Evaluation Question 1

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

For my coursework I was given the brief to create a music video which lead me to devote a lot of my time into watching a variety of music videos that were from lots of different genres and time periods. I found that the videos I was drawn to were in the genre of hip-hop, but specifically 90's hip-hop as the genre has changed a lot in the past 25 years from a more fun atmosphere in the videos, to quite an egotistical attitude that is seen in present hip-hop. To ensure I fulfilled this convention and the other generic conventions of this genre, I zoomed in on the micro elements of the 90's hip-hop genre, which includes the style of music videos, the mise-en-scene, editing and camera angles/movement, and this also meant that I had a better understanding of the audience expectation.

There are many different styles of music videos with the main three being narrative, performance and conceptual videos. There are 3 types of performance videos, which include band performances, singing or dancing. The style of my music video is a performance video which is solely dance based, because I wanted to make it similar to DJ Fresh's 'Gold Dust' video and also Jungle's 'The Heat'.

Neither of these videos include the artist of the song, however they have performers such as skipping rope dancers in Gold Dust and two dancers on rollerskates in The Heat. In my music video, I have included dancers and no storyline to keep the video performance-based rather than a mixture of narrative and performance. I also haven't included any lip syncing as the videos I took inspiration from didn't have any, and it would make my video look less professional. Unlike the videos I took inspiration from, the dancers are also the artists of the song, as the appearance of the artist is a vital element of hip hop videos. This can be seen in the video for A Rollerskating Jam Named "Saturdays" which is a hip hop song from De La Soul that I also took inspiration from, where the artists and the featured artists are all included in the video.

I felt that the visuals in Gold Dust and The Heat can seem quite detached from the audio because the lyrics of both have nothing to do with what we're seeing, and the lack of lip-syncing also creates a distance. In hip-hop videos, the video and audio always has some connection whether its through lip-syncing or the actions of the video. For example, A Rollerskating Jam Named "Saturdays" features lots of skating shots as the name may suggest. My video doesn't contain lip-syncing, so I knew that the actions of my video would have to match the audio in some way to make it more similar to real products of 90s hip-hop. The title of the song I have used is called The Hop and the lyrics are about dancing or doing 'the hop', "You got to do the hop, you move to the beat you don't stop", which explains why I chose to include dancing throughout my video.

The most prominent way I linked the video with the song was the use of editing to the beat, especially at the beginning where all of the beats are matched, but also throughout the video I made sure that the actions of the movements were set to hit all the beats of the music.

Also, I constructed the video to show some actions that have a direct link to the lyric we hear, for example we hear the lyrics 'You see you' while we see the performer point to the camera (at 1.24s) and similarly as we hear the lyric 'I work for mine, you' we see the dancer look to the camera (at 1.28s). This helps to include the audience and keep their attention as the 'you' seems to directly address them. Also, whilst hearing the OJ Simpson reference, we see the dancer perform a stabbing action (at 1.31s). Shortly after this there is a sequence of shots that all link to the lyrics in some way: beginning at 1.44s until 1.55s. In addition, at the end of the first chorus we hear 'move till your body wont stop' and the dancer begins a more fragmented action to match the word 'stop' (at 1.18s), until we hear the lyrics 'non-stop motion, non-stop' and the dancer begins to move naturally again.

I also took a lot of inspiration from the videos Gold Dust and The Heat as they mimic the conventions of hip-hop videos in terms of mise-en-scene. Firstly, the use of natural day light is almost always seen as it is very common for hip-hop videos to be filmed outdoors in public areas and specifically in day time hours, which is also seen in Gold Dust and The Heat, where Gold Dust is set in what looks like a playground in an urban area, and The Heat is set in what looks like a sort of car park. I made sure to film my video in daylight hours and it was set in a public car park to create a similar effect and keep a street, low budget atmosphere. In fact, parts of the setting in my music video look very similar to those seen in The Heat, where both have the same type of pillar barrier surrounding them.

Blue skies are often seen in the background of hip hop videos, however it isn't essential to the themes of the videos. I tried to include this aspect to create a fun and bright atmosphere by making sure to include shots that captured the light effectively, although I couldn't guarantee the same weather as that in real videos, as most hip hop videos are shot in America where the weather is obviously much better than England's winter. The use of lighting also helped me match some of the lyrics, for example shortly after the lyrics talk about killing negative feelings I have positioned a shot with natural daylight to help evoke a positive atmosphere.

