Story Board for Music Video

Audience Profile

In order to build a psychographic profile of my potential target audience, I wrote and sent out two questionnaires to gather information. These are the results I have gathered from it.

The survey showed that the large majority of my audience are middle class, meaning that on the NRS social demographic scale, they are well educated, and have reasonably well paying jobs.

 The survey also showed that all participants were males between the age of 16-20, the one outlier being one older male (35+).

The survey also showed what they expect to see women represented as in an R&B/ Rap video. They share the opinion that women should be objectified and essentially used as props in the video, to make it look better. This tells me that they are somewhat misogynistic in their opinion towards women in rap music video.

The young men who answered my survey all listen to rap and R&B on a regular basis, which helps me to solidify my choice in creating an R&B/ Rap video, as I have a guaranteed demographic and viewer base for my video. The fact that the majority of the participants listen to rap on a regular basis suggests that this is a mainstream taste, and they are following a trend of listening to this popular genre. In terms of psychographics, this group of people are 'mainstreamers'. These types of people tend to be materialistic, which is also reflected in the results of my survey. As shown here, they tend to spend their disposable income on clothing, technology and hobbies.

Mood Board for Music Video

Analysis of Stills- Lighting

Lighting is very important in all types of film productions. The use of lighting is important for multiple reasons, ranging from making it easier to see everything in the shot, to expressing a certain mood in the video, for example, if there is little lighting in a shot, it may create a sad or dull and depressing mood, which might highlight a theme in the song, whereas if lots of bright lighting is used, then it may create a positive and upbeat mood to accompany the song.
When I looked at a series of music videos, I found that lighting definitely helped to create certain moods, which may not have been possible with regular daylight.

In this still, we can see that the sky is grey, which would typically mean that the music video would be sad, negative etc. but in this video, the bright lighting gives it a more positive feeling, which supplements the song to make it more positive. What Miguel is probably trying to say here, is that you should see the positive side of everything, even if it seems like you shouldn't.



This still shows similar lighting to the one above. It is using natural light from the grey-ish sky which makes it feel somewhat dull and insignificant, but Miguel revives the mood of the shot with his vivid clothing colour scheme and bright, yellow-gold chains. The positive mood is also supported by the fun party background going on behind Miguel.

 

In this final still, we can see Miguel and Travis Scott in a street. the main source of lighting is the street light above them which gives a warm, yellow/orange light off. There are also red and blue police lights, which are very bright. The lighting in this shot gives a mood of warmth and comfort due to the shade and intensity of the light. The police lights added to this shot gives it more edge, because of the threat of the police. Of course there are no police, but this still maintains the edgy feeling which is overpowered by the warmer relaxed feeling of the street light.



Stills of Music Video- Analysing Location

Stills of music videos- Analysing Costume

When it comes to clothing and fashion, Migos are iconic. Since their rapid growth from 2013 to present, they have been seen in all kinds of designer clothing.

It is clear to see that Quavo (1st Right) is dressed in (no doubt) a designer suit jacket which has been tailored to his size. Underneath he is wearing a plain black t-shirt in order to make his jacket stand out more. He is of course wearing his custom-made 'Yoda' Chain, which is completely covered in diamonds, along with the 'YRN' and 'Culture' chain which represent their collective known as 'Young Rich N****s' and 'Culture' is the name of their new album which features this song.

Offset (Left with arms raised) is wearing a simple but elegant black long sleeve shirt, accompanied by his diamond covered watch and other assorted jewellery. Throughout the video, the trio change their costumes fairly frequently, but maintain a theme of high-fashion chique paired with a hint of ranch-esque clothing as seen with their use of denim later on in the video. They appear to dress in a feminine way, but this is to show their physiques and it is also just the way that designers create their clothing.

 

In the music video for 'Skywalker' By Miguel, he often changes costume to suit the lyrics in order to provide a link between his visuals and lyrics.



When he raps the line "I'm outstanding so I stand out" this shot is shown. He lip syncs the line and he clearly stands out as the lighting is focused on him as well as the camera. He is also the only person wearing light clothing, as the women around him are all wearing black or dark clothing.

Travis Scott features in the 'Skywalker' music video and is shown wearing a large amount of diamond covered jewellery which he references on his line "Ice all on my chain, Imma...". It may be difficult to see, but in a few shots we can see him wearing Jordan Basketball shoes which he also references on the line "In my 23's having a Jordan moment". '23' refers to Michael Jordan's number when he played in the NBA. His clothing is very simple and slightly oversized, making him appear like a skeleton which is what he maybe trying to show, as he often makes references to the underworld and other demonic imagery.



Music Video Analysis 5

Miguel- Skywalker Ft. Travis Scott- ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76O3w4pt0CA )

The video opens up with a close up of the artist Miguel. he is wearing a beret and red clothing and a muleta (stick with read fabric attached). There is a simple white text which reads 'Miguel'. The lyrics begin 'Quick to dead the bull like a matador' which links to his clothing. Matadors typically wear red clothing to anger the bull which they are going to fight and possibly kill. Miguel refers to 'bull' meaning 'bullshit' in this case, and means to say he is quick to avoid it. The camera quickly turns to face a Dodge Challenger which symbolises the bull in this case, and then flips back to Miguel, who confidently winks as the camera moves to a POV shot from the inside of the car. The shot then changes back to a low angle shot of Miguel holding the muleta out as the camera goes towards it. The video then smoothly transitions to Miguel sitting on a surf board in the ocean. He continues to deliver his chorus with women around him.

To link to his lyrics 'Celebrate everyday like a birthday' Miguel is presented with a birthday cake when he delivers the line. This is part of Goodwin's theory of music videos in which he says that a music video should include links between the visuals and lyrics. Throughout his entire first verse, there are constant links to the lyrics in the visuals, such as 'I'm outstanding, so I stand out'. The link between the lyrics and visuals is that he is in a crowd of people, but the light is only shining on him which makes him stand out. There is a short part when he mentions the movie Top Gun where he is dressed in a similar way as Tom Cruise, the star of Top Gun where he is a fighter pilot.

After repeating the chorus, Travis Scott is introduced as he starts his verse. The backdrop for Travis is bright, with neon lighting behind him, which causes his to appear as a silhouette. The camera shots are very fast and almost give the video a kind of psychedelic feel to it. Travis is known for having outrageous and trippy visuals for his music videos such as 'Goosebumps' or 'Pick Up The Phone'. There are only a few links between the lyrics and visuals, such as the line 'Wilin' with the paper', where he is seen with large amounts of cash. Then he says 'Ice all on my chain...' which refers to the diamonds on his chain, which look like ice.