In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation 1.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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”.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.