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

conventions of real media products?

The media product which I have produced along with my group members is a UK rap video and in order to make our video look authentic and adhere to audience expectations we had to follow certain codes and conventions. One way in which we have employed a convention which is shown in many rap videos is the main artist wearing jewellery. In our video our main performer is wearing a long silver necklace which is a very similar convention used in many rap videos which shows the wealth of the character and he is getting his money through illegal street life activities.

Conventional Rap Videos

Conventional Rap Videos

So as we compare the two you can tell that they are both wearing jewellery and therefore following the convention of a rap video and our artist (50 cent) on the left can be passed as an authentic artist has we have followed certain convention in order for him to be look like an authentic artist. So by adhering to this certain convention we have put ourselves in a position where our audience would be able to associate our video and our artists with rap/ hip-pop genre.

Another convention we followed in order for our artist to look authentic is the use of street clothing so that the artist appeals to his target urban audience For example we used new era caps with are conventional of the UK urban scene so this also appeals to the audience. Also use of hoodies and hoody jackets are also a piece of clothing which is conventional in rap videos and of the stereotypical street life. 

Conventional Clothings

Another element of music video which we used is use of conventional camera angles which are conventional of music videos such as low angle shots which show the main artist superiority which we are conventional of other rap videos. Also mid close up of the artist performing the song which are also conventional of the Rap music video   

Whilst shooting our video we also had to take into consideration the setting of the video we used several locations which could be seen as a stereotypical setting for rap videos such as the council estate which ties into the illegal drug situations that are being stated in the video which reinforces the urban theme which is

constantly streamed throughout the video.

Conventional Settings Of Rap Video

However there area unconventional settings such as the cemetery and the park settings which aren’t really conventional of the rap music videos as they are more less stereotypical urban settings and generally places where there are criminal activity takes place.

Unconventional Settings

Unconventional Settings

One other unconventional aspect of our video would be that our artist is perceived to be an emotional compassionate character; this subverts stereotypes as mainly artists from our particular genre are not seen to be caring and loving but he can also can be an aggressive character and can get be violent in certain situations (song lyrics “I'm Prepared to get violent for I love tight strings on a violin” This offers a polysemic reading as one audience may see him a violent criminal where as others may see him as a loving caring person trying to look after his up and coming family and a guy who is a product of his urban environment and trying to find a way out of the street life cycle.

Unconventional Shot’s

Another shot which wouldn’t be found in conventional rap music videos is the point of view shot, which is the same shot used in cinema verit`e to create realism of the situation and the feel of authenticity.