Audience response to Hype Williams

The extremely high sale rates and views for Hype Williams videos speak for themselves, he has millions upon millions of fans due to his distinctive taste in the use of colour, and his own style in video directing. Audience responses to his work are all positive; "The ten videos in this collection display a striking eye, inventive imagination, and an inerrant sense of what will catch the attention of and appeal to a predominantly male teenage audience." - http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/hypewilliams.php.

There are reviews on Williams debating whether he is a constant success, and the answer was no, He is known to re-use ageing or somewhat stale techniques such as the fish eye lens, relying too heavily on fast paced editing and block style shots. However, at the end of each review read, his distinctive talent is always acknowledged.

"Occasionally (maybe more than occasionally), his shot selection borders on pandering. But he clearly has talent, and best of all he's pushing that talent to its logical ends. I grant the man mad props for that." - Judge Michael Rankins 2002.

People who aren't even inclined to the entire genre that Williams works for, all have no choice but to admire the way in which Williams portrays his visions of music.

Youtube Comments:

Misspartner
3 months ago 15
Soooooooooooo visually pleasing!! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0fpydD5jJk

This is a positive comment in that it portrays the views of a fan who was entertained by the way in which Williams puts vibrant colours to use.

Hi4ofUs31
2 weeks ago
sexy ass viedooooooooo haha - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uSkPdwyvGU

Another positive comment, although a lot more informal.
rappadapp
1 year ago
dis song & video is jus f**** crazy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHcC6bw5XE

Despite the way it sounds, this is a positive comment expressing how vividly different and alternatively styled and edited the video was.

Treatment.

The opening scene to the video is somebody rolling and smoking a cigarette on new years eve, as 2012 dawns, we thought this would be an accurate portrayal of someone not even considering the idea of the Earths impending doom. Backing this idea up, the radio is featuring a DJ mocking the idea of 2012 being the end. After this scene, the radio is shown to switch from the jolly station is what tuned in to, to a different station playing the dark and ominous beat featured for the song. Despite the give away of the dramatic instrumental, the broadcasts begin happy and not all doom and gloom as the weather improves and the new year has started.

Synopsis

The concept of our music video is the rumors about 2012 being the end of the world, and we took a spin on the idea saying that perhaps it will not be a sudden end, but a gradual, dramatic end with subtle weather changes going to extremes. We thought it an original idea that would make viewers and listeners think about the idea and come to their own conclusion. Instead of a typical song we went with the idea of using a news broadcast we recorded over an intense instrumental. The broadcast starts off on a positive note, praising the suddenly hot weather and encouraging people to go out and have fun, the broadcasts however take a dark turn for the worse as weather gets too hot to handle, and humanity itself is faced with aggressive danger. The broadcast acts as a diary of what is happening to Earth and the people on it. The starting scene is set on new years eve with someone rolling and smoking a cigarette listening to a cheerful radio broadcast, after this however there is a portrayal of the radio turning and tuning into a different station which is when the beat kicks in and becomes the song. There is a time lapse facing a busy town as people go about their business before the gradual end of the world. The last scene is showing a blazing sun that soon fades to black in the time lapse as the radio presenter who is now showing his fear, merely prays for help. The extremities of how the people react is portrayed clearly in a scene showing news broadcasters being chased by angry rioters, who are no doubt riddled with fear as their planet comes to an end.

Risk Assessment Forms.

It is important to fill out some risk assessment forms to ensure awareness of any possible dangers or hazards lurking in the area of filming, this way we are better prepared to shoot there once possible safety measures have been taken. However, if there are too many risks,dangers or hazards etc. we will be unable to film there.

Storyboards.

We had to sketch a rough over view of the main scenes featured in the video to give us and our tutors a good idea of what we are setting out to do as well as give us a good idea of what the finished project will look like. These are the storyboards.

Stripboards.

This is somewhat of a diary of when we will be recording what and on which day. It also includes information on any extras or props used during filming.

Pre-Production.

These sheets needed to be completed before shooting to ensure planning and efficiency in recording the video.

