BLACK SWAN

Thursday/13

We watched the movie Black Swan and found several similarities in our ideas and more inspiration and influence from the film for the theme of our catwalk show and music video storyline.

Black Swan is about rivalry, passion and dance.


Black Swan movie
- Schizophrenic dancer monologue

The film black swan is about an Innocent and naive girl ,obsessed with ballet who turns possessed and craves to be the swan queen in her ballet groups opening performance of a different version of Swan Lake. In the film we see the Innocent elegant ballet girl (perfect white swan candidate) battle with becoming her alter ego and the black swan who is poisonous, vivid and seductive.

Similarly in our movie we shall have a contrast between two of our models, one will be the old model , who is pushing thirty-five - near retiring and develops a drug/alcohol problem and is struggling to keep fresh and new and up with the new models... and her former self and latest rival; the new fresh faced model.

White Swan - Innocent dancer

VERSUS

                                   Black Swan - seductive, evil possessive. Alter Ego.

 

Our two main characters will be similar but different in many ways, they are similar because they are both fashion models in a very competitive industry yet different and juxtaposed because they are of different eras and generations and have different experiences which his an advantage to one but not the other.

Our Music video is about the down fall of our "black swan".

Black History Months End 2011... 31/10/11

OCTOBER-2011

Whilst many are out tonight celebrating Halloween, dressing up as ghouls and ghosts, I pay a last and final tribute to Black History Month here in England for year 2011. Listening to Radio1Xtra and its tribute to some of the young black and gifted role models and heroes of the month. Radio Presenter Trevor Nelson has told his story, musical genius, artist Labyrinth aka Timothy, who got into music after being heavily involved in gospel music throughout his childhood being one of nine children to a single mother in Hackney, the list and stories go on and are all fascinating and hugely inspiring. Long live Hip Hop and Martin Luther King and Nortorious B.I.G and Rosa Parkes and Tupac Shakura and all the other legends of black culture and black history who have made black history.
so here's a final farewell (for now) to black history celebrations in England,
Hooray to next time round and See you next year
                                  xxxxxxx        

MOD TV

Backstage Video from the Isabel Marant Spring 2012 fashion show backstage and on the catwalk. Inspiration for our music video as we shall be taking small fragmented shots from backstage at our fashionshow and combining them in a mini stream of images giving a background storyline to our quite abstract video.

White lace and black sheers are all fashion staples from the Dolce and Gabbana spring 2012 catwalk shows, in this video we here music from Jason Derulo whilst we view more hectic images of model life behind the scenes of some of the worlds biggest catlwalk shows SS 2012

                                                            xxx

iNFLUENCES and iNSPiRATiON

ICONOGRAPHY
AND
VOYEURISM
AND
POWER

KANYE WEST GENERAL ATTIRE

Key Props, costume, appearance and attire for Kanye West Videos -swag, confidence, fresh to death suits, sunglasses. Kanye likes to sell himself as an artist at every opportunity. he has a unique style and tends to fashion all the latest season trends straight from the catwalk.

Our Kanye West impersonator, must have a least two of the elements that make up Mr West, e.g swag and confidence and correct attire e.g suglasses or footwear.






Rihanna Lips - Rudeboy video
Sexual Connotations, Women+Bold Lips = Power

The Lips evoke powerful emotions and connotations of sex and strong femininity and female beauty, the colours are bold and vibrant.
Also...
 we looked at Jessie J's videos and found more powerful and sexual connotations involving, big stand out, vibrant lips. There is also a sense of danger and hidden agenda tied with Jessie J's black diamond encrusted lips, as they are jagged and 3-dimensional, there is an implication of S&N style torture and pleasure and glamorous danger.

These women are all very powerful, influential, independent and innovative and we have looked at their style music, videos and iconography and have taken some influences and adjusted and transferred them into our ideas for our music video, as we are enthusiastic about what they are about.

