Jewish Boyz: Video

Here is the music video for my final product, We're Jewish Boyz:

Jewish Boyz: DigiPak

Here is the Digi-Pak for my artist, ABOUDY:

Jewish Boyz: Website

Here is the website for my artist, ABOUDY:

ABOUDY WEBSITE

Experimental Album Cover - POWDERFINGER

Overall Development of My Artist's Star Image

INITIAL IDEA: I wanted my star to find as much resemblance to Wiz Khalifa (for the purpose of this video) as possible. So I devised that the best way to parody Wiz Khalifa and Jewish culture at the same time would be to have the star dressed like a Hasidic Jew (most stereotypical sector of Judaism) in a shirt similar to Wiz's in We Dem Boyz. 

This idea was successful and the result product was this:

Along with the costume and props:

DEVELOPED IDEA: Once I had completed the first draft of my music video, I was advised that having only this as the star image was boring and not entertaining enough. At this point I needed to come up with a concept of another part of this star image, to which I concluded by suggesting that the first image was an alter-ego of the "real star". 

Once I had devised this concept, I proceeded to give my artist an authentic image, one that a wider dynamic of his audience could relate to. That image resulted in this:

Therefore, it's very clear to see that from the initial idea of my video, my artist's star image has changed dramatically. The two sides of the image is also addressed multiple times in the video, on the Digi-Pak and on the website:

Jewish Boyz: Colour/Tone/Lighting

In order to successfully parody We Dem Boyz, I needed to make sure that I matched the colour, tone and lighting of the video, and all the themes that they were employing on it to the target audience. These are important elements of the video because they convey messages and about how these colours represents the mood of the video and the reflection upon their career as a musician.

Parody videos usually tend to be bright and colourful because they are imitating another video and artist for fun, therefore there is no real emotion being conveyed, rather it is almost purely comedy. However, if the song parodied is sad or has a particular colour to embody the theme, the parody video should follow with the same type of lighting, colour and tone in order to match the parodied video as close as possible.

The lighting used in We Dem Boyz is dark and grey, quite typical of the Hip-Hop genre, but in my opinion bizarre for this song. The reason for the use of this colour lighting is possibly because they are in a rough part of Atlanta, Georgia, and therefore some of that roughness or violence about it could best be conveyed through the lighting. At times it has been shown to be colourful, but that is usually illuminated by the blue sky and particular objects such as the Mercedes. In addition, the colour of all mise-en-scene aspects are grey and bland, yet strangely the song is uplifting.

We're Jewish Boyz, like We Dem Boyz, is an uplifting song and so I felt that it needed to have bright colours, but it needed to vary in order not to fully imitate the video. 

With this approach, I had filmed shots in early morning, a bright day, a neutral day, dusk and night time. This gave me a variety of colours to work with, essentially multi-coloured. The point of varying all these shots were so that the idea of parody and positivity could be linked into the intention of the video and song, so that the audience would understand the messages coming from it. 

Here are some examples of the variation of colours:

Another reason for using a variety of colours was to share a private joke with British people on the humour that the weather changes a lot, so we may have a sunny day, cloudy day or rainy day etc. This humour targets a very niche section of my audience, but it is not a noticeable theme so I don't expect most of the audience to understand it at all, however this was just my intention for humour.

Jewish Boyz: Performance Element

The performance element of my video is continuous, and essentially the entire video is a performance. It depicts a narrative of Jewish stereotypes that are usually addressed by non-Jews, but the lyrics turn them into scenarios that my actors have performed in.

The genre of the music is parody and comedy, therefore the aim is to make a video that will make people laugh based on performance and the song and video I am parodying. 

Throughout the video, the performance elements varied between unique elements that I had devised myself to visualise the narrative, and performance elements that I had parodied from the We Dem Boyz music video in order to maintain the parody link between the two texts.

Unique performance element examples:

Parodied performance element examples:

Jewish Boyz: Audience Questionnaire + Analysis

Below is my audience questionnaire:



Question 1: What worked well in the video?

