Media Evaluation 1

1. In What ways do your media products use,
develop or challenge the forms and
conventions of real media products?
By Suhail Hussain

2. Introduction
• For my media products I created a music video, digipak and a magazine
advert suitable for the music press.

3. Music Video
• In my music video I represented my artist 'Lil Bands' conventionally as a Hip/Hop artist. For example
the whole theme of my video is about drinking and partying as they are both stereotypically associated
with Hip/Hop artists such as Post Malone in his video for 'Too Young' in which he can be seen
drinking as well as partying. I also decided to add this theme as it related to Andrew Goodwin's theory
of a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which illustrate or amplify the lyrics.

4. • Andrew Goodwin established the key features and conventions of music videos when the forms were
new in the 1980's. I also used Andrew Goodwin's theory of using multiple close ups of my in music
video to help promote my artist as well as using voyeurism by adding a female in to my music video to
entice a male audience.

5. • After doing my lyric breakdown on my song 'All Night' by Chance The Rapper I concluded that it was
all about drinking as it is repeatedly mentioned in the chorus therefore I tried to emulate that in my
music video. I did this through mise-en-scene, the iconography of having a bottle of alcohol with the
artist throughout the video to connote drinking as well as dancing to connote partying.

6. • I developed this convention even further by creating this theme in to a story with a prologue and an
epilogue which lets you know a little bit more about what is happening in the video as well as tying it
all together with the drinking theme. By adding a prologue and an epilogue I have developed the form
of music videos which usually does not have these, although there are a few examples such as 'Ride' by
Lana Del Ray.

7. Challenging Conventions
• I challenged conventions such as the location of my music video. Stereotypically a
Hip/Hop music video would be filmed in lower class area such as a 'hood' to
show their hard upbringing and struggle, for example N.W.A's video for 'Straight
Outta Compton' However my music video was filmed in a middle class area. This is
because many new and upcoming artists from the Hip/Hop genre have moved away
from showing their struggle in videos to now showing their luxuries, for example
Chance The Rapper's music video for 'No Problems' in which he shows off his
giant house and expensive cars. I did this as I wanted to represent my artist in the
new generation of Hip/Hop as an up and coming artist.

8. Comparison
VS
Old New

9. • Through watching other famous Hip/Hop artists videos such as Jay z, 50 Cent and Kanye West I was
able to identify certain conventional camera shots and editing techniques that were recurring. For
example close ups and low angle shots are used in many Hip/Hop videos as it shows the artists as
being higher up in a position of power therefore I also used a master shot on a low angle which is
repeatedly seen throughout my music video.

10. Digipak
• For my Digipak I decided to use darker colors and low key lighting as that is what many Hip/Hop
artists albums look like. Also the photos I used in the digipak show the artists using 'direct address'
which is done to provoke thought and connote mystery/ interest. Other Hip/Hop artists do this such
as Eminem on his album 'Recovery'. Also I made sure keep my theme of drinking around the digipak
to give people a general idea of the artist before they invest in the album.

11. Magazine Advert
• I attempted to challenge the forms and conventions in my advert by adding in unusual colours in my
poster that weren't associated with the Hip/Hop genre, however it did not work out initially therefore I
started again and took a much more simple approach. This is because many magazine adverts for
Hip/Hop artists are just like the digipaks, mysterious. Therefore I emulated this by only putting the
essential information on such as the artists name and album as well as keeping the colour scheme
consistent with my digipak.

12. Conclusion
• In conclusion my media products used, developed and challenged the
conventions of real media products. This is because I had already made
conventional short films therefore I wanted to challenge myself and I felt the
best way to do that would be through a music video that challenged the
forms and conventions. Overall I felt that it was a positive decision as I am
happy with the way it all turned out and have learned something new.