Music Video Idea 1

Music Video Idea 1

Song: Without U

Artist: Spooky Black

My first music video idea is for the song “Without U” by the artist Spooky Black who can be seen in the photo above, he is also known as Lil’ Spook and/or Corbin. His birth name is Corbin Smidzik, he hails from Saint Paul, Minnesota in the United states and is between 16 and 17 years old and is an alternative R&B artist. To date Spooky has put out 5 projects, Forest (2013), Black Silk (2014), Leaving (2014), The Stand4rd (2014) and Couch Potato (2015). He gained popularity online after the release of the project entitled Black Silk in 2014, especially after the release of the music video for his song Without U, which was considered one of the best underground songs of 2014, it is the song which I am making a concept for in the blog post. Black is a quite mysterious artist, not much is known about him, for example even Wikipedia isn't sure about his age, his music does not conform to the conventions of many mainstream music genres, thats why online his music genres are called Alternative R&B, soul, cloud hip hop and lo-fi. The internets youth are attracted to his music because it is “strange” and “different” and because they enjoy his experimental music and music videos, just like some other artists which are similar to Spooky and who have a similar following such as Travi$ Scott, Yung Lean and Keith Ape.

                 Travi$ Scott                                                           Yung Lean                                                             Keith Ape

The song “Without U” was produced by “Greaf” and is off Spooky’s project entitled Black Silk which was released in 2014. The song is 5 minutes and 3 seconds long and was the leading single on the project. Here is the song:

My concept for the music video: The video will follow a male actor preferably the same age as Spooky so around 17 years old, he will be looking directly into the camera and singing the song, but the entire video will be in slow motion, the way I am planning on doing this is by speeding up the song by either 25% or 50% for the playback during the shooting of the film and the actor will have to sing it at that speed, then later in post production we will take the sound away from the footage and replace it with the song at its original speed then slow down the footage by either 25% or 50% so that it will seam like the singer is singing in slow-motion but it will be in sync with the song which is in its original speed. This technique can be seen for example in the music video for “King of The Fall” by “The Weeknd” as can be seen bellow and bellow that is a tutorial on how to film and edit a slow-motion video:

One of the most important parts of this music video is the lighting, I want the entire film to be shot with heavy red and blue lighting on the male actor, especially on his face, I believe that this will enhance the effect of the slow-motion because it will help make it even more surreal, especially if the lighting is used in places outside of a film studio where it is harder to do, for example in a forest or in a hall way outside where the lighting would not normally be like that. Bellow are some photos which give across the effect I want to attain with the lighting:

While the actor is being followed around the shot which will be used is a medium close up so that we can clearly see the actors face. The shoot will have to be a night shoot because i want it to be dark to be able to accentuate the lighting on the teenagers face, the different locations it will be shot in will be outside on the street in a city, in a corridor and in the forrest, to cut from location to location the camera will either pass behind a tree or a pillar for example, where we will cut in post production and the next shot will start behind another tree or pillar to make it look like by passing past a tree or pillar the location has changed. The actor will not be walking he will be rolling on something to make it look as if he is floating to add to the surreal effect of the music video, an example of this is shown in the youtube video bellow. Throughout the song I want there to be a few different camera tricks for example the camer doing a full 360 degrees spin constantly looking at his face slowly or a spin around the actors body to once again add to the surreal effect. There will not be a narrative it will just be the actor being filmed in the different locations, and as for costume since we will only be able to see his shirt I want the actor to wear a black hoodie, because I want the actor to look dark and mysterious.

I believe that this music video will fit in with the song because the song is very slow paced, the beat is very slow and the singing is slow paced as well, Spooky holds the notes out for along time, so the slow motion effect on the video will compliment this. As for the lighting it is just to enhance the picture and make it look more visually attractive and to add to the surreal feeling of the slow-motion which commits the song; The same goes for the effect that makes the actor looks like he’s floating and the camera techniques of spinning etc.  

I think that this music video fits in well with the brand/image of Spooky Black because he is known for being avant-garde, different and creative with his songs but as well with his music video, and I believe that this music video concept  would fit in perfectly with that image of his because it is quite unique and not very conventional for your typical music video.

Music Video Idea 2

Music Video Idea 2

Song: Pure Luxury

Artist: Tyga

My second music video idea is for the song "Pure Luxury" by the artist Tyga who can be seen in the photo above, he is also known as T-Raww. His birth name is Michael Ray Nguyen-Stevenson, he hails from Compton, California in the United states. To date Tyga has released 23 projects including 18 mixtapes and 5 studio albums, his albums, their release dates and the label they were released by is as follows: No introduction - (2008) - Decaydance (label); Careless World: Rise of the Last King - (2012) - Young Money Cash Money Republic (label); Hotel California - (2013) -  Young Money Cash Money Republic (label); Fan of a Fan: The Album - (2015) - RCA & Young Money Cash Money Republic (label); The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty - (2015) - Last Kings Music (label). The song I chose which is “Pure Luxury” is the 7th track of “The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty. Tyga is an Artist who is quite in the lime light when it comes to fame, especially for rap artists; He is signed to the same label as such big artists as Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj who he as done a few collaborations with already; Tyga is also dating Kylie Jenner, who is the step sister of Kim Kardashian, she is also on the show “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”, she has about 34.3 million followers on Instagram and has been considered one of the most relevant celebrities of the year, this obviously means that this elevates Tyga’s popularity as well. Tyga’s music genre is HipHop / Rap, other artists like toga are rappers such as YG, Meek Mill and SchoolBoy Q.