From this question I learnt:

• The use of the green screen to project images and Jewish symbols was effective in humouring my audience
• The lip syncing (at times) was good along with the special effects
• The cross-cutting between the narrative and other elements of the video proved to be entertaining, and shed light onto the variety in the video
• The lyrics were well written and fit perfectly as a karaoke form in the video
• The costumes were interesting and were a successful parody of We Dem Boyz + perfectly conveyed the mise-en-scene

Question 2: What could have been improved?

From this question I learnt:

• There were issues with the lip sync and timing of the song (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)
• I had suggestions from the audience, for example, animating the lyrics in order to simulate a real karaoke type video, however I decided not to take this suggestion forward
• One audience member didn't like the "blurry beard" shot (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)
• The actors in my video weren't great at lip syncing (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)
• One audience member noticed a change of volume in the video, this issue was fixed
• One audience member found the intro to be too long and more time was spent on the chorus (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)

Address and Justification:

• Any issues with the lip syncing were created by Adobe Premiere Pro during the final export of my video. Before export, it had shown itself to be completely in time with the lyrics, however, post export, it had shown itself to be slightly out of time. I justify this issue by defining the point that this song and video are parodies of another song and video, and it is the first thing released by my artist. Therefore, the video was not necessarily designed to be professional and the lack of professionalism is the true significance of the parody. This is the same with the "blurry beard" shot and the actors' level of performance.
• I justify the other issue regarding the intro of the song by saying that the intro was supposed to be more visual than lyrical. It was supposed to set the narrative for the audience, so they had some understanding of what is going on in the video so that they are not entirely confused when the verses begin to appear. Additionally, the intro repeats the chorus because the aim was to make the song catchy and so that it would break into my target audience and make them remember it.

Question 3: What should I add or re-edit additionally?

From this question I learnt:

• The audience believed that I should have had a larger cast (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)
• The audience believed that my extras should have had more time in the limelight as opposed to my star (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)
• The song was sung in a deep voice and one audience member found this to be annoying and drilling (THIS ISSUE WILL BE ADDRESSED AND JUSTIFIED AT BOTTOM OF POST)

Address and Justification:

• Originally, I was supposed to have a cast of 10 people, however, on the last minute before the first shooting day, 6 members of my cast confirmed that they were unavailable to shoot. This then left me with a cast of 4, and because I had shot a large amount of the video with this cast, I could not have included the other members if they became available because the video would not make sense otherwise. Another issue with this is one of my cast members was only available for one shoot, therefore I had to cut them out of the majority of the video for the same reason.
• Regarding the issue of extras not having enough attention in the video, the epitome of this project is not to focus on the extras, it is to focus on the star. The star is who I am making a cohesive package of video, Digi-Pak and website for, and because this is a parody, the star needs to parody the star of We Dem Boyz, Wiz Khalifa, which I believe he did successfully. 
• Regarding the issue of the song being annoyingly deep, this is also a part of the parody. If you listen to We Dem Boyz, you will notice that Wiz has a autotuned and high voice throughout. The aim of the parody was to ultimately challenge these conventions because that is the way of employing humour in the video. Additionally, the voice was purposely designed to be this deep and annoying because I wanted to make sure the audience remembered it in some kind of way.

Question 4: Does the video match the genre?

From this question I learnt:

• YES! IT DOES!

Question 5: Who is the target audience?

From this question I learnt:

• My audience understood the intended target audience of my video

Question 6: What do you think my artist's star image is?

From this question I learnt:

• My audience understood the intended star image of my artist, and understood that I was parodying prolific Jewish musicians such as Matisyahu

Jewish Boyz: Editing using Adobe Premiere Pro

Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture any footage of me editing the actual music video, however, below is footage of me editing an evaluation question with the music video in it:

I uploaded this in order to demonstrate my skills with Adobe Premiere Pro, and I believe that I am very skilled with it after two years of using it for lots of different media purposes.

