Summary of Artist

Nneka was born 24 December 1981 and is a Nigerian-German hip hop/soul singer and songwriter. She sings in English and her traditional language of Igbo.
She is the daughter of an Igbo Nigerian father and a German mother. Nneka relished the experience of singing from an early age in her school and in the church choir. After relocating to Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 18, she pursued a career in singing alongside a degree in Anthropology.

Even though Nneka sings more than raps, she names hip hop as her primary musical root and most important source of inspiration, while citing artists such as Fela Kuti and Bob Marley as well as contemporary rappers Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep and Lauryn Hill as key influences in her own pursuit of musical recognition.

Her lyrics reflect much of her history and life in Nigeria as well as her time spent in Western Europe. Her songs stress the issues of capitalism, poverty and war and are often loaded with moral and biblical messages and references, with some music commentators comparing her to Erykah Badu, Neneh Cherry and Floetry.

Since 2003 Nneka has been working closely with the hip hop beatmaker DJ Farhot, a producer living in Hamburg. As a young singer she first gained public attention in 2004 while performing as an opening act for dancehall reggae star Sean Paul at Hamburg Stadtpark.

Summary of Original Video

When listening to the song, you would imagine that the video would reflect the heartache and love of the artist. However, it doesn't at all. It is set in Africa and the majority of shots were of Nneka performing on the streets of her home town where we see ordinary people walking the streets. Other scenes include Nneka at home with her friends laughing and doing everyday things.The video basically reflects everyday life and creates a sense that it is somewhat a home made video. Overall, the video didn't make use of the forms and conventions of what a music video should be, although there were close-up shots of the artist to allow audience recognition.

Anima-tic of Storyboard

Target Audience

The genre of music that the original artist is known for is hip hop/soul, therefore the target audience would have an interest in the hip hop and soul genre. However, as we have used the Chase & Status remix for the song 'Heartbeat' which has more of a harsh tempo and a rock feel to it, the target audience would also have an interest in the rock genre. In addition, as a group we have decided to incorporate the forms and conventions of a rock video into our video, therfore the target audience would mainly favour the rock genre. With this in consideration, the age group that this genre would mainly appeal to would be 16-25 year olds.

Annotation of Lyrics

By Danny Antoine

Props and Locations

These images are of the room that we will use in the music video.These images are taken by Danny. This is a good location for our music video as it full fills what we need to complete theses particular scenes and create a scence of reality.

This location is Albert Gardens Tower Hamlets, London E1, UK.

This is one of the locations we used to shoot the music video.

This location is Arbour Square Tower Hamlets, London E1, UK.

we actually used this location for the first couple
of scenes in our music video.

By Siham Allali

Shooting Schedule

Synopsis

The song is about the pain and heartache that a female(protagonist) goes through; this is reflected in the video through her vulnerability at the beginning and anger towards the middle. At the beginning we see a male and female as a couple walking through the park. She suddenly breaks down and cries; tries to confide in him, but he doesn't want to hear it and walks off. We then see a shot of her singing to him as he walks away. The following scene we have the boy at home trying to turn the TV on but i doesn't work until he hits it. after a while he goes off to sleep but keeps on having nightmares of his girlfriend who turns into having an obsession with him and generates an anger toward him which he see in his nightmare. Throughout the video we see cut back clips of him tossing and turning constantly in his sleep; flashbacks of the couple together are seen in this stage. Midway we see a complete different side to the artist (the girl) as she turns devilish and completely crazy to the point she follows him home and looks into his window while sleeping. Towards the end we see her crawling towards him up his bed whilst he is sleeping and then he wakes up to find she isn't there and that it was all a nightmare.

By Heather Aromin & Siham Allali

Storyboard

Textual Analysis-Real Music Videos 2

The second video I have analysed is 'Rockstar' by Nickelback; it was directed by Dori Oskowitz. The genre is alternative rock/post-grunge; the characteristics of the video include: a band(performing on stage), instruments such as electric guitar, bass and drums, band have the typical rock image and the topic of the song is one that society can relate to.

The lyrics are illustrated by the visuals in many ways. For example, the lyrics 'we all just wanna be big rockstars' is illustrated using several different shots of celebrities and non-celebrities miming the words. There is also a shot of Billy Gibbons miming his lines from the original version to this song. The lyrics 'driving 15 cars' is illustrated by someone miming that they are driving.

At the beginning when the pace of the song is slower, the shots are longer. When the pace and tempo of the song becomes faster and more upbeat the shots are shorter; this is effective as it complements and emphasizes the song. In addition, the celebrities and non-celebrities are also moving their bodies to the beat and this accentuates the beat.

