ABOUT

The Ends Music Video was a project I decided to do for my friend's and Soundcloud artists Connor Seven and Jay Dacko, with primary help from my friend Marcus Blair who studied Media at Bournemouth University and directed the video. Both recently graduating from university last summer, Marcus and I start discussing in September the idea of directing our own music videos for various upcoming artists as a genuine interest of combining our love of Film Studies and practicality but to also try and boost us into establishing ourselves within the creative industry. We discussed how Music Videos of the R&B/ Hip Hop genre nowadays mostly seem concerned with visuals and lack story elements in contrast with early 2000s videos where you felt you were getting an immersive story fitted into a 4 minute video. Moreover I introduced Marcus to Connor and Jad, and we had an initial meeting whereby we all felt we were on the same page regarding wanting to make music videos with a story quality and then they shared an interest in wanting to create a music video for their song 'The Ends'. The Ends is a rap/grime song applicable to anyone, particularly living in london, about the area you live in and how it always feels like home regardless of the good, bad and indifferent experiences. Regarding the thematic subject matter, Me and Marcus wrote and pitched the idea to them of a story, where we see the younger versions of Connor and Jad as kids messing around in their area, but when they decide to steal from their local corner shop, the younger Connor runs and bumps into a drug dealer who offers him a wad of cash which sparks the change into the older criminals they become whereby then we see Connor and Jad along with some gang members rob a man's house and beat him to death. However when the rest of the gang are celebrating, Connor feels guilty and conflicted about this and when he decides to go outside to call the police, Jad catches him and throws down the phone. He then accuses Connor of being a snitch, and in anger stabs Connor and leaves him to bleed out as he walks away. Connor and Jad liked the idea and agreed to do it, so we started organising things for the shoot from November, and then we shot it over 3rd and 4th December 2016, two days back to back and Marcus edited from December and published it on Youtube on the 30th January 2017. I found the process to be quite enjoyable and even though it was stressful at times, getting everyone organised in the scene or organising the location, it gave me a first proper experience of immersing myself into creating my own project and my first music video simultaneously.