Deconstruction Videos

7 Days - Craig David 

1. 

In this shot you can see the artist in this case Craig David singing about what happened to him. The song is a narrative about how he meet a woman that he liked. This shot is a close up of the artist Craig and is there to allow the audience to know that he is telling the story that he is telling the story whilst he is trying to get a hair cut which suggest that the artist like to look well for a date and that he wants to tell a barber how he conquered a date with the female protagonist. The music video is a narrative so the fact the artist is playing the role of the male protagonist is common which would explain his costumes because it needs to seem as real as possible. This would be done by lip syncing to the song and the narrative.

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A close up of his watch allows the audience to view that he is wealthy and that he cares about his appearance in the video and that he wants to show that to everyone.  The video consist of short close up shot like this one but it also consist of longer medium shot to allow he viewer to see the scenery and the understand the concept of the story. The story flashback a lot to how he meet the girl and how he's date went to a shot of him telling the barber the story, this is because the director wants the to create the perfect more realistic love story but have a change in where the male protagonist has to keep trying. 

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The women in this shot is presented as the prize to be won in the video, this is because the song is about how he conquered the date with this specific women. The woman in this video is shown as the most beautiful woman to him and that influences other to think the same way therefore act the same way. Like the previous shot this shot is an extreme close up of her red lips. This shot is a close up so that the audience can specific see the detail of her beauty and by having close up of her lips, her eyes it allows the audience to paint an image of what a perfect woman should be. In the whole music video the woman face is not int the shot without her wearing glasses or it being a 3 second shot the normally just have a shot of her body or part of her body depending on the shot. This technique keeps the music video interesting because there is so much to look at and the more you watch the more you start to believe the story.

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This is an example of the shot that I tried to explain previously based on the fact that the woman is looked upon as a prize in the video in this shot you can see only the women lower part of her face because it was tilted from her chest to her skin around her neck. You can tell that it was the focused because everything in this shot has been pulled out of focused for example the wine, the objects behind the woman are not as clear as the objectives in this specific shot.

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This shot is toward the end and is of the couple after there date and you finally have a view of the woman's face. It is a mid shot for the audience to see the couple and there body language, in the shot you can see both the protagonist the female and the male in an embrace which is the happy ending to the "perfect love story" a happy couple. The male in this case also the artist has won the "prize"and is wearing a vest the woman in this shot is wearing a baggy shirt which appears to be his shirt. They both seem happy which implants on the audience mind what happiness is.

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Burn - Usher 

2.

This is along shot and with most of the song in the world not just to this genre is about love, sex or money and for this song it is about love the opening shot is a long to show his obsession because the painting or photography of the woman above the artist is whom the song is about but you cant tell straight away from this shot. The shot is zooming out from close ups of the artist face and from a shot of the woman and at this point the shot cuts from this to another close up of the artist in this case also the male protagonist and he introduces the song "Let it Burn". The mis en scene in this shot is very empty and is practically just a big room with the artist sat down and the image of the woman. This is done to make a point to the audience to already let them know that the music video is about love and that it is about these two people is specific.

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This is a typical shot of a artist look regretful or hurt and the fact that the artist is wearing glasses creates a emotion that the audience can relate to. The shot is a close up of the male looking through the window doors and singing about the the love he has lost. The fact that the music video is showing the male protagonist in a sad and gloomy aspect shows us as the audience that he is reminiscing about someone. 

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This is a long shot of a woman walking along a outdoor pool. As you can see the filter is darker and this can show the audience feel like she is also in a so depressing place but the fact that her skin colour contrast so much the gloomy filter suggests that she is not really there. The woman is wearing only black bikin with high heels this could be done to show that woman as beautiful and as confident with herself. 

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This is a close up of a car and is a close up of the car for branding. But the effect of the filter is still being continued throughout the video and does not change for the car shot. The shot can also be to show the "moving on" of the character or an "escape" from previous situations that have happened to him. 

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This last shot is a powerful statement and shot for the music video. In the long shot we can see the artist who is the protagonist through the video and the fact that the camera angle is tilted up wards shows us that he is being shown as superior which can send a message to the audience that he is non longer going to be heartbroken and is choosing to move on. In the shot the artist is wearing dark blue jeans with white trainers along with a white almost grey shirt and a leather jacket along with a baseball cap. He is wearing a casual assemble to show that is what he is trying to be, causal. The setting of the shot is in the street  along side palm tree which contrast the fact that the filter is so gloomy if its meant to be a sunny destination.

