Analysis of music videos

Sorry- Beyonce

The R&B-electro song 'Sorry' written by Beyonce Knowles-Carter, shows clear conventions and themes of the genre. Typical themes tend to be about love and relationships, in which this particular song is about someone cheating on the artist. It's also electro due to the dominant beat of the music, rather than the lyrics. Another aspect of R&B songs is the sexualisation of women. This is shown clearly in the image above and the artist is wearing minimal clothing. The popular artist employs camera angles, camera shots, mise-en-scene and editing to intrigue her large audience. Beyonce firstly uses mise-en-scene through the use of lighting. The whole duration of the music video is shot in black and white. This is a good technique to link to the main theme of betrayal of love as it creates a connection between the (female) audience and the female artist. The use of black and white could also be a metaphor for how up-front the lyrics are as if she is exposing her ex-lover. Andrew Goodwin's music video theory would support this as he believes a technical aspect of lighting should be used to bring a mood to the song. In this case, the lighting creates a mood that would seem feminist and independent, yet hostile. 

Another use of mise-en-scene is through the artists costume. The entire video features women, they all are wearing minimal clothing and tribal make-up. I believe that instead of making them seem sexual, this costume and makeup is used to support feminism. The tribe make-up could be used to suggest that they are all sticking together and their costumes are to show the audience what they're missing/can't have, rather than trying to flirt with the audience. This was useful for as to see as we then decided that we would like to subvert from the typically conventions of R&B too. Due to women usually looking like sex objects. Beyonce doesn't seem to adopt many clothing styles within this music video, this is something that we want to avoid as we want to constantly keep the audience intrigued and interesting as to what is going on in the music video.

The main technique used within this music video are the camera shots and angles. To begin the song, the artist uses dolly shots to move around the location, which shows expensive objects such as chandeliers. This technique was probably used to express the dominance of the women in the video, which challenges the typical conventions of the R&B genre as normally the men are shown as dominant. The camera then cuts to a long shot, which shows a woman walking down the stairs in a fur coat and tight leotard. As the video goes on, the artist uses canted angle shots to perhaps show how the ex-lover has confused her and this is a representation of her thoughts and feelings after hearing his excuses. This supports the typical R&B genre as even though the male is not present, he is still mentally dominating her. Similarly, the regular use of close-up shots are used of the artists face. As Andrew Goodwin suggests, this is a good technique for the audience to connect to what the artist is expressing through the lyrics.

The next technique used was editing. The artist has employed regular cuts in her video in order to keep the audience's attention with each new scene. Andrew Goodwin expresses this importance by explaining the theory 'Thought beats- seeing the sound', the relationship between the editing and the song cuts should be made on the beat, this makes it seem more like a story for the audience to listen to. This is supported by the open dialogue at the beginning of the music video, where Beyonce tells a short story about how she has been betrayed before the music starts. Beyonce's shots usually last between 2-5 seconds. The artist also avoids using transition shots as the beats of the song are quick and sharp, meaning it wouldn't fit in. These quick cuts create a metaphor, as if she is 'cutting' her ex-lover out of her life. 

Overall, my group and I would like to incorporate many of these aspects into our music video. To start, we would like to use quick cuts as we think this will keep the audiences undivided attention. As well as this, we want to use a variety of dolly-shots as this would make the audience feel like they are the person following them, which keeps them intrigued and forms a connection between themselves and the artist. The only aspect we will not use is Beyonce's costume choice. Despite the fact our song is R&B, we don't want to make our artist (Mikah) look seductive as this is not the type of audience we want to attract. It's also clear that there isn't a narrative incorporated into this music, it's quite conceptual and metaphorical, the tribe make-up could of been used to show she has gone native and doesn't need a man, which inevitably reflects the relationship theme of the genre.

Starboy- The Weeknd

The beginning of the music video starts with non-diagetic sound which sounds quite creepy. This is an unusual aspect of a music video, especially an R&B music video. The artist, The Weeknd, is known for his unique clothing and hairstyles, meaning this was a good technique to continuously make him stand out against other typical R&B artists. My group and I like the idea of going against the conventions of the R&B genre as this makes the video and artist memorable, which inevitably good for marketing and promoting out record label and artist. It's clear from the fundamentals of the music video that the artists has adopted a narrative for his music video, which is that he has broken into someone's house to steal their possessions. The artist uses a variety of mise-en-scene techniques to make this narrative clear. This also subverts from the R&B genre as there is usually a 'party theme' rather than a dark and scary one whereby he is acting as a bad guy. There are also aspects of the music video that are quite performance based, this is due to the artist dancing whilst singing to the music. This forms a relationship with the audience as they then want to join in with his behavior.

