Evaluation task 1 (mahdi maah)

Evaluation task 1 (Mahdi Maah)

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

Our Media Products

Our media products are: A music video A magazine advertisement And a DigiPak

The media products are predominately Hip Hop/R&B centric because the two genres compliment each other very successfully, and in order to effectively carry this out we had to take into consideration very unique set of codes and conventions

Codes and Conventions of Music video (Hip Hop/R&B)

Men: Jeans Sweater Glasses Hat Jacket JewelleryWomen Minimal Clothing Heels Make Up Jewellery

In this genre, it presents itself as very passionate , usually about a love interest and passionate love. The way in which this music video for example Drake’s “Find Your Love” there is the constant use of red to connote love and romance. The use of colour is to aid the audience into the narrative and emphasize the lyrics performed in the song. The way in which this song challenges the codes and conventions of contemporary Hip Hop/ R&B is that it portrays the male actor(Drake) as vulnerable through the use of camera angles, lighting and colour. This was an inspiration for our music video in which we wanted to break the convention and challenge it while still developing and keeping the original concept

Drake – Find Your Love - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyv4Bjja8yc

Different Types of Representations Women – Similar to the male representation, female artist tend

to have a huge amount of emphasizes on sexuality. The way in which they present this is through the minimal use of clothing as I mentioned in the previous slide , the representation conforms to the (one could argue) general stereotype of women and how they are viewed by society this representation conforms to Laura Mulvey’s “Male Gaze” in which women are seen as voyeuristic in the video rather than fetishtic. Recently there has been a rising movement in breaking away from the convention, music videos such as Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy”, this video’s sees women performing what seems to be a man’s stereotypical role. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M. Our music video tends to break away from the stereotypical women portrayal and not present the love interest in a provocative manner.

Men – Similar to the female representation, male artist are often topless and is very sexual to highlight the theme of sexual promiscuity. The use of black/white adds to the sensual imagery of the video and adds a sexual tone to the music video. An example would be Trey Songz “I Invented Sex” www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zI3OeNsnvI .

There are artist’s that break away from the codes and conventions such as Drake’s Marvin’s Room, in which the artist is actually reminiscing on a past lover, which also inspired our music video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwyjxsOYnys

Codes and Conventions (Clothing) Our music video uses various different forms and conventions of real

media products in a variety of ways there are some examples of real media products in comparison to ours below.

Our Media Product

Real Media Product

While our media product is primarily a combination of various Hip Hop/R&B, the video that inspired us the most was Lupe Fiasco “Out Of My Head” featuring Trey Songz, the way in which it was able to challenge the stereotype whilst retaining the overall codes and conventions.

Codes and Conventions (Lighting)

Our Media Product

Real Media Product

As you can see there is similarities between both products , there are elements in our media product which would speak to our target audience. The lighting in the first panel is very concentrated to show that the attire is completely opposite to the background placed, this is for effect . Whilst developing on real media products, we feel that it is necessary to challenge it for creative purposes.

Codes and Conventions (Editing)

We used final cut pro to edit our music video, it proved to be effective in creating background for the green screen footage. The way in which we edited the video we had to keep in mind that the rapping and the singing have to be different to represent a clash in genre. The video that inspired the colourful background was Chris Brown’s “Forever”, this was used to aid the audience into differentiating between both genres.

Codes and Conventions(Camera Angles)

The use of camera angles, was helpful in extending the narratives, like the above shots of the singer in front of a skyscraper was used to connote the arrogance and boastful nature of contemporary music videos, it is a reference to Jay-Z “Empire State of Mind”.

This is an over the shoulder shot to show the actor walking by to hand her flowers The scenery is romantic emphasizing the narrative and the general concept of lost love.

Codes and Conventions(Editing)

In order to intricately relate our media product to our target audience. We cut and placed our footage over key sections of the song. Not only did this allow for very tight lip syncing but it allowed us to used different editing techniques, such as cross cuts and continuity editing. Which is a feature that is prominent in the production of real media products (music videos)

This is an examples where cuts are used to match the beat as well as used for lip syncing, this video was key in terms of influencing how and where we cut and placed our scenes.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liZm1im2erU

Connotations UsedThis scene is of our actress wearing red heals and the connotation behind this is love and lust which is a key concept of the R&B music genre. This is to lure our audience into thinking about the stereotype and whether or not we implemented that into our project. Using Roland Barthes Enigma Code it is there to signify key plot points

The cold steel effect along with the over the shoulder shot gives the scene a melancholic mood which is the message we are trying to convey through our narrative structure this is done on several music video e.g. bright sunshine is used to connote love and happiness

Connotations Used

We used natural lighting in this shot as a bright sunny day between boy and girl together denotes love and affection in particular when both are smiling at each other. The natural lighting gives the connotation of affectionate love and compassion.

This is an ode to Lupe Fiasco’s song which, utilised this to create a natural glow emphasizing the naturalistic approach, which we have used in our music video

Connotations Used

Not only did we edit to the beat but we also edited to the lyrics as well we done several things such as add text to physically display the words of the song in key places we feel this was one of our more creative techniques we used in order to have a closer relationship with the genre we also used abstract footage in places such as the sky when the song makes reference to it.The significance of “Heart Robbed” we presented it to have two distinct themes.

Representation of Women In our Music Video

The representation of women in our music video challenges the forms and conventions of most Hip Hop and R&B videos by our actresses not dressed in provocative manner this is to highlight the fact that she is integral to the narrative and we wanted a positive representation of our actress.

Laura Mulvey’s Theory on the “Male Gaze” influenced our way in which to approach the representation of women and making sure we were representing a fetishtic portrayal of the actress.

Conclusion

Our music video in essence is a Hip Hop/R&B video, the way in which we went about it was different. Instead of going with the original concept of the song and have a sensual tone to our video, we decided to make it a narrative and break the conventions seen in most Hip Hop/R&B videos. The way in which we used conventions from media products is that, we had an urban setting, and a variety of camera angles to display dominance, wealth and competitive nature of Hip Hop, which is present in majority of Hip Hop videos. We used different backgrounds to highlight and differentiate between the different genres and have backgrounds that suits their respective fields, and clothing that suits their genre of music. The way in which we challenged the conventions was our female actress, and the way in which she was portrayed was not provocative and did not have any sexual overtones, we wanted for her to be seen as a former lover without having to resort to anything sensual.