Jewish Boyz: Timeline

Time Code	Shot Description
0:00-0:02	ABOUDY walks out of alleyway
0:02-0:04	ABOUDY says 1st OY in alleyway
0:05	ABOUDY signals to record in studio
0:06-0:07	ABOUDY continues to walk out of alleyway
0:07	ABOUDY says 1st VEY in front of Kotel + ABOUDY standing outside of building (sunlight w/shadow)
0:08-0:09	ABOUDY, Josh and Daniel pose in park + ABOUDY drives away from camera
0:10	ABOUDY says 2nd OY in studio
0:11-0:13	ABOUDY walks towards Carmelli’s and “high fives” Nadav
0:14	ABOUDY says 2nd VEY in alleyway
0:15	ABOUDY preparing in the studio
0:16	ABOUDY says 3rd OY in front of Kotel
0:17-0:20	ABOUDY says BOYZ + 4th OY
0:21-0:22	Josh and Daniel say 3rd VEY
0:23-0:30	ABOUDY sitting on tree stump in park with 360 degree pan
0:31-0:33	ABOUDY walks up to camera à CHALLAH, CHALLAH, WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
0:33-0:35	ABOUDY sitting on tree rocking a challah loaf
0:36	ABOUDY holding a cue card WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ in front of animated Torah
0:37	Challah loaf on bench zoom in
0:37-0:40	ABOUDY walks past deli and greets the owners
0:41-0:44	ABOUDY, Josh and Daniel throw their hats to each other in the park, catch them, put them on their heads then pose
0:45	ABOUDY sitting in his parked car CHALLAH, CHALLAH
0:46-0:47	ABOUDY appears in surprise behind Ten Commandments WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
0:48-0:51	ABOUDY walks in front of simulated Tel Aviv beach CHALLAH, CHALLAH, WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
0:52-0:53	ABOUDY in the studio CHALLAH, CHALLAH
0:54-0:55	ABOUDY, Josh and Daniel wrapped in a tallit jumping up and down KOSHER BOYZ
0:56-0:58	ABOUDY in the studio CHALLAH, CHALLAH, CHALLAH, WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
0:59-1:02	ABOUDY driving in car park + does a sharp turn to the right
1:03-1:05	ABOUDY and Josh sitting at a table CHALLAH, CHALLAH, CHALLAH, LET’S LAY THE TABLE
1:06	Daniel holding LAY THE TABLE cue card
1:07-1:10	ABOUDY working at table with loaf of challah next to it, Josh comes over and throws pencil away
1:11-1:14	ABOUDY sitting on a chair trying to use the remote, but it doesn’t work so he throws it to the side
1:15-1:18	ABOUDY, Josh and Daniel sitting on the floor playing dreidel (pretending to gamble) + zoom in on spinning dreidels
1:19-1:21	ABOUDY talking to Josh and Daniel (supposedly teaching them about Judaism)
1:22-1:25	ABOUDY standing outside Synagogue COME TO SHUL AND FACE YOUR FEARS, CHALLAH CHALLAH
1:26-1:27	Daniel wearing tallit and holding Ten Commandments saying DO IT JUST LIKE MOSHE WITH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
1:28-1:29	Josh and Daniel walk up to camera and hold 5 commandments each
1:30-1:31	ABOUDY crouching saying WE WILL KEEP ON TEACHIN’ ‘TIL YOU UNDERSTAND IT
1:32-1:33	ABOUDY holding LAWS TO ABIDE cue card
1:34-1:35	ABOUDY walking on path saying SMELL IT FROM HERE, THE BRISKET’S READY
1:36	ABOUDY in front of a picture of brisket saying YEAH IT’S READY
1:37-1:40	Close-up of ABOUDY’s face smelling SUCH A GOOD SMELL WE CALL IT SEXY
1:41-1:43	ABOUDY in the studio saying MAKING ME DROOL I’M QUITE UNSTEADY
1:44-1:46	Close-up of ABOUDY’s mouth/beard saying BUT FIRST I GOTTA EAT THIS CHALLAH, BABY CHALLAH CHALLAH
1:47-1:48	Challah loaf rotates 360 degrees
1:49-1:50	ABOUDY sitting in his parked car WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
1:51-1:54	ABOUDY drives car then turns around and says WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
1:55-1:57	ABOUDY walks away from image of Israeli flag CHALLAH, CHALLAH, KOSHER BOYZ
1:58-2:02	ABOUDY does robot dance in front of flashing Magen David pizza
2:03-2:05	ABOUDY sitting on tree stump saying CHALLAH, CHALLAH, WE’RE JEWISH BOYZ
2:06-2:09	ABOUDY does “Jewish dance” in front of video of dancing Rabbis
2:10-2:11	Challah loaf rotates 360 degrees
2:12-2:13	ABOUDY stands in front of Hendon Central station simulation
2:14-2:16	ABOUDY stands in front of Golders Green station simulation
2:17-2:19	Daniel says OY VEY ZMIR, THAT IS AMAZING!
2:20-2:21	ABOUDY stands in front of multi-colour spiral CHALLAH, CHALLAH, YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY
2:22	Josh dressed up in sombrero and moustache holding LOCO LOCO cue card
2:23-2:26	ABOUDY sits in front of SUV and says YOU’RE JUST LIKE NORMAL BREAD, BUT WAY MORE TASTY
2:27-2:29	ABOUDY stands in front of picture of two hearts with Magen Davids in them, whilst holding a cutout of Mila Kunis
2:30	Josh takes the Mila Kunis cutout and kisses it
2:31-2:32	ABOUDY holding a baby in front of animated Torah
2:33	Daniel holds Josh, who is dressed like a baby, like a baby
2:34-2:36	ABOUDY drives away in his car saying SOME BOYS THINK WE SO RICH THAT WE OWN MERCEDES
2:37	ABOUDY stands in front of Mercedes moving on road
2:38-2:40	ABOUDY stands in front of SUV dangling car keys saying IN FACT I OWN A PEOPLE CARRIER WITH NO MORE SPACES
2:41-2:43	ABOUDY driving in car saying ON OCCASION I TAKE MY KIDS TO THE NURSERY
2:44	Josh dressed as a baby on the floor crying like a baby
2:45-2:46	ABOUDY does emergency stop in car saying OH WAIT IT’S MY TURN SOMEBODY SAVE ME!
2:47-2:50	ABOUDY walks away, Chikayan can be seen in shot
2:51-2:53	ABOUDY says OY VEY then pushes the camera to the side with the final shot being the sky

