Production Diary 26/1/16

Rihanna - The Inspiration

As the time to actually create, film and edit the music video is getting closer, I decided to blog about Rihanna - a personal inspiration for my ideas for this music video and upcoming artist.

Rihanna essentially embodies female empowerment, whilst retaining a very urban vibe at the same time. Fashion wise, her look has changed numerous times and has not been consistent, which is very intriguing. Whilst I was brainstorming ideas for my potential artist, Rihanna kept coming into these ideas because of her unique yet artistic appeal. From her music videos to her attire, Rihanna proves to be a big part of what my final idea will be. Here are some points of inspiration in particular. 

1) Music videos:

There are many music videos which she has either featured in or stolen the show with by herself. These music videos in particular interest me and have given me a platform to work with, in terms of coming up with a narrative and concept for my video. I have blogged about some these music videos separately.
'Where Have You Been'
'Run This Town'
'Diamonds'
'Hard'

2) Fashion:

Rihanna's style is always 'current'. Her look from 2014 onwards is the styling inspiration that I took to brainstorm for my artist. 

3) Choreography:

Rihanna is known for her amazing dancing ability. The music videos in which this was showcased was 'Where Have You Been', along with others.

Overall, Rihanna is a huge contributing factor to the ideas that have been generated for my music video.

Olivia Lip Synch Test

Here is a short snippet of Olivia (the chosen star for the music video) lip syncing to the selected song 'Wildfire'. 

Introduction Of Olivia (Chosen Star For Video)

Introducing Olivia Birkett's, my potential star for my music video.

Music Video Pitch

Here is my group and I's music video pitch. I have created this on Prezi, so below is the actual prezi, along with us presenting it.

Production Diary 5/1/15

Genre Conventions - [Shopping List]

The song 'Wildfire' is a single from Tinashe's album 'Aquarius' - created in 2014 - contains a mixture of genres: pop, R&B and alternative R&B. Because of these genres, there are certain conventions that would need to be followed within the music video in order for it to appeal to a stereotypical R&B listening audience. Below is a list of close to every convention that R&B and Pop have. As the time to create the actual music video becomes closer, my team and I will try to place some of these conventions within our music video, in order for it to appeal to our selected audience. 

POP CONVENTIONS:
- Bright lighting (potentially using a studio with professional lighting)
- Bright objects/costumes (which could include short dresses, high heels, either over-exaggerated or neutral makeup, stereotypically 'girly' jewellery.)
- Narrative (usually with a love interest) 
- Choreography 
- Excessive use of close ups
- Voyeurism
- Product placement (for example, Dr Dre headphones or speakers)
  

ALTERNATIVE R&B/R&B CONVENTIONS:   
- Tattoos
- Minimal clothing (i.e. crop tops, shorts, sometimes even lingerie)
- Perfect hair (usually long hair) and makeup (professional looking)
- Expensive brands (cars etc)
- Close ups
- Sunglasses is a prop that is used a lot along with a lot of jewellery (bling) - connotes that they have a lot of money and are wealthy.
- R&B songs almost always have a narrative - actors will be a necessity, even for choreography. 
- The performance of the videos is generally the artist being stationary lip singing or often they use tracking shots to follow them walking, this enforces the idea that the audience is actually there.