Production photos

 

Lil Durk Institutional Context

 Lil Durk started his rap career signed to def jam records in 2013 he stayed with them until 2017 where he decided to sign with Interscope records who were formerly owned by Jimmy Iovine but are now owned by Universal. Interscope has some very big artists signed to their label from all genres of music these include Kendrick Lamar and Eminem as well as artists like madonna and lady gaga so Lil Durk signing to them benefits him as he will get lots of attention within the music world.

Lil Durk also is a part of his own group called OTF which stands for only the family this is a collective of Chicago rappers. this group is exclusively distributed by Interscope to audiences so this benefits Lil Durk majorly as he is also helping upcoming rappers in Chicago.

Lil Durk as a whole has stated on an XXL interview why he likes working in a record label he says he is able to get more media attention as he is treated like a star at Interscope so he is able to produce the music he likes while being backed with the funds for his music video production and the advertising for his singles and albums as this is the biggest way for the artist to be promoted and allows Interscope to make as much profit off the name of the artist.

Artist overview

 

Lil durk  was born on October 19, 1992. Lil Durk had to shoulder much responsibility at a very young age because his father was incarcerated when he was 7 months old. Lil Durk recalled that there were times when he did not have enough food in his home when he was younger. He started his first break through social media channels like Myspace and YouTube. He broke out as a star from Chicago's South Side. He dropped his album in 2015 and the second one in the following year. 

Lil Durk has recorded 4 hot  songs which include 3 headed goat which is the song we have chosen as well as off white vlone with Lil Baby, no auto with Lil uzi and finally viral moment

Lil Durk averages 4 million monthly listeners on spotify. on youtube his most popular songs feature big artists like lil baby and Dej loaf these videos have more than 30 million views

Lil Durk has been signed to a joint record label only the family and def jam records since 2013 however he departed from def jam in 2017 and joined Interscope while still being part of the OTF crew

- strong , fairly masculine but not over masculine.he is in touch with his feelings he is not afraid to discuss his weaknesses.

My song 'How I Know'

 The song that we have chosen is called 'How I Know' by Lil Durk and Lil Baby. It was released in 2018 and was in one of the albums called  'just cause y'all waited' by Lil Durk, which was really successful and loads of people started listening to it. Lil Durk decided to collaborate with a very big upcoming artist from Atlanta, who was sinned for a record label Qc with many popular artists, Lil Baby. 

The song itself represents the feelings of love towards the artists' woman and his friends and how some peoples' actions can hurt them and lead to betrayal. Throughout the whole song the artist is asking rhetorical questions such as ' how I know if you still love me? ' This shows that the artist has been betrayed by the closest people he has. The lyrics represent his pain and what he is going through. The song is like a message to the audience about how unfair life is and that we need to try and choose right people to trust. 

Treatment

 For my Music Video I will be working in the group with Lewis Mercer 

Background: The song ‘How i know’ by Lil baby and Lil Durk, is the 2 minutes 32 seconds long hip hop/ rap song. The intended primary target audience is mostly teenage males between the age of 15-19, however females can listen to the song as secondary audience too. 

Outline: The beginning of the music video will include close-up and medium close up shots to represent who is featured in a music video as well as who is playing whose role.

 

In verse number 1 of the song, we will have a panning shot around the house which shows the setting where the music video is shot. Then it will stop in a wide-angle displaying the upcoming scene of the character cloning. After this part is done, the video will cut in between narrative and performance.

In verse 2 of the song, audiences will be first introduced to one of the main characters, who is Lil Durk, this is when the other narrative scene takes place led by a tracking shot where the camera follows the protagonist around showing what he sees. Later, it will cut back to a wide angle showing the full scene, and afterwards it will switch to a close up of the artist performing. 

In the final, 3rd verse of the song will include performance, which is used for representing the typical conventions of a rap music video as well as showing off their money, cars. Furthermore, it is also challenging them at the same time. Later on the second character comes in which is Lil Durk. In this final verse we see quick cuts of the artist rapping to the camera, but also shots of the two artists together, flexing with their expensive things. These will be a combo of low angle and close-up shots, to make the characters look more powerful. 

