Music video evaluation 1

• 1. MUSIC VIDEO EVALUATIONIn what ways does your media product use, develop orchallenge forms or conventions of real media products?

2. OVERALL THEME/IDEAThe song Dreamsville is an example of Uk Rap also referred to asGrime as a group we wanted to achieve a unit of work thatchallenged the stereotypical boundaries and roles of this genre ofmusic. We hoped to do this by portraying ambition and a artist livingand fulfilling a dream however we still wanted to incorporate theurban undertones Uk Rap has in order to demonstrate our genrethrough the work we produced and attract not only the stereotypicalrap audience base but also widen our audience base.From research it is evident that adhering to stereotypes associated withRap the performers look was key as it would help form and shape ourbrand. As a group through our research we also learnt that coloursare important as many artists in the music industry that supportthese genres use their music videos, Cds and posters to promote andrepresent their gang cultures through their use of colours.As a group we hoped our performers look would adhere to the regularconventions of Rap however our approach to the video as well as thesupporting Cd cover and Poster would challenge these stereotypesartistically. 3. FRONT COVER COMPARISONReal Media Product Examples 4. I have chosen to focus closely on the album cover created by my group and Uk Rap artist Wileys Playtime is over albumcover. I believed this would be ground for good comparison as my group and I hoped to produce a unit of work thatwould resemble that of a Uk Rap artist who appeals to a young audience. Wiley as an artist is a good example ofthis.Beginning to focus on the conventions and aspects our Cd cover used and developed along side the real media productwould be the main image and also how the artist is portrayed in this image. This can be said due to the fact that wechose to place our in a position that allowed the audience to have a full view of the landscape around him, we madethis decision as the album is entitled true colours to demonstrate this was an album that represented the artist. Theidea of having the landscape behind him is a way of representing where the artist comes from and what shapes andforms his music. This is similar to Wileys album cover as again the main image and the Album title prove to have alink as the artist is captured in a childrens play ground and simultaneously the album is titles Playtime is over.The images on both album covers are also similar as they both capture the artist in dark clothing looking straighttoward the camera, choosing this pose has the same visual effect as is seems the artist is directing the albumstraight at the audience becoming captivating for an audience.Choosing to use the conventions of real media products was a choice we made as after doing research into the genre wechose we were able to see Uk Rap artist focus to rap and make music about where they come from, ambitions andmaking it in the music industry. So out album cover replicates this and will successfully attract the right targetaudience.Although we chose to use and developed some of the more obvious convention of the genre as a group we believed thatwe could widen our target audience range by adding different aspects to out work. The album cover presented by theartist Wiley almost presents the main artist to be intimidating a fell that goes well with the album title. The coverwe produced portrays a softer side to the artist as the sitting pose along with the shining sun directly behind himsoften the fact that the performer is dressed in a hoody and dark clothing and makes the performer seem more softand approachable.The music note present on the front cover was another way we believed we could reach a wider audience range due tothe fact that many people believe Uk Rap is a genre that has an aggressive nature and often people will disregardthe music and focus on the appearance of the artist. Adding the music note was our way to subtly move past this asit make music a dominant feature of the album right from the beginning as the front cover is what the audience willsee first whether they are aware of who the artist is and the genre of music. 5. ALBUM INLAY COMPARISONReal Media Product Examples 6. Once again I have chosen to focus on another Uk artist of the same genre as oppose to an artistfrom America as it is clear the differences in the rap industry between the two countries willhave an effect on how the artist portrays themselves through these products.An album inlay is a chance for the artist to represent themselves in a way that is separate fromthe album however it can have an effect on the audiences assumptions of the music presenton the album. The album inlay produced by my group and I is similar to inlay presented byTinie Tempah in the sense that they both subvert the stereotypical ideas of rap, as the mainimages show the artist in a different light. Tinie Tempahs inlay sees him dresses in asophisticated shirt and bow tie allowing his audience to picture a different sound as well asbeing a way for a new audience range to be picked up, due tot he fact that the image wouldprove to be