Permission to use song

Media Evaluation Question 1

Media Evaluation Question 2

Media Evaluation Question 3

Media Evaluation Question 4

Digipack Final

1. FRONT COVER
2. INLAY
3. INLAY
4. BACK COVER

Media Evaluation Question 1

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

Researchers Bulmer and Katz suggested that individuals use texts for various different reasons, this theory became known as ‘uses and gratifications’. These many different motives include diversion, personal relationships and personal identity. The genre of piece of media text is also very important in determining how the audience respond to what they see.

I chose to surround my A2 coursework around a band named Marvell, the genre style of the band itself is hip hop. Traditionally, the hip hop audience relate to seeing very dark and urban visuals on screen, however by using bright colours and younger actors, I chose to subvert these conventions and allow the audience to gain an uplifting reaction. This is seen in an establishing shot where colour is first exposed on screen; here a paintbrush is dipped into a glass of water, portrayed through a close up shot of the colour blossoming into the liquid.

Although the title of the song ‘Believe in Me’ suggests a sense of hope and faith within oneself, I approached my video to express the love of a young girl to her father. By showing a special bond between man and child, I (again) challenge the common convention of a love affair between a man and woman. By challenging these conventions it enables the audience to approach the song and video with an open mind, rather than knowing what to expect. Also, by showing a relationship where one person misses another, it allows all age groups and gender’s to relate to the video, this permits me to gain a wider audience as opposed to the 16-28 male primary target.

When a music video is based around a narrative, the general perception is that the storyline is the focal point in the video and that the performance from the artist is secondary. However, in an attempt to balance priority between narrative and performance, my music video contains a storyline in black and white throughout each chorus of the song; during each verse, the artist is shown in colour, performing his music to the camera. Having 3 verses and 4 chorus’, my video became almost perfectly balanced and gave the audience a story from two sides.

Also, within hip hop videos, a narrative is something that is seldom seen, and adding to this, a narrative based around sadness and hurt is seen even less. I challenged these conventions as I felt that the song I had used was a slower version of the general hip hop song. With that being said, slow narratives have been used in this genre in songs such as read all about it by professor green and its my time by scorcher.

Another common convention in music videos is that the artist generally looks at the camera when performing. I didn’t challenge this convention however I developed it by also containing shots where the artist didn’t look at the camera, this gave it the effect that the artist was lost in his lyrics.

Profanity is something often used in hip hop music, I chose to block out profanity in my video as the motion picture was based around a little girl and I believed that having swear words would put the audience off such a sad narrative.

In challenging all these conventions, i chose to keep some aspects of my video exactly how a general hip hop video would be. This is to remind the audience that although this may be a different type of hip hop song, it is still fixated within that genre. Having scenes where artists were performing in graffiti style backdrops and skateparks enabled me to show this.

Preferred reading is something that I focused on a lot in terms of my coursework and was brought to my attention through the reception theory, namely Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model. Here, Hall expresses that the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means.

I adopted this theory of encoding/decoding in my music video when I showed an army officer holding a death certificate, which I revealed through an over the shoulder shot. By showing a death certificate, I didn’t reveal too much information to the audience and therefore respected their intelligence, thus allowing them to put the pieces together.

A happy ending is probably the most common convention in all stories whether it be in the form of a book, film or music video. After much thought, I challenged this convention to add a sense of reality to my video and show that happy endings aren’t always necessary.  

It could be said that by using a cannon 550D to film my music video, I am challenging the common filming convention. However, nowadays, directors are using Digital Single Lens Reflex camera’s much more commonly to shoot music videos as opposed to big heavy camera’s.

In relation to my digipack and poster, I, again subverted conventions. In the general hip hop album cover, people are shown with expensive jewellery and super cars. I, chose to link my album cover to my music video and kept this sense of reality. Therefore I used a child actor looking upset and showed no jewellery, expensive cars or bright colours. Similarly, I kept this theme for my poster however I did add some common conventions such as a picture of the artists and more colour.

Overall, I challenged and subverted a lot of the conventions in the hip hop genre in order to add a sense of seriousness and a slower pace. Nevertheless, a lot of the conventions such as performances and visuals remained the same.