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

My media product, a low budget music video, incorporated many of the conventions found in our genre. The genre we chose was Rap/Hip-Hop; we chose a song called Good Morning. I think that our music video develops the idea of editing within the commercial rap music videos, because we focused on what made a Hip Hop video that genre, and analysed and researched in such detail we made sure we assessed all aspects of it. We edited the music video to show the convention of alternative editing. In rap music videos instead of just using cuts and fades, they use editing that goes with the beat of the music. We used this convention and developed it by using lots of different effects, For instance there is a lyric that says 'Cold Flow' and to show this within the editing we used a wave effect, changing the amplitude of the image; Making it appear to look like a water flowing through the picture. Another editing effect we decided to use, to follow convention was an 'Earthquake' effect to make it look like the image is shaking, really emphasising a part of the song or lyric, or beat. An example of the earthquake effect is found in a music video performed by Sway.

An example of me using this effect in my music video :

 

Secondly some of the camerawork used compliments that of music videos of the same genre. For a few lines in the song the we use a tilted frame, to create an edgy look for the video. This makes the music video more interesting for the viewer because they are not always looking at a completely still image and do not get bored of the music video. We also took a variety of shots from many different angles in lots of different locations so that we had the footage to cut to the beat and so we were not looking at the same frame for more than 5 seconds. By doing this we kept the upbeat feel of the music, without making the video appear sloppy.



An example within my music video of when We used Editing to the beat;

Lastly the performance of the artists in our music video are suited to Rap/ Hip-Hop. The performers all give their all using hand gestures and really appearing to feel the music they are singing. By performing so well, they look as though they are a real established artist with confidence in themselves as an artist, which makes the low budget music video look more believable. The actors really convince you that they thought of the lyrics themselves as they are showing them through immaculate performance and lip sync. The lip syncing in our music video challenged the idea of lots of cut aways and some singing, found in conventional music videos; by having an impeccable standard of lip syncing and having many different shots, angles and locations with various different lighting and compositions to keep the audience interested in the music video and not wanting to look at other things.




An example of performance in my own music video is of when the female artist is performing, she shows enthusiasm and shows that she enjoys the performance:

In my music video we focused on the performance value of the video because we found that is one of the key conventions of a rap music video, we developed this further by also including a female artist, who showed all the conventions of an upbeat rap music video, and had the same performance value, instead she was a female. 

Thirdly, another convention/form that we challenged in our music video, was the gender. Conventionally in rap music videos you only see male artists, who represent money/power/fame. We decided that we would challenge this convention of a real media product by having a female artist, we tried to make it so that the female artist had as much screen time as the male artists, so that they looked equal. There are some real media texts in which you can see female rappers, but nowhere near as many as male rappers. She appears to be confident and shows that she is confident in being an artist and not there for the pleasure of the male rappers. Conventionally in rap music videos the women are seen as sex objects and often portrayed with no clothes on and being there as rich mens indulgences. We decided to go against this negative convention of Rap music, and have a female artist, not portrayed as a sex object. An example in real media of this is: 

In my music video the female artist, is fully clothed, and not scantily clad like females in the music videos provided :

Ancillary Task: 

For my ancillary task, we followed the conventions of a Rap Music Video and developed them to suit our sub-genre of underground rap music. One convention of album covers that we tried to use in our album is having extreme close up, big close ups and close ups of the artist so that you can see the artist and so that the focus is on the artist himself. In a lot of rap album covers, you see simplicity and not too many fancy effects on the pictures, to show the artist and to make them seem important and powerful. Much like Wretch 32's Album Black and White: 

A second convention that we follow within Rap Music album covers is that the font and text that is shown on the music cover is often representative of Graffiti style music that's based on rap music. The text often looks as though it has been hand written to show the artists work and thoughts that have gone into the lyrics. The lyrics that artists produce often reflect their internal thoughts and experiences. Therefore it gives the album a personal touch. This can be seen in Eminems album cover for his Album The Eminem Show. (2002) And in Plan B's Album Who needs actions when you got words' 2006. 

Another convention that we found in rap music album covers is that the covers often have dark lighting in the background of the images and brighter lights focused on their faces so that the artist is the main focus in the album cover. Secondly by having the darker background it makes the artist look like a positive person inside a negative youth environment, possible connoting that young people and rap music is often seen as a negative influence. We also portrayed this in our music video, similar to that of real media texts such as, Scorcher's Album- and Also DJ Ironik's album. 

Another convention that we followed and also developed within our ancillary task,  was that of representing the area that you are from. Conventionally a lot of rap artists will have albums which show a big scene of London or America, representing where they are from. It also shows what they have power over. (Power/support of a city). By having the city they are from, or have support from makes them appealing to the audience because they then show they have a wide fan base and that they are a powerful artist. This can be seen in Tinie Tempah's Album- Disc-overy and Scorchers album.:

This particular convention has been developed within our album cover, by using the brick wall and underground setting it shows that it is underground rap music and also that it is in London, It has the feel of a London tunnel/bridge but making it look underground shows that my Artist Frame is a powerful artist in the underground industry rather than the commercial industry.