Jewish Boyz: Animatic Storyboard

Before creating the video for We're Jewish Boyz, I was required to draw a storyboard of my vision for the video, how I thought it was going to look. I personally believe that creating a storyboard before filming is difficult because things will change on the day of shooting, especially since this project is purely academic, meaning that I haven't been provided with a great budget to create this video for a musical purpose. If that were the purpose, I would find it more comfortable to create a storyboard before shooting the video because I know that I would be able to afford the specific location, costumes, props etc. for the idea not to change on the shooting days.

I instead decided to draw my storyboard after the first day of shooting, however it wasn't usable because the original shoot I had done wasn't approved as the location was too plain. By the time I had done the fourth shooting day, where all my footage was approved, I finished drawing my storyboard and then I used Adobe Premiere Pro to turn the storyboard into an animatic.

Here is the animatic:

Jewish Boyz: How I made the song

Once I had decided I was going to make We're Jewish Boyz, I needed to find a way to make it legally. This first required me to search for an instrumental to the song that wasn't directly released by Wiz or any associates. Thankfully, Wiz had not released an official instrumental, which meant that prosumers were submitting their own variations of it. I asked the permission of a YouTuber to use the song, and he said it would be fine.


At first, I tried using the free audio creation service Audacity, as this would ultimately reduce my budget for the project as a whole. However, there was a disadvantage to using it because the audio quality wasn't professional enough after processing, so I ultimately decided to scrap it.