appealing to a range of different people. This is similar to our inlay as theintentions for the audience are the same, this can be said as the main image we chose to usecaptures our artist laughing. Rap is not usually associated with connotations of fun orlaughter so this image was our attempt to again find ways to take Uk Rap and make itaccessible to other people and hopefully make it a more mainstream genre.Our inlay however challenges the regular conventions as we placed our artists reaction to hisalbum onto the inlay. This makes the album personal and again focuses in on the musicrather than the artist because the artists musical intentions and as the image is in black andwhite the texts strips the artist of stereotypes and allows the audience to see past hisappearance. This is a new approach rap as a genre as we as a group didnt want to create anartist that was a typical portrayal of rap culture but an artist highlighting music andpushing rap into the eyes of mainstream audiences. 7. BACK COVER COMPARISONReal Media Product Examples 8. In my opinion i believe the back cover we produced is the piece of our workthat uses and adheres to the conventions associated with the rap genre. Isay this because our back cover incorporated things such as layout,typography and main images that are seen on many examples ofproducts from the same genre.Beginning with layout the idea of having a main image and then the textplaced the way it has been presented on our back cover is one that duringresearch I saw many times. For this reason we chose to replicate this aswe do believe keeping some aspects of appearance similar is a good wayto enhance the genre during advertising and promotion.The typography used on our back cover is key as again as a group we choseto replicate the style of examples we had researched previously. This iswhere we incorporated our element of colour much like the Lil Wayneexample shown below. We have opted for a white font for the titles of thesongs however chose a contrasting purple to number them. This way ourway of making our colour scheme consistent and relevant. The back coverof Lil Waynes album cover was inspiration for this however the redresent on his back cover is representing and incorporating elements ofgang culture. 9. POSTER COMPARISON Real Media Product Examples 10. As one of our main objectives when creating our unit of work was to hopefully pushrap into the eyes of a mainstream audience we had to be careful when creatingout poster. Tinie Tempah being an artist that is now widely recognised for hismusic that derived from rap was a perfect example for us as a group to takeinspiration from due to the fact that the simplicity of his poster makes itsaccessible but at the same time promotes the music to the fullest as the title isthe most eye catching feature on the poster.As a group we chose to use and incorporate the urban feel of rap music by addingthe border of the city above the artist this was a way to connote the urban cultureregularly associated with this type of music. This urban feeling was againdemonstrated through the main image we chose again to have out artist in ahoody but this time it is open to reveal a brighter coloured shirt replicating ouralbum name true colours as it shows the artist may wear a hoody but underneathhas a smarter but more casual polo shirt that challenges the original conventions.Another way we as a group challenged the stereotypical ideologies was through ourchoice of typography apart from the album and song title the choice of font wassimplistic and sophisticated. Much like all of our other decisions to challengethese stereotypes this was our way to open up our audience range as the font isgeneral and wont restrict is appeal to any specific gender or age. However thechoice was made to have the album title and song title in a different font that wasmore bold as we hoped to draw attention to the fact that the poster was there toadvertise the music rather than the artist. 11. MUSIC VIDEO COMPARISON Real Media Product Examples 12. The final video that we presented was a video that aimed to have an underlying narrative that wentalong with the lyrics to represent the artists progression. This is not something that usually appearsin Uk rap videos as they are regularly made up of mainly performance based scenes and shots.Conventional ShotsUnconventional shotsThe shots shown above are examples of The shots shown above are examples of ourperformance based shots taken from our video, asnarrative based shots as explained before itin many other videos of the genre the artist is seenis not a regular occurrence for a rap videoto perform the lyrics straight to the camera. Webelieved it was important to in our videos forfrom a Uk artist to show a narrative. Thismoments like these to be present as theywas our way of again pushing audiencesignificantly built on the narrative as over time our boundaries as these shots could be seen toartist went from the streets, to the studio and on to replicate videos from other genres such asa concert so these moments helped demonstrate our pop, examples of similar shots are below.narrative, they are also similar to shots from realmedia products shown below.