R+P Post 19: My influences and vision for the project

To show our influence and vision for the music video, we produced this video made up from clips from other music videos to try and show what shot types, locations and moods we are going for.



Some of these shots feature effects we want to emulate in our own video, such as the cycling coloured lights at 0.19 in the video, and the projected background idea shown at 0.24. The urban locations seen at 0.26 and 0.11 are the kind of places we want to shoot in, and putting this video together showed me how effective shooting on location can look. It also made me consider costume, and about how it should fit with the surroundings.

My vision in summary is to make a video which takes these familiar elements from garage and R&B music videos and transforms them into something which is stylish, confident and cool, that will appeal to our target audience of R&B fans and young people.

R+P Post 18: Analysis of my track's lyrics and instrumentation

Full lyrics for 'On My Mind' (Click this link)

The first thing that the listener notices when starting this track are the chopped up vocals that, while are technically lyrics, are fairly indecipherable and meaningless. For this section of the video I'm going to try and cut to the beat of the song, and use the fast pace to show a large amount of establishing shots of the locations and characters in the video.

For the "Don't want to feel you, don't want you on my mind" segment, I'm planning to use some shots that last for longer and focus on the singer, in order to fit the calm, dreamy way these lines are delivered.

Verse 1:
"Why on earth would I leave
If you were everything I wanted you to be?
When I saw what you did, who you were with
Got me questionin' the things that I believe"

This implies some kind of relationship has recently ended between the singer and someone else because they were cheating on her. To convey this we are incorporating a narrative story-line into our music video where the singer of our group will similarly end a relationship with a disloyal boyfriend. This narrative will start during this verse, to correspond with the lyrics.

Pre-Chorus:
"So I ask myself, do I let you go?
Or do I keep you in the frame of my mind?
Now I'm growing wise to your sugar-coated lies
Nothing's sweet about my misery, yeah"

For this section, which is repeated once more later in the song, we get another small dose of information, which suggests that the singer is indecisive about whether or not to leave her partner. The wordplay in the last two lines relating to sugar and sweetness are some of the most memorable lines in the song, and I'm considering taking advantage of this by having a shot of the singer stepping on some kind of chocolate bar wrapper as this line plays.

Chorus:
"I Finally found what went wrong

I finally found the wrong in you"

These lines are sung in a way that suggests the singer doesn't seem to be too heartbroken, and may in fact be relieved that they 'Dodged the bullet' with this person. the music supports this by becoming more uptempo, and it is arguably the climax of the song. To react this, I plan to have some energetic group shots for this portion of the video.

Second verse:
"You again, whyd'ya call?

I don't need to hear you crying out my name,

Unlike before, when you and I lay eye to eye,

Now it's time for you to taste the bitter end."

This verse fleshes out the narrative of the song some more, by showing that the boyfriend is trying to win her back, with the words used making his attempts seem pathetic, and the closing couplet puts the singer in a position of power, making her seem like the partner that ended the relationship. In my video I plan to show the phone call detailed in the lyrics, and to show the couple splitting paths on the final line.

R+P Post 17: My Chosen Track

We have finalised our decision on our track, and have decided to go with 'On My Mind' by Jorja Smith X Preditah:



The song is written and performed by Jorja Smith, is produced by Grime DJ Preditah. The song is published by the label FAMM, which seems to be completely independent. We wrote this e-mail asking for permission to use the track to them:

We chose this track for several reasons:
-It has parts which are upbeat and slower parts, giving us an opportunity to shoot a wider variety of shot types and giving us more interesting options for editing.
-The song's lyrics are fairly vague, but are evidently about some kind of break-up, allowing us to take this idea and go in whatever direction we want.
-It fits in with contemporary trends in music, as it has an R&B song with house music influences, and both genres are both very popular right now.

R+P Post 16: My Band or Artist

Our artist is a singer/producer duo that produces R&B with influences from UK garage and Electronic Dance music. The duo is named 'Cruze' (Pronounced 'Cruise').

This is a logo I created for 'Cruze' using two black bars and the duo's name written in Franklin Gothic Heavy. This logo is inspired mainly by the logo of the band Muse, which is fairly similar, and the Cruze logo is also reminiscent of the parental advisory logo that is on many hip-hop and R&B albums that contain explicit language.

They are inspired by artists such as Amy Winehouse an AlunaGeorge, who have both managed to draw large fan-bases through being very genuine and also through having a clear and unique style, both musically and visually. The singer is Mahalia Jordan, a soul singer from East London who met with producer Alex Grey after he heard her at an open mic night.

R+P Post 15: My Record label

Our record label is one of our own creation, named 'Nimbus Records'. It is an independent label that prides itself on promoting the artist as well as the music, and focuses on London based artists. It is a subsidiary label of Sony music, so it allows the artists to have professional promotion but keep their creative control. The rough logo is below:

The logo shows a roman soldier surrounded by a Halo and a nimbus cloud, linking the logo with the name of the label. We chose the roman soldier because it once again links with the idea of Ancient Gods, and makes the label seem classy.

It is inspired by several other independent labels that operate primarily in the UK, such as Ministry of Sound. The memorable logo and the distinctive garage/house sound of most of it's signed artists have made the label synonymous with these genres, and therefore artists signed to it are immediately more appealing to a fan of these genres.

R+P Post 14: My Target Audience

Our target audience is 16-24 year olds who are fans of R&B, as we think that this will be the largest and most receptive audience for our artist.

This is a collage of images I made to demonstrate who I believe the main target audience for our music is: An urban, London-based audience of young people, specifically those between the ages of 16-24. This group of people primarily consume music through digital means such as through downloading music, and increasingly through streaming music on websites like Spotify and YouTube. In terms  of gender, I would say that women are more likely to consume our song, as several studies have shown that women are more likely to listen to female artists than men and vice versa, as seen on the study that will open if you click on the image below:

We have also conducted audience research, where we got verbal feedback from many 16-24 year olds, and from this it seems that women tend to listen more to the genres of pop music and R&B, which I would say our song falls into. The lyrics are also presented as an empowering break-up song, a type of music which is primarily marketed to women, Fans of the R&B/garage genres are also one of the main target audiences for our song, and since this genre is primarily popular in the more urban areas of London, this links strongly to the area and clothing usually worn by the target audience. The clothing usually worn by young people from these areas is streetwise and usually dark, such as black puffer coats and jogging bottoms. To appeal to this audience, our video should feature people wearing this kind of clothing.

Our primary audience will therefore be 16-24 year old fans of R&B, with an emphasis on women.

R+P Post 13: Influences and inspirations from art, fashion and culture

Since our artist is inspired by urban sounds and landscapes, much of the material I have been inspired by is related to this. Street art and graffiti are the primary forms of art that have been influential in my thinking, specifically the art of Jean-Michel basquiat and Banksy.

The vibrancy and roughness of Basquiat's work is something that I would love to capture in my music video, and since he had a huge influence on the styling of graffiti, it shouldn't be too difficult to find something similarly exuberant and colourful. Banksy's street paintings are similarly a staple of street art, with the way they incorporate a unique method of using stencils and the humour he manages to fit into the images, although usually with a political undertone.  

The fashion that has inspired me most is the streetwise, casual clothing that is currently popular in London, such as tracksuits and trainers by brands like Adidas and Nike. This urban style of fashion will hopefully identify our artists as from London, and will make them more relatable to their target audience.