Tinie Tempah Pass Out Video
 - Water bouncing off the speakers

I like this idea for our video possibly with a glow in the dark drum and water bouncing off it whilst  the drum is beaten to give a very vivid, colour shock and pop effect, this is similar to the effect used on X Factor on  Saturday 29th October for Craig's performance of Adele's powerful and emotive Song.


the idea of something being moved by the vibrations from the music speaker, shows more connotations of physical power and strength and could be used as a metaphor to describe the song and music being pumped from the speakers.

NEW storyboard

Questionnaire Results (10)

To test the target audeince for both we will carry out a questionnaire on ten members of the class...

The questions we have included are:

-Age
1 x 21-25 year old
2 x 18-20 year olds
6 x 15-17 year olds

-Gender
8 x female
2 x male

-Do you like R&B music?
5 x yes
5 x no

-Do you think R&B music is aimed at men or women?
4 x men
3 x both
3 x women

-Do you like Kanye West
7 x no
3 x yes

-What is your favourite Kanye West music video?
2 x stronger
1x touch the sky

-Would you expect to see him in his videos?
10 x yes

-What do you think is Kanye West's strongest icon?
1 x coats
5 x sunglasses
1 x teeth

Target Audience

Before carrying out any research on the target audience of R&B music and Kanye West in particular. i have made some predictions for the results of our questionnaire. Due to the street/urban vibe of R&B music, i think that the main consumers will be between the ages of 15-17, but of course as the genre has become far more vast and wide in its content so have the age groups for the consumers and  age of target audience.

The target audience audience for our music video is likely to be mainly males as well, as the videos especially use alot of voyeurism and focus on women, promoting the men to be more important, enhancing the ego of male viewers. Both the male and female R&B artists seem to adhere for male wants. I think that Kanye West may have a slightly different audience, as his music both promotes the males but also is sincere in some tracks and show men to be sensitive, (our song) which may attract more female listeners.

Our Questionnaire & Prediction for Music Video viewers

Before handing out the questionnaires about R&B I have made some predictions

 

Practice Video with music of some footage

Here is a mini video we made of some of the images and footage to be used in our final video with accompanying backing track.

Images for DigiPak -

Here are some of the images we have taken to be used and as ideas to be used in our final digipak, the concept is models walking, and we have freefroze some shots of them getting ready in action

Black history month museum liverpool

Last night I went to Liverpool for the Liverpool John Moores Open day, we set off at 7:30am and it was a lonnng day but Liverpool is a lovely city and the courses and opportunities look fantastic.

Anyways, after touring and visiting various lecturers, the family and I stumbled up by Liverpool Echo arena and walked down by the Mersey (which looked beautiful with the foggy mist and warm sun setting across the grey/blue water) We then traipsed into town past the Elvis memorial and into the black history museum, which I have visited before and has been in Liverpool for around two years now, but shall be packing up and moving onto its next city on 6th November.

The museum pays tribute to black freedom fighters, black music, gives a very detailed in depth view of 1800 slave trade, with videos, quotes, inscriptions, illustrations and artefact's from the era. Replicas of the slave ships models are on display in glass cabinets, and there are several poignant quotations and descriptions of tragic personal  experiences during these eras.
There is similarly information on the more recent uprising and civil rights movements of the 1980's such as the Tottenham and Brixton rioting and Anti-Black racist groups such as Klu Klux Klan numerous other clashes through quite recent history.
I found the entire experience extremely moving and particularly, horrifyingly sad especially as these events happened in my parents and grandparents lifetimes.

 

DIGIPAK - basic start on Album cover.

Media Theorists and Voyeurism

Our music video will use many theorists as it incorporates many ideas. Voyeurism is when it seems to be filmed through a 'male gaze' objectifying women and satisfying sexual wants. 


Our video uses voyeurism because we are used fragmented body parts like the mouth and legs. The use of high heels has sexual connotations and is therefore part of the voyeurist idea. Our video uses voyeurism in scenes when the female models are walking up and down the catwalk wearing heels, focusing on certain parts of their body. Also, when models are getting ready/old model is crying it is into a mirror, which is a typical convention of voyeurism. Voyeurism is appropriate for our genre, as through our research we discovered that sexually objectifying women is a key convention of the R&B genre.


