Shoop forms and conventions

1. Ancillary tasks
SHOOP
Forms
&
Conventions

2. Form: elements of structure which
give a media text its ‘shape’ and
meaning.• The use of performance exists to showcase the artist,
demonstrate genre/abilities and to create a marketable star
image. I saw examples of this in ‘It’s Tricky’ by Run DMC. I
used this video as I felt an 80’s hip-hop video would provide
me with a good example. For instance, there were many good
uses of zooms and close ups on the performer during the
performance element in the video. Because these shots exist
in the video you are allowed a look into the artists star image
and it helps to give you a further sense of the genre that you
are enjoying.
• We wished to identify a target audience of 16-35 year olds,
however this could stretch to 40-50 as well, with older people
being reminded of the songs of their youth. What appeals to
the younger audience is the cool and stylish image that our
artist has, which draws them in. What appeals to the older
members is the style that our artist has, which is a replica of
an 80’s hip-hop image, which draws in our older target
audience.
• The next side shows a screen grab of the type of close up that

4. Continued:
• Examples of shots doing the same thing from my
video will appear shortly. Firstly I would like to talk
about how in my video, the performance is reasonably
similar to in ‘It’s Tricky’ as there are many close ups
and zooms. A zoom is not a common technique in
modern day pop videos, however it was in the 1980’s,
which is the time period that has heavily inspired us. It
helps to create retro and stylish motifs.
• This again builds the artists star image and creates an
awareness of genre for the audience. The function of a
close up is to promote the artist, and to further
introduce their star image. How it builds the star image
is that the shot is very intimate, you get to know their
face, their style and attitude. This causes the target
audience (16-35 (40-50)) to feel as if they know the
artist in a very loyal way.

5. Zooms and close ups in the
performance element of the video.

6. Another example of form:
• The use of symbolic and thematic material is to help
demonstrate the genre of the artist, and to also present the
audience with an idea of the artist’s individual style. In our
case it helped to show what time period we wanted our video
to look like it came from. This helps to promote our artist as it
shows their image very clearly, as the look in the 1980’s was a
very strong one, therefore different to that of the now-this
gives them a uniqueness. In LL Cool J’s video, ‘I need love’
there are good examples of this, with the clothing being of the
time (therefore you can recognize the era 30 years later).
Also, the camera work features many canted angles and
handheld shots which nicely builds an image and clear style.
• In our video we used a lot of colour and retro clothing in order
to create our artist’s image and it worked brilliantly, with many
people guessing the time period correctly. Furthermore, the
camera work was very period specific in our video, and not
dissimilar to LL Cool J’s video, again with lots of canted
angles and handheld shots etc. The editing of our video also
put it into a boxed view, just as hip-hop video’s in the 80’s

7. Example of a
boxed shot in LL
Cool J’s video,
instead of full
frame shot.
Hand held shot in
SHOOP
Canted angle in
SHOOP
Animations In SHOOP
In all of these
screengrab’s
from SHOOP you
can see the
boxed editing I
added.

8. Use of Narrative
• A use of narrative exists in order to create a
connection from the audience onto the artist, and by
doing this the audience is able to gain an idea of the
artists personality, i.e their star image.
• An example of a narrative music video is ‘Love the
way you lie’ by Eminem ft. Rihanna. This shows a man
abusing his girlfriend, and in the video we learn that
there are ups and downs, they fight, they makeup but
eventually the girlfriend has had enough. This is all
from the video.
• My video features a much lower key narrative, with
only slight moments of narrative featuring. For
example, the beginning we have the girls on the
rooftop, they see the boys and Kemi is taking her pick
of the boys.
• A sparser narrative was more appropriate for my artist

9. A moment of narrative in
Eminem’s video
The moment Kemi spots the
boys in the club
Now we know
which boy she
wants
This sparse narrative
tells us that our artist is
playful, bold and
flirtatious, adding to
the star image.

10. Conventions: elements of content
which are recognizable from similar
texts
• Artistic camera work, a type of convention exists in
order to create a further image of the artist and
their genre. I touched on this subject when
discussing forms, and a music video that
demonstrates this is ‘It’s Tricky’ by Run DMC. In
this video there are many canted angles, zooms
and quirky close ups.
• This convention inspired our video, as in the
SHOOP video we shot many things handheld, at
angles and we turned it into a very artistic cut.
• This all adds to the style of the video, therefore
adding to the information surrounding the star
image, which is essentially what the video is doing

11. Canted angles and
handheld shots

12. Conspicuous use of lighting:
• The reason for trying to avoid a conspicuous use of lighting in
continuity is that otherwise all the attention from the audience
is turned towards the lighting. This is an issue because it
prevents them seeing what you have created technically.
Ideally lighting should be something that exists and adds to
the mise-en-scene, but not something that is noticed,
perhaps.
• The actual music video for ‘SHOOP’ by Salt-n-Pepa shows
good use of this, having a nice club scene with lots of bright
disco lights that simply act to create the correct atmosphere,
rather than to dominate the scene.
• Our video to the same song does this in a similar way, using a
haze to mask the lighting a little. What we ended up with was
a nice club atmosphere. Furthermore, the second element
against the coloured wall could have been a potential issue,
with the colour squares not dominating the scene enough. To
prevent this we dimmed the lights at the sides and back,
which stopped the colour blocks from being outshone.

13. Original video of SHOOP: club scene,
lights
Our version of SHOOP, in
the club with the colour
wall