Firstly, The Weeknd expresses his narrative through the use of costume. The artist is wearing all black clothing, including black leather gloves. This use of custom is effective as it is typical clothing for an intruder to wear, this is because it blends them in and prevents them from getting caught. I thought this was a good way of continuing the narrative as it shows that he is truly an intruder, therefore making it more realistic and interesting. Another aspect of the mise-en-scene that the artist incorporated was lighting. Although the scenes are quite dark, the artist uses luminous colours that stick out against the background, this vibrancy is something quite common in R&B music video's, mentioned before, it creates the up-beat party vibe that sets a good atmosphere for the audience. One theme of the genre is 'freedom', the artist being an intruder could reflect this as it shows that he will do what he wants, hence being 'free'. Lastly, the artist uses a prop. The Weeknd's main prop is a giant red luminous cross that he carries around the house and uses to destroy objects. My group and I thought the use of a prop would be a good idea to use within our music video, as we wanted to recreate the dominance that the artist has shown in his product. We are going to do this by using a bat as this makes her look like a dominant character.

When looking at camera angles, it was prominent that the artist used a variety of shots and angles. One, being a dolly shot. The artist is often followed whilst walking around the premises of the house, this could be a away to exempt that he is the only thing moving and is therefore in control. This conforms to the typical R&B conventions as the male figures are often seen as the dominant gender. This is something we wanted to avoid in our music video as we want to our artist to be a role model for girl's, teaching them that they can be independent and dominant too. Relating to Andrew Goodwin's theory, the The Weeknd has included a lot of close up shots, the theorist explains that this is a key element in the success of music video's, as it forms a connection between the artist and the audience, by making them feel like they are talking directly to them. Additionally, the artist adopts a significant amount of close-up shots of a cross, which shows the luminous red cross and cross necklace. This brings a unique aspect to the artist as religion is not a typical convention to the R&B music genre, however this would make him memorable.

In regards to location, the artist has filmed most of his music video in a car driving, and within a house. The idea of filming him whilst driving really stood out to us, as it makes it seem more realistic and aids in making the music video more true to life. We also really liked the way the background looks as you can can see all of the lights which gives it an appealing look.

There were a few editing techniques use within the formation of the music video. The artist used quite a few fast shots, which was used to compliment the fast beat of the music, this is something that we would like to incorporate as it brings the song to life for the audience. One edit that particularly stood out was when The Weeknd was driving, the artist edited in a black jaguar that came up in the passenger window of his car, this could of been used to show that he has the same qualities of a dangerous, dominant tiger. This is not something we would want to do as we feel it wouldn't work well with our song.

Overall we would like to incorporate some of the R&B aspects of this music video, such as the luminous colours (mise-en-scene), dark clothing (mise-en-scene)-as we have a 'gangsta' theme, and we also liked the look of the driving shots.

Analysis of A2 music video's

Can't hold us

    The first A2 music video I am going to analyse is 'Can't hold us'. The students used various camera angles, use of mise-en-scene and other techniques to intrigue their audience. As the video starts, they use a cartoon sound effect to instantly show what style video it was going to be. This use of non-diagetic sound is effective as it appeals to the audience. They then use a creative cartoon effect to make the video seem as if it's a comic strip, which keeps the audience engaged throughout. Although this challenges the rap genre conventions, they may have incorporated this performance and narrative to keep the audience interested as it gives them something to watch as well as listen to. However, the narrative still reflects basic rap genre conventions such as money and crime, as it's about two robbers who get an important bag stolen from them. This relates to Adrew Goodwin's music video theory as a basic narrative helps the audience understand what's going on. They employed constant cross-cuts within their performance and narrative, they also use common cartoon words such as 'kapow' which is a cinematography technique to show the comedy escape within their story. This ultimately appeals to the audience as it catchy and memorable. 