Character breakdown: 

The characters featured in my music video are men, aged between 20-25. They both perform for young adults from the ages between 15-25. Our characters are suggesting the fact that even though they are wealthy and famous for making music and participating in the music career, it can not buy loyal friends or love either, and moreover there are times when they are facing disappointment and betrayal. The idea of having two characters represents that there will always be someone in your life who will be on your side no matter what. 

Visual elements: 

Visual elements such as lighting will be used in my music video. The lighting will be very different depending on the scene. For instance, for the scenes with artists performing and rapping to the camera, it will be more colorful with the use of blue and red colours which helps give a more edgy vibe to the scene. 

Editing: Many different editing techniques will be used throughout the music video and the shots will mostly go along with the lyrics of the song, moreover techniques like cloning and the 90’s vibe with a VHS filter will be used to make the video itself more postmodern .  

Settings:  mainly, the  location of the video will be a house , which will be used for many scenes, however we might be using abandoned warehouses to film a few scenes such as performance and two main characters rapping 

Camera movement : there will be a wide variation of close- up shots as well as wide- angle shots to get to show the whole scene and all the details 

Props: the mail  props will be conventional for a rap music video such as money, cars, jewelry, to represent the lifestyle and wealth. 

Costumes: the costumes in this music video will be very similar to what rappers wear nowadays, showing off their sense of fashion and money. 

 

Rationale: we have decided on this idea as it perfectly fits on the idea of betrayal, relationship and friendship issues as well as the concept is quite simple to carry out.

All types of audience will be able to find themselves in a music video as everyone has faced some types of betrayal, or relationship problems which link to the uses and gratifications theory.

Research: for the primary research we have conducted a questionnaire and emailed it to the potential primary audiences, both males and females, to see whether they like the idea and if they are interested in the song itself or not. The findings suggested that there are significantly more males who are interested in rap and particularly this song than females. 

As for the secondary research, I was comparing different types of music videos and analysing them. I found out that most of them do not have a narrative and are mainly based on performance, however we tried the challenge conventions and combined both narrative and performance. 

Locations: some of the locations that i have chosen are the art district located in Al Quoz, Dubai, which has a variety of cool art installations,however we might have some problems getting permission to use those locations,  moreover Meadows and Emirates hills areas to film houses and cars.

Equipment and cast: we will be mainly using the camera Canon 5D as well as a tripod for steady shots  and a shoulder mounts to create smooth transitions, a second battery and an SD card. As for the cast it will include Lewis Mercer being Lil Baby and Ali Nashwan as Lil Durk, however we will be having extras for some of the scenes. 

Constraints and contingencies: The pandemic COVID-19 is one of the main problems that we might be facing while filming as we will have to wear masks and the whole world might go on lockdown at any time which will negatively influence the filming and editing process as well as some of the locations might be restricted. The video might get the copyright restrictions, however we will give all the credit to the artists and we do not intend to make any profit off the video. 

Budget and Filming schedule: We do not have a specific budget for the music video because we will be using props and clothes that we already have which will help us save time looking for and buying costumes. We will start filming from the 17th of October to the 5th of November, which gives us time to edit and re-film some of the shots in case they do not look good.

Production Log 3

 I have organised the settings of the music video, Sanad has let us use his expensive house and film some of his luxury cars. 

Moreover,as one other location we used a drama studio in sunmarke school also known as black box. Furthermore, we also used a production studio with a green screen to film some of the shots. 

