Question 1 – In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

Our media product uses a variation of camera angles and movement to convey and develop the genre of our music promo video and CD product. We mainly challenged the forms and conventions of the real media in aspects of the portrayal of the artist, genre style and blurring the boundaries of where the modern style of music originally grew from. We indicated this through the denotation and connotations of our music promo and CD product. The Close ups and mid shots used emphasised the artist body language, appearance and facial expression innovating her attitude reflected in the genre of music which in Heather B’s case shows her challenging the stereotypical female artist role and adopting a more masculine dominating approach of a woman. However through our case studies female artist such as Ciara and Jessie j reflected their fierce and seductive complexion through the close ups adding to their makeup and costume to appeal to the male audience, while heather b rejected that approach showing women differently in the music field.

• One the other hand Ciara and Jessie J indicate their long shots to show their sexual and flirty body language and movement leaving men with the portrayal of female artist to benefit the needs of men through their visual view of them seeing them as object of sex. The Split shot in the video was used to imitate the barriers between the changes from modern to 60’s – 80’s , portraying the link from old school hip hop being shown to encourage and create what music has become today. The Shot reverse shot definite the opposition between the two time eras (modern and pass), also presenting their style and sense of dialogue to show their difference. The High shot of heather B, Twyla and the two modern day girls walking down the stairs portrays them walking into the old school era from the modern day setting of hip hop. This also suggest where the hip hop music originated from and the turn it has taken into the modern day scenery. The Fish eye lenses was very useful in delineating the contrast of old school and modern day, the fish eye lenses captures the old school and retro effect within the surrounds, style, music choice etc. The Tracking of the music promo video presented the surrounding location of the area to portray the old school vibe and trend, the graffiti, the dance style, the fashion trend etc.

Laura’s Feminist Theory of women: The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey argues due to the relationship between the viewers of the media and what is viewed is unbalanced by the increasing gaze of heterosexual males , the objectification of women may encourage women to see this as the hegemonic norm for the benefit of men. The case studies I used with female artist such as Ciara and Jessie J portrayed that visual feminine image beneficial to the male gaze. This however encourages women to hold that image in the media and to conform to their expectations as a female in the media to attract their male counterparts , influencing the gender norms of society. However Heather B challenges that convention in showing her talent speaks louder than her feminine image, showing how image isn't what gets you viewers its how well your talent is, conveying the equality between males respect and women's respect other than the respect of their body image.

The female gaze is actually only whereby women act as men in their objectification of others, however we also respect that women gaze at others of the same sex in an asexual manner , for example in their choice of clothes, body image ect

The Cutting rate was shown to speed up and also slowdown in different aspects of the music video, similar to the case study of Chris brown’s ‘Love more’ cutting rate sped up due to the tempo of the music and the build-up of the split into the old school hip hop scenario. Likewise in our promo video in the beginning of when the girls are getting ready to go out, we use the same technique and sped up the cutting rate to fit the tempo of the music. The cutting rate also had moments of slowing down to emphasis the surrounding location and genre of music shown through the style, in our promo video, we slow down the cutting rate when it came to showing the surrounding emphasising the location conveying the genre of the music (e.g. graffiti).

Whereas the Wide shot through the music promo video portrayed the genre of music as well as the styles and attitudes of the 60’s – 80’s. Likewise in Chris browns ‘Love more’ video he conveyed his party scene with a wide shot divulging the multicultural styles/types of dancing which we used in our promo video to portray our 60’s-80’s style dancing as well as the costumes and atmosphere of old school hip hop. The Long shots of Heather B’s portrayed her hip hop old school appearance, also showing the attitude and behaviour juxtaposed traditional females, instead conveying dominance and superiority through her male abhor.

