Initial ideas

For our music video our initial idea is the song Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar. This means that our video will be in the rap genre. I wanted to do this genre because it is a type of music I have an interest in and it also has conventions that are easy to follow and recreate.

One of the main attractions to this song in particular was the subject matter present and the way that it demonstrates this. It is a song that in the verses preaches the negatives of excessive drinking and the destructive influence of alcohol, however due to the catchy hook (or chorus) of the song it has become popular at parties and has become a drinking song. I feel that the way in which the song has been misinterpreted adds to the message in an ironic way. I think that this mixed message is something that could be translated into a music video. For example, if we depicted a house party where there are people having fun but also someone suffering from their drinking would illustrate this message effectively. This message would allow for us to create a thought provoking negative representation of young people who drink excessively, allowing for self reflection.

Another element that I think would make a good video and attracted me to the song was the idea of drinking itself. It is something that allows for a lot of creativity and gives context to more visceral imagery (Altman), in that more abstract ideas are more common when drinking. Another way in that it suits the vision my group has for the video is that drinking suits a more mixed narrative, straying from one meta-narrative (Lyotard). It would mean that we could have a main narrative which shows the dangers of drinking but also stray away from it frequently, depicting the fun that can also be had. 

One thing that I would want to stray away from in comparison to the original video is the negative gender representation of women in the video. I don't feel that she adds anything to the video other than to serve the male gaze, an theory by the feminist Laura Mulvey. Even though this is a convention of the genre, I think it is one that has negative consequences upon an audience of largely young men and therefore I don't think it should be carried forward into our video.

Specific elements

One thing I would look to include in the music video would be something similar to this screenshot from Collard Greens by ScHoolboy Q. There is a part of the song where the main character's conscience is talking to himself. I feel having a green screen with the character talking to himself somewhat similar to this would be effective. 

Another element I want to include is a flashback in the narrative, making it non linear. This would be on the lyrics:

"Now I done grew up 'round some people livin' their life in bottles

Granddaddy had the golden flask,"

I think portraying the powerful symbol of the golden flask would help to add depth to the character and also reinforce the message of the song with regards to drinking culture. 

Another convention I think would be effective for the video is the screen flickering black at parts of the video that needs a fast paced feel. This is a convention of rap videos and I think it would help to create a party feel for the video when necessary.

An editing technique that we would definitely want to include is editing in time to the beat. The beat in this song is more prominent than some others and this makes it essential for this video so we don't lose the impact.

Roles:
Aidan Emberton - Print Media Editor/Director
Dan Grayer - Video Editor/Director
Charlie Adams - Cinematography/Director

We chose these roles as they fit the areas where we have the most ideas and most talent. We also decided to share the role of director as we all have creative ideas that we want to have inputted into the video. 

Conventions of music videos

This is a word cloud I have created detailing the most prominent conventions within music videos. As a list, these are: Narrative, Lip Syncing, Unique selling point, Main character, Editing in time to music, Montage editing, Combining narrative and performance, Lead singer, Promotional aspects and relating the video to lyrics. 

These are all conventions that apply to rap videos as well. For example, editing in time to the music is in almost every rap video. For example, King Kunta which I have previously analysed features this, making the beat more powerful as part of the video. In any rap song the beat is a vital part of the song and his helps to pronounce this effect. Another convention that I think is very vital in rap specifically is the main character. This is because such a big part of rap is making a star of the rapper and the video can help to create this. Again, this is a prominent in the video for King Kunta. In my opinion this is because the lyrics of the song have a theme which is self congratulating. 

In summary, when we create our video, one thing that is clearly important is following the beat with our editing and cuts between shots. This creates an element on continuity between the two products and makes them feel related. It also has the impact of pronouncing the visceral impact of a rap beat, meaning that the video itself helps to make the song better as well as having its own meaning itself. I think this idea is very suited to Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar which is a song we are considering at this stage. 

Representation analysis

In Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright' one of the key things that is being represented is conflict between African Americans and police officers in America. I think the representation is not one that can be categorized as either positive or negative overall. It is obviously very negative with its tone towards the conflict and condemns it. Although some aspects of the representation, particularly the attitude of African Americans is a positive representation. 

This still frame from the video helps to show how the relationship between the police and African Americans is portrayed. The focus on the gun and not the officer dehumanizes the officer making it easier to feel dislike towards him, or possibly see police as one object and not a group of people. At this point in the video, there is also a voice over of Kendrick Lamar saying "a war based on apartheid and discrimination". This reiterates the idea that there is a conflict going on. This scene, as well as the rest of the entire video, is shot in black and white, perhaps poignantly considering the fact that in a general sense, the conflict is between white and black people. This could be an attempt to highlight a binary opposition between the white police officers and the young black community in America. 

 This long shot shows police carrying a car full of famous rappers down the street. This could perhaps be representative of Kendrick Lamar's ideology with regards to police officers with racist attitudes. This shot could portray how he feels he is morally above them and this is shown in a literal sense here. The performance of the police officers also helps create this image of heightened status. They look to be suffering in order to carry the rapper's car.  

This is another long shot that helps empower the African Americans in the video. They are central in this long shot, stood on top of a police car. Again, this literally places them above the police. This could be perceived as either above the law, or above the police officers morality and their attitudes. The muscle car surrounding them could also be interpreted as mimicking how the police surround criminals, turning it on its head. I think that this creates a positive representation of the black community in their struggles and conflict with the police. 