For costumes, we used conventional rap music video costumes, fancy clothes, including expensive jewellery and watches. Additionally we had a recce organising all the equipment and locations. We planned to do test shots this week so we are confident about filming. As for the cast i have chosen Ali and Lewis to be our main actors ( Lil Durk and Lil Baby) 

Genre analysis

In this music video, black studio has a strong visual effect and the filmmakers can play with the different types of lighting. The rappers are using a variety of different shots which creates a very strong effect on the audience. Strong sense of shadows which signifies the power and a lot of dark colours are used in the video.  All the characters are wearing black, which creates tension. They also use some very colorful surprising objects that create a very strong visual they link to the lyrics that say who “i link it to the abc”. Andrew Goodwin has researched many music videos and has come up with a theory that every conventional music video has to follow different criterias such as a link between the music and the visuals, genre characteristics, intertextual references and notions of looking.  

It is a very aggressive song and the rappers are being very aggressive and by using the toys for children, making it very stereotypical. It is very commycal and not gangsta. He has a tough and aggressive face however the use of batman and starwars makes it commycal. Moreover he also uses a toy gun which is very representative. The whole video is filled with the strong visuals. So the video is stereotypically gangster but is very unconventional. 

The rapper is shown during the whole video which is very important for branding. The video was made in the prime time of the artists career so the aim was to be more recognisable. They have done it by using close up and medium shots to focus on the artist, the use of lighting as well as colorful, unconventional props also helps to make it more representative. A lot of low angle shots are used throughout the video, which are very conventional for a rap music video which make the main character look more big and powerful. Moreover, constant pan/ tracking shot creates a real movement and interest so we can see the main character as well as the background 

Comparing the audiences of different Rap videos

1. In the music video Dior by Pop smoke, the artist is typically for a rap music video showing off his expensive cars, jewelry, and designer clothes, which attracts the audience that is interested in cars and the wealthy lifestyle. He also has a lot of females, which would attract male audiences from the age of 16-30 this is the target audience of a hip hop music video. It is giving the audience emotional pleasures as well as sensory pleasures, Which comes from the camera shots aspirers would be very much interested in this video as they want to achieve this lifestyle and be living this lavish, wealthy lifestyle.

2. The second video is drip too hard by Lil Baby and Gunna straight away we can see that the music video has been set a target audience of men and gives off this hypermasculinity feel to the video. as well as the director has given the two rappers the center of attention and made them feel looked up to by the audience also known as the aspirers this is because they're surrounded by desirable women that would appeal to any 16-30-year-old male further engaging them within the music video as they find purpose in the video. furthermore, they also show off their wealth as we can see they're filming in the Hollywood hills which already gives off an exclusive and luxury lifestyle to the audience.   

3. The third music video is Act up by the city girls first we can see the setting of the music video is already giving off lavish and luxury vibes as Miami is a place where movies like scar-face were shot giving it this wealth background meaning the audience will aspire to be the artists and live like them as well as we see some expensive jewelry as well as clothes this further entices the aspirers to be engaged within the music video furthermore we see a lot of close up shots of the artist which could be hinting at that they should be the center of attention and that they're the artist to be listening to right now this refers to Goodwin's notion of looking as we see the artists on the news and other social media apps.

  

comparing the sound in different Rap videos

 1. In the freaky Friday music video by Chris Brown and Lil dicky there are some very standout examples of diegetic sound first of we hear dialogue from one of the artists and actors this has been done to try and appeal to the audience and try and get them to relate to the artist as well as in the background we can also hear tv reports this would be classified as non-diegetic sound because only we the audience can hear this news report this has been done to try and give the audience a sense of importance that only we the audience are hearing this news report. 

 2. The second video is Life is good by artists drake and future from the very beginning we can hear diegetic sound and this continues without some examples of this are the sound of a grill and the sound of a garbage truck as well as sounds of car horns while at a drive-thru this has been to help reinforce the music video to show the struggles of the two artists and also to take us through the multiple jobs they are seen to be working at, as well as throughout we can hear multiple dialogues between the different artists talking about themselves in the future tense foreshadowing their career.

