In terms of the house style the music video and the ancillary text, my digipak and poster, have some common and strong links, though in retrospect I could have combined them more conclusively and effectively. One way the two media texts are combined is through the mise en scene location, in the video urban gritty locations are used and this is reflected through the graffiti art used in the ancillary texts. A majority of the locations within the music video are shot outside which links to the ancillary texts. There is no representation of wealth or glamour in any of the texts, which is to appeal to the primary audience being targeted, the young, working/middle class city dwellers. The prosaic commonplace ordinariness of the locations, have links to the primary target audience.
The star persona of the artist in both the music video and the ancillary texts are both represented in the same way, which is no representation at all in the ancillary texts and no promotion of the artist as a star persona in the music video. Star persona is not used as a selling point.
Women are not represented in a glamourous way in any of the texts, subverting the idea of the male gaze. The performer is androgynous which links to the image in the top right of the digipak, the image could be either male or female.
Though there some effective combinations between the music video and the ancillary texts, there are some weaknesses. One being that there is no link between the typography in the music video and the ancillary texts. This is also the case with the colour scheme, in the digipak and poster orange features heavily to contrast with the dull, darker colours. This is not represented in the music video and could have been incorporated in the clothing or by filming in the location where the graffiti art was shot. The owl graffiti is such a strong image and could have been used as motif to combine the main product, the music video, and the ancillary texts, the digipak and poster.
The genre is represented within the ancillary texts, though not that heavily, in terms of how it links to British urban youth culture rather than the more glamourous generic conventions of American hip hop/rap ancillary texts. In the music video there more subversion of rather than compliance of generic conventions.
Overall I think that the material works well to cross promote the album and the artist. As I have stipulated there are some weaknesses but given the main ideas about how I wanted to subvert the genre, through denying the male gaze and not using star persona, are represented I think that the strengths outweigh the weaknesses.
Sunday 4 March 2012
evaluation A2 question 1
My video is an interpretation of the Rizzle Kicks song Miss Cigarette, this is a hip hop/rap genre. Throughout my video there are mainly challenges of the genre stereotypes, which have more links to British hip hop/rap artists than American.
One way which I have used conventions of the hip/hop/rap genre is through the cinematography, in this genre it is stereotypical for close-ups to be used on the main artist, which has links to the development and retaining a star persona. In my video during the lip synching sections the artist played by Michael Godfrey is always show through close-ups which conforms to the genre. However the use of star persona is subverted within my video. With links to mise en scene and costume he is not shot in ways that promote him as a star, for example the lighting is low key and he is not always centred in the shots, with reference to the rule of thirds. This subverts generic conventions where the artist is usually promoted as a star within the video; this is particularly true of American hip hop/rap videos.
The video follows generic conventions by having a female performer but the way she is represented subverts the generic conventions of how women are represented and used in the hip hop/rap genre. The performer, Rachel Watkeys Dowie, defies conventions through her androgynous costume, her female form is not emphasised, which is generally how women are portrayed in hip hop/rap videos. An example of the conventional way the female form is exploited can be seen in Snoop Dog’s video ‘Sweat’.
This was a conscious decision to challenge the way women are often objectified in this type of video. Nicky Minaj defies being objectified in a very different way, one of the ways she defies the objectification linked to the male gaze is the way she uses costume to parody the version of the female form usually found in hip hop/rap videos. Whereas my video develops the idea of refusing to allow the female performer to be objectified through her costume and make up in a different way to Nicky Minaj.
The locations in my video could be considered urban and gritty which conforms more to British hip hop/rap videos such as Professor Green and Plan B.
These could be described as more working class, with links to realism, often reflecting the lives of their audience It goes against the more generic hip hop/rap videos where use locations that have connotations of wealth and success, often portraying a fantasy world which is mainly unobtainable for the audience, offering a sense of escapism.
A convention that has been used and subverted is the type of music video, the three types being conceptual, performance and narrative. My video incorporates all these types, in generic hip hop/rap music videos performance is more often used, sometimes with a element of conceptual. An example of the latter is in Chris Brown’s video ‘I can transform ya’ where he transform from a car into a person
, this links into the idea of intertextual references to popular media, in this case the ‘Transformer’ films. My video conforms to this as I have used popular media; the split screen in my music video is an intertextual reference from the film ‘500 Days of Summer’.
However looking at British hip hop/rap videos many combine the three music video types. Plan B exemplifies this in his video ‘End Credits’. In terms of performance, conventions of the genre have been used in the lip-syncing of the lyrics. A generic convention of the hip hop/rap genre is for the artist to be shown performing their own song. An example of this is in Snoop Dog’s video for ‘That Tree’.
One way which I have used conventions of the hip/hop/rap genre is through the cinematography, in this genre it is stereotypical for close-ups to be used on the main artist, which has links to the development and retaining a star persona. In my video during the lip synching sections the artist played by Michael Godfrey is always show through close-ups which conforms to the genre. However the use of star persona is subverted within my video. With links to mise en scene and costume he is not shot in ways that promote him as a star, for example the lighting is low key and he is not always centred in the shots, with reference to the rule of thirds. This subverts generic conventions where the artist is usually promoted as a star within the video; this is particularly true of American hip hop/rap videos.
The video follows generic conventions by having a female performer but the way she is represented subverts the generic conventions of how women are represented and used in the hip hop/rap genre. The performer, Rachel Watkeys Dowie, defies conventions through her androgynous costume, her female form is not emphasised, which is generally how women are portrayed in hip hop/rap videos. An example of the conventional way the female form is exploited can be seen in Snoop Dog’s video ‘Sweat’.
The locations in my video could be considered urban and gritty which conforms more to British hip hop/rap videos such as Professor Green and Plan B.
A convention that has been used and subverted is the type of music video, the three types being conceptual, performance and narrative. My video incorporates all these types, in generic hip hop/rap music videos performance is more often used, sometimes with a element of conceptual. An example of the latter is in Chris Brown’s video ‘I can transform ya’ where he transform from a car into a person
, this links into the idea of intertextual references to popular media, in this case the ‘Transformer’ films. My video conforms to this as I have used popular media; the split screen in my music video is an intertextual reference from the film ‘500 Days of Summer’.
However looking at British hip hop/rap videos many combine the three music video types. Plan B exemplifies this in his video ‘End Credits’. In terms of performance, conventions of the genre have been used in the lip-syncing of the lyrics. A generic convention of the hip hop/rap genre is for the artist to be shown performing their own song. An example of this is in Snoop Dog’s video for ‘That Tree’.
Thursday 1 March 2012
making digipak and poster
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