The director discusses how he used and challenged conventions in G-Money's music video "Space Bound". He incorporated conventions of the rap genre like dark themes and color grading. However, he challenged conventions by filming in a cinematic ratio atypical for music videos. The director also represented social issues like domestic violence and women's empowerment through the characters. While touching on controversial topics, the director aimed to spark discussion through his artistic interpretation in the video.

1. The Daily Star
The Director of Space Bound Interview
The Director of G-Money’s new music video, Space Bound, has sat down for an
interview with us in light of the success and popularity of the music video itself.
We will be asking about the conventions he used, whatconventions hechallenged
and how he has represented social groups and issues in the music video.
TDS: How does your music video use conventions?
Avinash Navani: I made use of conventions in terms of both the genre of rap music and the
standard music video conventions. In regards to the conventions of rap music, my music
video makes connotations to dark, mature and explicit themes in its narrative and tonality,
which is usually what rap music videos portrayas confirmed bymy research in regards to my
Similar Product Analysis of a Music Video and Genre Research. The use of dark themes is
made obvious in my narrative, which focuses on the anger and depression of losing love,
which drives a malleable character to ultimately commit an atrocity that he regrets. The
origin of rap music was formulated on the foundation of injustice, and so I attempt to show
how the loss of love and the treatment of a partner creates an injustice for my leading
character(G-Money/TheRapper),that iswhat Iwanted to connoteinmymusic video inorder
to keep in line with the conventions of rap music. And because rap music shows darker
aspects of usually censored media, I implemented a few scenes of domestic violence to
further represent thisinjustice, and to again followthe most fundamental instruction of rap
music videos – expressing my true vision for the song.
My ambition to portray this vision, however, did raise concerns from the institutions, who
funds the music video, arguing that the explicit aspects of the music video, including the
domesticviolence scene and some ofthelanguage wouldbe too much of negative exposure
to some audiences. Taking this into account, I ensured to reduce the amount of violence I
portrayed just so that I could keep in line with the what the institutions wanted in terms of
their own conventions and goals.
I have also shown genre conventions in terms of my mise-en-scene. I used colour grading in
my post-production phase in order to darken my clips (in terms of saturation, colour and
shadow)to createmeaning in my music video.Thedarkening oftheclipshelped meconnote
theidea that thenarrative of my music video itselffor a mature or suitable audiences, I also
modelled the colour grading to be a representation of how the rapper character sees the
world – with a lack of colour (hence why I do not just use full black and white colouring
because there is a lack of colour, not a full shade of opaque). The use of dark colouring has
also been linked to several music videos in the rap genre, for example thevideo ‘Alright’ by

2. Kendrick Lamar, that I looked into for my genre research, tackledits own injustice with dark
colours to help portray the idea of negativity.
Ialso used genre conventions in regards to costume.G-Moneyis oftenseen wearing a hoodie
throughout the video, which is a costume stereotypically affiliated with the rap genre, so I
had to make wide use of it.
In regards to music video conventions, I madeuse ofa variety ofshots in theproject because
as I had seen in my research, the stereotypical music video makes use of a variety of shots
and angles, so I thought it paramount to include this into my own piece of work. I made use
of different camera shots and angles – including tracking shots, Steadicamshots, Shakicam
shots, Camera movements, Pans, Tilts, High Angle, Low Angle, Birds Eye Angle and even a
Dutch Tilt,so that Ihadarange of different frame aestheticsto complywith thisconvention.
Finally, anotherconvention of music videos that I included was theuse of both performance
and narrative elements in my music video. This convention has been garnering notice more
recently and so I tell a story in my music video, but also have sequences by which G-Money
is performing the song. I didthis mainly because of audience demand and the results of my
audience research questionnaire in which theyexplained theywanted aplot,but that stayed
in line with the song.
TDS:Hmm, that isvery interesting, Avinash. Now on to thenext question, our readers would
liketo know if your music video challenged any of theconventions of themusic video or the
rap genre?
Avinash Navani: Yes, of course, I didchallenge conventions of themusic video in particular,
the rap genre and the industry conventions as well. Firstly, when editing the music video, I
formatted the frame ratio in 2.35:1 (anamorphic ratio), the same ratio that is used in the
visualisation of films. Now, thisvideo is up on YouTube,and the2.35:1 ration does not cover
theentirescreen likemost music videos do.IdidthisbecauseIwanted thisto haveanarrative
feel to it and make the music video feel more like a story than a music video itself, with the
song almost narrating theevents to theaudience. That’show I played with theconventions
of a music video.
In terms ofthe genre of rap, the song SpaceBound itself, though is a rap song has elements
of folkand pop into it. The song is not a defined ‘Hardcore’ rap song, in fact, it is more to do
with telling a story, alltogetherwith a great beat and rhymes that makes it a rhyme, so the
song, though really a rap song, has a feel of pop and folk elements.
Finally, I challenge conventions through the use Kyra’s, the actress who plays the Woman,
costume. Her costume for themajoritypart ofthe music video is quite simple and plain, and
covers her up. This defies thestandard industry practice of sexually representing woman to
increase audience appealandincrease profitsas a result. I wanted Kyra’scharacter to have a
meaning in the music video; she is suffering in her circumstance and she needs that escape
so that she can live a more prosperous life away from theabuse of the rapper, so I have her
clothing reflect onthis.Shewears moredepressing clothesto mirror herown depression and
simple clothesto mirror with her simplicity.Onlywhen she leaves therapperdoes shefinally

