid-long shot)- the guy staring at the girl
- Eleventh shot(mid-long and shot reverse shot)- both of them talking and him asking the time.
- Twelfth shot(close up)-him asking for the number- (close up of the phone)
- Thirteenth shot( long shot and pan movement)- of the bus coming.
- Fourteenth shot(long shot)- back to the bed
- Fifteenth shot(mid shot)- of them smiling at each other
- sixteenth shot(close up)- of the phone
- seventeenth shot(long shot)- them walking in town
- eighteenth shot(long shot)- them walking into the shop
- nineteenth shot (close up)- them looking in each others eyes
- twentieth shot(close up)- bed
- twenty first shot ((close up)- them looking in each others eyes again
- twenty second shot( long shot)- them walking into McDonald's
- twenty third shot(mid shot )- them ordering
- twenty fourth shot (shot reverse shot)- them eating and having a convo
- twenty fifth shot(mid shot)- the boy singing
- twenty sixth shot(close up)- of him looking for her(as in hide and seek)
- twenty seventh shot(mid-close pan shot)-blurred shot of the girl's face and she is running backwards
- twenty eighth shot(quick close up) - of the boy frowning
- twenty ninth shot(mid-close up)-taking selfies
- thirtieth shot(mid shot)- the boy picking the girl up or her standing on something
Possible Locations
- at a bus stop (near school)
- a bedroom (at a hotel or at home)
- at a park (South Park)
- town center (City centre)
The reason we were thinking of filming in a bedroom is because of the physical intimacy that is associated with a bedroom when there is a couple present. This is the case in our music video, because of a narrative story that is based upon these two characters.
As the title of the song that will be playing against our video is called 'Heart Attack', we decided it'd be best to use a bedroom, with the male character in bed and the female character at his side. This would be sensible because typically, when a person is ill or physically unable to move, he or she would be lying down on a bed.
Location 1
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The use of a park is handy in our narrative within the music video because we thought it was an ordinary environment in which two of our characters could interact. We also thought of having the male character singing, or rather, lip singing so that the audience could emphasise and know how passionate he is about his girlfriend.
Location 2
The bus stop would serve as a place where the two characters meet for the first time. We thought to keep this part of the music video simple, so that the viewer can thoroughly understand what is happening clearly.
As the video and song progress, we would come to a shopping center, where the couple just hang out and have some fun. Places within the city center that we would include are typical clothes shops and cafe's/ restaurants. This could be the part where we begin to see some tension between these characters, later leading up to a 'heart attack'.
Costumes
The sorts of costume we would need are casual ones. As we would be filming our video in the winter months, we would need clothes that matched the environment for each our characters, otherwise we would be stepping out of the reality that we plan to show in the music video.
The drawings below were done on Paint. This drawing is of the boy's costume. A black coat or hoody will show that he is a teenager. This will be useful in our video, as we want to highlight this character as being young because of the main theme in our video being love. 
A hat may add to this, emphasising the point that this is a young man. A beanie or a snapback would be an example of the type of hat we may use. Blue baggy jeans and black or dark shoes like trainers would complete this look.
The girl's costume below shows her wearing casual clothes, consisting of a black leather jacket, a considerably bright long top/ t-shirt, grey or dark coloured skinny jeans, a pair of trainers and a side bag.  These costumes would be used in the shots we would film in and around town. This would convey a relaxed and laid back atmosphere due to the casual costumes we have chosen to be worn by the actor and actress.Due to us having different locations, we understand that we have to use different costumes to match. Therefore, these kinds of costumes will be used when the couple are in the city center, doing some shopping.
Leather jackets also carry layers of symbolic meaning acquired through their various appearances in popular culture. Furthermore, their undeniable animalistic, tactile nature makes them very intimate and emotionally charged to wear. Leather are basically used in music videos to make the characters seem cool, stylish and fashionable. They also have connotations of rebellion. For example in the film Grease, a certain group called the T-birds in grease wear the leather jackets to show rebelliousness and a sense of power as if they rule the town.
 
The hat is also used to show style and fashion. Our characters in our music video are going to be wearing hats because it will be cold and also it shows style and we really want to show that in our music video.
