The document discusses various conventions used in rap music videos that the media product challenges or develops. It summarizes how each element of the media product (music video, digipak, magazine advert) incorporates or adapts conventions of real rap music products. Transitions match the beat, black and white captures emotion but challenges using outdoor footage at night. Shots like side angles are inspired by other artists but with a unique backdrop. Slow motion and negative space intensify emotion.

1. Q1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?

2. Transitions On The Beat Of The Music
In the introduction to our music video, we used three
abrupt transitions (a straight cut) to create three
different types of camera shots from our long length
clip of our male character walking towards the
camera. We manipulated the clip to create an extreme
long shot, a long shot and a medium shot.
We did this so we could carefully time these
transitions between shots with the beat of the
music, so there would be a transition on every beat.
This meant that the music and footage would
compliment each other, consequently adding more
emphasis and giving a better overall clean-cut and
slick look.
Matching transitions to the beat of the music is
conventional for this particular genre however we
have developed this by using transitions from the
same clip compared to most music videos which
make transitions to an entirely new clip.

3. Use Of Black & White
We decided to put our music video in black and white to give it an
urbanised feel and also so we could capture the characters emotions
and attitude more effectively. We also believed that by transforming
our footage into black and white it would enhance the quality by
having two contrasting colours.
Black and white videos seem to be highly conventional for this genre
of music, whilst carrying out research we stumbled across an
unexpectedly large amount of them featuring similar artists to
Macklemore such as Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Azealia Banks and Kanye
West.
Despite this we could only find one example of a black and white
music video filmed in an open location such as a street, this being
Jay-Z ‘99 Problems’, as the majority had used this colour scheme for
footage that had been filmed in a studio or against a backdrop. We
acknowledged the fact that we would not be filming in a studio so
we didn’t want to have false hope or unrealistic expectations from
our research to what effect black and white could really have on our
footage – this is why we initially felt using black and white may be
too much of a risk.
We also wanted to challenge these conventions of the black and
white style by incorporating black and white footage from at night
into our music video, something that seems to be non-existent
across music videos of this genre, as well as using a different range of
backdrops.

4. Side Camera Angle
The side camera angle is a popular choice of
camera shot for music videos of this
particular genre, there are often used in
music videos to express a characters
emotions in a more passionate way.
We originally took inspiration from Eminem
for our side camera angle shot of our male
character, we wanted to incorporate the same
framing of the character (framed on the right)
and have him positioned the same distance
away to enable his hand gestures to be easily
seen.
I feel our interpretation of Eminem’s side
angle shot is effective and works really well
especially with a darker background as it
brings out his features more.

5. Negative Space
Negative space is used a lot in music videos
of this genre. For example, it is featured
numerously in Eminem's ‘When I’m Gone’
music video. This is a convention we have
used multiple times in our own music video
as we felt it works really well in black and
white and also helps to intensify our male
characters emotions.
We achieved this medium shot framed with
negative space simply by filming our male
character in an open space at night under a
streetlight. We all couldn’t believe how
good quality the shot turned out to
be, and thought that it looked as if it had
been filmed in a studio alike Eminem in his
‘When I’m Gone’ music video.

6. Regular Changes In Camera Shot Type
During research we found that a high
percentage of music videos in rap music
contain regular changes in camera shot
type within the same particular scene.
The most often type of change in camera
shots within the same particular scene are
transitions from a medium shot to a close
up. For example, this used for Nate Dogg in
Snoop Dogg’s music video.
We followed this convention in our own
music video, however developed this idea
by adjusting the time between the
transitions of our female character. In
fact, we waited to the second chorus of
the song before we changed camera shot
type. This gave our music video some
structure.
The close up of our female character was
effective in displaying her facial
expressions and lip-syncing, whereas the
medium shot allowed there to be more
focus on the location, (the graffiti covered

7. Number Of Characters In Frame
One convention we challenged was the
amount of characters in frame at any given
point of the music video. We decided to only
ever have one character in frame during the
whole of our music video. We did this to
convey the feelings of isolation, separation
and the idea of past and present.
This seems unconventional for rap music
videos which appear to feature more than
one person in frame at least once during the
whole video. Choosing to keep the two
characters separate from each other and
from everyone else did run the risk of
becoming dull and perhaps boring however
we feel that it was a risk worth taking and
was a crucial part of sustaining and helping
to visualise the narrative.

8. Slow Motion
Music artists such as Eminem and Snoop
Dogg feature slow motion in their rap
music videos. We all really liked the use of
slow motion and wanted to develop this
convention further by incorporating it
differently several times into our own
music video.
We varied the speed of the slow motion
to enable some clips to become slower
than others, for instance the shot above
of our female character exhaling the
smoke of a cigarette is in a faster motion
compared to a low angle shot of her
falling towards the camera later on.
We liked the use of slow motion as it gave
our music video an artistic affect and
created a suspenseful aura. We felt that
using slow motion was a great
opportunity for achieving diverse effects.

9. Digipak
Our digipak follows many of the conventions associated with CD’s, including the
features: barcode, record label, track list, tour dates, website, social networking
sites, and of course the artist and album name. The style of our digipak matches the
conventions of our music video and magazine advert – all black and white. The digipak
also contains photos of one of the locations that features in the music video as well as a
direct link to our female character, this also connects to the magazine advert where our
female character is pictured using one of the photos from the digipak as a backdrop and
another as a border. The front cover of our digipak is conventional for this style of music
having the artist from our music video looking directly at the viewer.

10. Magazine Advert
Keeping in theme with our digipak and music
video, our magazine advert for our album
follows the black and white colour scheme as
well as the typical conventions of an album
magazine advert: album name, artist
name, release date, reviews, record
label, featured songs and website.
Part of this image is used as a background in
our digipak which subtly links the two
together. Our magazine advert also features
the same font used in the digipak as well as
our female character from the music video
who is dressed in the exact same
costume, further linking the main product and
ancillary tasks together.
Our main focus of our magazine advert is in
the centre, this is conventional for album
adverts of this particular genre of music.