2. OPENING Throughout my video I have conformed to many UK hip hop styles and conventions, within the
opening scenes there is a shot of a man busking on the street to create that possibly urban
feel and conformity in society to neglect the less fortunate. Yet contrasting this initially with
the rural background in the scene below. I have used these two shots together intentionally
to stress the isolation of urban and rural lifestyle. In my mind this conforms to UK hip hop as
a way of representing hardships faced by society and young people, lacking money, a place
to stay or other possible luxuries or even necessities. UK hip hop always keen from its origins
to represent those at the bottom, and the darker stories that other genres decide not to
tackle due to the risk involved.
As shown by the editing, the transitions from scene to scene are slow to match the pace of
the opening and created a more depressing start to the video. This is common in many hip
hop videos and with the song ‘Spastic Max’ this is also relevant with the same type of slow
paced dissolving shots which fade from one shot to another in order to present the character
in a sluggish way. The same way I aim to represent my character as he is represented as
going through ordeal after ordeal to the point of his body and mind breaking. He is supposed
to look drained for these reasons and it is shown in the opening scenes. As I said this
conforms to some UK hip hop through not strictly a genre convention as they are quite
diverse. Though it could be argued to potentially conform to conventions given the artist
himself and the type of videos he does and other high focus artists.
4. SETTING/LOCATIONAs stated in the previous slide I used contrasts between rural and urban areas, some shots more distinct in
terms of which type of location they come under. Others seem to have traits of urban and rural areas, this
challenges most conventions in UK hip hop butUk hip hop being diverse makes conventions in terms of
location hard to pin point completelywith the four owls song ‘not like beforealso using a possibly mixed
urban/rural area.. The reason I chose urban areas was due to the finding of my research in terms of origin of
hip hop coming from the streets and in terms of the demographic the same would appear to apply. Many of
the music videos for most uk hip hop songs use urban environments to create a run down raw street feeling
and I intended to use that partly in my video.
The setting above was an ideal location as it is clearly urban and a run down rough looking area as shown
by the excessive graffiti on the walls. More importantly perhaps is that the underpass shown is quite long
and feels claustrophobic especially when the questionable characterthat the main charactermeets, this
makes the tension of the scene increase and it creates negative preconceptions of what is about to take
place. The shot was an over the shoulder shot in order to place the audience in the characters shoes with
the pathway at a slight angle to createa strange aura about the location.
However I used rural areas to contrast to this which challenges conventions of most UK hip hop videos, I
chose to do this to show a similar struggle many youths face in small towns in terms of drug abuse which is
a common problem in the UK. This making my video a social commentary on themes often presented in UK
hip hop, such as drug abuse whilst underlining the isolation many youths feel which lead to clear problems
such as problems to mental health due to this abuse.
5. COSTUMES AND PROPSThe costumes and props that I used in my video conform to conventions of the genre on most
occasions throughout with the snap back caps and the coats and hoodies significant in the
concealment of identity. This being a far reading into the dress code admittedly but the concept of
concealing an identity makes a character seem suspicious as if they have something to hide, this
depicting the outcasts of society who wish not to be seen. Also more simply the clothing worn by
most characters seem to align with what convention young people of society wear anyway making it
more relatable to youths as well as being more accurate too. This makes the characters more
relatable and uses stereotyping to get a message across to the audience quickly with out more
screen time needed to develop the character further.
This is one of the reasons I decided to conform to conventions in order to get the audience to
recognise the character as someone relatable or real in some ways. This being a quick way to
develop the narrative and the proposed backstory to the character itself. Not only this but as shown
in the music video for ‘Return of the twat’ by Dirty dike the clothing worn by most characters in the
video are similar to common used in real media texts. The only real significant props used would be
the cigarette, money and button bag. The cigarette smoke which was used as a transition between
shots to create a daring/reckless image of the main character. The money and button bag was used
solely to represent a drug transaction and as stated before represent drug usage.
