1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
By Mohammad Ali

2. Goodwin’s theory
Goodwin’s theory of a music video states that a music video consists of
some or occasionally all these factors:
• Genre characteristics
• A relationship between lyrics and visuals
• A relationship between music and visuals
• Certain demands of the record label.
• A narrative or be a performance.
• Intertextual reference

3. Editing Narrative or performance?
Camera shots
Record labels/production companies think about these
factors before constructing a music video
Location Mise en scene
These factors are essential for constructing a music video and therefore I
paid careful attention towards these factors. As a starting point I looked at
current artists from UK and USA and was able to see the conventions
following the factors above.

4. Camera Shots
In ‘Empire State of mind’ featuring Jay Z and my music video ‘Getting there’
by WA, We see the shot of the artist looking towards the City as if he
controls the city. This shot is usually either a medium or close up shot.

5. Camera Shots
Another artist I looked at was K Koke, in this music video of ‘I’m back’, I noticed
an interesting shot of K Koke walking along a bridge near the London Eye. We
had already chosen the location to be Southbank, London (near the London
Eye) and so we used a similar shot in our music video with the artist walking
along the bring but a slight close up. In addition to this, the lighting is almost
identical. Generally in rap/grime music videos we see that its quite dark whilst
light is shined upon the artist as if they are trying to come out of the darkness.

6. Camera Shots
In almost all the music videos we noticed an establishing shot, but one of the most
interesting establishing shot I noticed was in Rick Ross songs, ‘Diced Pineapples.’
Therefore we felt an establishing shot was necessary, but we wanted to aim for a
similar shot as the one shown above in Rick Ross song ‘Diced Pineapples’ and so
we were able to do so as shown above.

7. Camera Shots
Another artist I focused on was Eminem and in particular the song ‘My Life’ caught
my attention. Throughout the song, ‘My Life,’ I noticed many low shots very close up
to the artist as seen up. This pulled my attention towards the use of low angle shots
as it creates the idea of the artist being superior and in power, which often is the
case in rap music videos and so I applied this into my own music video.

8. Editing
After analysing many different music videos I noticed different edits for
different genres, in terms of the type of edit as well as the length. For
rap/grime you need many straight cuts and very short duration time of
each edit, roughly 3-5 seconds and so we applied this into our music
video along with a few fade in and outs.
Both of these edits are straight jump cuts and both are 5
seconds long.

9. ……
K koke, ‘I’m Back’, this is a Eminem, ‘My life’, this is a
straight cut, 4 seconds in length straight cut, 3 seconds in length
Rick Ross, ‘Diced pineapples, Jay Z, ‘Empire state of mind’, this
this is a straight cut 3 seconds is a straight cut, 4 seconds in
in length length

10. Editing
Another form of edit which I noticed was in K
Koke’s song ‘I’m back’ and in Tyga’s song
‘Switch lanes’, this was a speeding up edit,
in which the individuals or the background
moves reasonably fast.
Fortunately we were using the same location as in K Koke’s music video ‘I’m back’ at the
speeding up point and so applied the same effect, but with the alteration of the type of shot. In
‘I’m back’ the shot was focused on the artist and his friends feet, whereas we focused the shot
towards the back of the artist and his friends.

11. Narrative or Performance?
Music videos have 2 aspects
Narrative Performance
A story with a
No story, just series
series of events.
of events
Our music video was a performance as we did not have a story throughout the
music video, we just assembled various clips. There was meaning behind out
the music video, but this was not shown through a narrative, more simply just
from the lyrics and a few visuals. We felt a performance would work more well
with the type of song.

12. Mise en scene
• Mise en scene is understood to be everything
that is considered by the director and placed
within the frame.
This includes:
1. Production design- sets/location, props and
costumes/clothing
2. Lighting
3. Actors- performance
4. Colour design
5. Era- The time period.

13. Production design- The Location
The location we chose was in Central
London, the area of Southbank (near
the London Eye). We chose this
location as the lyrics referred to
getting to success and Central
London was ideal for representing
this as Central London is an area
regarded to be for the wealthy and
successful. Therefore this location
put a lot of emphasis on the meaning
of the lyrics. In addition to this, this
location had many landmarks for
which London is famous for and so
this instantaneously attracts the
audience. Moreover, we also noticed
that during Christmas time, this
location is lit up and for the purposes
of our music video it was ideal as we
needed to shoot the music video
when it reasonably dark, but at the
same time be able to see the
landmarks clearly.

14. Production Design- Clothing
Use of a snapback
(hat), this is a
convention often used
in rap music videos.
Also the colour of is
blue so goes well this
the background.
Use of a hood is
another
convention used
in rap music
videos
A dark coloured jacket is a convention used in
rap music videos, also it goes well with the
Blue coloured background
jeans which go
well with the
background This are all stereotypical clothing which you we notice
in a rap music video. The clothing is seen very dark and
dull which is usually how the background looks.

15. ..examples of this
In the song, ‘My life’, the artist, Eminem is
wearing completely black clothes and the
background is very dark. Also, The artist is
wearing a hat.
In the song, ‘No love’, the artist lil wayne is
wearing quite dull clothing in front of a dark
background. Also, the artist has hood on.

16. We shot the video quite late night so it
was dark and then we had the
lightings on the buildings, bridges etc.
This is very conventional as most rap
music videos are dark. This darkness
forms a idea of a lot of negativity, but
the lightings on the buildings and
bridges and colour design creates the
feeling of something standing out and
Lighting/colour this emphasis the artist trying to stand
out to become successful.
design
Eminem, ‘My life,’ has a dark
background and with very little Wiz khalifa, Black and Yellow, the lighting is
lighting, suggesting a form of very low but the contra-flow of yellow which is
sorrow. a bright colour suggests a happiness of an
individual coming out of the darkness

17. Actors performance
Actors performance is an essential part of mise en scene. The performance
of an individual is seen through their body language and facial expressions.
Hand gestures is a
convention seen many
music video genres
especially in the rap
genre.
Facial expressions is
another convention in the
rap genre. As you can see
the artists facial
expressions are very
serious as he talks about
his pursuit to success.

18. …examples of this In the song ‘Till I’m gone’, by Tinie
Tempah we can see that the artist is
smiling which reflects the mood of
the song, that there is happiness in
the song.
The artist is using hand gestures. In
his song the artist refers to ‘dollar’,
which is American money. The
hand gesture the artist is using is a
common hand gesture used in the
reference to money and so this puts
emphasis on the lyrics.
In this music video, ‘Stay
schemin’ by Rick Ross, the
artist (Rick Ross) has a
screw face, another
conventional facial
expression used in the rap
genre.