1. Question 1) In what ways does
your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
Emine Ibrahim
2. THE PURPOSE
• My advanced portfolio require me to create a music video long with
an ancillary campaign. I chose to create a music video within the
genre of Hip-Hop/Rap so I had to research into the conventions of the
genre.
• A music video’s main purpose is to attach a visual meaning to a song
and usually match the lyrics in order to tell a narrative. However, it is
not always narrative based, but can be concept or performance.
• Once all research was done, I was able to plan my music video in a
little more detail e.g. location, story board, narrative and image of my
artist.
3. MUSIC VIDEO INFLUENCES:
• These are some music videos which influenced me within the Hip-
Hop/Rap genre. I was able to use and develop these when creating
my own music video.
• Drake – Over
• Rihanna – We found love
• Neyo – Mad
• Drake – Marvin’s room.
4. CINEMATOGRAPHY
• From my research I found that close-ups were mostly used within the
genre of Hip-Hop/Rap. Close ups enable the portrayal of ‘star image’
to the audience according to Dyer as it emphasises star quality and
the idea of the artist being a commodity. The close up on the left is
from my music video whilst the close up on the right is from Neyo’s
music video ‘Mad’.
5. CAMERA ANGLES
• From my research, I found that the artist tends to be shown from a
low angle to be shown as superior and hold power. This shows the
audience the power an artist holds. I used and developed this idea to
follow the convention of the Hip-Hop/Rap genre. The image on the
left is from my music video whilst the image on the right is from
Drake’s ‘Over’.
6. MISE EN SCENE – LIGHTING AND COLOUR
• From researching into lighting and colour within the genre of Hip-Hop/Rap, I
found that low-key lighting was mostly used accompanied with blacks,
greys, oranges, and gold's. I used and developed this idea in order to follow
the right convention for the genre. The image on the left is my music video,
whilst the image on the right is from Drake ‘Marvin’s Room’ and Drake
‘Over’.
Low-key lighting
Warm colours
7. MISE EN SCENE: SETTING
• From my research into the Hip-Hop/Rap genre, the main settings I found
was a black room for my artist to perform his song. This is most
conventional to the genre as raps are usually personal to the artist in which
they would prefer to express these feelings I an empty room so the focus in
mainly on the artist and lyrics. The image on the left is from my music
video whilst the image on the right is from Neyo’s ‘Mad’ music video.
8. EDITING
• From my research into editing techniques I found that the most
common effects were the overlay effects with an invert effect on top
to enhance star image which I was able to use and develop. I also
found that the 3D prism effect was used whilst artist’s rap in order to
enhance his lyrics which I was able to use and develop. This links to
Goodwin’s theory as the editing of the video should match the beats
of the song which I followed.
9. THEORY - GOODWIN
• Goodwin’s 8 factors which I used and developed in my
music video:
1) Genre characteristics – shown through the convention of
jewellery e.g. gold chains around his neck.
2) Relationship between lyrics and visuals – shown through
following lyrics ‘one time for my LA sisters’ and a LA
background is shown.
3) Relationship between music and visuals
4) Star image motifs
5) Notion of looking – female character dancing around
6) Intertextual reference – Uncle Phil and George Bush
7) Performance and narrative based
8) Technical elements
10. THEORY - DYER
• Stars and construction – artificial image
• Industry and audience – make money
• Ideology and culture – cultural values to share
• Characters and personality – audience feel closer to their lifestyle
• I believe I was able to use and develop this theory as I followed the
convention of making my artist a star. I used close ups to show off his
appearance and star quality whilst also showing him as a commodity
as something the audience can buy into.
11. THEORY – ADORNO
• Adorno argues that popular culture is created for the masses in order
to influence them into the ruling class values.
• My music video appeals to the masses as I chose the Hip-Hop/Rap
genre where my target audience is working class. This means I was
able to create a narrative to relate to my target audience, which was
heartbreak and cheating.
12. CONCLUSION
• Overall, I believe that my music video and my campaign as a whole is
conventional to the Hip-Hop/Rap genre. This is because I was able to
follow the most common ideas such as using close-ups, low-angles,
low key lighting, dark colours and a variety of editing techniques.
