Production Treatment E1- 10 Group 1

The Music Video we have chosen: The Game Feat. Lil' Wayne - My Life

Duration: The Length of the Music video - 3:54

Audience: Our video is not targeted at everyone, it is targeted at young males aged between 15-30. It is not suitable for anyone younger than 15 as they should not be watching the violence and be listening to such explicit lyrics.

Resume: The narrative of the song is a couple young males that are going down the wrong path in life. In our video we show some shots of one of the young males getting caught and sadly killed. We want our video to be an inspiration and to warn young males of the dangers of taking the wrong path therefore, our aim is to help these young males change their path and thrive in life.

Genre: Rap/HipHop/2step

Suggested Elements:

1) Performance - Alonzo and Mohammed will be performing throughout the song, with fast cuts, cutting to the beat with Mohammed on the chorus and Alonzo on the verses.

2) Costumes - The costumes were planning to use are typical rap costumes like baggy jeans/combats and vests this is because it will fit in with the genre we have chosen which will create a more realistic atmosphere when the audience will be viewing our music video. Alonzo will also be wearing a chain in some of the scenes.

3) SFX - Throughout our music video we will be using numerous editing transitions and post production effects.

4) Key Locations - The locations we will be shooting on will be rough, urban parts of Manchester to reflect on what the song is about to give our music video a sense of originality for the audience.

Recording Days: Approximately we will be recording for 6 days, day and night to have a change of scenery and weather. We will be recording each scene more than once to get different angles which will then be effective as we will have more footage to choose from. For editing we will take much longer, around 10 or more days to finish everything, leaving a bit of time to 'polish' our music video, this is simply make sure there is no mistakes or if there is anything we can add to improve our work.

SHOT LIST

This is our opening shot list for about a minute for our Music Video that we hope to stick to.

• Two shot
• Establishing shot
• Long shot
• Medium close up - Two shot
• Close up
• Zoom in shot
• Panning shot
• Medium wide shot
• Two shot - Wide shot
• Wide - shot
• Medium close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium close up shot
• Close up shot
• Wide shot
• Medium shot
• Wide shot
• Close up

Analysis Of A Music Video

50 Cent - Many Men

50 Cent - Many Men

The reason for choosing to analyse this video is because it is very similar into what we are trying to produce. The storyline of this video is that 50 Cent has been in his past has thrived through the wrong path and his enemies are after him.

In our video what we are trying to create is a similar type of theme but sending a much better message. We are hoping to send a message to young teenagers not to be easily influenced to join gangs or any type of activites which are wrong. In this video there are some very effective camera shots, there are a lot of close-ups used for the performer 50 cent to interact with the audience, there are also some very important camera angles used when the camera would pan from 50 cent to the person he is having a conversation to this is more effective as there wont be cut to the next character confusing the audience. some of the shots of 50 cent are framed in an effective way of it showing to the audience that he is trapped in a tough and violent lifestyle. the technique of the rule of thirds is also included in this video, this would reflect on the audience to pay more attention to the video and what the concept of the video is actually about.

Furthermore this music video has a illustrative narrative, we noticed this as the video is literally telling a story with performance taking place for e.g. with the police officers and forensics at a crime scene, however the editing effect on the illustrative narrative at the start of the video goes back in time revealing previous events. More so 50 cent lip synching his lyrics on the chorus"MANY MEN...".

There is an even balance between the narrative in the video with the aspect of the performance, the video tends to cut very fast between the two aspects cutting to the beat, the editing in this video has a fast cut rate which reinforces the fact that they are going through heart pounding experiences. This video of 50 cent is a typical rap video as it is shot in urban locations setting the ethos of a rap/hip hop genre, the mise en scene also emphasis's the hip hop/rap theme as the clothing represents the rap star image in the characters. The props such as the cars, weapons and jewelry also implicates the negative lifestyle throughout the narrative relating to the song. Throughout most of the video it has dark lighting signifying that the characters are in a negative atmosphere.

Use Of The Camera

Shots Used

The use of this extreme close-up is really effective; it symbolizes the true Christianity of 50 cent 'An eye for an eye'. You can see the reflection of his enemy; it shows in his eyes the revenge he is seeking. His enemy is centred in his eye showing he is the main person he is aiming for.

This is a close-up shot, it shows his expensive clothes and the fast food he just bought. This shot has a contrast as he is wearing expensive jewerely and just bought some cheap food from a corner shop. It can also show that the 'thug' life isn't as good as it's visioned.

This is a wide shot showing what happened after he left. He left wounded and with his blood on the floor. This shot shows the police at a crime scene. The police men in this scene are white and the people surronding the scene are black.

This shot is only focused on one of the two men, this shows the effectiveness of the shot and the detail used to shoot this scene. It maybe symbolizes the one focused is the main perpetrator, this scene gets really intense and leads up to the shooting in the video of 50 Cent.

This low angle shot shows him falling after he has been shot. In every shot of him being shot it is low angle. Even though he has been shot, the use of low angle shows he still has a high status. This shot also shows the location, a building of flats.

This is another close-up 50 Cent performs, he is looking up to the sky as if he is looking for a answer from God. Most people moving out of the 'hood' are religious, most of them find an answer from God and lead their life differently which makes them feel they are in a safer position.

This is a two shot, very simular to a medium shot, this one just includes 2 people. The people in the shot both have police badges on to show who they are. This shot is slightly low, again showing that they have a high status.

Magazine

Here are some examples which will influence us on how our we want our magazine cover to look, we have looked at a variety of magazines but these 3 examples stood out the most.

Example 1:

The reason for choosing this magazine is to show what kind of musician Lil' Wayne is, it shows he is dedicated to his work and works along side famous DJ's. All the colours used on this magazine are all male colours to represent this is a male magazine. This has given us the idea to use male colours in our magazine to show that our target audience is males. This attracts our target audience of 15+ males.

Example 2:

We chose this magazine cover because it has a variety of colours which makes it more interesting. It has a different theme compared to the others we have chosen as we are looking for different type of magazines. This magazine also shows a group which we thought resembles our group.

Example 3:

We chose this magazine cover because it was different to the others options as this one has a white background, the theme of this magazine has two colours and the background is white, different to the previous covers we have talked about. On this artist's cap, it has a picture of an Eagle with wings which relates to our music video, as it symbolizes freedom. This magazine cover looks more about fashion even though it's about a music artist.

Our Magazine Cover
We chose to have an award theme for our magazine, this is to show there are positive outcomes of becoming musicians. This would influence our target audience which are young males to choose a different path and become a success in life rather than a failure. To be winning awards show you have the support of other people around the world and this support will give you the confidence to do anything you want, artists feel they have much more freedom

CD Cover

Idea's for CD cover

Drake - Thank Me Later

This CD cover of Drake was our first idea because a lot of his songs talk about life. We chose this particular CD cover because he is looking up, as though he is looking for an answer. On this cover it says 'Thank Me Later' which is on a few of his CD Cover's, this showing that it's his quote. We could use a quotation of our own for our CD cover.

Lady Sovereign - Public Warning

We chose this CD cover of Lady Sovereign because this gives her a rebel image. This was an idea because her name stands out clearly and the image of her on the right is very big. On our CD cover this gives us the idea that we could have the 2 main performers, their name's or the title of the song standing out.

Lil' Wayne CD Cover

This CD cover of Lil Wayne was a good idea because of the use of colour. Lil Wayne has specifically chosen purple and red as the colours to stand out. Red being danger and purple being wealth. The way he has 'Fear' on one eye and 'God' on his eye's makes him look like a strong man as he is giving a powerful message.

2Pac - Living In Paradise

This CD cover of Tupac Shakur was our last idea as he died in 1996 he was an inspiration to many. This CD cover is very powerful as he is no longer alive, him looking up to the sky and the cover saying 'living in paradise' is now contradicting the fact he can no longer do either. But this cover can tell people that by taking the right path in life you can end up in paradise, which relates to our music video as it has a lot to do with taking the right and wrong path in life.

Our songs original cover

This is the original cover to our song, although it does not have a picture of Lil' Wayne on it, it still mentions the song is featuring him. We chose not to do something familiar to this because this gives of a bad message compared to ours, as it uses dark colour's and red writing. The colour red represents danger, evil and death. There are some similarities from this cover to our video as most of the background is black, showing an urban affect, the only lighting in the cover is on the main artist.

First Front Cover Draft

This was our first draft of a CD cover, to create this photo we downloaded a still image from Google. With this image, took it to the green screen and we positioned ourselves on how we thought would be appropriate. With the use of the equipment we had, the way we positioned ourselves was due to the television in front of us that showed us how the picture would look. The picture is in a graveyard in which we are standing/sitting, beside an angel looking for an answer from God. The reason we took this picture off Google was because we decided as a group it would be disrespectful actually going into a graveyard and taking pictures of other people's loved ones.

Second Front Cover Draft

This was our image for the second draft of our CD cover, as a group we chose and decided that the first draft for our CD cover was too basic and that we could produce another one with more meaning into the image to reflect back onto our music video. We only believe this to be a much effective picture than the first draft because this was actually taken in real-world settings. The first draft was taken in green screen which we thought looked artificial. Also it has a lot more lighting and just looks more efficient for a CD cover.

Final Front Cover

This is our final CD cover, we decided to not use the previous drafts because it lacked originality and didn't really tell a story whereas this CD cover represents the theme of 'children', this type of retrospective theme is used to bring back memories from when the artists were kids, thinking back on how things could've changed. Also most of the image is in black and white but the actual artists in colour. We done this to make sure us artists stood out. We have also sized the cover by it's professional size which is 12 by 12 cm. What also is professional about this cover is that it has the 'parental advisory' feature on it.

Final 1st Inner Cover
This is our final inner cover, we have decide to use the background picture as a road symbolising the 'road of recovery' and how The Game turned his life artound into the right path. We have also inserted a lyric from the song to link it with the picture. To add, we have inserted a quote from 'The Game' himself, the quote is a positive one which teenagers may listen to as he a role model.

Final 2nd Inner Cover
This is our final second inner cover, we have used exatcly the same theme but a quote from Lil' Wayne. Another difference is we have re-arranged the picture of the artist, we have inserted him on the right hand side to be different.

Final Back Cover

For the back cover, we decided to keep the theme of retrospectivechildren memories. This picture shows how us artists are creating an image of 'looking back at our lives' and thinking on how 'crazy' life was in the 'hood'. We also kept the black and white/colour theme which makes us stand out. We have given this a professional look by adding images at the bottom such as the labels symbols, the copyright information and the barcode.

Location

Locations

We took this picture of Hulme bridge to symbolise that most of our filming is in Hulme. We chose Hulme because it has many different locations that we could use to show our video is about lower class. Some of our filming took place on the birdge this picture was took on.


This is another picture we took of Hulme, we chose this because there is footage at the start of our video of cars on the motorway. On Final Cut Pro, we edited this part so the cars went at a higher speed, we created this effect to send a message that 'Life is too fast'.

We filmed our narrative in the Hulme subway, the picture above shows this. We chose this location because it shows the urban side to our video. The graffiti on the walls also show that this is more of an abandoned area. Some of our footage shows the subway is blocked of by the police, this shows we have used a location that has a lot of crime in the area. When we edited our narrative in Final Cut Pro we made all of it black and white to create a gritty atmosphere and to show it was a past event.

We took this picture of a park in Longsight because we wanted have children in our video playing in the park. The children are seen in the playarea as this is where you are most likely to find children. We also edited this to black and white to show this is a past event of our narrative.


We used the greenscreen as another location so we could have a choice of any background. This image shows what the greenscreen looks like. In our video we had two different backgrounds, a cemetry to show our target audience that if you choose the wrong path, this is where you may end up. Also there's a fire effect to show there's always a sense of danger no matter where you go.

Costume, Props, Extras and Equipment

Costumes

Lil' Wayne and The Game (From left to right)

One of the scenes Lil' Wayne is wearing a dark blue bubble coat, jeans and black trainers. The Game is just about wearing the same type of clothes but with a red jacket showing his top, we chose this theme as coming from a tough area we thought it would be suitable. With the context of the lyrics, we thought wearing formal clothing type such as suits wouldn't fit with the whole concept of the video.

This is another scene in where Lil' Wayne is simply wearing a black hoody with a black hat, we chose for Lil' Wayne to wear black because it represents a much darker theme as most people in the 'hood' like dark colours.
The Game has a black jacket on with a white top, white combats and trainers. The Game shows a contrast in his costumes, we chose this because he's trying to get out of this 'hood' but he's in two minds, this is why we picked this costume.


Props

These are our main props we used in our video. This was to represent that our video is about different people, diffierent cultures and different areas. We chose these two colours as they are most effective as they represent the two biggest gangs of America 'Bloodz & Crips'.

Extras

These are the children in our music video we chose to add them into our video as it creates the sense of people choosing the right path in life at a young age.

These are the people that are involed in the crime scene of our music video. The idea of these people shows how the crime scene happened and how the person at the crime scene died.

This is a shot of The Game with his friends showing that he keeps tham close and that they are important in his life.

this is the police woman in our video. we chose to have her in a close up shot as it showed the emotion on how she felt about the scene.


Equipment


We used a Canon Legria FS306 camera to shoot different parts of our music video. When we were not using the green screen camera's we used this camera as it was easier to take it onto our filming locations. Another advantage this camera had from the green screen cameras was that all of our filming was saved onto a memory card which speeded up the process of getting all of footage from the cameras to the apple mac computers.



In the above picture there is a tripod which we used to keep the camera still when we were filming, this made our shots look more professional as if we hadn't used a tripod most of our shots would have been handheld and more on a canted angle. The tripod made it very easy to get very still panning and tracking shots because of the tripod which keeps the camera still and straight.

This is a picture took while Ekuiki was using the green screen DV high resolution cameras to film parts of our music video. This camera is a lot better than the other digital camera we have used to film as we were able to use the shallow and deep focus more effectively straight from the cameras. These cameras have extended our knowledge on new technology as we were able to cut from three different cameras which allowed us to get a variety of shots in one take.

