53 evaluation question 1

Existing media products forms and conventions aim is to show off the members of the band/artist, make the song memorable to the viewers, show viewers what the band/artist is about, represent the band/artist positively and make the genre clear. The genre of the music often plays the biggest part when impacting the forms and conventions of a music video. Due to our music video (of which we presented on YouTube) having the genre of hip hop rap we chose to both follow and break the typical conventions. Due to Wes being a black male rapper often the videos would include violence and hyper masculinity, however, instead we chose to oppose these stereotypes. Having females being the other storyline of the video it not only helps to support Wes’ lyrics of the song (talking about discrimination and unity) but also challenge pre-existing conventions of a male rap music video and make it diverse. The forms and conventions we chose to follow for the video was Wes performing in the studio. Wes performing in the studio alone and the black and white effect gave his performance a deeper more masculine vibe which helped to support the pre-existing forms and conventions that Milly and I picked up on when watching famous rap artist music videos online for example a ‘fire in the booth’ episode by ‘Wretch 32’. Wes performing in the studio alone. When speaking of the mise-en-scene of our video we kept everything very natural to Wes. Nothing in the video was out of the ordinary for Wes’ everyday life and nothing was ever shocking. We refrained from dressing him in anything he wouldn’t usually wear and avoiding using props or going to any random locations. This meant that the target audience targeted were people of a similar age and character to Wes himself. Things such as cigarettes and love hearts remained a theme in the song to not only add to the edgy vibe Wes gives off but also to make it more relatable to the target audience ad link the video with the songs theme of unity. Editing the video was filtered around Wes’ part in the song. To keep the video more personal to Wes, we had the film on him in the studio performing his parts of the song. The other sections we filled with a very ordinary day following some young people’s lives as they get on with their day having fun and being united together. The footage of the girls in the city was made slower than reality and edited to shorter shots to support the calmness of Wes’ rap, helping to compliment his performance. The camera shots were occasionally very close up helping to support the personal vibe of the song, whether this have been close ups of the girls or Wes. The close ups to Wes whilst he was lip syncing allows the video to link to the song and allow the audience to experience his performance and voice through a video. T there were also a few mid shots and follow shots to allow the viewer an insight to the lives of the people in the video. It allowed the audience to work out where they were, what they were wearing and their body language. When filming Wes alone we also had many different shots around him and angle shots upwards toward him. This helped to highlight the significance of him as he is the main part of the video and the icon alone.