Evaluation Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Music video:

Mise en scene:

Ferdinand De Saussure and the signifier & signified theory

Ferdinand De Saussure suggested these theories:

Signifier
Physical form which we can see or hear within the clip

Signified
The meaning attached to the signifier within the clip

Roland Barthes adapted Ferdinand's theories into 'symbolic code' which organises and puts together the signifier of the text, referring to groups of signified.
Everything in our music video is there for a reason.
5 Signifiers within our Music Video

Signifier	Signified Shows a sense of beginning
	Shows a stage performance
Props: Jewlewery	Encodes- wealth and high status
Audience are waving their arms around	An indexical sign for happiness
Lift Closes	Represents a sense of ending

Costume and props

Props: Expensive Necklaces, watches

Clothing: Hip hop clothing such as baseball hat, Fashionable and expensive shoes

Background: White, coloured and dark backgrounds, clubbing scene

Editing:fast paced editing

Sound:

Fast paced beat

Syncing to the movement

Lyrics: usually talking about how worthy they are, and how they love women
Use of Lip syncing 

Chorus:

Every body put your hands in the air, wave them around like you just don't care.

Every body put your hands in the air, air!

Put your hands in the air.

Josh jen's verse:

Yes i got the drinks man and i got the dough

and haters still scheming cause i'm stunting like a Boss.

Rocking all red man i call it santa claus

My swagger so fresh i deserve an applause

Tonight is on fire man this is how we do

Girls in high heels man i call it Jimmy Choo

My bling made her blind now she feels me like brail

They said that she is tight but i fitted quite well

she came with you tonight she's going home with me

And if you want to fight, thats how its gonna be

Its gonna be a Shuge knight, switch of your on switch

You are not too bright goodnight long kiss

I've gotta copyright it make that arse mine

She walking and twerking at the same damn time

I've gota copyright it make that arse mine

oh damn that should be a god damn crime

 Chorus x2

J-slick's verse:

I run the game like am Kobe

 no introduction cuz i know that they know me

 flow so ugly swag so handsome

 now the ladies wana hold me for ransom

 surely to look this good i a crime

Ice in My watch i guess is my time to shine

Ain't no body messing with my click-clack

Swagger fresher than a freaking Tic Tac

I can feel her heart beat skipping

Audience listening, lights glistening, ice dripping

feeling like a champion with this champagne am sipping

looking for a caramel skin tone,

 I can visualise her clearly

the fruity type with the cherry lips, heavy hips,

damn girl with dem curves like that  you can be my blackberry

Chorus x2

K-kritz's verse

Yeah I guess its my time to shine

Yeah I guess is my time to rhyme

Rhyme, crime I don't give a damn

Cuz I got a sick flow wow, I flow like a boat

 See me on the mic, you never see me so choke

Rap ain't joke, swagger to the fullest never see me broke

Am a killer, iller fresher than any other spitter

So put your hands air wave in the sky like you just don't care.
Yeah And am just getting warmed up
 see these rappers getting shooked up
getting ready for the club feeling so super clocked on the supra
Put on that Snap Back a little swag booster, booster on another level like a Duplex
Busting heads i Call it Suplex
Drinking till we blackout
Dancing till we fade out
Screaming till we forced out
Like tine we do this till we pass out
yeah we do this till we pass out.

Chorus x2

Just like modern hip hop music the song goes from Chorus-Verse -Chorus-verse Chorus etc
We also followed this pattern in our song as well.

Narration:  

It is hard to relate our music video to Todorov's theory.

However, rather than visually, the narration of our music video is constructed in a way that fits Todorov's theory symbolicly , which he states as Equilibrium - Conflict - Resolution. Our music video has symbolisms which represents  Todorov's theory, for example when the lift opens at the beginning of the music video, the music starts. This represents the Equilibrium  part in Todorov's theory. Our music video consists of many club scenes reappearing over and over again with fast paced editing and different colours flashing, this was done on purpose to give our music video a chaotic effect which represents the 'conflict' in Todorov's theory. The music video ends with the lift closing on the three artist and a fadeout is used at the very end of the music video. The lift closing and the fadeout at the end of the music is used to give the music video a peaceful ending which is representing the resolution part in Todorov's theory. Typical Hip hop music videos usually have a fadeout effect at the end of the music video to show a sense of end of story because Hip-hop music videos are usually based on some sort of story. This is similar to the reason why we chose to use a fadeout in our music video too.
Typical hip-hop music videos do not have story lines  this is why it is hard to relate them to Todorov's theory. A better theory is Brecht bolt's 'Epic structure', this can be related to our music video a lot more because our music video has a fragmented structure and all the scenes in the music video do not connect together.

Binary opposites: Claude Levi-Strauss

Our Music video is not based on a bad guy vs good guy but it still follows Levi-Strauss's theory because or music video is an example of Stylised vs Realistic. Stylised is exemplified through dark silhouette. We were not trying to create naturalism but we were trying to create our own world. To make this possible, we chose used a number of different colours in our music video.