6. CAMERAWORK AND EDITING
In terms of the editing and pace of editing my video does also conform to the genres
conventions, with cuts on beat with a change of shot, this commonly used in both
performance based videos but also narratives. As shown in the original coma music
video when Edward Scissor tongue is in shot. The editing does also follow the pace
of the song to add suspense as with the violent scenes cuts become more
significant to increase the out of control pace.
The opening scene also follows this pattern starting off with a slow pace and using
fading shots, then contrasting this to the following scene with the drum beats and
the character walking down the street, it is clear that the editing is interdependent
on the pace of the music and the pace of the visuals. In terms of the camera work it
conforms to most media videos using a large use of close up and medium close up
shots. The final shot as shown in the picture above does challenge most UK hip hop
videos in the way that the main character is duplicated which is in a sense very
conceptual, by it’s nature of being unique challenges conventions of most media
texts for the genre.
8. STYLE OF YOUR VIDEO
(PERFORMANCE/NARRATIVE/CONCEPT)
The style of U.K Hip hop videos follow 2 different distinct paths, either being a
performance based video or being a conceptual/ narrative piece. My video
takes elements of both styles with limited performance elements on screen.
Therefore to some extent it does conform to some conventions with the
performance elements however does challenge the normal conventions as
does the song ‘spastic max’ that I analysed in my pre-production. This is as it is
a narrative, and although some U.K hip hop videos do choose to follow this
approach it is not the most common form of video in this genre. This followed by
the main U.K hip hop label being high focus, most videos being performance
based such as ‘some people say’ by leaf dog, again as analysed in my pre-
production.
9. STORY AND HOW THIS IS TOLD DURING THE
VIDEO
The story is told in a fractured way in this video with parts of the story revealed partially
quite early on, with developments being built up with two very distinctive alter egos or
characters. Whilst having to fight his own hallucinations and problems at random points
such as the scene where he is trying to watch TV and is seemingly sucked into a different
world where things are worse. The story line doesn’t typically conform to most UK hip hop
conventions though the themes present such as drugs and violence do. With some hip hop
videos choosing explicitly to use either knife or gun crime as a theme like mine supposedly
being knife crime.
The story is through the eyes of the character which is often the case thus conforming to
common conventions across most genres. The story is as I suggested supposed to be a
social commentary in my eyes, although shown as extreme has a kernel of truth in terms of
the way that drug abuse is treated in both the UK and US, criminalised, with authority seeing
to punish rather than help those in need. This is shown through the constant isolation of
the character and the only people he comes across he evidentially attacks brutally. Again
with songs as referred to again with ‘spastic max’ there is the use of dialogue from the
actor outside the music video, I chose not to do this but let the character instead convey
his story through his actions.
10. GENRE AND HOW THE VIDEO SUGGESTS IT
The genre of the video was clearly exhibited by the conventions in clothing and
aspects of the film including performance. Also the themes presented in the
video also prove the genre to be UK hip hop, or a high focus label video with the
connotations of drug usage and purchasing clear. The genre is suggested
through the screenshot taken to the left with the character very expressive both
with his hand and his emotions when using performance based shots as UK hip
hop artists have to create a persona which I will go onto on the next slide. Other
way that the genre is suggested is through the violent scenes which again
conforms to themes often presented in U.K hip hop, predominantly being (drugs,
sex and violence.) Although the drugs themselves were not shown for purposes
regarding the site the video was put on being up for public view.
11. HOW THE ‘ARTIST’ IS PORTRAYED
The artist has an interesting portrayal with multiple sides to him in this video making him
a more developed an interesting character showing elements of fear, aggression,
menace and reflection with a sombre feel to him. Through using the artist to portray
multiple characters in different situation he is presented as diverse and at times
unpredictable and exciting. Through the narrative he is portrayed as aggressive and
tough yet also unstable and at time vulnerable though it is not necessarily clear whether
one of the characters he plays is a figment of his imagination. Through his performance
based shots the artists is portrayed as daring and again aggressive and possibly violent
when using the gesture of cutting his own throat with a blade and pointing directly at the
camera and to the audience. I think that due to the fact that there was multiple artists that
the ‘artist’ shown on screen needed to be diverse in order to cater for the various styles
and personas of the original artists.
