Costume preview

This video focus on all of the components of the costume that our artist 'Maxx' will be wearing through out the music video. The choice of costume was a delicate matter as we needed to ensure that it was conventional to drum and bass, but still allow the artist to have his own style.  Each component of the costume were picked individually, by both me and Lucy. During the research we did during the starting stages of the project, we looked at images of what modern drum and bass MC's currently wear. Here are some of the images we analysed:

 











TOP LEFT: Mc Eksman

TOP RIGHT: Mc Azza B

BOTTOM RIGHT: Mc Harry Shotta

BOTTOM LEFT: Mc Vapour

Evidently, our choice of costume was realistic in relation to realism and drum and bass stereotypes and conventions. In more detail, all of the examples we analysed are wearing hats and dark hoodies, jackets or t-shirts. We have taken this information and developed it into Maxx's 'style'. We are yet to see how the costume looks at the locations and during filming. We have full confidence that it will be perfect.

Record Label permission

The theme of youth culture and the different factors involved.

The youths in our modern society and how they are stereotyped/ represented.

We have ensured that our settings reflect the modern day youths, seeing as the drum and bass music genre is aimed at rebellious youths going against what is considered the norms or society.
One of our locations is in Leake street, this is a popular graffiti tunnel where any members of the public are legally allowed to graffiti down. The use of graffiti is one way out of many that youths can express themselves. In our song the lyrics suggest that "spitting bars" is the artists way of expressing himself and this all links to the theme of youth culture. As you can see in the video below, young people will do what they have to do to express themselves even it it means going against the law.





Gang culture : In this time period gangs have progressively gotten bigger and the numbers have increased. Drum and bass music is most popular in poorer, less established area's and from this, groups of people form. A lot of the youths living in these types of area's have grown up in an environment that glamourises violence and drugs within the rap/ drum and bass/ grime culture. Britain has become the most violent industrial nation and this is seen in our song "pin you down and rip your brain out through your nose G" The chances of being assaulted in the UK are higher than those of the US, with london becoming more dangerous than new york in recent years.

The video clip below informs us about weaponry regarding the youths of today, seeing as the use of weapons is increasing. This could potentially be down to the message that grime/ drum and bass artists give to them, linking to the name of our song "Primal instinct" as it is a humans primal instinct to survive and therefore protect themselves. And to do this you need to make money, a lot of youths turn to music hoping that they will make it, they follow in the steps of their favourite artists who they hope they can aspire towards.



Some would say that violence and aggression are other ways of expressionism, this is seen in a lot of drum and bass and grime music. The artist usually raps about things that the audience can relate to, these things can vary but they often include words of aggression and rebellion and this is why we thought that we should have the themes of our music video as City Life, Gang Culture and youth culture.

Props

Music videos with favoured characteristics for inspiration

With in this post, I will be examining some music videos that have characteristics that we like and would like to use as inspiration in our music video. Although these tracks do not fall into the genre f drum and bass, which is our chosen genre, the genre of these videos is hip-hop which was formed from drum and bass. Furthermore, the visuals used interest us and are very similar to the atmosphere we are trying to create.

Video 1: Fliptrix - Duppying the style

From watching this music video we have decided that it incorporates locations and lighting that we wanted to include in our video. The darkness with low-key lighting creates a mysterious mood. As well as this, the editing through out this video is very interesting utilising different speed of footage and composition. These are features we must take into consideration to create the vibe that we originally wanted. This may mean that we need to do some practise shots in the locations with correct lighting to see if it looks anything like our original concept. Shots to practise include tracking shots and general shots with movement, keeping the camera steady is the difficult part, but it makes all the difference.

Video 2: Ramson Badbonez- February- Whateva Da Weather

As we have mentioned in the planning stages, we would like to incorporate the use of a black and white effect, this music video does the same as seen from the screen grab and actual full video. It creates a sense of unknown as colour is something our eyes judge constantly. Therefore, i believe the use of black and white footage will be successful as it may not be expected.


Another video by the same artist 'Ramson Badbonez' utilises special effects and graphics, this was also something, in the early stages of research and planning that we wanted to include. Here are some examples:

Eroded 'interupted signal' effect over a logo design.





Video 3: Fingerfood ft. Bva, Res, Leaf Dog - Back to the roots



The locations used in this video are very urban and gritty with a sense of street living and youth culture, these are themes our video would ideally express, this may be difficult to convey with limited people being in the video, but we will try are hardest to get the messages across.

Location permission letter draft

Dear Sir/ Madam,

In order to complete our coursework for our A2 media project, we have the task of filming a music video. We would like to seek permission to film on your premises at....

It is our intention to film at the dates listed below,  for no more than .... hours each day.

• ../../..
• ../../..
• ../../..

We very much hope that you will consider our application appropriate and grant us permission to film. 

Kind regards, 

Yours sincerely, 

Lucy King and Max Dandy.

Animatic Storyboard

Group roles - Change

Unfortunately, our group has become smaller due to one pupil leaving the school, therefore, me and Lucy (the remaining members) will take on the roles and responsibilities of the member that has left.

Interms of the responsibilities that will need to picked up are; lighting, editing and sound engineering,

Max: Editing

Lucy: Lighting

Max/Lucy: Sound engineer

(This will be  shared responsibility to ensure the amount of roles are equal and to ensure one of us doesn't struggle with too many roles)

Age restrictions homework

Ages restrictions in the music industry.