 With the use of mise-en-scene they were able to distinguish the difference between the 'villain' and 'hero'. For instance, the 'villains' are wearing a typical prison costume with eye-masks to cover their identity; whereas the 'hero' is wearing a suit which shows poise and authority. This fits in with the theme of the music video as it's comical. This particular 'look' links to Andrew Goodwin's 'star trade-mark' theory as the use of costume enables the audience to clearly identify and remember them. Another use of the mise-en-scene was their props. They incorporated two bags that had a mystery item inside of them, this creates a  sense of interest for the audience as they would want to know what is inside. Lastly, they used setting to bring some context to the story and also reflect the theme, each location was in the open areas of London. This use of mise-en-scene is effective because London is a place that has a high crime rate and is also known for it's rich individuals and possessions, thus reflecting the two themes of rap I have previously talked about. Both the props, setting and costumes fit in with the typical rap genre conventions such as money and crime.  

They used camera shots such as an extreme long-shot of the 'villains' chasing after the 'hero', this was probably incorporated to give the audience some context as to where they are as is effective because an open space and/or chaos in the streets of London can reflect the narrative that they were trying to create. They used mid-shots of police vans which are shown briefly to subliminally suggest to the audience that something illegal is in the bag, this creates tension and interest as statistics suggest that most TV shows and music videos are related to crime as this is what audiences watch the most. They then use close-up's and extreme close-up's to show the expression of both the 'villain' and 'hero' faces. This camera technique was used to support the narrative and performance as it brings some context and intrigues the audience. When the song comes to a finish, a low angle shot is used to show how the 'hero' has opened the bag and has seen what was inside of it. This shot is good because it shows how irrelevant the object in question is as everyone is looking down on it. This was also useful as it shows the actors facial expression when he sees that the object in question is a chicken.

 The next technique used was camera editing. As I explained earlier on, the students used continuity within their shots between the performance and narrative that creates realism and a flowing transition between each shot, therefore helping the audience make sense out of what is happening in the music video. They did this by using an establishing shot (London), which establishes the space in which the action is happening. They also incorporated the editing technique 'eye-line match', they used this by showing the character looking off-screen and then the next shot shows the audiences what they see. This creates a sense of continuity and also gives the audience some context as to what's going on in the scene. Another technque they used was cutting on the beat. This supports Andrew Goodwin's music video theory of 'Thought beats- seeing the sound' as cutting regularly emphasises the repetion of the beat and creates a connection between the audience and artist.

 To improve their music video, they could of used more camera shots and angles such as high angle, low angle and areal as this would be good to exemplify how the actors are looking for each other in a big city and would also be useful to show their facial expressions which is intriguing to the audience. Another technique that would of been helpful would of been the mise-en-scene in regards to costume. This is because the song is in the rap genre, and their costumes are less related to this genre as normally it includes large jewelry and hoodies etc. From watching this music video my group and I have decided that we would like to use props to give some continuity. We also decided we'd also use some performance techniques such as dancing to give some uniqueness to the video and intrigue the audience. However, we wouldn't want to use a narrative, as this wouldn't fit the theme of our video or genre.

Stuck

This A2 music video's genre is pop/indie. The most common themes found in pop songs tend to be emotions that affect us all. Things we can all relate to which gives the song added emotional connection to the audience, whereas a common theme of Indie music videos is a narrative. This A2 media group have incorporated these themes and conventions through mise-en-scene, editing and camera shots/angles. The music video starts with a time-lapse shot of shadows moving due to the placement of the sun and a time-lapse of the moving clouds in the sky, it then cuts to an extreme long shot of two boys in an empty field. Automatically, this set's a interpretive narrative for the audience as it could be a metaphor for the boys' thoughts and feelings. For instance, the time-lapse could suggest how they are both confused and thinking about their past actions and the empty field supports this by suggesting that they feel lonely. As well as this, they used skills such as a distortion of the lighting. This use of mise-en-scene made the music video look grungy, which reflects lyrics and theme as it suggests a negative narrative and this also encourages the audience to engage and connect to the artists emotions. Andrew Goodwin's 'technical aspect' theory suggests that the use of appropriate lighting creates the right mood for the song and makes it look more professional; therefore it's clear  that the group are trying to create a negative mood to fit their narrative.

