In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of a digipak* convey the artists image/values* clear indication of genre* visually interesting* list of songs from album* title that stands out* conventional for artist to be on front cover* may include parental advisory logo depending on the music* images of artists on inlay* interesting colour scheme/theme* information about record label

This is an example of one of our group members digipak, this is how we followed

conventions..

List of songs from album clearly stated

Images to convey artists values, one of his values is to achieve success and big things, the image of him on a tall bridge overlooking Canary Wharf (one of London’s biggest financial center’s) represents the heightened success he wants to achieve and how important money is to him

Image of artist on inlay

Parental advisory logo due to explicit content in his songs

Demolishers famous brand logo ‘D’

‘K Koke’ is a grime artist similar to our artist, this is the front cover to his digipak…

• This is the front cover of the mixtape for up and coming mainstream artist ‘K-Koke’ and it is called ‘ Pure Koke Volume 3 – The Missing Tape’, this related to my artist as they both originate from the same genre of music. This mixtape cover matches the conventions of a normal cover as it has a main image of the artist ‘K-Koke’ and also has the mixtape name in nice visible font. Another thing is that it has images on the cover that relate to the name of the mixtape and this is a common convention in albums from the rap/hiphop genre.

Another thing that works well is the fact that the mixtape is called ‘Pure Koke’ and behind and slightly overshadowing the text is some sort of white misty powder/smoke but it is there in order to look like the drug cocaine. This works well as drugs are stereotypically seen to relate to artists from that genre

One effective thing that has been designed in this mixtape cover is the fact the font on the artists attire matches the one with the name of the cover and this works very well as everything fits in and contrasts nicely. Also the they have images of boxes with CD’s and tapes inside and they have images of tapes and cd’s lying around, this contrasts with the name of the mixtape ‘The Missing Tape’ and this also has a strong effect.

Back cover of the digipak…

This is the back cover of the mixtape for up and coming mainstream artist ‘K-Koke’ and it is called ‘ Pure Koke Volume 3 – The Missing Tape’. It has the same conventions as the front cover has used as there are images relating to the name of the album for example the image of the tape in the bottom left corner, also there is an images of the artist on the box. Another convention that has been used again is the smokey powder overshadowing the name of the album. One thing that works extremely well is the contrast of the colour scheme that has been used as all the artists that feature in the tracks have been designed in a colour that contrasts with the background, this works well as it is eye catching and blends in well

Conventions of a music artist webpage

• user friendly• visually interesting• includes homepage, biography, gallery, news, tour, video,

contact and may have social feeds• consistent colour scheme• theme to match genre• variety of images• artists' work shown on website• Merchandise available for fans to buy• Updated news/events for fans

DVS is another grime artist that inspired us..

Visually interesting; vibrant colour scheme and consistent theme with good use of effects. Large images of artist over the background

User friendly. Easy to navigate which easy options to navigate around the site including a wide range of tabs/options

Artists work clearly shown on website. DVS’s new mixtape ‘one in a billion’ is the on the center of the website

Advertising his social network accounts, links to them as a form of contact and interaction

This is an example of a webpage from one of our group members…

Easy to navigate which clear options to navigate around the site. A wide range of tabs/options for fans to explore

Fans available to buy merchandise

Links to social feeds for fans to keep up to dated with the artist and contact him

Updated information on the latest news and event info on the artist

Gallery of artists latest photos

Clear, large image of artist on the front page

Famous quote/line from the artist

Conventions of a music video

• range of locations• range of shots used to allow the audience to see

the mise-en-scene• good use of mise-en-scene• camera shots don't usually last more than 5

seconds• usually a narrative• visually engaging• visuals often match the lyrics

‘Goodwins’ theory

• he states that we should ignore common narrative and cohere repeatability

• the audience should be able to watch it over and over without losing interest and believe the artist and video is real

