Nicki Minaj born Onika Tanya Maraj is a rapper/singer songwriter. Her genre of music is hip hop and R&B. She is known as being a real life Barbie as well as a fashion icon due to her wigs, costumes and style of make up. Nicki refers to her fans as Barbies and Kens and herself as a Harajuku Barbie. Nicki has many identities including Roman Zolanski her twin brother who she says is a demon and is who she becomes when she is angry. She has also been compared to Lady Gaga for her outlandish costumes being called 'The Black Lady Gaga'
From her music videos to concerts to public appearances, Nicki is always presented to be a real life Barbie doll. Her flawless, bright make up, different coloured wigs and bright extravagant costumes all contribute to her 'fake' look. However wanting to be a Barbie makes her seem fun loving, young and childish - almost as if she didn't want to grow up.
Generally Nicki Minaj hasn't been in the newspapers for the wrong reasons however earlier this year she had a fued with Lil' Kim who felt that Nicki was copying her after she heard her album Pink Friday. Nicki then wrote a song called 'Stupid Hoe' which has lyrics that are aimed at Kim in it.
Nicki began her first worldwide tour, the Pink Friday tour on May 16th 2012. Her barbie-like backing dancers and costumes again perceive her to be like a Barbie when she is performing.
Her 'Super Bass' video shows the different aspects of her life as Barbie. The pink Ferrari, pink swimming poolstacks of money and half naked men is what you expect Barbie to have. She is also represented as being young and childish in the video by the way she's dressed and acts around the men.
I feel that after a year of studying Media Studies my knowledge of all the different aspects of media in the world today has definitely developed and progressed. When I started the course I knew hardly anything about what goes into the making and producing of a film and what it takes to create and edit a music video however now I feel much more confident with using software such as Final Cut Express and using video cameras and other equipment. Filming our first preliminary task of the opening to a thriller film was the first chance for me to see what different shots go into creating a scene as well as focusing the other aspects such as Mise En Scene, props and location. As it was our first ever time filming we found that we were fairly unprepared and unorganised as we hadn't spent enough time planning even the smallest things such as costumes and the location. However we learnt from this and made sure we planned everything down to the last detail for when we filmed the actual opening to our thriller film which we thought was very successful.
Below is our AS preliminary task
Compared to our AS preliminary task, our A2 task was very different as we were all able to put everything we've learnt in the past year into creating the first minute of a music video. We made sure everything was planned, from lists of props to the weather forecast to screen shots of the original video printed out so we were able to make sure we filmed every shot. We all put so much effort into making sure our video looked like the original which meant doing a lot of research. Finding the perfect location was the first thing to organise as we wanted to get our version as close to the original. Fortunately we were able to film in a forest close to my house which also had a pond which looked nearly identical to the one in the original video. Making sure Jack who played Ben Howard had the right costume was also essential as we wanted him to look as similar to Ben as possible. Lighting was one of our biggest tasks as the original video shows the sunrise however as we knew we weren't able to do this we decided to film backwards which meant we stayed out filming until 9pm which is when the sun sets and filmed the first shots last. This was fairly complicated and took a lot of planning to do, but with the help of a laptop with the original video on and the shot list we had printed out, it became fairly clear what we had to film and when. We found our video to be a huge success thanks to all the planning that went into it and hopefully this will also reflect in our next task which is to create our own music video.
Below is our A2 preliminary task
I feel that my best and worst points have definitely changed since I began the course. I have learnt so much over the past year especially how to use Final Cut Express. For our A2 preliminary task I went through every shot and edited the colour to give them a slight sepia effect. I also helped cut the shots down and put them in the correct order. Compared to editing the AS preliminary task I feel a lot more confident with using the software. Something I am not so confident in is knowing what different shots are called, however when it came to filming the music video, I found it easy to copy what the original shots looked like. One of my best points I found is that I like to be organised and that I enjoy doing the research that goes into creating a film or music video. I like to plan and make sure that we have everything we need and what needs to be filmed when when filming. One of my worst points is that I haven't yet got to grips with other software such as Photoshop which would be a good thing to know how to use properly as it would help make things like digipacks etc. look more professional. However having someone in my group who already knows how to use it and is very artistic is useful as they are able to teach me how edit pictures to a professional standard.
I have learnt the most from research and planning which after watching both preliminary tasks is clear to see. The planning of exactly where and when the shots will be takes the most planning as there was a shot nearly every second in our A2 preliminary task which means we had to be very detailed in how the shot would be filmed. Research was also important as we needed to choose a day to film that would be the ideal weather as well as finding out what time the sun sets to ensure we didn't miss that shot. Therefore we made sure we kept up to date with the weather forecast and chose a day which didn't rain and noted down the time of the sun set. I wanted to make sure as much research and planning went into is possible as our AS preliminary task took barely any planning as we only noted down which shots we needed then went to film at school and had only an hour to film. Overall I am very happy with what my group achieved as it took a lot of team work to film and put the music video together and I hope that creating our own music video will be as successful as this one.