  One of  the main techniques they used was camera shots/angles. They switched between mid-shots and close-up's to firstly show the artists destructive behaviour, such as spraying graffiti on walls, and running away with the use of tracking shot's. It then switched to close-up's of the artists face, to perhaps show their opinion/emotions of their previous behaviour to the audience. In this case, the use of close-up's are used regularly to show the boys emotions, which is a common theme within pop music. The use of narrative also applies to the Indie genre. The whole music video seem's to be based on the main artist looking back and regretting his previous behaviour. Andrew Goodwin's 'multiple close-up's of the main artist' theory is employed here to encourage the connection between the audience and themselves. This intrigues the audience as it catches their attention by feeling the artists emotions. A mid-shot is used to show the artist sitting in front of a fire, this shot could be used to give a different light (mise-en-scene) to the video, which shows that he is a changed person and his personality is now 'warm' instead of grungy and cold. This helps the audience form a connection to the artist as they may feel sorry for him. Lastly, long shots and medium close-up shots are used in scenes to show how the artists is arguing with his girlfriend. On one hand, pop music is normally seen as colourful and up-beat, meaning this music video challenges the typical conventions of a pop video. However on the other hand, it does have typical pop themes such as love and relationships, meaning it does often favour some pop themes.

Another technique used was mise-en-scene. With the use of costume, the artist was able to create a trendy yet basic look that mainly consisted of jeans, hoodie/jumper,hat and bomber jacket.This causal look goes with the theme of the music video as it shows the artist does not care about what he looks like as he is depressed from thinking about his previous behaviour. However, this goes against Andrew Goodwin's music video theory as there is no 'star trademark'. For instance, the artist in this does not have a 'style' or 'look' that is unique to others, meaning he does not stand out to the audience in order to be easily identified.

 The last technique used was editing. The group employed the 180 degree rule to show the artist arguing with his girlfriend. This use of editing enables the audience to see their facial expressions from each persons perspective. This creates tension as it shows how the artist takes out his anger on everyone in his surroundings, ultimately linking to the negative narrative. The cuts also become quicker to show how all of his bad actions are catching up with him, this is paired with the beats of the song which also become more frequent at this time. This also works well with the narrative as it emphasises the theme and makes the video seem like a two communication device, where the artist tells a story and the audience listens.

I regards to my group and I's music video, we were intrigued by the idea of a narrative. However this is not a convention of R&B soul so therefore we will not incorporate it. However, this music video uses many aspects of Andrew Goodwin's music video theory which ultimately forms a relationship between the artist and audience. We feel this is important and therefore we will use more close up's of our artist, cuts on the beats of the music and different lighting's to support our similar grungy theme.

Story Board

Storyboard

This is a presentation of my group and I's storyboard. It outlines each shot that we came up with and the reasons to why we chose it. 

https://prezi.com/emh7ll8d_wcq/storyboard/

Costume

Costume

My group and I came to a consensus on what we wanted Mikah to wear within our music video. Our main colours we wanted to use were black, khaki, white and grey. We chose this because it fit in with our grungy R&B soul music. We also decided that this would appeal to our targret audience (aged 16-22) because these are the colours they are most likely to wear during their adolescent years. These colours were also easy to find. These dark, plain, and neutral colours reflected Mikah's character as the deviant person she played in the music video.

We came to a mutual decision that a stripy black and white top would be affective because it reflected something a prison inmate would wear. This choice of clothing linked to our theme because we wanted Mikah to look like a 'gangsta' which is what the song is about. We paired this with a long black bomber jacket as it was trendy for our audience and also looks edgy. Because the locations we wanted to go to involved graffiti, we decided that the dark clothing would work nicely with this as it shows her dark and deviant personality in an otherwise bright and positive society. In the scene below we thought that the dark clothing contrasts the graffiti behind her and makes her stand out.

The next costume choice we chose was a grey cropped hoodie, which Mikah will wear the next time we film. We thought this would look fashionable for our audience and is also similar to Kehlani's fashion which would fit our theme. Therefore we chose our costume choices wisely in order to make Mikah stand out and fit in with the theme and R&B Soul genre.

Overall, we made Mikah come across as a strong and dominant female representative of the R&B genre, by dressing her in modest costumes that made her unique to other women featured in the R&B music video's. We did this to be a positive role model for our young, female target audience. Teaching them that they do not need to dress seductively in order to gain attention and be successful.

Props

Props

When deciding what sort of props we wanted to use in our music video, we decided that we wanted fake tattoos, contact lenses and a baseball bat. However, after a closer analysis of the contact lenses, we decided that we did not want to incorporate this. This was because we began to realise that it would look unprofessional and would create more of a sci-fi theme for the music video which was not what we were aiming for. It also wouldn't match with our causal mise-en-scene choices and grungy theme that the lyrics create and wasn't in our budget. Another problem with this was that Mikah wears glasses, meaning it would impair her vision and would interfere with the professional standard of our music video.

Another prop we wanted to use was fake tattoos. Although this would link to our theme, we also decided that it wouldn't look realistic and wouldn't fit in with our small budget which we were already going to spend on transportation to our various locations to film such as London, Rainham, Gillingham and Chatam. We also decided that it would be time-consuming to put on and may rub off very easily which would interfere with our filming time. However, it would have been good to use because it would give our actress/artist the edgy 'gangsta' look, which was the theme we were aiming for.

The last prop we wanted to use was a baseball bat. We decided we wanted to keep this within our music video as it gave Mikah (our actress) confidence because it gave her something to work with rather than just standing on the spot. We also found that it encouraged her to move around in the camera shot. The 'gangsta' by Kehlani comes from the movie 'Suicide Squad' ,in which the main character 'Harley Quinn', owns a baseball bat. We decided we wanted to replicate this as we enjoyed the look it gave her and what reaction it gave the people in her surroundings when she held it, as she looked destructive and deviant. With the use of camera shots and mise-en-scene, we came to a consensus that this would compliment the theme of the music video well. A bat would also give Mikah, our artist, a trademark- something that she will become known for. Andrew Goodwin said within his five key elements of a successful music video, this is important as it makes your artist memorable to the audience. Lastly, this made our artist look like a dominant female, we wanted to challenge this convention of the R&B genre as it was important to us to be a positive role model to our young female audience, and give an accurate reflection of how women are treated in our modern-day society. Therefore, making our R&B song unique and helps it to stand out, which is good for marketing and promoting our artist.

Production schedule

Production schedule

This is my groups production schedule which outlines what days we will be filming and what we will need on the day. This will help us keep to the deadlines, however, the dates may change depending on whether or not the shots are successful as this means we may need to film again.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires

In order to further our knowledge and make our music video the best it could be, we decided to create a questionnaire that we would hand out to 20 random people to get their feedback on what we asked them. Our questions were based on the participants preferred music genre, clothing style, gender of the artist and age of the artist. We chose these questions as they were all relevant to the making of the music video so that we would attract a large audience.

When analysing the results from our questionnaires, we found that more people preferred R&B as their chosen music genre to listen to. We found these results helpful as it meant our audience would enjoy the music video that we are making as the song we chose is R&B soul. However, there were only two votes between R&B and Hip-Hop, meaning that we will aim to try and pick some aspects from  Hip-Hop music videos as our participants found this music genre more memorable because they are catchy and up-beat songs.

 From analysing our pie chart, we found that our participants would prefer for our artist/actress to be within the 23-29 age bracket. This was helpful as it enabled us to look at current R&B artists such as 'Drake' that are this age or of a similar age, and see what they do and what sense of maturity they bring to their music video in order to intrigue the audience. This also was helpful to us as our artist 'Kehlani' is within this age bracket, meaning we would be able to replicate what techniques she uses to also keep her R&B fans intrigued. Because our actress is 18, we thought this was a good fit as this was the second highest chosen choice by our participants, meaning the audience would still be able to relate to the lyrics and the individual (actress) in order to enjoy the song.

 It was clear that the participants equally favoured a male or female lead within the music video. This was helpful to us as it meant we were able to keep our options open and see what individual best fit the character on a personal level, rather than basing it on gender. However, due to Kehlani being a woman, we decided that we would stick with a female artist as it meant the lip syncing would ultimately look more realistic. We was also pleased to see that the audience would support this decision.

From the line graph we can see that the most chosen style was 'casual'. We also added in a gender because the role of Kehlani (our artist) is played by a female, meaning we would need a girl to fulfil that role. We found these findings very helpful as it aided us in finding the right costumes with the use of mise-en-scene, so that the audience can see the correlation between the genre and style. We also found that the 'R&B' style was second best,meaning we could briefly incorporate it but should avoid using it all the time; it was also helpful because Kehlani wears casual clothing. This ultimately meant that we could base our costume choices on something that was similar to hers, such as hoodies, bomber jackets and trainers. 