The sorts of costume we would need are casual ones. As we would be filming our video in the winter months, we would need clothes that matched the environment for each our characters.
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Filming Times
In order to film our music video, we have set out an itinerary of what shots we are going to film, where we are going to film them, what props and costumes and what equipment we will need.The shot we will film first is the one of Trey and Kelly in the park. This will take place next week between 11.20 and 1.20.
We have chosen to do it first because it is a short distance from school and it is accessible to every member of our group.
The costumes we need for Kelly are a bodycon red dress. This will connotate that she is the main focus of attention in the shot, as this colour is bold and red is the colour of love. This costume will be used when we would film in the park. An alternative is another item of clothing having the colour red.
The costumes we need for Trey in this shot are black trousers and a typical white shirt. This will show that he is smart and cares about how he looks so that he can visually appeal to his girlfriend.
The equipment we would need are a video camera and a tripod. These are essential, as we want our video to look as much like a proper music video as we can.
"A couple in modern day Britain reminisce on the past and how they met through looking at pictures that were taken on a phone."
We thought of this as our pitch, as it clearly illustrates our music video narrative. We thought of an ordinary storyline where a young couple remember the past through flashbacks. They meet at a bus stop and from then on start to date.
One problem with this pitch though, was that it doesn't have a conflict, and thus seemed dull.We thought to include a conflict where the girl breaks up with the boy. We thought of different conflicts, where the boy falls ill and so the girl takes care of him. Originally this was our first shot and then the flashbacks would come on.
Final pitch:
"Two ordinary teenagers meet. They start dating. Fall in love. But every love story has its own twist."
Codes and Conventions of R&B Music Videos
25 Word Pitch for our Music Video
Our music video pitch will sketch a rough idea of what our music video will be about."A couple in modern day Britain reminisce on the past and how they met through looking at pictures that were taken on a phone."
We thought of this as our pitch, as it clearly illustrates our music video narrative. We thought of an ordinary storyline where a young couple remember the past through flashbacks. They meet at a bus stop and from then on start to date.
One problem with this pitch though, was that it doesn't have a conflict, and thus seemed dull.We thought to include a conflict where the girl breaks up with the boy. We thought of different conflicts, where the boy falls ill and so the girl takes care of him. Originally this was our first shot and then the flashbacks would come on.
Final pitch:
"Two ordinary teenagers meet. They start dating. Fall in love. But every love story has its own twist."
This pitch provides an interesting and short synopsis of our narrative.
Changes to our narrative:
Re-thinking our narrative, we thought of the girl getting with another boy, giving the previous boy a 'heart attack'. This can be shown by the boy throwing a tantrum, or pushing a chair. Because of this, the start of the video would show the teenage boy on the bed by himself looking through images on his phone of him and his girlfriend.
We decided to include match on match action at the end of the music video. This would happen when the boy sees his girlfriend with another boy.
Lyric Analysis
Filming Diary
Tuesday 26th November 15:00-17:00 Male Protagonists House (Cowley)
What we achieved in the shoot?
We had all of our props and costumes planned before hand, for e.g. the red bedsheets and the male protagonists costume so we were able to quickly head for the filming part. We had planned put every single shot we needed of the male protagonist as it would have been hard to get hold of him again. We also took a range of shots of the same just in case the camera position wasnt straight or camera work was shaky. We decided to use many mid shots as these shots show some part of the subject in more detail, whilst still showing enough for the audience to feel as if they were looking at the whole subject. These shots worked really well because as well as being a comfortable, emotionally neutral shot, the mid shot allows room for hand gestures and a bit of movement. And as our male protagonist was going to be using his phone as he receives the bad news it fitted in really well in showing the audience what is happening in the mis en scene.
Overall this shoot was really successful as we got a various amount of frames done within two hours. As we had a range of shots editing was fairly easy because we could adjust wrong camera movements. A difficulty during this shoot was that the lighting wasn't excellent due to the poor weather. For next time we have organised to bring an extra light so our frames wont look poor in lighting quality. However a strength of todays filming was the male protagonists acting and the various shots and angles we were able to film.
What we need to achieve next time?