• mise-en-scene needs to look authentic to attain professionalism

• star image is a vital aspect of music videos

Conventions of a grime music video

• fast paced with a variety of shots edited to match the beat

• clothing brands are deliberately shown• usually features the artist rapping towards the camera

surrounded by a group of males• illegal items are often show eg. drugs, guns• females are often sexualised and shown as passive• locations used are often dark and gritty eg.

underground• narrative is often simple, not complex

J Cole-Sideline story analysis

J.Cole’s video for his song Sideline story is where we took most of our inspiration from. We felt that as an artist he shares the most similar ideology to our artist and that his music video’s reject the commercial exhibitionist theory and focus on providing symbolic meaning for the audience. In the beginning of the video we see him walking on a bridge, and a bridge has connotations of symbolising journeys i.e bridge to success, which is something our artist entails in his lyrics. We then see J.cole rapping directly at the camera with a building and some stairs as the background, the effect of him rapping directly into the camera is that as an audience we feel that his messages are directed at us making us engage with the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwux1A5hBdQ

• We also see lots of shots of movement e.g. walking, driving past etc. which symbolises the journey to success. The changes in location suggest the desire to move from the ghetto and progress to a more successful environment. The colour scheme throughout the video has a ‘Sepia’ effect giving the video a very dull dingy look so as to emphasise the struggles and to also contrast with the shots of city lights making the desire appear far more appealing than the reality. J.cole’s costume is a hooded jumper teamed with a pair of jeans, making him appear casual, finding a balance between grime genre costumes which are tracksuits and rap genre costumes which are jeans and jewels.

We can also see shots of the artist greeting his friends which stressed the importance of friendship in the genre as ultimately a small group of friends is where loyalty lies in the streets. We can also see shots of the artist appearing in his comfort zone, playing snooker with his friends and having a laugh, this makes the video seem less like a music video and more of a short life documentary following the artist around. In later shots of the video the artist is seen looking down at the city suggesting some sense of accomplishments of his desires. This video expresses the message of the song using visual imagery and we intend to somewhat portray this with our music video as Goodwin suggested visual imagery combined with lyrics provides a deeper meaning for the audience and we would like our video to have a similar effect.

Our final grime music video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=73KFvBQJMmU

Where we reinforced grime music video conventions

• the convention of using well known brands and making it apparent in his costume is reinforced. Our artist was dressed in 'Ralph Lauren' which is very popular amongst the younger generation, the items he was wearing showed the Ralph Lauren logo explicitly

• We also reinforced the convention of not using a complex narrative, like a typical grime video it consisted of the artist rapping to the camera and shots of the female

• Originally we did not want to reinforce the convention of using illegal items, we wanted to show drugs being lined up ready to be snorted however due to a last minute change instead we used smoke to represent him smoking weed

• we reinforced the convention of using gritty locations however we only showed these in the beginning of the video

Where we challenged grime music video conventions

• we challenged the use of gritty locations throughout the video, although some were used at the start, majority of the music video is in open, light areas of central London

• we did not show the female as sexualised or passive. She was fully clothed and was actually singing the chorus. As well as using heels to heighten her, we used some shots of her on top of high platforms and filmed as if we are looking up to her to emphasize she is not passive and weak, instead she is empowering

Genre Theories:

Deborah Knight-Knight said that our expectations are fulfilled if we see something familiar/stereotypical of that genre

We challenged and reinforced this theory. We fulfilled our audiences expectations by using conventions of a grime genre that they are familiar with, an example of this is showing brands on clothing deliberately. However how we challenged this theory is by empowering the female character instead of sexualising her, as this is challenging a stereotypical grime music genre convention.

Steve Neil-Neil stated that subtle differences in stereotypical genre media texts attract the audience as well as repetition of typical genre conventions

John Fiske and Tom Ryall-They stated that writers and directors use genre as a structure within which they can innovateWe used the grime genre as a structure by reinforcing a lot of the main grime genre conventions but then challenging a few conventions purposefully which made subtle differences to our music video. This allowed us to innovate and add our own twist to the video without steering away from the grime genre, and getting across the artists values.