Institutional research

British Record Label

PYE records is a British record label that was founded in 1953. It originally manufactured televisions and radio however it entered the record business when it bought 'Nixa records' in 1953. In 1955, the company acquired Polygon Records, a label that had been established by Petula Clark's father and Alan. A Freeman to control distribution of her recordings, and merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records.

In 1958, PYE international records was started. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the UK market, including Chess, A&M, Karma Sutra, 

Colplic, Warner Bros and more. It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside the company.  

PYE's best known signed artists were the Kinks, David Bowie, Petula Clark, The Riot Squad and more.  The label changed its name in 1980 but was briefly reactivated in 2006.

One advantage of using PYE records is that it has been a record label in the industry for a long period of time. The advantage of experience and knowledge they would provide is good because it means they would know what to do to make our song good. As well as this, they would have a large audience as people who know the record label and are fans, would be interested in listening to their songs. 

However, a disadvantage of using this record label is that it is very outdated and the artists that are singed to them do not fit in with the genre (R&B soul) that our music video is. This means our song would not fit in with their record label.

Conglomerate record label

Island Records is a major record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica and has been based in the United Kingdom since 1962. Blackwell sold the label to PolyGram in 1989. 

Both Island, and another recent PolyGram acquisition, A&M, were at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island in particular having exerted a major influence on the progressive UK music scene in the early 1970s. The label has been operating as one of Universal Music's standalone labels since 2014, also handling Mercury Records. Signed artists include Disclosure, Ariana grande and Aluna George.

Similar to the previous record label, this one also has been in buisness for a long time. Meaning it has a mass audience and also means we would beable to distribute our song on software such as iTunes and more. This also means our song would more likely go on social media where it can be seen by a larger audience.

However, this record label has artists who are of the alternative R&B genre. Although this is quite similar to R&B, it also means it attracts a different type of audience that does not cohere to our theme and genre (R&B soul).

Independent record label
Boy Better Know is an English grime collective and record label. The collective was founded in North London by Jme alongside his brother Skepta in 2005 as an independent record label and a means to publish their music.

In its early period "Boy Better Know" was well known for its line of eponymous T-shirts. The crew also had a regular show on Rinse FM with DJ Maximum. Jme's debut album 'Famous?'' was released on the label in 2008 "Too Many Man", the first single from the album, was released on 25 May 2009.

Its main artists include Drake, Skepta and more. Because many of Drake's songs are R&B or sometimes R&B soul, we decided that this would be a good fit for our music video as this is the genre that would best fit our theme and song. 

Logo

Above is an image that my group and I created which will be our record label logo for our music video. Due to kehlani's personality, costume choice and themes she creates, we decided that calling the label 'Grunge Records' would best cohere to her as an artist. This is because her songs are mainly dark and 'grungy' in regards to the use of mise-en-scene such as the lighting (which is normally red, blue or green), her costumes are also usually of a dark colour such as black, khaki or even white. Due to these colours, we decided a dark purple as we felt it would best reflect the artist and the theme we wanted to create. Therefore we chose this colour so it attracted the same type of audience the artist has. 

Because her song is about a 'gangsta' this automatically gave us the idea of a devious, dark theme in our heads, so we decided we wanted the logo to relate to the gang culture. Because of this, we chose an edgy font that would reflect a gang as they stereo-typically use knives which are sharp and edgy. The smeared purple was used to replicate blood, this cohered to our music video as the words 'ride or die with me' are in the lyrics of the song, meaning she would do anything, even if it meant bloodshed, for her lover. To conclude, we named our record label 'Grunge Records', used dark colours and adopted a sharp font in order to create a grungy, dark and sharp theme that fit in well with aspects of our music video such as our mise-en-scene and also the lyrics to overall intrigue the audience.

Our three logos

Logo Research

This is our first logo that we created. We used the colours grey, black and red as they all work well together and are bold. We used grey because we felt it was a good base colour for the background as it appears grungy. This fit well with the theme of our music video. We then used the blood drops as our song is about a 'gangsta', which would closely be associated with crime and even murder. We thought that incorporating this colour in the form of blood into the logo, would stand out and intrigue the audience as it's very unique compared to other music logo's. Lastly, we called it 'Grunge Records' because we believed it work really well with the song. The word grunge is defined as dirty and we thought this fit in with the dark grungy theme we are trying to create. The reason we didn't chose this logo, was because it was too simplistic and the blood may not of represented our theme as well as we thought. For instance, the blood may have reflected metal or rock music which is much more aggressive compared to R&B soul.