The video is also narrative and performance, the non linear narrative aspect encourages multiple viewings because it interests the audience and makes them want to watch it again to realise what it is really about, by using the correct mis-en-scene we will create authencity of storyline making it believable and appropriate to the song. The performance aspect of the video makes the artist look credible and like they have genuine talent. Our video used slight intertextuality as the narrative is inspired by the film Black Swan, but there is no straight links to other media texts.

Initial Ideas

Here is a mind map of some of my Initial ideas for our Music Video. including key words taken from the lyrics which we can use objects to represent in the video. We have also deconstructed what makes up a model and model behaviour which the song primarily addresses.  We have also looked at recent 2010 box office smash Black Swan as the story line could be quite similar or have influences. We also feel it is key to involve Hip Hop cultural references to the video as it is a hip hop video, for example artist performance and streetdance and routine.

Doccumentary TV

Reccently Channel Four aired a doccumentary called

How Hip hop changed the world

Part of  Street Summer 2011
The programme gave an excellent insight into the history of urban music and culture over the past three and a half decades.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-hip-hop-changed-the-world

REVIEW:

The programme was presented by Idris Elba, DJ, MC and Actor whose most reccent role was central character in TV crime drama Luther, takes a look back over the Hip Hop culture and music of the last thirty five years, the programme featured rare archive material, music videos and interviews from hip hop stars from both sides of the Atlantic; Snoop Dogg, Nas, Jessie J, Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder and N Dubz to name just a few. The programme counts down the defining moments of a culture that exploded out of the wastelands of 1970s New York and went on to become one of the most dominant global economic, political and social forces of our time.

From the birth of turntabalism to the UK grime artists who are now conquering the world, the wo-hour special reveals everything you need to know about hip hop.
 
INTERVIEWS FROM HOW HIP HOP CHANGED THE WORLD:.

 Snoop Dog - explains how he first got into hip hop.




Jessie J -  loves the honesty and originality of the UK scene

Tinchy Stryder - Confesses his Hip hop story.

Busta Rhymes, Biggie Smalls and Tupac influenced Tinchy

N Dubz - on how the US scene is influenced by UK artists

Rakim -The US rapper explains the secret behind his long career

Goldie - Explains Why hip hop culture has been so rewarding for him.

.

Production Schedule for OCTOBER:

We have decided to create a production schedule in order for our group to complete all our tasks in time and to the deadline.

Thursday 29th September: Levan 20 second choreography, set target for 1 minute.


Tuesday 3rd October:  Practice lip synch video with red lipstick and practice catwalk/mid shots and projector background.


Thursday 6th October: Blog, create action plan, research, aim to recruit 6 models.


Tuesday 11th October: Practice filming models walking catwalk, drum shots, fragmented shots of lips and megaphone. 



Thursday 13th October: Organise how we shall film levan, different locations and take pictures.



Thursday evening: Levan Dance rehersal for filming! if can film the lot, secure choreography.



Friday 14th October:  Recruited models shoot practice walk, in location. ( New Main Models - Naomi & Sophie)



Tuesday 18th October: Do any filming possible! and Update Blogggg




Thursday 20th October: more filming, real fragmented shots for film.


Tuesday 25th October: edit any draft film we have, experiment with editing techniques can upload any to blog




Thursday 27th October: more filming underwayyyyy!

Story BOARD 1

This is our first attempt at drawing up a story

Beginning:

"Master Plan" - Catwalk runway listing, - song starts.
Models walking down the catwalk, being scouted, cameras flashion. montage of catwalk and introduction to the main characters and two rival models. Megaphone, models high heels walking past camera, glitter being banged on drum. all drama. fast paced imagery. 

Middle:
Performance by Kanye West...
Old Model takes pills and smokes to keep herself looking young ad to keep in the industry but still gets turned away as new girl has taken her place. see her standing on streetcorners along, depressed, aged and rejected. flashbacks to earlier times in her career. Streetdancer dancing on street trying to earn money too.
models wearing denim walking down catwalk flashing imagery.


End: dreams/is she, walks down the catwalk, strutting her stuff, collapses at the end, cameras flashing wildly, dies at the end of the catwalk show.

PAGE ONE:

PAGE TWO: