Music Video Proposal

Music Video Proposal

Artist & Track Name: Jaden Smith - Scarface

Running Time: 02:45

General style of music video. The overall style of the music video will have quite a young feel to it to reflect the young artist and young person starring in the music video, but it will also deal with the serious issue of police brutality in America so there will be an equal balance between the young feel and the serious feel. I intend to shoot the music video as a performance narrative piece as the lyrics are very important but so is the performance so I can get the message about police brutality across The visuals will have a direct link to some of the lyrics but it won’t necessarily be driven by the lyrics.  When it says “we dance to the music, it’s crazy ‘cause all of them sound so the same” we will see lots of people of different racial backgrounds dancing and having a good time.  The song has a very strong beat and the editing will be driven by this. I intend to stick to the codes and conventions of hip-hop music videos which I will research further.

Briefly describe what will happen in your music video.       What will we see? The music video will mainly be of the person starring in the music video and she will be lip synching to the song as well as performing.  There will also be one or two clips from New York, a few from a Black Lives Matter Protest in London to link with the police brutality theme, and the rest will be shot in Norwich as this is where I live and have the easiest access to. I intend to use widescreen bars in Adobe Premiere Pro, meaning that there will be quite a few wide shots.  With the actor, I will be using mostly close ups, mid close ups and long shots, this will help me to capture her prominent black features which is harder to tell as it’s being shot in black and white. I will mainly be using establishing shots as well as long shots and mid shots for the shots of buildings, as these are to establish the feel of the song and will only be quick clips. This video will be a typical hip-hop music video, touching upon topics of racism and black lives matter which are seen quite regularly in hip-hop videos. There will be intertextual references to the movie ‘Scarface’.  This is partly due to the name of the song, and also to the scene in ‘Scarface’ where Al Pacino gets shot by lots of bullets and then finally gets shot down by one, this is very similar to a story where a young male called Laquan was shot multiple times for over 16 seconds by police officers in America and I’d like to reference this.

What resources will you need? Props, styling, location, recording and lighting equipment, actors, etc.: Props and styling – Street style hip-hop clothing, jewellery, grillz – referring to moodboard Location – New York (buildings), Norwich (stairs in flat complex) + (broken wall by shopping centre) + (walls by industrial area near shopping centre) + (graffiti near flat) + (Sprowston police station) + (plain white wall in flat)  London – (UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession Protest) Recording equipment – Canon 70D, Sony a3000 Camera

Who will you need to organise for your music video shoot?  Are they reliable? Ella Campbell         - Very reliable         - I live with her         - Knows how important this is to me          - This is important to her too

How will you access/organise location(s)?  Is your idea ‘do-able’ in terms of resources and time scale? This is very do-able in terms of resources and time scale.  I live in the centre of Norwich and can easily travel anywhere in Norwich to shoot.  I live with Ella and we have a very similar schedule so she’s almost always free when I am.