The next logo we made was of an owl with red eyes. We got the template of the owl from the internet as we thought it would be too complicated to make ourselves. We wanted to use an owl because they're very mysterious animals. We paired this with red eyes against the grey, which we did ourselves, as we thought this gave the logo an edge to catch the audiences attention. We also thought this would be more memorable, which benefits the record label. We employed the same font of writing, which we used because it looked edgy and is easy to read. However, when analysing the logo we thought that it didn't look professional enough for a record label logo as an owl is quite random and didn't fit in with our theme.

The last logo we made was the one we decided to use. The colour scheme of this changed as we studied our artist, Kehlani, in more detail and found that her most used colour that she wore as a lipstick was purple. We thought we would incorporate this colour as it reflects the artist and her chosen music genre. We thought that the shape of the purple looked like smeared blood which also relates to 'gangsta's' in regards to crime, we got this idea from our first logo; however we avoided the red as this made it look less violent and more mellow yet 'grungy', which is what we were aiming for. Next, we changed the font as it I thought it looked more girly, this fit well because our chosen artist, kehlani, and our chosen actress, Mikah, are both female. Because of these factors, this overall became our favourite logo. 

Potential actors

Rhiannon

Our first potential actress was Rhiannon. We chose Rhiannon because of her out-going personality. We decided this would be helpful in the filming of our music video as it meant she would be confident in front of the camera. Although she is able keep a straight face, her overall bubbly and spirited personality created a 'happy' atmosphere which we concluded would not suit the theme of our chosen song. Another aspect that didn't fit in with our video was Rhiannon's clothing style. Her clothes are more vibrant and indie which would create a fun-loving atmosphere that would bring the audience joy, whereas Kehlani's style is more urban and grungy. Although this is a theme that our viewers may enjoy, we decided that it wouldn't suit the song which is dark and serious; overall contrasting Rhiannon's personality and style. In conclusion, Rhiannon's personality meant she was able to work well with the camera, however it wasn't similar enough to Kehlani's style and dark/serious personality.

Balinder

Similar to Rhiannon, Balinder also has a radiant personality. Her audition was comical and funny as she was able to lip-sync as well as dance. She was able to create an atmosphere that would make the audience laugh and although this is a great aspect to have, we decided that it would not fit our music video as it is again grungy and dark. As well as this, it was easy to point out that she was not comfortable enough to play the serious role of Kehlani and she hid this by dancing and over-acting. In regards to Balinder's clothing style, she wears indie clothes that are usually either of a dark/plain (such as in this picture) or vibrant nature. However she did not have a similar wardrobe to that of what Kehlani does, meaning it would be harder to match the theme we was trying to create. Balinder also does some out of school curricular activities and has a job at a tutoring centre. This means she wouldn't be flexible in regards to when we wanted to film the music video. This would be inconvenient as it means we'd have less time to edit and finalise the video. Overall, Balinder has a positive and out-going personality which would make it easy to work with her, however it unfortunately didn't cohere to our theme.

Mikah

 Our third potential actress was Mikah. Mikah has a sweet and innocent personality, however, she is also able to be serious and act well in front of the camera. During our auditions, she was able to use different techniques to engage with the audience by moving around and showing her confidence. Whilst doing this, she also set an atmosphere which was dark and persuasive, which was the theme that we was aiming for. Another aspect of Mikah that cohered to our music video ideas was her clothing style. Mikah has a wardrobe that consists of a large variety of clothes including dark/grungy colours such as black, khaki, grey and white. She also owns a lot of clothes that branded, such as Nike, Adidas and more. This appealed to our group as this is very similar to the style that Kehlani wears so we decided this would attract a similar audience as Kehlani has. Mikah was also very flexible with our timetable of when we wanted to film and she was able to drive us to our various locations. This overall made her the perfect candidate for our music video. Overall, we chose Mikah because she was the best choice for our music video as she was flexible with filming times, was able to provide us with transportation and also had the most similar costume choice to Kehlani.