This picture was took whilst Molly was making sure all the camera's were in place ready to record on a live production software called Tricaster. After everything was set up correctly, she was able to record everything to how she and the group wanted it to go. Molly was able to cut from different cameras on the Tricaster set up and choose which shots would positvely impact the groups music video.

Influences Of Imagery

Tupac - Changes

The reason for choosing this picture of Tupac is because he comes from a similar background and culture which has inspired us as a group to work on something positive. We chose this picture of him as he is praying like he is asking for God.

B.I.G. - Born Again

The reason for choosing this picture of B.I.G. is because he also comes from the same tough background but wants to escape from the gang affiliated area. We chose this image of B.I.G because it looks like he is trying to grab hold of someone or something

Eminem - Stan

The reason for choosing this picture of Eminem is because in his past, he has lived a very hard life and raps about how hard he had to work to get where he is in through music. We chose this image because we think it represents alot of Eminem's background.

50 Cent - Many Men

The reason for choosing this picture of 50 Cent is because his background includes many aspects of life such as involvement of drugs, gangs and guns. In his past he was involved in a fatal shooting were he had been 9 times and survived. After the shooting, he realised he had to leave the gang life and pursued his career in music.

Initial Planning Meeting E1-10 Group 1

Choice Of Song

The song we have chosen for this project is The Game featuring Lil' Wayne - My Life.

Below is a picture of Lil' Wayne (Left) and The Game (Right) took whilst filming the actual music video of My Life.

Genre - Rap/Hip-Hop

Roles In The Group

The two main performers will be Alonzo Walters (The Game) and Mohammed Abubakar (Lil' Wayne) Ekuiki Da Silva and Molly Rourke will be handling camera work. We will all be participating in the Final Cut Pro editing.

Song Lyrics

[Chorus: Lil Wayne]
And I'm grindin until I'm tired
Cause they said you ain't grindin until you tired
So I'm grindin with my eyes wide, lookin to find
A way through the day, a life for the night
Dear Lord you done took so many of my people
I'm just wonderin why you haven't taken my life (my life, my life)
Like what the hell am I doin right? (doin right)
My life (my life, my life)

[The Game] + (Lil Wayne)
Take me away from the hood, like a state penitentiary
Take me away from the hood, in a casket or a Bentley
Take me away, like I overdosed on cocaine
Or take me away, like a bullet from Kurt Cobain
Suicide, I'm from a Windy City, like Do or Die
From a block close to where Biggie was crucified
That was Brooklyn's Jesus, shot for no reason
And you wonder why Kanye wears Jesus pieces (my life, my life)
Cause that's Jesus people, and Game, he's the equal
Hated on some much Passion that Christ need a sequel
Yeah, like Roc-a-Fella need a Sigel
Like I needed my father, but he needed a needle (my life, my life)
I need some meditation, so I can lead my people
They askin why, why did John Lennon leave The Beatles?
And why every hoods feed off evil?
Answer my question 'fore this bullet leave this Desert Eagle

[Chorus]

[The Game] + (Lil Wayne)
We are not the same, I am a Martian
So approach my Phantom doors with caution
You see them 24's spinnin? I earned 'em
And all the pictures of me and Em, I burned 'em
So it ain't no proof, that I ever walked through 8 Mile
And since it ain't no Proof, I'll never walk through 8 Mile
Sometimes I think about my life, with my face down
Then I see my sons and put on that Kanye smile (my life, my life)
Damn, I know his momma proud
And since you helped me sell my Dream we can share my momma now
And like M.J.B., No More Drama now
Livin the Good Life, me and Common on common ground
I spit crack, and people could drop it out of town
Got a Cris', call my estate, I'm never out of bounds
My life used to be empty like a glock without a round
Now my life full, like a chopper with a thousand rounds


[Chorus]

[Lil Wayne]
My life (my life, my life)
My life (my life, my life)
My life (my life, my life)

Ideas For The Video

• Location: Cemetery, Top of Buildings and Urban Streets of Hulme in Manchester.
• Narrative: The initial narrative of the video will be showing a group of boys getting chased by a drug dealer, however one of them eventually is captured, ending the video in a brutal way.

Ideas For Magazine & CD Pack Design

• Magazine: Alonzo (The Game) leaning against the wall, closest to the camera, whilst Mohammed (Lil Wayne) is standing far in the background yet still visible. At the top of the page it will say the name of the magazine and towards the bottom there will be a paragraph about the song & about the performers.

• CD Cover: The first idea we came up with is the two main performers are stood beside a grave stone looking up, pleading for an answer to get out this life. On this cover the two performers will be in colour, everything else in the picture will be in black and white.
• The second idea we came up with