In terms of costume and props, hip-hop artists in the 90s were not aiming to show off wealth and most videos have a natural and authentic feel as the artists aim to represent how they live and grew up. This worked in my favour because I created my music video on a low/no budget. As we can see from 90s hip-hop music videos, fashion has changed since the 1990's and the baggy costumes that the artists wear look different from the norm to the 2016 eye, however in its era the outfits are very casual and everyday, which also helps to represent their lifestyle and hometown as it adds a sense of authenticity. In addition, sportswear such as baseball shirts and basketball vests with graphic text on either the front or the back were also common, as it pays homage to their favourite hobbies or teams - making the videos personal to them. The dancers in my video wear graphic baggy jumpers with bold text on the front and a graphic basketball vest which says has 'BROOKLYN' written over it, similar to the hockey jersey in A Tribe Called Quest's Oh My God video.

It is also very common for artists to wear hats in their videos as this is part of the hip-hop culture and was also fashionable at the time. I have conformed to this convention of hip hop music videos as  the artists in my music video also each wear hats and one of the performers' hats matches his outfit which is also common for hip-hop music videos and can be seen in Nas' video for It Ain't Hard To Tell.

The costumes in my video aren't as baggy as the typical 90s hip-hop outfits as I also wanted to channel the costumes in Gold Dust and The Heat where they also wear casual sports outfits/tracksuits however they look more fitted, perhaps because of the difference in fashions from early 90s to today. The performer in my video also wears tracksuit bottoms to mimic the outfits in The Heat where the dancers are wearing matching green tracksuits.














The props in different hip-hop videos can be specific to the song, which explains why rollerskates, scooters and skateboards are seen in A Rollerskating Jam Named "Saturdays". In my video I drew a hopscotch grid on the floor sing chalk, to match the song as the title and much of the chorus is about doing 'The Hop'. Some of the more generic props that can be seen in hip-hop videos include vinyl discs and stereos as they were commonly used in this era. I adopted this convention and included a vinyl disc at some parts of my video to match the sound of the scratching disc we hear in the song, which is another action that helped link the video with the song.

It also helped me to secure a more authentic 90s atmosphere as vinyls are frequently seen in hip-hop music videos, such as at the beginning of A Rollerskating Jam Named "Saturdays", as well as in A Tribe Called Quest's Oh My God video.

ATCQ - Oh My God

I tried out a lot of different editing techniques and started with cutting to the beat of the song at the beginning of the video. This involved many short clips and cut-aways that momentarily disturbed another shot showing a continuous action, and this helped to create my non-linear narrative. It also involved cutting out large chunks of the actual videos as well as changing the pace of the specific shots by speeding them up or slowing them down so that they fit to the audio. It was important for me to edit to the beats at the beginning of the song as I wanted to make it similar to A Tribe Called Quest's Check The Rhime video, which also cuts to the beginning beats of the song. When the verses of the song began, I held back on editing and used a continuous shot of the dancers to mimic the style of editing in The Heat, where the first minute shows a continuous shot.  However, the difference between the continuous shots in my video and The Heat is my use of camera movement, as there is little movement in The Heat. In my video, I wanted to keep the movement more lively as the tempo of my song is more fast-paced than in The Heat. Also, I took inspiration from hip-hop artist KRS-One's video for Heal Yourself, where the entire video is one continuous shot, showing each of the performers and I tried to make my video similar by focusing on one dancer at a time. Jump cuts were most frequently used in my video to keep my video energetic to match the beat of the song, and this is similar to A Tribe Called Quest's Check The Rhime video. I had to reverse part of some shots to prolong the clip, because it would have looked less professional if I had to cut to the next shot early. I also used a graphic match to show the dancer jump from one location to the next, however it was more difficult to do this because usually graphic matches are done with still objects but the dancer was in motion throughout both shots. As the dancers were constantly moving, lots of tracking shots were used to capture all the movement, similarly to those seen in The Heat.

In the video for Gold Dust, the camera movement is unsteady and this adds a hand-held effect. I also wanted to achieve this, so I wasn't too bothered when shots looked slightly shaky because it added to my desired effect. During filming, I tried to keep the camera moving through most of my shots to maintain the energy of the video, however when I was selecting the clips I made sure I used ones that had movement and a more steady frame. I filmed a lot of eye level shots because they made the video feel more authentic, as if the audience is actually standing there watching. These are also frequently seen in Gold Dust and The Heat. However I did try to use different angles at different parts as the video progressed, such as a high angle to include all the dancers during the vinyl scratching part of the song, and also when showing the feet of one of the dancers. The second shot of the video shows an over-the-shoulder shot of one of the performers, to create a similar effect to one of the shots at the beginning of Gold Dust. It makes the beginning more interesting as the identity of the people in the video is hidden.