This mid shot of the police officer, similarly to earlier in the video, hides the face of the officer in order to make it harder to make an emotional bond. This could be to communicate an ideology of disgust towards police officers or implying that these are the kind of people that it is hard to bond with. 

This mid close up on the officer shows him firing a gun that he has made with his hands. He is also making a gun sound with his mouth. I interpret this to be a suggestion that police officers are somewhat childish in their discrimination and racial profiling of the black community. This creates a clear negative representation of the police officers. 

Despite not being relevant thematically to the video, it still creates a negative gender representation for women. This is one of the more negative aspects of rap: it objectifies women as sexual objects and this is the case here. Despite being in the video for only a second, having this woman here doesn't add any meaning to the video other than being there to look at. 

One thing I really liked about this video was the decision to shoot the video in black and white. It is a really simple thing that adds a lot of meaning to the video considering the subject matter. If possible, I would like to interpret something like this within my own music video if at all possible. 

To summarize, I think that this video has a positive representation of the black community in America and a negative representation of the police officers accused of racial discrimination. Arguably though it creates a bad name for all police officers as it doesn't show any good cops. Although the representation in music video is something that isn't shadowed in mainstream media in America. Until recent times police violence wasn't covered much by American TV but due to the outcry from the general public following things like the George Zimmerman shooting it has become something of a hot topic. Despite this, the entirely positive representation portrayed by the Alright video is something found mainly in this and similar rap videos. In this video, there is a much larger representation of African American's in a positive light than on American TV usually shows. This is clearly because of the two different sides of the coin; the young African Americans will have a much different perspective than the police officers who are more affiliated with government and, as a result of that, the media. An alternate perspective upon this would be to consider the negative aspects of the genre of rap which stereotypically is associated with violence and gang culture. It could be said that this video is somewhat atypical of rap in that it takes a more considered approach towards the conflict that other videos or songs within the genre. For example songs like Fuck Tha Police by NWA help to illustrate how this is not always the attitude shown in rap. Rap has often been accused of creating violence in society and has always been one of the main controversies surrounding it. It could be said that the Alright video shows a progression in the genre of rap since the late 80s and early 90s. This video also touches upon the negative gender representation for women, although it is not as bad as many other music videos in the genre. 

Lyotard's narrative theory

Jean-Francois Lyotard

Lyotard is a post-modern theorist who disagrees with the more traditional theories of narrative. He thinks that instead of one big narrative, there are often many more smaller narratives going on at the same time. According to Lyotard this is as a result of a modern distrust in what he calls 'grand narratives', or 'meta-narratives'. This is arguably most obvious within sit coms where different groups of characters will have a different sub plot within the same episode. In my opinion this theory is suited more to things like sit coms than music videos, in particular rap, which is the media I am focusing on. This is because a music video is more limited in that it is part of a song which more often than not focuses on one topic. However, in a song which tells more of a story it may be more fitting. A video that immediately comes to mind for this is Stan by Eminem.

The video clearly depicts the linear meta-narrative of the song, and at the end of the video there is somewhat of a subplot in which we see Eminem replying to Stan's letter adding depth to the story. However, I think that this video subverts what is expected from the genre in telling such a clear story through the video. Although the song itself is particularly narrative focused so in that sense it is fitting. This is a clear contradiction of Lyotard's ideas, as it depicts a meta-narrative in a modern setting. 

A good point of comparison is the video for Kanye West's 'Jesus Walks'. Whilst, similarly to Eminem, his song covers serious topics such as poverty and racism which may be considered unstereotypical for the rap genre, the music video is put together in a much different way. It contains much less of a linear meta-narrative than the video for Stan even though the lyrics don't rule out that as a suitable choice. In fact, there are a few clear sub narratives in the video, including Kanye in a hallway of fire, images of African American's working in a situation which may be slavery and a depiction of a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The more complex narrative in this video may be due to more ideas being depicted in the song Jesus Walks than in Stan, however it is still interesting to see how different narratives techniques are chosen for two songs that have a serious topic. Personally, I think that the video for Stan had a linear narrative in order to portray the extremely powerful story in Eminem's lyrics and that anything else wouldn't have done it justice. Meanwhile I think the Jesus Walks video had a lot more potential in terms of what could be done with it. Interestingly, there were three different versions of Jesus Walks made so this could reinforce the idea that it was a flexible song to create a video for. Even further, the fact that so many narratives were created for the same message gives strong support to Lyotard's ideas on the death of the meta-narrative. 

To summarize, I do agree with Lyotard's ideas on narrative but it doesn't always fit the genre of rap videos. In the case of the Stan video, it is clear that a linear narrative is effective and present within the genre of rap which means it doesn't fit Lyotard's ideas. Although this doesn't mean that his ideas are completely unsuited to rap. For example if I applied it to Chance The Rapper's Juice (a video I have previously analysed) there is a clear lack of any meta-narrative yet the video, as well as Kanye West's 'Jesus Walks' video, is still very effective.

With regards to my music video, I think that there will be a subplot within the video. This creates a second narrative and in some ways aligns it with Lyotard's theory.There is a part within the song in which Kendrick Lamar talks about his grandparents' drinking when he was little and there is a strong symbol of a golden flask that we want to depict in our video.