The representation of Women:

According to Laura Malvey, women appear in music video to slow down the narration of the music video. So we decided to make sure that our music video followed this stereotype. We tried to achieve this by making sure that the girls in our music video were just standing there without playing a major part. We tried to follow some typical stereotypes of women by making sure they are in the video but not playing any significant roles. For example they were not even singing along to the music, they were just in the video to slow the narration down.

Media Producers use some aspects in the ‘Real world and Society’, which they then transform to suit the current situation in the society that will help them to make profit from their media product which they produce. For example, Media Producers use stereotypes in music videos because they are quickly and easily recognized by the audiences.  Media producers usually use women in their music video to appeal to the viewers which are usually male, because they are more likely to buy or watch the product if they are attracted to the women in the music video. For this reason we chose to follow that convention as-well so we also used a few women in our music video. We chose not to  completely challenge this convention because we are trying to play it safe and also trying to sell our product to the typical Hip-hop audience.

In what ways does your media product use, develop by joeking122 on GoAnimate

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 Women are usually objectified in music videos for example; they are usually wearing provocative clothing which is usually revealing their womanly assets such as Hips, Legs, Breasts and Bottoms. Although we broke some of the conventions in a typical Hip- hop music video by not showing scenes of any of the women wearing provocative clothing and being extremely sexually objectified through camera shots this has slightly pushed our genre into the Alternative Hip-hop genre because the music video is not completely conveying with the representation of women in hip-hop. However, we used some close up shots on the lips and face to put a similar idea across. Extreme close up on the face and lips were done to make women look like they are only needed in a music video because of  their sexual features.

Women were not extremely objectified in our music video on purpose because we did not want our music video to be extensively explicit due to the age range (14-21) of our targeted audience. Having a sexually explicit music video will not be appropriate to the younger audience that we are trying to target. And by not having any sexual references in the music video, we would not be targeting our older audience very well. So we had to use enough sexual references that will be suitable for all our audience. And we achieved this through a few scenes and through the lyrics of the song.

Women are also shown to be cheap and weak and only useful for sexual benefits and if they do not fit into the specific stereotype, they are not seen as normal women.  For example the image above shows the main artist wrapping he's arm around the woman. The effect of this is to show a sense of ownership. By belittling the woman in the scene, the main artist is made to look like he is in control.

There is a contrast between the woman in the blue tint and the woman in the yellow tint. The woman in the yellow tint looks self-sufficient, while the  woman in the blue tint looks a bit more inferiority.

We could not use this clip in our music video because of the clothes she was wearing. For example the leather jacket that she is wearing shows a sense of in dependency  and superiority which is against the  typical stereotype of a woman. We had to remove this clip so that the stereotype of women that we are trying to follow is will not be broken.

Laura Malvey argued that because the media production company is heavily dominated by men, a narrow view is put across the media. As a result women are always shown to be second class citizens, powerless and inferior to men. The objectification of women is so popular in music videos that every time you are watching a music video you are automatically expecting women to be portrayed negatively, even women expect these themselves when they are watching a music video. This idea was put forward by Laura Malvey in 1975, which is known as the ‘Male gaze’. This means that women watch music videos through the eyes of men and are no longer entitled to their own opinions but rather the opinion of male viewers. Women are passive in music video, they are made to behave in a sexual way like licking their lips, lollipop or finger and as a result the audience are being forced to turn into voyeurs through the scenes that are presented to them. Laura malvey also stated the idea that women are there to slow down the narrative because they grab the audience attention and do not push the narrative forward. Since quick, fast paced editing are usually used in music videos women are used to slow it down. We also used fast paced editing in our music video the convey with stereotypical Hip-hop music videos. We followed some of the convention by using a female's lips to suggest seductiveness and to suggest sexual references and slow down the narration of the music video. 

DigiPak:

We analysed this Digi-pak to show the similarities between a professional Digi-pak

and our Digi-pak. The colour of each arrow is connected to the coloured text.

We broke some typical hip-hop conventions of a Digi-pak through the use of our chosen outfits. Usually on hip-hop album covers or Digi-paks the musicians are often wearing sunglasses, a hat or at least some jewellery. We chose to go against this convention because we wanted to use our digi-pak to put forward that our artist is intelligent hence the glasses, shirt and blazer. This is what modern Hip-hop artist try to portray nowadays but they usually portray this through magazines.
We didn't want to completely break the conventions, so we decide that props such as the microphone and the location where the photo is shot(studio) would give-away the genre as it is quite a typical thing to see in Hip-hop digi-pak covers.

Magazine:

We analysed this Magazine to show the similarities between a professional Magazine

and our Magazine. The colour of each arrow is connected to the coloured text.

Each coloured arrow is linked to the coloured text table.

Intertextuality: 

Just like typical hip hop magazine there are usually taglines of relevant topics on the magazine. We followed the conventions by doing that also in our magazine. We based our music video on many lyrical references for example: The use of pop arts and words within the music video matched with the lyrics. Fast paced editing were used and it also connected to the beat of the song. These are what typical Hip-hop music videos usually have.

Conventions from joeking122

Conventions from joeking122