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Take Care - Drake ft. Rihanna 

3.

The music video to take care is abnormal to other video i have looked at but it has the same shots and the same concept even though it does not have a narrative in the video. This medium shot is of the artist and as you can see he starts off by facing away from the camera this could be to make his introduction more dramatic which could also explain the black and white filter. The artist in this video is wearing a black T shirt and black trouser because there would be no use of coloured clothing in a black and white music video and I think that the black clothing can indicate that the song is serious and that it is about mourning about something that has been dealt with.

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This shot is a close up and is of the horns of a bull I don' know why it is sufficient to the music video but it is shown a lot in the video. The shot of the horns of a bull can although express how time has passed by slowly because the song is at a slow peak during the video. In this shot you can see that the camera is good quality and that the filter increase the density of the shot and the shadows and the detail of the feature are more defined.

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This is the artist that also partake in the video and sing the chorus she also start facing away from the camera but all of her shot seem to either zoom in or out from her in the centre of the shot. The artist is wearing a over sized jumper that falls off her shoulder in a seductive way. Her hair is causally out and hide her face allow to see only her eye and her nose because her shoulder hides away her mouth. This shot makes the artist feel vulnerable and innocent almost as she had been hurt.

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This is a mid shot of  both the artist in the centre of the screen in a embrace you can tell more clearly that her clothing is very minimum which can show that is still in that vulnerable place and that the male artist is either taking advantage or is caring for her. The fact that she has her head resting on her shoulder can mean friendship. There is no mis en scene in this music video and I think that only increase the seriousness of the music video and can allow the audience to concentrate on the music video and the lyrics of the song.     

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The last shot is also a mid shot an again is of an animal in this case of a blue j and is again there to show the attention of detail that they have created in the video I think that the animal were just to keep the audience focusing on the lyrics  and to bring out the emotion and effect as much as possible out of the filter added in the music video. 

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Knock You Down 

4. 

In this music video there are three artist this shot is a mid shot and you can see one of them in a setting that is meant to look like a studio with the white drape and the white walls and celling which really helps contrast the artist and his look. In this shot the artist is wearing a leather coat and a red jumper sort underneath with sunglasses, this could give an impression that he is a strong type of man and that he doesn't show emotion hence the shades indoors. In a music video the artist with the shade is normally associated as the rapper so that could also be suggested in this shot. The artist body language looks like his is trying to defend himself because his arm is across his body in order to protect himself from harm. The lighting in the scene is very bright with the sunshine shining through the window and the lights being on.

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This is a close up of the artist and she is singing in this shot so this music video is both narrative and non narrative because it has a story but there are also shots in where singing is only involved like this shot for example 

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Hip Hop n Rap History

(This video was originally on Youtube but because of audio it will no longer play on Youtube it is exported on QuickTime Player hence the low quality)

This is a mix to show how our chosen genre Hip Hop/Rap  has changed over the year how the lyrics and the music videos have in common. We can also see that all of the music video the woman are comfortable with costumes, for example in the Salt and Peppa are wearing big coats and towards the end of the video Rihanna is wearing short skirts and a bra and in some shots only a jean coat and panties. They have similar shot and throughout the years all consist of closes up and pan ups shot to make the artist more powerful important.

Locations

For our music video location we will need
- a home
- a army site
- a field
- local transportation stop




A home for our home we have chosen to shoot at my house because it will be easier for transportation and because the house is normally vacated so it will not be hard to shoot. Here are a few photos of the rooms we will be shooting of....

 A army was harder to think of and we have thought about doing it in a garage where it will look like a brick building. This is just a few photos of what w thought would be appropriate ..... and for the army campsite bathroom we though of doing on school site in one of them toilets because it is more band ans simple....
When it came to choosing the field it was harder because we wanted one that is close but not busying with children because its meant to be a training camp for recruits so we were thinking of
a)South Park

b) Shot over
we needed a place that was close to our actors and our homes for the transportation of equipment so we chose Shot over to shot the training of recruits

For our chosen site to shot the departure and return of the war hero would by at
a) Bus Stop
b) Train station
we are leaning more toward the train station of course we would only have to film on the outside and inside but nor on the platform because we would have to pay

Costume & Props Research

Costume
When researching the types of uniform and equipment that a soldier would have in different scenarios
we found that there are many different types of uniform for soldiers.
Army - Land based occupation force, the largest of the branches

Army reserve - Non combat reserve force for the army 

Army National Guard - Combat Reserve force for the army 

After researching the different types of army recruit we have decided that our soldier would be a a land based soldiers because it then the training and the scene of combat can be more realistic.

