Evaluation Q.1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our production of Professor Green’s, ‘Goodnight’, we knew the style we wanted to achieve immediately upon forming as a group. We wanted to produce a performance based piece including only one actor to play Professor Green. As we knew it would be the locations and shots that would earn us the top grades we then moved out in pursuit of these winning locations. How this differs from any real media product, honestly, it doesn’t. We needed that gritty urban feel to our video like many UK hip-hop/grime songs need. Where we knew we could really bring some of these shots to life was in the studio back at college using final cut pro. We we're aware of the wide range of effects that final cut pro offered from our AS year. So it was a matter of sifting through the final cut database until we found ones that made our shots look really fantastic. That isn't to say we used effects on all our shots though, just on ones that required slightly enhancing to make them more effective. In particular, we have two shots in our video that have been sped up using final cut pro. In both of these shots we applied effects to intensify the shot and make them more absorbing. Although we had seen this being used before in UK hip-hop videos, we had not seen any videos that had placed effects on shots that were sped up. This is where we feel we've challenged conventional media products and brought a bit of originality to the piece to make it our own.




(Our A2 Media Production of Professor Green's, "Goodnight", posted on youtube.com)

Using Goodwin's theory of the six major conventions of a music video we've been able to assess our own video to see if it follows these conventions. One of Goodwin's theories is that the lyrics make continuous links to the visuals on screen. An example of this is in Kanye West's music video for 'Touch the Sky" ( URL- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhkArCziq8) when at 0.18secs he links the lyrics "doors were closed" with a car door slamming shut. In our music video we weren't particularly attempting to link the lyrics and the video, we did always want the protagonist to be lip syncing the lyrics but as for visual links to the lyrics there is only a couple of times when this happens. For example at 1min.29secs we do link the lyrics "an' I picked the wrong path, I went the wrong way" to our actor, Kwame, walking away when in a previous scene he had been sat. Quite a simple Visual link but it looks quite effective in our video.



Another of Goodwin's theories refers to the genre conventions of a video. There are many traits in a music video that are specific to the genre of the song. For example in Kozzie's music video for "Destruction" (URL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75nkUensTUU) he's filming in a clearly urban location as the walls are covered in graffiti and there are high rise building blocks in the surrounding area. The way he's dressed in a t-shirt with 'grime' sprawled' across it and a cap suggests that the genre of the song has be grime/hip-hop. This video is very similar to what we wanted to achieve in our production. However we wanted a wider variety of locations rather than just one or two, we also didnt want our video to look as raw as "Destruction" looks as we're dealing with the genre of hip-hop rather than grime. As for the clothing Kwame used to become 'Professor Green' luckily he resides in an urban area and was already dressed for the part before we had even decided who was to become our actor. However, we did add some items to Kwame's closet so he fit the role more appropriately like a purple cap he can been seen wearing at certain points in our video.

To add to, another of Goodwin's theories is the representation of the musician or artist that is portrayed in the video. Record labels have huge power over the way their clients are presented which in the pop culture world is usually to target a specific audience because they are deemed most likely to buy the artists record. In hip-hop however, artists are deemed as 'sell-outs' if they belong to a label that forces them to dress or act in a certain way. And even though many people would say that Professor Green has 'sold out' in recent years with the style of music he's begun to produce, when this song was produced he was still very creditable in the urban scene. Through our video we wanted to produce a product that was never intended for the main stream. We wanted a gritty urban feel to suit the style of the song. This genre is never going to have a huge following compared to mainstream pop and that's the way most people inside hip-hop want to keep it.

Goodwin also suggested that music videos must include the 'notion of looking'. This is the idea that we're seeing the action through the camera not looking through the actor's eyes. Throughout music videos you will generally be looking at the actor or artists, instead of from their viewpoint. An example of when this happens in our music video can be seen pictured left. Kwame is not performing here, he's simply walking down the street. It's not a shot from his perspective instead the audience are watching him through the lens.


Additionally, Goodwin also indicates that throughout music videos there is intertexual reference to television, films, other music videos etc. This can be seen in the red hot chilli pepper's song, "Dani California" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb5aq5HcS1A). Throughout this song there are references to famous artists and bands from the past such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles. The chili pepper's actually dress up and perform as these artists in a 'tongue in cheek' manner throughout this video. However, throughout our video, apart from obviously using another artists song, there arn't really any intertexual references. From the beginning of production we didn't intend to use any and are happy with the result without these references.

Goodwin's last theory on music videos is that each one demonstrates genre characteristics. This means he thinks all videos of the same genre share similar themes or situations running through them, for example many rock videos have the band performing on stage or in a studio. In Nirvana's, "Smells like teen spirit" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg&ob=av2e) for example, the video revolves around the band performing in a high school gymnasium. Playing in a school gym was obviously meant to be very ironic as it was a place where none of the band members flourished similar to their general academic career which was sidetracked in order to make music instead. My point is that this rock group followed convention and made a video which shot them performing as a band. For our music video we most certainly intended to follow the conventions of UK hip-hop/grime videos. We wanted to film in an urban environment (Manchester) specifically shooting scenes that could be identified as fitting into this genre like filming shots that back-dropped onto graffiti. This style of street art emerged in the 1970's along with hip-hop and break dancing. This is why it gives our video that hip-hop/grime identity because most people would be able to relate the two separate art forms.