What are the main conventions of music videos?
There are different conventions of music videos depending on the genre of music. For instance, rock music videos normally feature a performance element where the band is playing their instruments as if performing to a crowd. Pop videos are very synthetic (according to Negus) and don’t take this approach. Because of this they are normally just one person singing with a background performance of dancing or another form of entertainment. However seeing as my music video is for a Hip-Hop video I will expand more on this genre.
Traditionally from the Bronx, hip hop lyrics are usually based on social views and are designed to provoke and question the government. A hip hop music video will use just one or two main performers, this is because a lot of the sounds are made electronically, and therefore they don’t need multiple band members. But this doesn’t mean the music isn’t organic, it has a lot of meaning behind it and this is always portrayed in the lyrics and the music video. By only using one or two faces for the band it makes the audience feel closer to the band; this is Dyers theory of stardom. Where the artist is commonly linked with any of the following; Youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism or originality.
A hip hop video will use a lot of sinister close up shots that show emotion; these can be either slowly edited together or quickly and forcefully edited for the audience pulling the audience in to watch and listen to the video/lyrics. Hip hop videos also typically feature voyeurism; however I didn’t choose to use this in my video. Primarily because this is an A level video and it would be inappropriate. But if I was in the industry and had to make a hip hop video I would hire actors/actresses in to fulfil this role.
From watching music videos from directors such as Spike Jonze I found that scar music always used multiple band members in their videos, but from watching the public enemy video for ‘harder than you think’ I found that hip hop videos featured only one or two performers, and I reflected this in my video. Using only Scott Green and Ruby Turner I gave the correct image for the band. I was also able to create the correct image for the actors by getting them the correct costumes and props. Jeans, skate shoes and hoodies all made the video feel hip hop based. However I did put a twist on the traditional urban hip hop location by holding the film in woodland, the change in location showed a contrast from a traditional hip hop video which I felt made my video special. Outside of college I am often in the woods filming bikes; this meant I had a lot of previous experience, especially when it came to framing my shots, for the dolly shots having objects in the foreground that were nicely out of focus etc.
Look at your ancillary texts – How have you used conventions?
In my ancillary texts I have also stuck to the conventions of a media text. For my digipack I used several images of my main performer wearing a hoodies.
This gives the digipack a clear direction of what genre it belongs too. My digipack also had pages dedicated to a list of tracks on the CD, also some special thanks to people who helped the band in the last year. This is typical of most CD covers and I knew this because of my research into CD covers earlier in the year. The digipack also uses identically the same colour scheme as the website, this creates a recognizable look for the band, this is typical of hip hop bands because they want to make themselves noticeable the moment you see their logo or colour scheme. This also makes the audience feel closer to the band, recognizing certain things leaves them to feel as if they are often seeing the band, therefore feel more attached to the band and buy more products from them.
In the case of my website, it too uses this colour scheme, same logo’s/titles etc. I also have a section on the webpage titled ‘latest news’, this is typical of most bands because they like to let their fans know what they are doing. This also links in with trying to make the audience feel as if they are close to the stars therefore they give the band more attention and buy more CD’s. With the news section each news item has the date in red then the hyperlinks reading ‘..click here’ turn grey when you scroll over them. My website also used rollover images, this is typical of websites for this genre of music because it has a nice professional feel when in reality its just 2 images over lapped and when scrolled over one appears over the other. However this is very effective and a lot of websites use it.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order to get accurate feedback from my class we had a lesson where we watched through every ones work and gave them accurate feedback, this meant that I got an accurate rounded feeling for what my class thought of my work. Some positive points about my video were that the location was great and aided the feel of the video very well. Also that some of the shots with leafs/foreground in were nice and that the framing and composition was very good.
People also liked my colour grading, and my dolly shots. Over all they said that what could have been tacky and unpleasant to watch worked out really well because of the steady camera work and precise editing.
Some of the negative points about my video were that at times the lip syncing was off, and that unfortunately the performance element of the video wasn’t quite what they were expecting, but I put this down to not having a large budget and professional actors.
Overall I am pleased with how the video has come out. I feel it stays with the convention of a normal hip hop video except I have managed to minimize some of the aspects of hip hop videos that I personally don’t enjoy, like semi naked women dancing.
I also got feedback on my digipack, some of the positives were that it had good photo positioning, a good colour scheme to match the website, my class mates also enjoyed the way that it was simple, but not that simple that it looked under done. The only criticism I received over my digipack was that it needs information on the spines so you can tell what it is when in a CD rack.
