On Monday we continued the group discussion from my previous post. During this I was able to tell everybody my ideas and receive valuable input for my project.
Problems:
- How to not make Alan look like a show off in the video.
In No GTA, Alan raps about different things like girls and money. My main conflict with all of this was to not make Alan look like a show off. I felt that by doing this my video would deliver a different message overall as well as give Alan a more envious image.
- How to show his character
Rap has always been a genre of personality. Whether you started in the 80’s or are just starting now like Alan, your career will be guided by two things: personality and lyricism, or personality or lyricism.
Cardi B serves as an example of artists that lead their career through personality. Although her music is heard on the radio, it’s not too frequently talked about. She makes appearances on talk shows and has achieved more success through the development of her personality than through her music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWIJfhfLKLE
Eminem serves as an example of artists who lead their career through both of these aspects. Eminem established himself as one of the best lyricists rap has seen. Although it is not the same now, young Eminem developed a crazy, all in your face personality through which he showed freedom of thought and action, and in which he showed his determination.
J Cole serves as an example of artists who lead their career through lyricism rather than personality. Out of his five studio albums, his last two have gone platinum and a third went double platinum with no features. He works to inspire the future generation of rappers through his lyrics rather than a wealthy lifestyle or crazy personality. Apart from touring after every new album, J Cole does not appear on talk shows or interviews unless they are self produced. He keeps his life very private and strives to build on his name and reputation through his lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNlQU-7y9Fo
My main problem is that I don’t think Alan’s personality matches his lyrics. This makes it difficult for me to understand how to portray him in the video and question whether extra elements need to be brought in.
- How to not make it repetitive.
At the moment my video consists mainly of two things: Cars and a party. My problem with this is that the music video will look too repetitive.To fix this I was planning on adding different scenes and locations.
Advice/Solutions:
- Showing off is alright (to an extent). Alan is a rapper, showing off through his lyrics doesn’t go completely off the tracks regarding genre conventions. Having received this advice I realized the advantages of taking that style for the video. By “showing off” I can be more creative with my cinematography to really show the lifestyle that Alan tries to portray through his lyrics.
- I find that Alan focuses on his lyricism and his personality. Although his lyricism is solid, he hasn't been able to fully develop his personality. To fix this my classmates said to add different elements to the video. This includes things like a color scheme, extra actors, or developing a storyline.
I do not like storylines in music videos so I decided to scratch that. I really like the idea of following a specific color scheme. This concept aids in developing my theme as well as in cinematography. Knowing what the primary colors of my video will be can help me in figuring out lighting and other elements. (I will make a blog post about choosing the color scheme for No GTA’s video, website, and digipak.)
- My video needs to have some sort of purpose. Once I completely understand the purpose of this video I will have a better idea of the shots I have to get as well as the elements that have to be brought in. One of my classmates said that I should include the actual GTA video game in the music video. I really liked this idea and put more thought into it. I would add a scene at the beginning of the video in which two people are playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I would establish that Alan is in the game. This helps establish what is really happening and gives me more reason to show off in the video.
This was a very helpful discussion. I now understand what I have to do to have a complete understanding of the direction my project is taking.
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