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

2. What are conventions?
• Conventions are often linked with media codes e.g..
Technical, symbolic and written and audio.
• These codes give the product a meaning and
determine how the viewer responds to the media
product.
• In short the conventions are what create the emotions
from an audience.
• The conventions a very important in a media
product, especially for a genre such as British hip hop
as there is usually a serious message trying to be put
across to society, therefore using conventions seriously
and realistically the message can be given very clearly.

3. Examples of music video conventions.
• Lip syncing.
• This is the convention where the artists appears to be singing the song live
in the video but we all know they are actually just miming with a recorded
track added on top of the video.
• This is a very useful convention especially in music videos as it can be used
to create a preferred meaning for the audience and can also be used to
show a great range of emotions in collaboration with the tone and lyrics of
the song.
• The advantage of using lip syncing in a music video is that it contributes to
the theme of the video and develops the genre in many ways because of
the emotion created by the artist.
• A great example of this is the rap artist Eminem, he raps enthusiastically in
every vide he features in and gives an amazing reaction to the audience
with anger and pain being two of his best emotions.
• This was something I developed in music video for the same reasons.

4. Eminem lip syncing in front of
a green screen for one of his
music videos.
The emotion he generates
through the conventions is
really useful to generate the
message he is trying to
convey to the audience and
therefore the preferred
reading is created.

5. Examples of music video conventions.
• Beat editing.
• This is a concept in which the video cuts in time
with the beat of the music.
• This conventions does depend a lot on the type
of music that is being played for example a fast
beat drum and base tune will be very difficult to
edit to the beat, whereas a slower beat r&b song
will be more effective with this convention.
• The main advantage to this convention is that the
video is very clearly linked to the music.

6. What are the conventions of my
genre?
• The main convention developed in the British hip hop
genre is the lip syncing, this is because the lyrics are
what carry the meaning behind the song.
• This convention is especially useful in this genre
because the artists are trying to give a message to the
audience which is usually deeper than in most other
genres. By having this convention the artist can portray
the emotions they need to through acting in certain
ways, this has a pronounced reaction on the audience
and creates the preferred reading for the producer.

7. • The conventions of the average media product
are usually generated by the artist themselves
as the genre is predominantly independent
and therefore the artist is in control of the
music videos, cd artwork, posters etc.
This is the album cover created by
independent hip hop artist Sway for his
album “for the journey”.

8. • As you can see from the previous slide the
message the artist is trying to get across is of
suspicion but also of him being a patriot.
• This is however misconstrued with many
people and creates a negative stereotype with
activists that were involved in the London riot
s for example wearing similar scarves to hide
their faces.

9. How do my media products challenge the
forms and conventions in normal real life
media products?
• I took inspiration from the message the artists were trying to
give to the public when I was making my products, I looked
deeper than the crime and poverty that is shown in many real
life products and looked at the much less subtle message that
was trying to be constructed, the message I connoted is that
even though they come from terrible childhood backgrounds
and crime and poverty, there is still hope to succeed.
• When looking deeper into the message I started to see the
deeper image, the message that they view money as absolute
power, they view the capitalist society in a very negative way
but conform to the society in their videos by showing off in
clubs spending thousands of pounds and driving around in
expensive cars.

10. • As a result of this I decided I had to challenge this
convention as I saw it as very hypocritical of the artists to
be against the capitalist society but then to take
advantage of it.
• Therefore I made the decision to keep money and cars
away from all my products. I did this mostly because I felt
that way the meaning behind the lyrics in my song would
be construed in a way which could be properly
understood by the audience in the way it should be.
• Because the lyrics are very deep and meaningful, to have
the artist rapping, stood in front of a Ferrari would be
wrong in so many ways.
• Obviously my budget wouldn’t stretch far enough for an
enzo so it works the conventions of independence in that
instance.

12. • The contrasting themes continue when looking deeper into media terminology.
• I have researched well over a hundred different similar genre music videos and
found a theme that generally runs through all of them is the fluid hand
movements and over enthusiasm shown by the artists.
• In contrast I wanted to have a more realistic and genuine approach to my music
video.
• In most cases I stuck to natural lighting as it comes across more realistic than the
studio lighting available to me at school.
• This majorly contrasts the lighting used in British hip hop music videos as we
usually see a huge amount of spot lighting and reflections of shiny expensive
objects in this genre.
• As for camera shots and angles my music video was fairly compliant to the norms
but I did add a lot of moving motion shots in which the camera wasn’t always
showing a low angle shot of the artist. This challenges the representations of the
genre in more than just the denotated way.
• It is obvious that the difference between my video and others is that my video
features high angle shots in it whereas it is very rare to see high angle shots in
British hip hop.
• When looking deeper into the difference you should identify that there is a
majorly contrasting aspect shown by these shots. The shots are in time with lyrics
that depict a negative situation in the artists life. Therefore by showing a high
angle shot it makes the artist appear more humble and even more human than the
standard low angle shot to show them looking powerful and in control.

14. In what ways does it develop?
• The genre itself is very easy to conform to as there is almost a
set list of filming techniques used to make the videos.
• For example the low angle shot is common and locations
• such as high rise flats and walls sprayed with graffiti.
• My products conform to these in many forms, for example my
digipak front cover is of the artist in front of a wall with graffiti
on in.

16. • Another way in which it conforms is the lighting and after effects
added to it.
• Natural lighting is used very commonly in real life media products in
this genre, the main reason I can find for this is mainly because a
natural light creates a more real life image and the genre is trying to
give strong messages rather than just a profit centre.
• As a result I used only natural lighting when filming outside, this
gave the very realistic results and conformed very strongly with real
life media products of this genre.
• As for the after effects, it is fairly clear to see that after effects have
no real merit in British hip hop for the same reason as studio
lighting doesn’t really fit.
• Therefore, if I added after effects such as colour grading and
brightening the video it would be a major contrast to both forms
and conventions of real life media products.
• This means that my video fits the conventions because it has
natural lighting and no after effects, this results in a more genuine
image and because of this it fits the theme created through
independent music productions.

17. • My video fits the conventions of the genre
very clearly in many ways.
• This is good because it clearly shows what
genre the music is without even having to play
the music, because of this I can generate the
reaction I desire from the audience.

18. The advantages of developing the
genre’s conventions.
• The main advantage of developing a music
genre is that the audience should be left in no
confusion as to what to expect in the product
and should therefore set the preferred reading
to what the producer wants.