3. wear appealing clothing, though this is not to portray sexual connotation, but to in fact to
show that she is now in the high ends of prosperity and is doing better than life, which
portraystherapperas asymbolofdevolution.As theworldevolves, heremains secure in one
place.
TDS: That’s reallycool! Now, I’llask you thefinal question for our readers is: how does your
music video represent social groups and issues?
Avinash Navani: I think the music video makes great representation of social groups and
issues. A social group we put most of our focus on is women, and theirloyaltyandtheir wish
to fall in love and to be loved backed, as well as respected. These characteristics are all
embedded in theWoman’s character, she wants to beloved and she wants equality with her
partner, the rapper, however the rapper goes on to undermine her and her strength by
constantlyarguing andphysicallyattacking her.TheWomancharacter is arepresentation of
thesilent issue of domesticviolence and that some women of a socialgroup in particular,lie
victim to it. My music video sort of characterises the outcomes of this injustice, and thus
raises awareness forewarning people that domestic abuse is wrong and that it leads to
adverse consequences that usually ends people up with regret, like the rapper. The Rapper
is theprimeexampleofwhomone member ofsocietyshouldn’t be,so that isthesocialgroup
that thewoman falls upon and the issue related to this,domestic violence. In relationto the
social group of woman, we do represent another issue that involves them. Throughout the
video, the woman character is shown to be undermined and dependent, which almost
depowers her as a character, making folk like the Rapper look strong. It is an ongoing issue
today and I hope my video brings awareness to this situation and perhaps try to stem such
unequal and discriminate practices.
Another issue that we tackleis the themeof religionand theology.It is not really denoted in
themusic video,but it ismoreimplied.Thebeginning andtheendofthemusicvideosfeature
theRapper walking around in thisunknown area, which has structures and greenery, but we
reallydon’t know what it is. After hedies in thevideo,we can interpret that thisissome form
of the afterlife, and since we don’t know what it looks like, this is my interpretation of this
event. It may seem like the rapper is in heaven because his surroundings seem humble, but
actuallythis is my interpretationof hell for him as confirmed bythe final shot,it may not be
hellas in likehowit is stereotypicallyportrayed inmedia(as thisred, evil, awful place),but it
is hellbecause heis alone in thisrealm and the woman will never be there, and he’llhaveto
learn to be imprisoned without love for the eons to come. It’s a controversial subject,
definitely, but rap music is all about controversy and conveying your artistic interpretation
and that was what I was going for.
TDS: Thank you for your time, Avinash! A lot of interesting comments from his side, well
don’t forget to watch G-Money’sSpaceBound video onYouTube,it’sa great music video and
also pre-order G-Money’supcoming album,formore detailsgo to www.g-moneymusic.com.