In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The ideas for our media came from looking at the work of other artists in our genre, in the research stage we looked at artists such as 50 cent and Cher Lloyd to look at how the genre of rap and hip hop can be conveyed to the audience so that they can distinguish the genre also.
We liked the 99 problems video by jay z we felt that it captured the mood of the song, we most liked the black and white effect used, we decided to use this in our video as we felt it was quite urban and gave our video a street effect which was what we wanted the audience to experience. Also we used a range of pan shots which is similar to the 99 problems video, we did this to distinguish the surroundings, we can see from the pan establishing shots that the location is very street which fits in with the genre of the video. From this video we too the idea of the black and white colour because it gave the video a bit of an edge. The black and white effect made the video look more high end in my own opinion.
Our video has fast paced editing, this is done to fit in with the pace of the song. As it is the rap genre the song has a fast pace. If the pace was slow it would not fit in with the genre. I like the fast pace editing but from our audience feedback we have been told that the pace of editing could be faster.
When filming we used various cinematography such as different camera angles, we used mainly a range of close ups and mid shots as they are shots usually used in rap videos, we noticed this from our research work. We did use establishing shots and close ups of objects in the surroundings to show the audience where the location was, we tried to use objects that could relate to our genre.
Our mise en scene was very important to our genre as it was what the audience could see and this kept them interested. If the mise en scene and the music did not match then it would not be effective in showing the audience what the genre is. We used locations such as alleyways and bridges. We used costume such as a us hoodie and jeans. This also allows the target audience to relate to our artist and music.
Our audience research made us question our original plans, we originally wanted a rather simple video , we would focus on the mise-en-scene in order to establish our genre. When we pitched our idea to a group of students we had some negative feedback. The audience thought it might be too generic and could end up being boring as similar things have been done before in music videos.
In the rap and hip hop genre in order to convey the genre to the audience you have to use elements that are stereotypical as that gives away the mood of the video. Our video turned out to be quite redundant as it was similar to videos that had been done before but we felt we added something more with the female vocalist and the dancer. This could be one of the things that would change the audiences initial ideas about our video.
During our creativity week we made a word relation poster, this helped us get ideas for our video based on our genre by giving us words that you would usually associate with our genre this gave us more ideas as to things we would use in our video in order to make the video match its genre.
In my own opinion I think that our music video is quite similar to a 'real' media product, as we based our video on the 99 problems video this gave us something real to base our ideas around. The surroundings fit in with the genre so we did not require any indoor areas. Although I think if we were given a budget then we could have made the video seem more real by using new technology and adding better effects. The whole genre of rap and hip hop is very urban and original so that is what we wanted to capture in our music video.
Our video is not very original I would say it is fairly redundant, we did this so that the audience could distinguish what the genre was. Rap and hip hop is shown in different ways, based on our artist and the song 'not concerned' we opted for an urban, street video. The artist fits in with the surroundings and it allows the audience to relate to the artist which is something we were hoping to do in order to reach our target market.
In our video we have lip sync and a fast pace of editing which fits in with the song, this is typical of music videos but is a requirement in order to distinguish it as a music video. This what makes it clear to the audience that it is a music video. The camera movements look at the artist in different angles this makes the audience get to know the character and also keeps their attention focused on the video. If the angle never moved it would not look like a music video and would in fact be very boring for them to watch.
The denotation in the music video is a young man who is rapping wearing stereotypical outfits for a rapper, the connotation is much deeper, it is a man who is communicating with people. He is sharing his views and opinions via rap, we wanted to get the feeling of not concerned so that it related to the song. Through his attitude and behavior this is shown.
According to Raymond Williams theory of ideology i think that the audience would have emergent ideology about a young man rapping. They would think that he was a trouble maker, lazy, and not really got an opinion. In our music video we are challenging this view, the rap is giving him a voice to say what he thinks and he is passionate about it. Although the locations used are stereotypical of a usual hangout for a young teen. For example the alleyway.
The candy shop video was illustrative according to Andrew Goodwins theory as the video told a story and the lyrics matched up to some of the images shown in the video.
According to Andrew Goodwins theory music videos are either illustrative, amplifying or disjunctive. I would say our music video is quite disjunctive as the images shown do not really relate to our video and the meaning is ignored. There is one scene in the video where he talks about changing clothes and the shot changes so he is wearing a different outfit.
