Our media product both conforms and challenges to the forms and conventions of real media products. As our video and artist is part of the Hip-hop genre, our video and style will follow the normal conventions of the Hip-hop genre. However, we have challenged conventions as the styling of our artist does not follow the normal conventions of Hip-hop artist. We took inspiration from various artists such as Witt Lowry, Lucidious and some from Eminem. We have kept this style from the very begging as we don't really want our artist to look very flashy.
Music Video
As a group, we decided to do Moment of Silence by Lucidious, which follows a narrative based story of him losing his friend whilst drink driving. The song floats over his life and things at which he failed at. Lucidious also raps about his upcoming life and telling his family members and kin about what they can do when he is gone. The video also features a performance section which includes the singer Josh Woods to join Lucidious in the chorus. in our music video, we did not take on a narrative structure like Lucidious did. We decided to take on a performance based video as we believed it was going to be easier to make; hence why we dropped our narrative plan. In our video, i took on the role as the main artist, and had Joel Robberts accompanying me in the video as the chorus singer. This double act form mirrors that of Lucidious and Josh Woods. In Moment of Silence, there was a female singer but she was only backing vocals in the song, and her voice did not resonate as much as Josh's did. Whilst creating the song, we used various close ups and medium shots. We refrained from straying into any other shot as we were not comfortable with making, however this did not stop us from filming these shots. The reason these shots were not included is because they did not look good as the framing was off and the positioning of the camera looked basic and shoddy. As we took on a performance based video, I feel that this matches the conventions of a hip hop video as more and more artists are now doing performance based videos as their songs dont have as much structure to them and dont really tell a story.
Locations
The locations we used were similar to the original Moment of Silence video. In one scene, Lucidious is shown to be sitting down with the camera slightly positioned over his head looking down on him. Similarly, we used a shot in our music video which matches this perfectly. in this shot, i am sitting down on a little chair, but because the chair is taken from one of the class rooms, it didn't suit our video. This is why Frank (who filmed this particular shot) positioned the camera in a really sensible way and didn't get the chair in the shot.
In our drafts, we decided to do most of the filming in a field which was inspired by the music video 'Dreaming With Our Eyes Open,' by the artist Witt Lowry. We were hoping to use the woodland to film our music video, but it didn't end up looking the way we were hoping. We also included the white room in our draft which was also used in Witt Lowrys video and used multiple close up shots. These shots did not make the final addition of the music video as most of the shots were blurry and had multiple problems with them. We also ditched having the woodland idea and decided to film a lot of the shots at my house. The woodland shots do not fit the conventions of a music video as it doesn't fit the stereotypes associated with the Hip-hop genre. however, the shots seen in the white room perfectly match the hip hop genre as it is plain and has been widely used across various videos.
In the final edit, we had a total of three locations, but shot from different angles. We had: The white room, the mic booth and the sofa scene. During the filming of the sofa scene, we used multiple different angles. One main angle was shot from outside where the dripping of water can be seen running down the window. I feel that this location and shot challenges the conventions of the Hip-hop genre as Hip-hop videos mainly include parties and loom on the curves of females (according to the male gaze - Laura Mulvey). In our video however, there are no shots of women and it is a predominantly performance based video which only focuses on the two artists in the video. However, the mic scene we used is widely used across the Hip hop genre. This scene was inspired from 'No Love' by Eminem ft. Lil Wayne. This location definitely fits the conventions of the Hip-hop genre as it is one of the most iconic things withing the Hip hop genre. 'spitting in the booth' is one of the most widely used phrases in Hip hop among fans but also used in the actual songs.
Style
In our music video, we tried to mirror various styles from a selection of artists. These artists include Witt lowry, Eminem, Lucidious and Watsky. Witt, Lucidious and Watsky all have similar styles as they are mainly all casual and relaxed. I feel that the style we decided on was really good. After extensive research and looking at images on google, we decided to go for a casual design. We also thought about getting new high top shoes as they fit into the hip hop genre really well. in the end, we decided we wouldn't use any shots which included the shoes.
Digipak and Magazine Advertisement
My digipak follows a simplistic form which fits perfectly in the hip hop genre. i used many templates for my digipak as i looked at numerous designs on google and at some of my favorite artists. Logic's album was the most influential as it was the base for my own. Whilst analyzing the cover, i realized i liked the use of the graffiti and wanted to use it for my own. This is when i got the idea to use the wet dripping paint. I feel that by using the bright colours in my design, i have managed to cater for a Hip-hop audience, but also a pop and mainstream audience as well. I feel that i have conjured up a unique design which springs from other hip hop CD covers. I think that my digipak does conform to the conventions of the hip hop genre, but they dont conform to the stereotypical genre. As hip hop has gradually evolved into a casual, deep and emotional form of music, then the styling has changed; which overall has had an impact on the Digipak's and Adverts the designers make. This is why my Digipak is made for a wider audience. As more and more Hip-hop artists are bringing in mainstream artists in the pop genre, it is getting more popular and more people from other genres are interested in Hip-hop. This is also the case in my Magazine Advert.
My magazine advert and my digipak spawned from a plain photo of myself, which was then converted into a wet paint effect. I feel that the colours i used in the photoshoped image are really bold which attract the audiences eye. My back cover was just a simple idea that i thought of on the spot. However, i did look at other back covers but none of them attracted me into making one like it. Most Hip-hop back covers contain an image which was something i wanted to refrain from using. This is because i wanted to keep the continuity of a simplistic style throughout my design. I also didn't want to have another design as the first design looks so nice, i wanted it to be the only image on the album. This is why i reused the design on the CD and the inside cover. Reusing the design was inspired from Eminem's album 'Curtain Call' which reuses the same image over again on each cover, including the back.
Motif
My magazine and digipak both use the the same style, effect and image. I did this to keep the album and advertisement in continuity with one another as the advertisement is promotion when the album is going to come out. It wouldn't have made sense for the image to be anything different as it could confuse the audience. The same front is also used across the two albums, but, i did use a different font on my magazine advertisement at the top of the page which was inspired from an advert from Jay-Z. As the same font is used across my media products, this, again, adds continuity across my media products. The same font was also used in my music video as it is simplistic and stylistic.
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