Today we filmed our first part of our music video of our male protagonist. Our location we used was his house because this was where he was going to receive the bad news that his girlfriend was cheating on him. We had planned before hand to have the colour of the room red and white as these colours denote love and romance. Tuesday was the the right day for all of us as we did not have anything planned for after school and also our location was very near which was highly beneficial as we didn't have to waste a lot of our filming time.
We had all of our props and costumes planned before hand, for e.g. the red bedsheets and the male protagonists costume so we were able to quickly head for the filming part. We had planned put every single shot we needed of the male protagonist as it would have been hard to get hold of him again. We also took a range of shots of the same just in case the camera position wasnt straight or camera work was shaky. We decided to use many mid shots as these shots show some part of the subject in more detail, whilst still showing enough for the audience to feel as if they were looking at the whole subject. These shots worked really well because as well as being a comfortable, emotionally neutral shot, the mid shot allows room for hand gestures and a bit of movement. And as our male protagonist was going to be using his phone as he receives the bad news it fitted in really well in showing the audience what is happening in the mis en scene.
Overall this shoot was really successful as we got a various amount of frames done within two hours. As we had a range of shots editing was fairly easy because we could adjust wrong camera movements. A difficulty during this shoot was that the lighting wasn't excellent due to the poor weather. For next time we have organised to bring an extra light so our frames wont look poor in lighting quality. However a strength of todays filming was the male protagonists acting and the various shots and angles we were able to film.
What we need to achieve next time?
- We need to film our female protagonists single shots like we did today
- We need to improve the lighting of the room by brining in a extra light
- We need to plan a time when both our female protagonist and male protagonist are able to film together
- We need to have a more balanced low angle, possible balancing the camera on the floor instead of holding it in our hands.
- Re-film some shots
Here is a short film of all the filiming we managed to do on this day
Date: Friday 24th January 2014
Time: 3 to 4/5pm
Location: Gym in school
What do you intend to achieve by the end of the shoot?
We wanted to achieve a thorough dance routine for our music video, so we tried filming some dance moves that would go well with the speed of the song we're using for our music video.
We also wanted to show the rivalry between the two sisters we were filming by the means of dance. This is because the song is fast paced and would need something more than just a narrative.
What did you actually achieve by the end of the shoot?
We got some shots of the two girls dancing and also of them dancing separately in time with the music.
We chose to film them separately to experiment the effect of adding both clips into one frame using iMovie.
We also filmed some behind the scenes while the girls were practicing the dance moves.
What does this mean for your next shoot?
We were planning to add a narrative to match the song so that it could fill in some gaps in the video and also to make it less boring.
We would do this by using previous shots we had of the boy in our draft of 'Heart Attack'. To integrate this into our main task, we would use 3 or 4 seconds of some clips of the boy on the bed to show that the girl is thinking about him. We thought that this would be good as the lyrics reflect the narrative using themes of love and relationship.
As next week, Friday is inset day in our school we wouldn't be able to use the school's gym and so our next filming time is on Wednesday 5th February 2014, from 2 to 3pm.
We wanted to achieve a thorough dance routine for our music video, so we tried filming some dance moves that would go well with the speed of the song we're using for our music video.
We also wanted to show the rivalry between the two sisters we were filming by the means of dance. This is because the song is fast paced and would need something more than just a narrative.
What did you actually achieve by the end of the shoot?
We got some shots of the two girls dancing and also of them dancing separately in time with the music.
We chose to film them separately to experiment the effect of adding both clips into one frame using iMovie.
We also filmed some behind the scenes while the girls were practicing the dance moves.
What does this mean for your next shoot?
We were planning to add a narrative to match the song so that it could fill in some gaps in the video and also to make it less boring.
We would do this by using previous shots we had of the boy in our draft of 'Heart Attack'. To integrate this into our main task, we would use 3 or 4 seconds of some clips of the boy on the bed to show that the girl is thinking about him. We thought that this would be good as the lyrics reflect the narrative using themes of love and relationship.
As next week, Friday is inset day in our school we wouldn't be able to use the school's gym and so our next filming time is on Wednesday 5th February 2014, from 2 to 3pm.
