1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
As a pair, my partner and me obtained as much information, researching
into the culture and genre of Hip-Hop/Rap music. It was to help us
understand the stereotypical conventions that exist within real contexts.
Our song-track falls into the category of Rap, artists such as Eminem and
Plan B fall under this category. When researching into the type of music
Eminem generates. He talks of how his music is influenced by the bad
things in life and how facing them makes him wants to fight against them
and make people speak out. His music is more realistic and rarely focuses
on relationships between boys and girl. It primarily focuses on situations
that are often hidden, not seen to be significant or then nothing is done to
change or help them people. His songs always use a first person narrative,
which we have incorporated into our music video as it highlights the
artist’s own experience.
A convention that is very important and common to Rap music videos are
close-ups. The fast-paced quick cuts of close ups help create recognition
and distortion to make the message really come across to the audience.
This immediately reflects Andrew Goodwin’s perception of how music
videos and record companies demand close-ups of the main artist. Also
John Stewart has said that music videos have similar aesthetics of TV
Commercials, so there must be a significant proportion of close-ups and
lighting to highlight the immediate focus of the artist.
Rap music videos often have a three part structure with a beginning,
middle and end all cross cutting to different locations and settings.

2. Eminem often cuts to different locations during his chorus to signify the
main message to his mainstream listeners which is what I have
incorporated through the repetitive chorus ‘You can’t stop this’ which
was shot in-front of a green screen and later edited with a image of a brick
wall.
I recognized the need for building a relationship between the music video
and the audience, the lyrics and the visuals and the music with the visuals.
We have developed a relationship between our target audience primarily
young people aged 15-35 year olds and the artist through the direct
address. The direct contact the rapper uses really addresses the issue of
how life can be a struggle but you can always to a better place, as the
person that is stopping you from doing that is only you. This correlation
between the lyrics and the visuals has been developed by the constant
repeatability of the chorus towards the end of our music video, which then
slowly fades to black. This is a very familiar convention of this genre as
many music videos use this open narrative so that the viewers themselves
can think and make assumptions on what the ending portrayed and its
significant meaning. The strong relationship between our lyrics and
visuals, are the essence of our music video as this is what makes the music
video so hard-hitting as so many words are constantly repeated and this
again uses and develops upon the codes and conventions of real music
videos.
Overall the majority of our music video relies heavily on existing
conventions and our target audience already knowing them and being bale
to recognize them from our production, but the visuals do challenge
somewhat the codes of conventions of existing media products. Our
editing doesn’t rely on the beat of the music track, and the fast paced
editing illustrates the speed of the song itself.
John Stewart said; that if you incorporated something that is
recognizable and reconstructed it so that it is still familiar, it would
generate nostalgic associations among the audience.
I have used this and applied it myself in the music video through the bench
scenes at the end of our music video. The artist raps the chorus, which is
conveyed through three different cuts and shots lengths, however the
lyrics convey the point of the narrative as the artist slowly begins to walk
away down the edge of the hill which is when the lyrics suggest he is
‘moving to a better place’. This has created, a relationship between the
lyrics and the visuals.
The mise-en-scene of the music video has been kept continuous and the
same to ensure there is no error or change to make the viewers seem
disorientated or dazzled. The clothing of the artist has been kept the
same expect for when the bench scene and the starting sequence of the
artist coming out of the car has been shot without him with his hat on. This