On this sheet we wrote down what locations we will be in and when to ensure our tutors know where we are for safety reasons.

Shoot order logging sheet.

This sheet records the the order in which the shots were filmed in.

Camera Logging Sheet

This sheets chronicles the time, movement, location and any comments on the shoot recorded.

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstar_(Lupe_Fiasco_song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvmR2NK5j4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atIr849sjOM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd3ol7kRg4k

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_Williams_videography

Music Video Director Research

Harold "Hype" Williams (Born 1970, Queens, New York)
Hype Williams is an extremely successful video director who originally set out to become a painter, he acted on this by starting a graffiti hobby, which was proved all around Queens on the front of many shops, billboards and playgrounds. He used the graffiti alias; "HYPE". Williams quotes about his graffiti days; "That's probably what stimulated my interest in colour, I wanted to be Basquiat or Keith Hairing of the streets".

Williams began his film making career when he left Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. To create "SOTA" - State of The Art Productions with two of his old graffiti friends. This company also provided many art work covers for a lot of the albums around in that time, generating more fame and income for the company. Williams went on to found his own film company FWA - Film Makers With Attitude. Williams has worked with the late Notorious B.I.G, Nas, Missy Elliot and LL Cool J, and has revolutionized all of their careers due to the success of their videos. In 1998, Williams directed his first feature film, Belly starring DMX and Nas and is about an epic struggle between trying to do what's right despite the situation you are in.
Williams has received numerous awards for his successful and creative work such as; The Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of The Year, The NAACP Image Award and The B.E.T Award for Best Director for Kanye West - Gold Digga'.

My favorite of Hype Williams work is Lupe Fiascos hit song; Superstar which is about the overrated and overhyped idea of fame and the stereotypical traits that follow it. It became number one on February 19, 2007 and was the debut single from Fiascos second studio album. The video features Lupe Fiasco in a dark room filled with smoke whilst the camera switches between stereotypical famous people stepping out of limousines surrounded by flashes. The song also featured characters that would only be noticed by big Lupe Fiasco fans such as Michael Young History, a metaphoric nickname for Lupe Fiascos supposed "My Cool Young History" alongside the metaphoric characters, The Streets, in the form of a beautiful young woman with dollar signs for eyes, The Game in the form of an intimidating looking 40 odd year old male with gold teeth. These are all metaphoric characters Lupe Fiasco based his album; The Cool on.
Hype Williams has had possibly one of the most successful directing careers to date and is now a multi millionaire due to his hard work ethic, roots of struggle and his love to express colour in a visual, moving form.

One Day Lip Sync Project

For the one day lip sync project, my group and I were assigned "Winner Takes It All" the popular song by ABBA. We all decided the best way to learn the song on a basic level was to listen to it via an I-Pod dock as we filmed, until we eventually got the gist of it. Upon discussion, we decided to have a lonely and somewhat depressed person having an abstract, imaginative figure lip syncing the lyrics and following him throughout his woeful day. We originally plan to script each verse but due to time restrictions, were unable to do so and resorted to using some of the same footage for larger parts of the song. Once filming was finished, we then put the project on to Final Cut Pro. Editing proved difficult because of the large amounts of cutting we had to do to ensure each scene flowed with the song, once completed however, we compressed our video and then burnt the project on to disc.

We did however run into a few problems during shooting as one member of the three-man group was not present on the day and the other had a brief doctors appointment. On top of all this there was a prolonged problem with the IMac computers, meaning less time to edit and compress the footage.

Despite these setbacks, I think we did very well with our video. The lip syncing was very well edited alongside the narrative. If we did not encounter crew problems, then the video would have fuller footage and an all round polished look.

Task 1. Purpose of Music Videos

Music videos are a way in which to increase popularity of the featured artist, generate income and to keep the song in the public eye without the artist having to tour frequently in order to spread their music.

Throughout the past few decades there has been huge leaps in technology, these leaps have helped artists to spread their work via television, the internet and with all forms of advertising around our environment today. Music videos that were hugely popular in the 1960's when the first hit videos started to emerge are now over shadowed by todays massive budget short film style music videos.