For my website I was given positive feedback as well, once again they liked the colour scheme and they liked how the pictures were well edited with the black background to make the character stand out. Some of the negatives were mainly to do with filling blank spaces and fixing typing errors.
Overall I have learnt a lot from my feedback regarding what I would change if I had to do the whole project again. I have also learned that using theorists meant that I was able to follow the hip hop genre in greater depth. For instance the use of props, costume and location all work together to create the perfect looks for a hip hop music video. I feel that by trying to be as accurate as I could when deciding on these I was able to give of a hip hop feel.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage. Evaluate your use of technologies for each section of your construction – eg a para for each of Research, Planning, Video, Website, Digipak, Evaluation
Now as I look back over the project I am going to look into what media technologies I used throughout the construction of my research, planning, video, website and digipak.
First off I am going to evaluate what technologies I used when carrying out research into my genre. I used the internet to my advantage and researched in depth music videos and their directors. This meant I had a greater understanding of the genre before I started planning my music video. I also carried out a shot by shot analysis where I was able to understand the type of camera work and editing used in a hip-hop video. All of this meant that because of the technologies available to me my planning and research was a great aid when completing my practical work.
When planning and organizing my video I found it hard to find a song at first. But after several hours searching through my archives of music and MySpace I found an old band I used to listen to called The Hilltop Hoods. I found my favourite song and sent them an email requesting to use it for my media video. They replied the next day saying I was allowed to use the song. This is an example of how I was able to utilize the technologies available to me. I used various websites to track down the band and also to make communication with them.
When it came to actually making my video I made sure that I maximized my technology by using my own equipment. I used my own Canon hv20 which allowed me to shoot in HD and set the camera up to use the correct frame rate and aperture. This meant that my shots would often have a deep depth of field allowing the audience to focus on the main figure in the shot, normally the lead singer.
I have also recently begun using a track dolly system, this has added a new camera angle to my selection of shots, smooth flowing sideways shots that add a new dimension to my video.
I didn’t use a fish eye in this edit however if I did this project again I think I would because it means that shots never get laborious and they give a feeling of identity and being close the artist. This relates to Dyers theory of Stardom.
When editing my footage I also used my own editing software called Sony Vegas 8.0 which I have been using for around 2 years now, I am much better with this programme and it meant that I was able to transfer the files of my camera and onto my computer much easier than relying on college to do it for me. Having my own editing software also meant that I was able to edit the footage in my own time and this mean I had no distractions in class; I was able to edit the footage together quickly
Next I am going to evaluate how I used technology to my advantage to make a website.
The website was made in lesson time and we were required to independently learn the programme and how to use certain tools within the programme. When making the website I used photographs to add to the genre. These were taken on my own SLR camera and meant that I had high quality images to use. This made a lot of difference because it gave my website a much more professional feel. I was also able to edit the photo’s in Photoshop which meant that I could make the background of a lot of the images appear black, therefore fitting the colour scheme for the website.
However I didn’t use any special fonts when making the website, in my opinion this was my own fault, I liked how it looked with the basic Microsoft fonts and didn’t want to risk changing the fonts and having issues with fonts not appearing when the website was exported. Because of this I kept my fonts very basic, however my audience feedback shows that this was a good thing and it gave the website a simplistic effect that worked well.
I also used technology when making my website in the form of Youtube. This allowed me to stream my music video through my webpage without having any loading issues etc. I realized this as soon as I handed my draft copy of the website in, many class mates had issues with videos that wouldn’t work, because of this I decided I would do the same for my final edit of the website. An advantage of using Youtube is that it’s a flash player; most computers have flash on them and therefore will play the video and if they don’t it prompts them that they need to update, meaning the problem is non of my own.
My digipak features the same colour scheme as my website, this was thanks to technology and the ability to make both the website and digipak on the same programme. For the digipak I used fireworks, this meant that I was able to accurately measure out the size of the image in millimetres to ensure it would fit. I then split the image into 3 sides and duplicated this to make the front and back of the digipak featuring 6 sides in total. This is typical of digipaks and especially digipaks in the hip hop genre.
I used technology to research into what featured on most hip hop CD covers, I found that there was always a list of tracks that were on the CD, I also found out that there would often be a small blurb describing what the CD featured and on some there would be a “thanks” section where the band thank or credit anyone involved with the making of the CD.
After researching into this I felt it was vital to include all of these sections in my digipak and therefore I did. Thanks to good quality technology I was able to maximize my digipaks quality.