Luckily, a friend of mine owns the latest version of Logic Pro and I arranged a day with him to record the song and compile the track together all at the same time. This proved successful because it is what most music producers use to create songs and because I didn't need to start from scratch with the instrumental, I saved lots of time just recording the lyrics over the song. Comparing both the audio files from Logic and Audacity, it was obvious to tell that the Logic audio sounded a lot more professional, and one that could actually be used in any type of video or sold as a song online or in store. 

Once I create the Digi-Pak, I will credit him as producer of the song as he is the person who controlled Logic to make the song. 

Jewish Boyz: Green Screen usage

My video had gone through multiple drafts until it was fully complete. Initially, the only footage I had was in parks and outside locations. Thanks to audience feedback, I found out that this was quite boring and tedious to watch because it almost looked as if it was all filmed in the same place.

So I took this advice and tried to figure out how I was going to have more variant shots in other places. However, I had to be cautious because if you film somebody dressed in an obviously Jewish outfit, it can be risky in terms of causing offence to people, or being disturbed by intolerant people. 

I decided that the only way I was going to be able to make the video different in the way that it looked, was by using a green screen. The green screen would ultimately display images of things that I could not have been able to film in real life for certain reasons. It also provides me with the opportunity to use animation, making the video a lot more exciting. Green screens are typical of parody culture, and by using it for my intended purposes, I have matched the conventions of the genre. 

Experimenting with the green screen was something new to me because I hadn't used it for my AS thriller, so I was taught on how to encompass it into the video and how to replace it with images, videos and animations on Premiere Pro. Below are some pictures of me and the artist messing around with the green screen before we filmed for the video:

In order to not have issues with copyright, I had to make sure I used images that weren't posted by other people and instead use stock-photos. Below are all the green screen images used in the video, and how they are finally in the frame: 

This image here is a gif (moving image) of words in Hebrew obtained straight from the Torah. I used this image because the idea of animation of the words would make the video look more interesting.

 This image is a stock photo of Tel Aviv beach. The reason for using this photo was because I wanted to try and have a location that I wasn't able to go to in the short space of filming time, for example Israel. This would also make the video look interesting and entertaining, and could extend the audience's imagination. 

 This image is a recording studio and the reason why I included it was because I wasn't able to access a real recording studio for my artist to go to, so I simulated one in order for the authentic image of my artist to be brought to life.

 This image is a picture of cut-up brisket and I used it for the lyrics in the video "Smell it from here, the brisket's ready".

 This image is the Israeli flag and I used it in order to symbolise Judaism in lots of other ways and also to combine it with Israeli culture.

 This image is a gif of a Star of David that looks like a pizza, which animates and changes colour from blue to white. The reason why I chose this image was because it was interesting in its look and I liked the colours it was changing to. It also matched the dancing clip it was linked with.

 This image is a video of some other Hasidic Jews dancing in a circle in celebration. The reason why I used this video was because I had an issue where I lost a large amount of cast members, so I wanted to simulate what I would have done in real life.

 This image is a picture outside Hendon Central station. The reason why I used this image for the video is because I was not allowed to film directly outside the station, and in that particular position, because it was a breach of private property.

 This image is a picture outside Golders Green Station. The reason why I used the image for the video is because I was not allowed to film directly outside the station, and in that particular position, because it was a breach of private property.

 This image is a gif of a hypnotic spiral. The reason I used this image in the video was to associate the image with the line "Challah, challah, you drive me crazy" because it's a crazy colour and it is hypnotic, which is quite crazy-themed.

This image is a gif of a Mercedes Benz driving on a road. The reason I used this image in the video was because I was not able to find any Mercedes Benz's in any location I filmed in (which was quite ironic) but I also wanted one that was already moving, for added animation and effect.

In addition, I also used one image of a loaf of challah, which I got to rotate on the screen for added effect and entertainment, so that there would be other elements to include that weren't necessarily formed by the green screen:

The green screen had been part of my plan for quite a while, but I wasn't going to use it until the last day of shooting because it was readily available for me at school. I wanted the green screen to give a feeling of "DIY" to the video, and that's why the images that I chose were in the background because it needed that sense of induced organic theme so that I could amplify the star image of my artist in another format.