                       YG                                                                     Meek Mill                                                            SchoolBoy Q

  

The song “Pure Luxury” is the 7th song off Tyga’s 5th studio album entitled The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty, the song was released on June 23rd 2015, it was produced by Dupri, Jess Jackson and Mike Dean, Mike Dean in particular has produced for many rappers like Tyga such as Kanye West, E-40 and Jay-Z. Pure Luxury is 4 minutes and 59 seconds long, the song is embedded bellow (it is slightly sped up as to avoid copyright issues).

My concept for the music video: The music video will based around the rapper and his posse, to follow the convention of a rap music video the rapper will be looking into the camera and will be aware of its presence. There will be a lot of crane shots and dolly shots as to also fit in with the conventions of a rap music video. The whole music will be shot at night to emphasise the dark feeling of the song. The music video has no story line, it is more of a performance for the camera; The video will be split into 5 different locations, one of them will be in an underground parking lot, another will be on the street, another will be on top of something high, for example a store or building etc. another will be a shot inside the studio and the last will be a shot of fire. Bellow I will explain each of the 5 different shots:

This is the shot which takes place in an under ground parking lot, the lights will be turned off and a few industrial lights will be used to light the scene because it will give it a darker feel to accompany the dark sounding song, a crane shot will be used to film the shot, it will be going up and down while the rapper and his group perform standing up to the camera. The purpose of the shot is to show that this group is in places there not supposed to be and that they brake the rules, because no ones meant to be in a parking lot in the middle of the night. My inspiration for the shot can be seen in the video embedded bellow, which is the music video for the song mercy by Kanye West, the difference between the two will be that it will not be shot in black and white and instead of a spinning shot, it will be a crane shot facing on way.

The next shot is the one that takes place on the street, this shot will be a night time shot, it will be a shot of the rapper and his posse walking down the street, the shot will be filmed from the back of a car slowly driving infant of the group whilst they follow walking and looking into the camera, the shot will be filmed with a large bright light behind the camera to light up the group so that they are visible. The effect of the shot of them walking down the middle of the street is to show that these people are bad and that they brake the rules. My inspiration for this shot is from the music video for the song “Happy” by Pharell, which is one big tracking shot down the street.

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The third shot as explained will be onto of something high, possibly a building or maybe just a store, but I want them to be on a flat roof where you can tell that they are elevated, this once again is to show that they break the rules, do what they want, and go where they want to go. This shot would probably be filmed on a drone because I want ariel shots of them on the roof as well as some hand held shots. Bellow is a video for the song “Ayo” by Tyga himself, along with Chris Brown, near the end of the video there is a shot of them onto of a building, obviously it would be hard to film onto of a building so high for a school project, so it would probably be on something a lot smaller, but the video helps portray the image I imagine.

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The 4th shot is a shot inside the studio of only the main rapper and not his posse, There will be two shots, one will be a MID SHOT and the second will be an ECU of the rappers lips reciting the lyrics of the song, which can be inserted all throughout the she music video. The lighting in the shot will be dark, with a black background but there will be red lighting on the rapper, because red connotes bad things, such as evil and violence and danger which helps support the the rappers “gangsta” image. Bellow is the music video for “U MAD” by Vic Mensa with Kanye West, this is what inspired this shot.

The 5th shot is a shot of fire outside during the night so that the fire would light up the night, this shot can be also dispersed through out the music video, it could work especially well on beat drops because it adds emphasis to it. This shot is also important because of the connotations behind fire, fire connotes violence and anger and pain, and therefore swell fits in with the dark themed tune of the song and the rappers image. Bellow is the music video for the song “40 Mill” by Tyga himself, throughout this music video there is shots of fire and that is what my inspiration for this shot was.

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As for the clothing the actors would be wearing I was envisioning all black, to contribute to the “thug” look we are trying to portray for the rapper, the connotation of black: “Black is a mysterious colour associated with fear and the unknown (black holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humour, 'black death'). Black denotes strength and authority.”, this is what we are aiming for. I want all the actors to where as much as possible and have as little skin showing, for example wearing hats, gloves, long sleeved shirts etc. because that makes them more mysterious because the audience doesn't know what they look like. Bellow is a compilation of photos and a video which is the live performance of Kanye West’s song “All Days”, all this what I want the rapper and his entourage to look like in my music video:

I think the music video that I have envisioned will fit the song very well for several reasons, the song is a very somber and dark song as can be seen by these lyrics from the song itself: “Old fucking drama, call the karma kamikaze; Shots of alcohol the pain its relic in my chest, I feel demolished; Hold the liquor, make it silence, pray into me like the altar; Life is off the loss and coughing I'm just here to make my offer” The music video idea embodies this darkness, all the outdoor shots are filmed at night, all the clothing is black, the background in the shots filmed in the studio is black, the lighting is red in the studio which connotes sadness and evil, and the fire which is used connotes evil and bad etc.  

I think that this music video fits in well with the brand/image of Tyga because he is known for his image of violence and rebelling, this can be seen in quite a few of his lyrics, for example: “Fuck school I'm a rapper dog”, “Fall to their knees, Plead for their right to breathe”, “Fuck the, fuck the police, these niggas know they know me” etc. So in the video when the rapper and his group look like bad guys and are breaking the law etc. it actually fits in with Tyga’s image.