3. inconsistency may be minor but is an error on our part, if we had longer
this would have been addressed and resolved by re-shooting. Regardless
of this error the use of different locations, shots, angles, quick cuts,
scenery and direct address has all been used in our music video to help us
relate to real music productions and this has been developed quite
successfully in our own music video production.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts?
I attempted to create a similar message and an obvious link between my
main music video and ancillary tasks.
I achieved this through the artist’s appearance, as the outfits he wears are
similar to those shown on the magazine advert and Digi-Pak
The type of clothing is contemporary Rap such as those of plan B’s. The
location we shot in meant the outfit had to be casual which was beneficial
as the stereotypical outfit is more ‘chavvy’ and laid back with a hat and
trainers, which allowed me to reach out and appeal more to the viewers as
the artist seems more relatable.
The direct address on the album cover again relates to the albums title
‘You can’t stop this’ which suggests that the artist is coming and you cant
stop him form speaking out which is what the audience should be doing
too. This is emphasized further through the close-up and the image for
the front cover of the Digi-Pak is also used in the music video as part of a
night sequence in black and white to highlight the darkness but you need
to come out of that and make your voice heard. This furthermore creates
and establishes audience recognition through the link between the cover
and video.
On the inside left panel, the artist is still looking to the side wearing
glasses which has been edited through Photoshop adding a 3D effect
which has been used by Rapper Drake, for his front cover of ‘Thank me

4. Later’. The lack of direct mode of
address signifies his anonymity. The close-up enables the audience to
recognize the similarity between this and real media products as this
burred and many artists when marketing their music to their target
audience use this 3D
effect.
Once again the back
cover uses direct
address but the artist is
seen more formally with
a scarf and sweater
without glasses on. His
hands are just placed
below the frame that
has been cut to use a
mid shot of his body.
The pose in this photo
makes him seem very
serious and solemn.
Reflective of the songs
the audience would be
hearing, or even their
feedback, I used the
same back cover image
form the Digi-Pak for the
magazine advert but I
changed it slightly to ensure the whole of the artist was portrayed instead
of just his waist upwards, it gives the audience an insight about what’s
inside the music album. The consistencies between the ancillary tasks and
magazine advert album, uses the same font as the back of the album, to
create a obvious link to the audience. The font of the album title and artist
name is kept the same to connect both. To further audience recognition, I

5. have included a small image of the Digipak front cover on the Advert so
the audience would know what product they are buying.
The color blue is used as a repetitive theme on my Digi-Pak and magazine
advert as it has connotations of peace, calmness and no violence. It has
strong connotations and many
symbolisms which are associated to the music lyrics which is why I chose
to incorporate this idea, but also because Eminem uses this color which
strikes our against a white backdrop, which I found would be effective
against a black backdrop too, so I developed this convention and
established it in my own way. Additionally,
the font used on both the Advert and the
Digipak for the album title and artists name
use blue to reflect this ideology
The font is bold and serif and doesn’t use
any extra flare, the minimal use of text adds
to the sincerity and uniqueness of the music
advert and Digi-Pak, to make it look more
professional.
In my music video, I have represented the
artist’s emotions, as well as the mood of the
narrative, through the use of light and dark,
using the setting of the video. It is daylight
for most of the scenes such as those when
the rapper walks up the path but each scene
gradually becomes darker as it gets to the
end. This gave me the opportunity to include
of shot of the artist at the end walking off
down the edge of the hill with the sun going
down showing a small hint of sunset. The
green screen sequences all go back to being bright each time the scene
cuts to that sequence which reflects how slowly the rapper will become

6. stronger and eventually strong enough to ‘move to a better place’. The
way the video fades to black at the end is something I played about with
and later kept as I have done something similar with the Digipak. The front
and back have a black background, portraying him as mysterious, also
hinting to the cliché ‘tall and dark’ which is why I used a close up on the
front and a mid shot on the back. Inside the Digipak the backgrounds have
completely changed to black and white, showing him in darkness and
slight light, reflecting on how the audience will be able to get to know him
once they’ve opened the album. This contrast in color shows how the
artist has more than just one side to him, and yes he made the bad
decisions in life at first but he can change them and become a better
person, which is reflective of his music.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The music video was shared onto the social networking sites Facebook
and Twitter, to increase the amount of my target audience who saw it.
This was successful, it received many views and the analytics provided
from YouTube, enabled me to see who, where, how and when my video
was watched. This confirmed my target audience was predominantly
people of my age from as young as 14 up-to 40 something I had hoped to
achieve when I had planned my music video, trying to get the correct
appearance of the artist which is what would in the end make people want
to watch.
As well as YouTube and the social networking sites, I posted my video
onto my blog, which has been the greatest record of all my research,
planning and production. Blogger helped me progress my work, as
teachers and other students commented on my pieces of work. My first
questionnaire was also uploaded onto her whilst I was planning and
researching into the Rap genre. It was based on where and what types of
music they found relatable and significantly popular in this day and age,
but also if I should use an open or closed narrative. I asked what Rap music
video conventions they would expect to see to ensure I was involving
them. It was most helpful, as I learnt whether people enjoyed watching
music video and why such as the narrative behind the lyrics and greater
depth of meaning behind the whole production of the video and ancillary
tasks.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Whilst planning the music video concept, I watched other various music

