OCR Advanced GCE in Media Studies H540: Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The conventions of the genre RAP are as follows;

Composition - This is the position and layout of the artists. In most RAP digipaks have the artists a little off centre.
Image - The image consists of the clothing and the way that the artists portray themselves, if it is a positive portrayal, then they are going to be seen as a good role model, and vice versa, if they are portraying a bad image then they will be seen as a bad role model.
Font - The font used by many RAP artists are used in such a way that they are recognisable as only RAP, an example of this is Bodoni MT Black
Props - Many RAP artists use props such as 'bling', 'money', ' baggy clothing' etc.
Settings - The settings of the majority of RAP videos, is very obscure, many different artists have their own style, many of them being within an urban location or clubs, it gives the stereotypical view of RAP music and also, it sets the scene for many of their songs.
Colours - The colours used in many RAP videos are generally quite dull, this is the stereotypical view of the RAP videos, therefore they need to bring this out within their digipaks and videos, this is generally used so that they can be easily recognisable.
Expression - The expression of the artists within the videos and the digipaks, are quite direct, they do this in order for them to be taken seriously and to appear more confident.
Pose - The pose of the performers is very laid back, the have a sense about them that says to the audience that they are comfortable with things that the do and that it is a kind of second nature to them.

Within my music video, I have used most of the conventions that are listed above; I feel this gives my video an authentic look that can be clearly related to the RAP genre.

The compositions of the artists within the video are that they are seen to be off centre a little bit. This is seen throughout my music video as well as within the ancillary tasks. This can be seen with all three artists, B.O.B, Eminem & Hayley Williams.

Image is a key thing within the production of music videos. The image of many RAP artists is a mixture of both good and bad, e.g. Eminem, he is often seen as a bad role model, mainly because his songs are about sex, drugs, violence etc. But then we also see a good side of him, this can be seen when he is singing 'Like Toy Soldiers' he is seen as a sensitive man, who is grieving for his friend but yet he is also trying to find out how his friend passed and who did it. This can be seen as a good role model as it is a positive thing for him to be doing in comparison to everything else he raps/ sings about, he is also a very caring father and his songs portray that.

Props that are used within RAP genre media videos are generally things like cars, bling, money etc. This is often all you see within the RAP music videos, it is a very stereotypical view of the videos and when RAP music videos are mentioned that is the first thing that you initially think. Within my music video I have not used the typical stereotype of everything, I have decided to keep it to a low key event this is because I wanted my video to be different from the rest.

I have used an urban setting within the shots of B.O.B performing. An example of this is where we see him on the bridge, this is known as an urban location as it is covered in graffiti, this is a general stereotype of an Urban location as it looks run down and abandoned.

Colours have been kept constant throughout my video and my ancillary tasks, the general colour being black and white; I wanted to tie in the ancillary tasks with the video in a subtle but effective way. The best way to do this was to have black and white throughout them both, the black and white in the music video being the reflection of the past, keeping this throughout the ancillary tasks b having the artists and the background in black and white, this is known as 'Brand Identity' this is a way of having it effectively but subtly.

Expression of the artists is a big thing that links them to their genre. Having done a RAP genre music video, I had to think hard and carefully. This then lead me to do the following. Having my Eminem performer had an angry expression towards the audience, this related to the anger that he feels within the song and also between him and his family/ friends.

Pose has been used in my ancillary tasks and also the music videos to give the audience an understanding that it falls under the RAP genre. The general pose is relaxed. This is a convention of RAP videos as they are generally the same they find it easier to perform when they relax.

A stereotypical view on the lyrics from a RAP song, often involves the mentioning of a Rappers childhood. This can be seen within many different videos. The main one that i took inspiration from was 'Eminem - Cleaning out my closet' This is a very good song to use for the explanation of the example above. I decided that I wanted to portray this within my video by using Ash and Gideon for this, i then had to other actors, act in my video as their younger selves. This can be seen throughout my video in Black & White. I believed that this would help my target audience to view this experience and be able to understand the meaning behind it.

I decided to use the background of stars for part of my video, i believed that this would help with the illusion that went with the lyrics, this being the part of the song where, my performer Kate (performing Hayley Williams' part) sings 'Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars' I believe that this was a good background to use whilst Kate was performing on green screen, it gave the realisation and the relationship between image and lyrics.

The way in which I achieved this look was by creating the stars myself, I got some A4 black paper and I put pin pricks in it so that it would let the light shine through, I then pinned it to a door with sheets attached to the door, with the light placed behind the door it allowed the sheet of paper to look like stars creating the above effect.

I liked the idea of having my performers in different places, this gave me the idea of having my performer, Ash (performing Eminem's part), in the gymnasium, the brick wall as a background and also with him writing his raps, etc. I believed that this would give my audience a sense of understanding and that they could also imagine the performer being in these places when they were performing.