Music videos were originally made to spread the work of an artist without the exhaustion of having them tour around the world frequently to keep themselves in the public eye. Through the creation of a hit music video, the artist can stay in the public eye as well as gain new fans without having to move. Music videos do extremely well in promoting the artist with all the available platforms we have today, such as television, the internet, mobile phones and programs like iTunes allowing people to put music videos on to their iPods.

Throughout the 50's before music videos came to be, artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan were constantly touring the globe and playing the same track lists at each location in order to keep themselves heard and wanted. Once this exhaustive lifestyle was thought about, and considered to not be the most practical way of promoting their work, people started to tinker with the idea of "promo videos". This idea had brought about a massive change to the music industry, and allowed the artists to have more time to relax and to work on new material. These promo videos consisted of a simple live performance from the band which was filmed and then distributed around the globe, giving the fans the music they want to hear as well as a visual side letting them see their favorite artists in action. It may not have been live, but it was a productive way in giving the fans the music they love, and the artists the rest they deserve.

The first videos were extremely simple, but they offered entirely new ways for fans to see their artists. Fans were able to see their artists in a directed visual way, which had never been done before, and also allowed fans to listen to as well as watch their favorite artists from the comfort of their homes through the use of a television set and not just from vinyls. Despite the primitive look and feel of music videos then, they had revolutionized the media industry, with more and more artists hopping onto the band wagon creating promo vid after promo vid. While more and more artists made music videos, more and more fans brought television sets. Artists that made full use of promo videos were The Beatles who continued to bring out more and more promos, with each new feature being made with different techniques, a popular example of a Beatles promo video is the hit song; Strawberry Fields. Strawberry Fields was a song about a place one of the band members spent a lot of childhood time their, and the song is simply about the nostalgia of the location. The promo video for this song featured very new and creative techniques for the time. It featured strange lighting, abstract camera angles and rewinding of footage, simulating the feel of an actual film feature. Strawberry Fields was also in full colour, sparking yet another new wave length for other artists to catch up with.


Despite the success of this form of video directing, many artists chose to remain creating promos featuring a simple camera view of them singing a live performance. Even well into the 70's artists were still creating simplistic promos of them singing, a popular example is David Bowie - Life on Mars which featured Bowie singing with just a white background behind him, giving his audience the song they like, as well as their artist with no other artistic attempts to gain their favor, just the music they love. Some artists however did take promos further then The Beatles did,and chose to feature separate clips of footage creating somewhat of a collage of the artists travels and incorporated into a music video.

Even though promos were predominantly made in the U.K and the U.S.A, Australia became one of the main players in the ever growing market of music video production, it did this by creating television programs that did not feature scripted television episodes, but featured music video after music video, giving fans the chance to watch their artists as if they would day time television. Although the U.K was airing Top of The Pops since the 70's, it had put a limit on the what videos it would show as well as the amount it would show, preventing it from being a global hit. More and more households begun owning television sets, thus creating more reason for countries and companies to compete with the way they will air their music videos to their public. The U.S.A squashed all competition with the airing of "The Music Television Program" which is today known as the popular MTV. The first song played on MTV was the Bugles hit; Video Killed The Radio Star, placing a somewhat humorous sense of irony in the viewers and sparked a new age for fans to see and hear their artists. MTV easily beat all competition due to it being 24 hours, allowing fans to watch and hear their artists literally whenever they wanted to. There were also leaps in recording and editing technology in this time, giving the music video concept all the more space to grow around the globe.

Promotion
When artists were considering a music video, they also had to consider how this would promote them, and how it would place them in the public eye as well as give fans an outlook on what their favorite artists are all about. This put a huge strain on artists to ensure they are able to attract and gain as many fans as possible without losing any due to a wrongful opinion they may have evoked in the way they carry themselves. They have to also consider how they would promote the music video. If said artist is signed to a successful record company, the record company will do the labor for them and place their video in all the right places such as a time of day in which their genre of music fans would be watching MTV, Kerrang etc. As well as the channel best suited to their genre, being more accurate in reaching the right kind of fans. However, if there are any doubts that an instant music video would be successful, maybe because the artists are not backed by a record label, it was a good idea to send out the song for radio play, to save funding in case the promo publicity failed to gain attention. Depending on the amount of radio play the song receives, there will or will not be a music video created. If the song generated a lot of radio play, then it suggests to the artists that there are fans of the song and with more and more people owning television sets, so much so that television has become a household necessity, it was definitely a good idea to create a music video for television use, all the more contributing to the success of the artist and the song. Nowadays, due to the 6 billion people on Earth, there is not often a music video hated by everyone, and as such there is a much wider market and more and more music videos are posted onto websites such as YouTube, Myspace and forms of social networking, where fans spread the video around themselves. Due to the success of the internet, successful artists have their own journalists, reviewers and promoters working for them for free with people spreading around their work trying to get others interested as well as commenting on the videos others have posted. All the market research any artist will ever need now exists on the internet.

Extension of Income

All artists need to make money in order for their record company to continue paying for them to create more and more material. Due to the extremely fast growing amount of formats available, there are more ways then ever now to recoup any money spent on the artists. It used to be just radio play which made money for the artists, but now there are music video charts any artist can scale, radio charts to scale, CD charts to scale, Music video DVD charts to scale and more. Popular songs are now featured on games, CD's, MP3 format as well as others, iTunes, television, radio, films and vinyls are still sold to collectors and DJ's. There are ways in which to fund music videos also, if the artist is not particularly successful enough to be backed up by a record label, they could fund a music video project by featuring in interviews for magazines, the internet as well as clothing lines and through live performances. But due to booming technology advancement rates, any one can go out and create a music video now with the right equipment. Merely a decade ago, a low budget music video cost would be in the tens of thousands, most likely lower down the line. If the artist is acquainted with someone who possesses the necessary equipment, they could effectively go out and shoot one. If the video is successful, it would mean very good things for the crew who helped create it as well as the featured artist. People are getting more and more interested in other roles of music video production, if a director is successful enough and has enough productions floating about on all formats, the directors themselves will gain fans.

Task 2. Contemporary Music Video Research

Purposes of Research

The purposes of research are to ensure all information and possible outcomes and opinions are considered before the project goes into production. There are two forms of research, Primary research which is research you carry out yourself by gaining information which does not already exist as well as research a topic which has not yet been researched however specific. Primary research is important as it is the researchers opportunity to go and find out whatever is necessary for the project they are researching for on their own terms. Secondary research is the other form, and is a way in which to gather information from currently existing research carried out by someone else. A popular source for secondary research is Wikipedia, despite the freedom in which anybody can edit any page on there, clouding what is potentially true or not. In order to carry out secondary research successfully you must ensure the source is reliable and up to date which are variables that could affect the outcome of the project you are researching for due to incorrect information.

Justin Timberlake - My Love (Directed by Paul Hunter)

My Love was released on September 12th 2006 and was written and recorded by Justin Timberlake. My Love was the second single to be released from Timberlakes second studio album; FutureSex/LoveSounds. The director, Paul Hunter has also worked with Outkast, Jamie Foxx, Pharrell and many others. Hunter has also received many awards such as Best video of the year, best cinematography, best male video and many others. The video of My Love gives viewers a different and interesting outlook on infatuation and love and makes full use of turning simplicity into very entertaining visual bliss. Justin Timberlake has clearly chosen to somewhat leave his roots of a typical pop star to set out and create an intensely original album with each single being as interesting as the last.

The video of My Love is interesting in that it depicts love as somewhat of a rush with the quick shots, dance routines and floating objects that are all relevant to love, e.g. violins and rings. Timberlake is constantly singled out throughout the whole video, which is possibly to depict infatuation or love as something that will define you from the rest as well as make you feel like more of an individual. At certain points in the video, Timberlake is seen with just him and a promiscuous looking woman, who looks as though she has no real intention of falling in love, but to have Timberlake so infatuated that the illusion of love fools him and makes him ceaseless in aiming to please her. My Love defines the happy side of love made clear through the lyrics as well as the hypnotic and obsessive side of love portrayed by the woman in black featured in the video. Timberlake is seen singing and dancing in every scene except the ones with the woman in black, where Timberlake seems somewhat dazed by her and merely stares, however, towards the end (5.21) Timberlake is seen dancing with a woman in white as the chorus comes in, possibly implying that once the rocky starter point of infatuation is overcome, true love lies ahead.

The director has made very good use of the white background, and has also managed to capture incredible shots that appear as though Timberlake and the dancers are dancing on top of the camera by showing us the soles of his trainers even though he is standing flat on the floor, implying Timberlake is not on the ground but floating. The video has made one of the most simplistic ideas very artistic and interesting, featuring a large white room, dancers and floating objects with nothing but the song to accompany it all. This song is aimed most likely at any one from 14 - 25 as its sole concept is love, which is experienced by all age groups, however, due to the poppy style in which it is done, its age group has been limited to 14 - 25

The song generated very positive comments on the popular website YouTube;

My love,My love,My love...[3]

Awesome ♥ justin rules!!!!!!

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi (Directed by Jonas Åkerlund)

Paparazzi is the third single released from Lady Gagas popular album; The Fame. It's U.K release was July 6, 2009 it was released 4 days later in Australia. The song and video act as a huge metaphor for Lady Gagas battle towards stardom, it portrays paparazzi as a person, who Gaga once loved but was betrayed and crippled by. The video continues from after Paparazzi pushed her off a balcony edge which is a scene featured on the long 7.55 version of the video rarely seen on television due to the graphic nature of it. The song reached top ten in the official charts of Australia, Canada, Britain and Ireland. Whilst reaching number one in the Czech Republic and Germany. In the U.S.A it found its way into the sixth spot on the Billboard Top 100. A huge deal for any new artist. Lady Gaga herself had commented that the song has many different interpretations; "is it a love song about fame or love? can you have both or can you only have one?" the song, due to the abstract way in which it was written has many different ideas floating behind it, such as the paparazzi being merely a ceaseless demon that will never compromise the chase for Lady Gaga while she attempts to make it fall in love with her. There are many more interpretations which have neither been said to be true or false, Lady Gaga likes the fact there are many ideas. The videos success caused Lady Gaga to tie with Beyonce Knowles at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards. The videos director, Jonas Åkerlund has also worked with the likes of Madonna, Moby and The Smashing Pumpkins. The directors wife is a successful stylist for all his featured artist and was set to go to work on Lady Gagas style and fashion portrayed throughout the video, making the couple a very dominant team in the industry.

The video is typical of Lady Gaga's very abstract style and continues to promote her as somewhat of a fashion enigma, yet adventurous and beautiful, making her adored by all her fans. The video features her in a wheelchair due to the horrible afflictions her fictional boyfriend caused her by pushing her off the balcony at the start. She is helped around by servants and dancing butlers and maids throughout the video showing that she is still famous and loved due to her relentless struggle to gain the attention of all forms of media throughout the song. She is seen back with her boyfriend and oddly enough able to walk as the video progresses implying the injuries caused to her at the start were only temporary, but as fans are left wondering why she is back with the man who threw her off the balcony, also interpreted as Paparazzi in physical form, she is seen poisoning his drink which would mean she has metaphorically "killed" the Paparazzi. Once she has murdered her boyfriend she calls the police and informs them of what she has done, as she is seen escorted to the police car, flashes of newspaper prints show on screen with headlines proclaiming her innocence, implying the Paparazzi is now on her side for once, and if you have it on your side, you are quite literally above the law.
The video generated very positive remarks on YouTube; "Lady GaGa is my idol! I want to be a great singer like her. I love her! I want to have the great song writing skills like her. She is my idol and my hero!

Lady GaGa----ILUUHYYUH!!!!"

"I love You in this yellow "Mickey Mouse" costume, You`re so cute GaGa!

Lady G, You are writing history..."