'Rockstar' is the fifth U.S. single (although later re-released) by the Canadian rock band Nickelback from their 2005 fifth studio album All the Right Reasons. It was only released in the U.S. and Canada, and has since been re-released worldwide. The image of the band is what you would expect from a stereotypical rock band, the lead vocal, Chad Kroeger is known for his long messy blonde hair, which is very typical of the genre. Although the image of the band is of the rock genre, I think their style and in particular the song 'Rockstar' is very mainstream as it can and does appeal to everyone hence the video features all different types of people.

Throughout the video, there are several examples of reference to the notion of looking. For instance, the people featured in the video all look directly at the camera and this creates a sense that they are singing to an audience; the idea of a live performance. In addition, at the end when the band are seen performing on stage, the camera looks towards the audience from the band's point of view.

Intertextual reference is used throughout the song. For example, the lyrics 'we all just wanna be big rockstars' contradicts the band's image, as they are already rockstars. Also, the celebritites/non-celebrities mime the lyrics that they can or do relate to. Furthermore, Billy Gibbons who is from the band ZZ Top; sung the original to 'Rockstar' mimes the lyrics that he sings in the original version.

The video is performance and concept based. Throughout the song the celebrities and non-celebrities perform by miming the lyrics and dancing around; at the end the band are seen performing on stage. The concept of the video is that everyone wants to be rockstars hence the lyrics; this is illustrated by the featured people.

Overall, the video is very effective as it illustrates the song well. It also creates a sense of reality, hence the lyrics are what people do dream about; by featuring ordinary people it shows this.

Textual Analysis-Real Music Videos 1

The first video I have analysed is the video for 'Bring me to life' by Evanescence. It was produced by Dave Fortman. The genre of the band's music is rock, in which the video includes several conventions that are common within the rock genre. The rock genre tends to mainly have performance based videos, sometimes with a narrative; this is clearly shown in the video.

Throughtout the video the lyrics are illustrated and even contradicted by the visuals in many ways. The darkness reinforces the notions of death, contradicting the lyrics 'Bring me to life'; however the slight use of light creates a sense of life, indicating the protagonist is in between life and death. In addition, the harsh wind creates a sense of spirituality suggesting that ghosts/spirits are lurking around. The lyrics 'wake me up' and 'cant' wake up' is illustrated showing the protagonist sleeping although it is as though she is trying to wake up as she moves around the bed hastily attempting to open her eyes. Moreover, the lyrics 'save me' shows the protagonist having a nightmare in which she is falling from the sky, in which we see the video cuts from the nightmare to her in her bed holding onto the bed. Another example is the lyrics 'make me real' where we see a woman wearing a clown mask in which she removes it to reveal that she is crying. The lyrics 'falling inside' is contradicted by what is illustrated due to the fact that she is seen falling outside.

In the video we see several cuts of the band performing; however the main shot is during the solo instrumental. The video changes pace with the music, for example, at the beginning before the video and the song (narrative and lyrics) actually takes place, there is a long moving shot of the setting. The music is quite fast paced and this complements the shots, for instance the quick shots of when the protagonist is sleeping to her in her own nightmare.

The image of the band is dark and very gothic, the protagonist (lead singer) has very dark hair and make up; the band are dressed up in black. This is also seen throughout the video with the dark settings and old buildings. This song was the band's debut single which is featured on their first album 'Fallen'. In addition, this was also their first video and in later videos we are able to see that the gothic/rock feel continues, for instance the video for 'Call me when you're sober'.

Within the video, there are several references to the notion of looking. For example, the first shot (moving shot) of the protagonist creates a sense that someone is watching as she sleeps; in addition, the wind connotes that she is not alone. As she is asleep and does not know what is happening around her, she is vulnerable. There are also quite a few shots of the band performing, which the audience see them through a window, in which it looks like a television and emphasizes that it is a music video.

Intertextual reference is used in the video. The protagonist/lead singer was inspired to write this song from an experience that she had.

"I was inspired to write it when someone said something to me — I didn’t know him, and I thought he might be clairvoyant," says Lee from a tour stop in Tulsa. "I was in a relationship and I was completely unhappy. But I was hiding it. I was being completely abused and I was trying to cover it up; I wouldn’t even admit it to myself. So then I had spoken maybe 10 or 15 words to this guy, who was a friend of a friend. We were waiting for everyone else to show up, and we went into a restaurant and got a table. And he looked at me and said, ‘Are you happy?’ And I felt my heart leap, and I was like, he totally knows what I’m thinking. And I lied, I said I was fine. Anyway, he’s not really clairvoyant. But he is a sociology major." Amy Lee.
This experience is shown in the video when the girl wearing a clown mask removes the mask to reveal that she is crying.

The video is both narrative and performanced based. The band are seen performing for most of the video, whereas the protagonist/lead singer is mainly in the narrative. However, they somewhat meet in the middle when she walks on the edge of the building until she reaches the window where the band are, in which she slips and the second vocal (main guitarist) helps her up.

Overall, the video and the song complement each other well, as the video illustrates the lyrics very well. The video connotes the genre well; makes use of the conventions of the genre-performance/narrative based.