3. The final music video is also by drake and its the Hold on, we are going home video within this music video we can see many of the other music video aspects within this one a combination of gunshots, dialogue, and phone calls also conversations the artist cant hear but we the audience can this further pushes our interest in the video we can also hear loud ambiance to help set the scene that the artist is in a busy restaurant or party which helps further this lavish rapper lifestyle everyone wants to live when they see these videos 

Comparing the editing in different Rap videos

 1. The first music video is Kings dead which is off the black panther soundtrack from the very start of the video we can see the director wanted the video to pay homage to the 90s by using an old camcorder type editing style where it looked like some of the shots were filmed off an old camera this has been done to challenge conventions of the hip hop genre is normally the music videos are in high definition whereas now they went for an old fashioned style as well as a few scenes later we can see the artists standing on buildings they have been edited onto these buildings to help give off the idea that the world is at their feet and because they live this lavish lifestyle they look down on the people below them.

2. The second music video is by Asap rocky and is called Asap forever paying respect to the rap group he is in This trippy music video is a crazy ride and has masterful editing. It opens on Rocky in an almost nauseating 360-degree circle around him, before the editing then manipulates the impression that the camera is going through the ground and comes up on the other side. as well as we can also see asap appear on numerous television screens while he is also in the shot this has been done to mess with the viewer and Think how has this been done this would be called enigma codes a very good way to keep the audience drawn in.

3. The final music video is Energy by drake of the bat we can see a black and white filter and that some clips have been put in reverse this has been done to match the lyrics of the song as the song talks about drake being bullied a lot when he was younger so both these aspects have been used to signify that he will be talking about his past. another thing that has been used is face-swapping drakes face has been edited onto many famous celebrities for example Oprah and Justin Bieber this has been done for mostly entertainment purposes to try and engage the audience but also to signify that drake is becoming a global sensation and he can compete with the likes of these celebrities.

 

Production Log 2

 Having conducted my audience research I have found out that the audience that most like Lil Durk and Lil Baby’s music are 15-25. They are split between male and female. 

They would most like to see luxury items within the video and nice locations. This is what I thought would look good in our video.

They like rap music the most and the good news is that 50% often watch music videos.

This research has confirmed my initial ideas

Production Log 1

 

Having researched a wide number of different rap videos, we have identified a number of codes and conventions we are going to use in our music video:

-Cultural signifiers: expensive clothes, cars and jewelry.  To appeal to the aspirers within the demographic target audience of teenagers.

-Slow tilts and pans of the artists. To create brand recognition of the artists. The purpose of the music video is to advertise the artists so they need to be represented positively as much as possible.

-Narrative – storyline about a relationship breakup. Which is relatable to the teenage target audience

comparing the cinematography in different rap videos

1. In the first video by Cardi B called Bodak yellow, we see lots of high angle shots to help establish the location of the music video as the location can be very key in establishing how the music video plays out. In the next couple of scenes, there is a variation of shots for example the low angle shot this has been used to help give the artist cardi b a sense of power as she looks like shes towering over the camera, furthermore wide-angle and close-ups have been used. the wide-angle shots have been used to show off the various other locations with the artist in the background with various other aspects like exotic animals. The close-up shots have been used to show the emotion of the artist within the music video.  

2. The second video is by 6ix9ine and is the song, Gotti at the start of the video we see a view tracking shots following around the girls cast in the music video but also we see panoramic shots of the view in the background of the whole music video this yet again helps establish some sort of location for the video. In addition, we see a lot of close-ups to show the rappers expensive jewelry around his neck this is to portray to the audience that he is wealthy and powerful as well as to show the group of girls he has behind him to show off that money can buy you anything you want

.

3. The final video is Going Bad by Drake and Meek Mill the video again starts with a panoramic showing off the whole building the artists are in as well as there is a sky view of the building from the outside that has been taken by a helicopter. Moreover, we then see medium and wide-angle shots this is to show that the artists are with a huge group of people that has some special appearances like Nipsey Hussle and T.I this has been done purposely so the audiences notice these artists. Furthermore, we also get a full 360 view around a rolls Royce as it crashes in the music video we get to see the camera from a close up where it comes right at the camera to a wide-angle shot where we see it crash.