7. videos such as those of Eminem’s ‘Not Afraid’ and Devlin’s ‘Watchtower’.
These generated the basis of my ideas, which I further developed and
established throughout my music video production. All the planning and
research was recorded and uploaded on to my blog through different
software programs such as Prezzi, Slide Share and Flickr in chronological
order. These ideas were then transferred and uploaded onto my blog and
through Blogger I incorporated the links. I used Google as my main search
engine and the features it allowed me to use such as Google Maps when
print screening possible locations for where to shoot the artist, but to also
see the time it would take to get there and possible transport options;
which was then uploaded onto the blog. Google Images also helped me to
compare my work with those of existing media productions.
Another important stage of my planning included researching the artist
and genre of the song, as well as conventions of Rap music videos. In order
to create my basis for analysis, I used mainly Google, IMDB, You Tube for
researching, however another way I found the information was on Slide
Share which allowed me to access other peoples work and share my own
with people across the world.
Before shooting anything I storyboarded every frame, sequence and any
little alteration, which helped I creating the plot of the music video. I
drafted the initial ideas, and then later the narrative and how each scene
and sequence would continue and flow into one. I then scanned the
storyboard and uploaded them onto Blogger. This was so much more
beneficial than just shooting as we had a clear idea and everything was
planned such as the time we would take, the locations, and even the props
we would require. Additionally, when we had begun planning, it was in
autumn, which meant we had to have back-up plans and be prepared for
the rain or snow, but we used this to our advantage and used the rain in
the sequence when the artist walks up the path, to add a autumn/winter
effect, which made the video’s message come across more such as the
bad place the artist was in at that time. iMovie was the program we used
to upload and edit our music videos with, once we had done our first set of
filming – using a Canon HD video camera - we created a rough cut of our
video. This enabled us to have a better idea of how our video would look
and there were a few things we decided to alter such as the quick cuts,
scene order and saturation of each frame. We changed the what we felt
would make the video look more professional as there was either rot much
interference or the camera would jolt too much so we planned and re-
filmed sequences using a tripod that required this such as the scene when
the artist walks down the hill at the end but also the night sequence but as
it was too dark we changed the entire sequence to black and white.
When editing the final video we moved onto Final Cut Express, as by this

8. time we had learnt how to use it and it gives a much more professional
finish with a greater variety of effects. In our music video, I had the music
stop and restart, so it would match the miming of the actor and the music
lyrics at the correct timings to make it seem much smoother.
Finally, after our music video was finished, we uploaded it onto YouTube.
It was then shared on twitter, Facebook and blogger, in order to allow the
maximum amount of people to see it.
In order to create my ancillary texts – the Digi Pak and Music Advert – I
used Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. When editing the images I had
taken of my artist, I used Photoshop, since it has a larger range of effects
and due to the use of layers; you are able to modify the image in greater
depth and context. When putting my Digi Pak together, the pictures, the
texts, the logos and the layout, I used Illustrator. It was much easier to use
for this part than Photoshop, as I didn’t need any effect, I was just
directing on the layout and arrangement. It was easy to make
modifications and alterations to positioning of images and text, it was
better to do on Illustrator as after you have placed an image or text, you
can still move and change it without having to place it again.