Music videos of the hip-hop genre commonly represent young black males as most hip-hop artists belong to this demographic and the appearance of the artist is a strong convention throughout the genre. Being an artist of the hip-hop genre isn't limited to black people, so I wanted to represent a range of different cultures which explains why I included a black, mixed-race and white dancer as the artists of the song. This subverts the generic conventions slightly, however it is similar to Dilated Peoples, a hip-hop group of the late 90s which consists of three members of white, Asian and black males. The three dancers in my video are males between the ages of 16 and 18, meaning that they are also representing male and youth culture which conforms to the generic conventions of hip-hop music videos. However, in terms of representing demographics, there are several different theories that my video subverts. Firstly, I have disobeyed David Buckingham's Youth Culture theory that 'youths are always portrayed in a negative light', as the performers in my video are not causing trouble but merely dancing and entertaining. However, this conforms to Hebdige's Youth Culture theory that 'youths are portrayed as one of two things; fun or trouble', as the teenagers are shown as fun and energetic in my video. However, this is also how youths are represented in 90s hip-hop videos, as well as in the videos for Gold Dust and The Heat, meaning that my product is developing these conventions of real products. My video also contradicts Bell Hooks who argues that 'skin colour is a code. Lighter skinned are considered more desirable and fit better into the western ideology of beauty.', where the dancer most featured in my video also has dark skin, and this too conforms to the demographic representations in The Heat and Gold Dust, where we see many darker skinned people.

If we assume that Lasswell's Hypodermic Needle Theory applies to my media product, this will mean that 'the audience is passive and is injected with the ideology of the institution/text.' The dominant reading I have intended for my audience is that the youth are talented and innocent rather than trouble making. I have represented them in a way that subtly promotes this by including smiling facial expressions. In addition, a stereotypical view of youth, especially black youth in the 90s is that they have come from a ghetto, which explains the lyric in the song "Just a ghetto child trying to live the straight and narrow". As we hear this, we see the dancer kick forcefully which also symbolises how they are 'kicking' away the stereotypes (at 0.34).

My research told me that as a general convention hip-hop artists usually appear on their digipak, which is why I chose to include the artists on mine. I took inspiration from hip-hop group Jurassic 5's Quality Control album cover, which shows the five males sitting casually, and mine also shows the three performers casually sitting or standing to develop the laid-back vibe of 90s hip-hop.

I kept the text which told us the name of the album at the very top of the front cover, so it was one of the first things to notice which is also similar to Jurassic 5's cover. I used the space at the bottom to include the group's name and logo, however I kept most of it clear to display the hopscotch grid.

The inside of the digipak shows the three artists in their own square so that fans of the group can see the artists separately. Two of them are seen with a blue sky in the background to mimic Drake's Nothing Was The Same album, which is widely recognised for it's album cover. The use of blue sky also evokes a sense of positivity and this helps the audience to feel this emotion when they see it, as well as conforming to a general convention of bright colours and positive energy throughout.

The back of my digipak is similar to the front to show continuity from one to the other, however the back shows the main two dancers in action rather than sitting down. I took inspiration from a well-selling album by The Beatles called Please Please Me, which showed me what is included on the small print of album back covers, including the copyright signs, record company and bar code. I felt I would have a better understanding by looking at a classic album back cover, as many modern digipaks subvert the general conventions, such as Beyonce's latest self-titled album which doesn't even include a bar code.

For the design on the CD disc, I took inspiration from Jay Z's The Black Album disc which includes the artist and album name, as well as details about the record company and producers and the 'compact disc digital audio' sign, which conforms to the general conventions of hip-hop as these elements are usually seen. This explains why I also included this information on the disc in my digipak. Instead of having a plain background, I decided to have an image of a brick wall to maintain the urban theme that runs throughout my video, digipak and poster. All are promotional pieces to sell the song, hence the brand identity which runs throughout the three.

I took inspiration from A Tribe Called Quest's magazine advert which promotes their album Midnight Marauders and their single 'Award Tour'. As I as also aiming to advertise an album and single, I wrote similar text on my magazine advert to advertise 'The Hop'. I also used Arctic Monkeys' magazine poster for help with structure, as I found theirs to be very simple yet effective. Similarly to this poster, I included the brand logo at the top in large print. This was important because if the artist was real, the reader would immediately recognise the name of the group, however the album name is new to the reader which means that it wouldn't have much relevance if it was standing out the most. I included a rating from Yo! MTV Raps which was a music video programme from the late 80s to mid 90s. This makes my advert more authentic to 90s hip-hop. At the bottom I included the link to the artist website for the audience to find out more about the forthcoming album, as well as the record company logo as this is always seen in magazine adverts.