Looking at the image we will need 

- Camouflage trousers and shirt 

- Perhaps and vest 

- A helmet 

- Pair of Boots

Props

Our main concern is weapons when it comes to props. We want realistic and professional looking props and for this we may need to buy or make the objects ourselves.

When researching the types of weapons an army soldier would have on him or her when in battle and when off we found that there are many types of weapons that they use. 

For example the types of guns range from the standard type of gun to the military guns 

 This is the standard type of gun and is from the handgun family and its best designed to shot with the gun in one or both hands for better aim. This sort of gun is the most common and is mostly seen in film with danger such as horror or adventure.



This type of gun is called a battle rifle or sometimes can be classed as assault rifle although there is a big difference the assault gun is best at
shooting at closer ranges because it has a smaller
cartridges as a contrast to the battle guns where it has a bigger cartridges which is why its was used in world war II. Both the assault and the battle guns are
from the military gun family these guns are shown
mostly in war films or also adventure.

Animated Storyboard Hold on we're going home - Drake

Here is a rough mock up of our storyboard, of course we will make some changes when filming because of problems that might occur but this storyboards gives us a rough idea of what we want it to be like also help to identify how long the shots would need to be etc i have tab over the video explaining with more detail about what is happening in the shots because our music is classed as a 'brain teaser' and will be hard to follow on at first. We draw rough sketches on white boards and wrote the shot and what was mainly happening some of them are wrong but have been tab over. As you can see our narrative does relate to Todorovs theory in some ways because it has an equilibrium disequilibrium but our narrative and with a twist instead of a resolution. The equilibrium in our narrative would the montage of the family together have a normal life, the disequilibrium in our narrative could be out of the following two the first could be having to go to recruits and/or the second could be when the soldier is injured during combat. I don't think that our narrative has a resolution although some might argue that the return of the soldier would the resolution but then it might not apply because of the switch of roles that the mother and father take place.

Inspirational Video

These are some of the video that we looked at for inspiration on how to do some scenes and the swap of the roles


Beyonce - If I Were A Boy 

This has helped us think of how we are going to make the swap of the roles between husband and wife, male and female.

Green Day - When September Ends

We also used this video to see the relationship a couple has when one of them goes to the army, but also to see the kind of situation they are put in when it comes to combat.

This is not a music video but towards the end has also helped us with the training that the war hero could be doing in our music video for example jumping logs or climbing up walls which are some feature we plan to use.

The Actual Music Video

This is the artist Drake's real music video to the song Hold on we're going home and it is about his loved one being kidnapped and him trying to rescue her. It has that typical 'Damsel in distress' like in any children's story its sort of a fairy tale that every female hope for which is why it has become stereotypical. The video is a very conventional video and Drake himself has said that its the kind of song that he would hope people would play at there wedding or it could be thought of as a war song.

We took this point and have decided to construct a new music video with a war narrative but instead of the typical convention of the the male taking the role of the war hero we would place the female in his shoes. We then thought of a family so that both the wife and husband could swap roles completing and involving a small child would bring some warmth to the video. Towards the end we will have a twist and return the music video to an original conventional stereotypical music video and swap roles.

Our Song Choice

For our main ask we have chosen a song by artist Drake called "Hold on, we're going home"
we have tweeted the artist asking permission if we can use the song because we could not find an email. Bellow is a screenshot of what we tweeted on twitter to ask his permission so that we do not violate copyright issue

We wrote through twitter

Hi we very much enjoy your music that we were hoping that we could use your song "Hold on, we're going home" for our A2 media project in where we would make a music video to the song for our final piece and we would like your permission to use the audio a response will be greatly appreciated any queries don't hesitate to email me at idrovorosaline@gmail.com or aalishahoward@msn.com