With my actor Kate I wanted the audience to be engaged throughout the music video, I decided that I wanted her in different locations, this gave the music video the look in which I had intended, it kept the audience engaged throughout and made it more enjoyable for their viewing purposes.

I started with her playing the piano, this was at he beginning when we are introduced to the song, this went very well with opening of the song as it gave me the opportunity to use it again later on in the song. The next time we see Kate is when she is on the roof top singing, this gives the music video another edge to it in which keeps the audience engaged throughout, it adds an enigma to the whole video, making the audience wonder why she is on the roof top, the reason being is that she is trying to reach for the stars in order to have them for her wish. We then see Kate on a bridge at night time. The last time we see Kate is on a backdrop of stars (created in the way mentioned above) This links in with the lyrics 'Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like Shooting Stars'.

An example video of this is; Chris Brown featuring Benny Benassi - Beautiful People

The inspiration to do the changes in background came from this Music Video above. In 'Beautiful People' you can see the change of locations very easily (0:31 - 0:48), it starts with them scooting along down the street, then in the car, then we see Chris Brown talking to the different people and then finally on stage, this short sction can show you exactly the same meaning as I had intended.

The idea of using the spoken audio that can be heard at the beginning of my Music Video came from the video; Kid Rock - Care ft T.I. & Angaleena Presley. When I originally heard this song, I discovered the audio at the beginning of the song, and this gave me an idea of using dialogue throughout the introduction. I believed that it would relate well to the reason I chose this song, this being that we wish upon Shooting Stars. The spoken dialogue helped me express this more, and helped set the scene for the folowing video to come. I did play around with the positioning of the audio, whether i wanted it at the end, the beginning, or even in the middle, I finally decided on having at the beginning. I also had to decide on the order of the audio, whether I wanted them to be fast or slow, as I had recorded these pieces of audio I found that two of my performers gave a slower rendition of their wishes than the rest. This then gaved me the start and the end to my audio clip and I then worked on it from there. However, this is not a technique used in many Hip Hop videos and so I would say it's a convention taken from some music videos (of different genres) and developed in the Hip Hop genre here.

Within my video I decided that I wanted to portray Ash's lyrics in a way that could be understood by all. When looking through the videos of professional artists I came across the video from Eminem - Stan. This inspired me to do many different outcomes of the performer's lives previously. With Ash's previous life I have tried to convey it in such a way so that he is looking back on his childhood. The scene where we see a young woman having an episode on the bed and then again outside a door is where i have given this example. This is to be Ash's mother when he was younger and how she treated him and also herself. The inspiration that I recieved from the Stan music video was that I could use a scene like this throughout the video, I saw the way that Stan was treating his girlfriend and i decided to use that within my video. This then gave me the idea mixed with the lyrics about his mother being crazy, to do a scene like that. This is a common convention of Rap/HipHop videos, such as; Cleaning Out My Closet - Eminem along with Like Toy Soldiers - Eminem, although this music video looks at the way Eminem had respect for the rap artist that had just died, and he believes that he could be as famous if not even more famous than him when he gets older, and he has Tupac to thank for this. This shows that we have very much used a trait of the genre.

My finished Music Video of 'Airplanes part ii- B.O.B ft. Hayley Williams and Eminem' performed by Ash Scott, Kate Fenwick & Gideon Seglah. With appearences from Tom Perry & Chelsea North.

A LITTLE MORE FOCUS ON YOUR ANCILLARY TASKS PERHAPS? OTHERWISE V GOOD, JUST ROUND OFF EACH PARAGRAPH BY REFERRING BACK TO THE QUESTION.

With regards to my ancillary tasks, the challenge, conform and also develop the stereotypical view of digipaks that are already out there.

I have looked into a digipak made for Lil Wayne's album, I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING. This digipak carries many different conventions, such as;

The dull coloured background
A picture of the artist
The artists name
Tracklisting
Dull coloured back ground
Picture of the artist

This digipak contrasts the conventions of the RAP genre very well, it also gives the audience an idea that it is a rap album by the convention in which it does portray.

I also looked into Dr. Dre's album, DETOX. This carried many conventions f a typical digipak, this is a good example of what a digipak should like. I then included the majority of the conventions into my own digipak, the following conventions are;

Barcode
Parental Advisory
Copyright
Album Name
Name of Artist
Picture of Artist
Tracklisting
Image for the Background

Here you can see my own digipak, made for my production Airplanes.

As far as the magazine advert is concerned I have covered the majority of conventions that go along with the label magazine advert.

I looked at different magazine adverts for albums such as; The Verve and Kings of Leon, although they do not belong to the same genre when looking into creating my own magazine advert I needed to know what a typical magazine advert entailed, therefore I analysed the two magazine adverts mentioned above and found that the typical conventions of a magazine advert were;