Genre Research: Hip Hop

Hip-Hop

Conventions of an Hip-Hop music video:

1. Low Angled, close up shots 

This gives them power, as they are seen as looking down on the audience. Close up shots give them status, which may imply that they may be important enough to fill the frame. 

Low Angle used to emphasize the artists dominance

Close up - Mid shot

2. Dancing in the club

People are shown in a club dancing to the music layered on top of the music video. They're shown dancing or bouncing in time to the beat of the song. This suggests that they like the song, as they are in time with the beat. Therefore giving the artist credibility.

'In Da Club' - 50 Cent shows a number of close up shots of the artists, who can be seen as superior over the rest of the people featured in the video. He is seen making an appearance in a club where he's given power. The setting of the video is a club in which the artist attends. People are seen bouncing and moving along to the beat of the song. 

3. The Clothing 

These are generally sporting attire such as basketball wear and caps. This represents strength and power and sporting prowess. Gold chains are also used in these types of videos. 

Gold chains and Caps 

Tattoos and Cap

'The Game - 100 ft. Drake is set in a local neighbourhood, and shows a community that is able to get along well with one another. The video is quite unscripted, therefore making it very realistic as it shows the lives of people of that specific neighbourhood. 

Genre Research: Case Study

WHAT IS GENRE? 

Genre is a style or category of music, art or literature. 

1. "A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces ofmusic as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably." (Taken from Wikipedia)

Music can be divided into different groups based on the genre that they belong and most describes it. 

Three Theorists: 

David Duff: 

Described genre as "a recurring type or category of text, as defined by structural and thematic criteria"

Barry Grant: 

Stated that "all genres have sub-genres, which means they are divided into a more specific group for that particularly song. This allows the audience to easily recognise the song specifically by their characteristics which are easily recognisable."

Steve Neale: 

"Genres are not systems, but rather a process of systemisation."

BLOOPERS

Preliminary Video

            

This is the video for our preliminary

We chose to do this song for our preliminary because it is well known, therefore making the lyrics easy to learn, and the video easy to replicate. It also allowed us to edit to the beat. Due to this just being the preliminary, we were able to have fun with it, without it being too serious. We were able to experiment with different lightings and movement. The video features a tracking shot of the protagonist walking, which allowed us to practise moving with the camera, for our main music video. 

Challenges

When shooting our preliminary, we did encounter a number of challenges which we've learnt from in regards to our real music video. Even though we had to replicate an already existing music video, we couldn't exactly match the location of each shot, so we had to compromise. This meant we used the location and setting available to us. However we managed to still create a suitable video. Moreover, due to the fact that we managed to film everything in one day, we hadn't really put a lot of thought into the costume, as seen in the real music video. For example, the protagonist wears pyjamas in the opening shot. However we didn't make use of this due to lack of time. Therefore this is something we would need to put into consideration when doing out real music video, because costume is important in order to match what is happening in the scene.
Editing was the easiest part for us. This is because we knew what we wanted to do and how it was to be done. The music video we chose makes use of limited shots. However a problem we had with the editing is matching the lip syncing with the original song. It took us a lot longer than expecting to perfectly match the lip syncing. At the end of the day, when we exported the video, we realised that the lip syncing was still too slow. Therefore, we could have put a lot more time into editing and matching the song accurately.

Overall, I am most proud of the quality of our video and how we managed to replicate the original video. We thought about the locations we could use which is similar to the original.
The main part of the video that I am the most proud of is the part of the video where the protagonist bends over the sink and disappears out of the shot and suddenly reappears in a different location. The use of different locations and lighting makes the video a lot more interesting and appealing.

Overall, we have learnt a lot from our preliminary based on what we will avoid doing in our real music video and what we want to take on board. We like the concept of using different lighting techniques and changing to different locations to get the audience interested. However we have learnt that lip syncing is important, and will therefore make sure that when we go out to film, we will make sure to sing the entire song so that we will be able to use any part of the video which will match the original song. 

Music Video: Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we decided to remake the first 50 secs of the pop song 'I Really Like You' - Carly Rae Jepsen. (Below)

The reason why we decided to replicate this video is because we really liked the beat of the song and the concept. The shots used are very simple and easy to replicate.

The part of the music video that we decided to use makes use of one type of camera shot, which is a mid shot. The last scene then uses a wide shot, with a tracking shot following the main character. 

Storyboarding