1. Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Representation of the artist
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Performance
Narrative
Genre and how the music video suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects
My artist is represented as a lonely figure in the video. The video revolves around him and his own
world and we don’t see any other characters. I did this as it reflects the narrative of the song, which
focuses on the life of one individual. I think my video challenges conventional hip-hop videos when it
comes to setting, location, costumes and props.
I represented my artist in an unconventional way. I took an approach similar to Irish hip-hop artist
Maverick Sabre. He is a unique artist who is represented as quite original, humble and down to
earth. Avoided a contrasting character like 50 Cent who epitomises the stereotypical modern rapper
– boasting about fast cars, women and money.
My video is quite unique in that the whole video is focused on only one character. There aren’t
many videos out there in which the artist stars as the only character throughout. Further, I used an
idea in which my artist starred as both an actor and a narrator. My artist would wear a certain type
of clothing for when he was performing, and different clothes during the narrative. This represents
the split between narrative and performance. My artist almost plays two characters – one
performing and one acting during narrative scenes. In this sense I feel my video challenged the
stereotype of a modern music video, particularly hip-hop videos, as there are very few videos out
there with the same ideas as mine.
In most hip-hop videos you would see typical conventions included - such as expensive cars,
jewellery and bikini-clad women. This video was quite the opposite as there were no nightclubs,
alcohol or flirtatious young women included. I think this down to earth mis en scene reflects the
slow nature of the song.
My video was successful because it used a variety of camerawork throughout. I think this is reflective
of modern music videos which also use a variety of different camera angles in order to enhance
entertainment. With my video I felt I had no choice but to mix things up because I had only one
character.