The Mise en scene illustrated the Location of the graffiti Skate Park, portraying the vibrant and bright colours of the 60’s -80’s old school hip hop vibe. In our music promo video we conformed to the genre based hip hop old school atmosphere, throughout our case studies such as Chris brown – love more and Ciara body party all conformed to their party styled atmosphere that linked to the genre based music style of Hip Hop and RnB. The modern day house in the beginning where the stereotypical modern girls are getting ready to go out, conformed to the changing convention of the switch from modern to 60’s-80’s era. (Post-modernist) Looking back on my case studies in Chris brown ‘love more’ he presents the styles of dance through the costume and the genre styled dance moves. We showed the change from modern to old school through the costume, dance style and location. The costumes were upbeat and colourful, clothes such as baggy jeans, long baggy shirts, dungarees, crop stops, shorts, hats etc.

Post-Modernist theoryPostmodernist emphasis the idea

of choice and freedom, in the case of the representation of women in our media promo video, we showed women ejecting away from the stereotypical feminine image. Heather B is shown as a product of the future for women having more freedom with their selves through their image. Not only conveying their image as an attraction to the audience but their purpose.

Our research through TLC, Aaliyah, and Queen Latifa etc. all encouraged the built style, bringing the 60’s -80’s back into play. Twyla wore baggy high waisted jeans with a tight fitted top half see threw half colourful , the gems under her eyes provided the audience with some sort of recognition , similar to Ciara who is known for her ‘Dancing’ , Left eye known for her ‘Mark’ under her eye etc. We inherited the typical stereotypical feminine artist, similar to Aaliyah’s image or Ciara and Jessie J’s shown to attract the male audience due to their sense of clothing, make up and behaviour and attitude through the videos. We conformed to the conventions of women’s portrayal in videos through one of our artists, however with heather B standing next to her showed the change in woman’s visual view through the media and instead letting her talent speak for itself (Sends the audiences view to the actual song). We created Heather B to challenge the conventions with her sense of style and her music choice in the field of ‘Rap’ music occasionally dominated by males. Through our research of ‘Heather B’ herself she rejected all aspects of the feminine image and her route to attract the male audience, we decided to create a bit of Heather B herself with hint of femininity however portraying a dominant female attitude and behaviour. Her baggy shorts, oversized baggy shirt, beanie and cop top was incorporated through our research on Rap artist similar to herself such as queen Latifa etc. rejecting the seductive revealing female artist approach, like Ciara and Jessie j with their ‘well known’. The narrative element shows heathers b’s status through the storyline from modern day life and atmosphere travelling into another day and age of the old school hip hop atmosphere, shows heather b as a strong individual ,

CD PRINT PRODUCTOur textual analysis of our print product had to inherit the continuity of our music promo video portraying through the combination of the elements and layouts through the photography, font, style of the genre etc.

• The Photography exhibited emphasised the concept of the genre and switch from modern too old. The Long shot on the front cover portrays full body language, appearance and attitude of artist and the style of the old school hip hop genre conveyed through the theme. The graffiti Wall Street art at the background indicates the 60’s and 80’s hip hop surrounding atmosphere the reference to the house style of the ironic style representing the artist herself, reinforcing Heather B’s original old school hip hop environment. We conformed to the conventions of the traditional front CD cover, the case studies on Aaliyah’s and TLC’s front cover portrays the stereotypical long shot or mid shot image enlarged and the headline bold and large to attract the audience’s attention. Our case studies colour scheme emphasises their genre on RnB etc. on our colour scheme we also focused on our genre of the old school hip hop vibe, using the vibrant, bright and outstanding colours to delineate the style of the genre. The importance and effects through the lighting was used to brighten the image of the front cover to show the contrast of the era of the theme (modern/ past).

The photography at the back of the CD cover image is mid shots in black and white indicating the split scene of modern day colour scheme in front and old school black and white mirroring the change in scenery. Artists like Rihanna who only places the colour in her logo and leaves the rest of her image in black and white to attract the audience and make her recognised for her individuality. The black and white representing everyone else, and the red in her logo emphasising the individuality. The hints of colour shows the importance of the split between modern and old school era presenting the importance of the portrayal of the genre theme.

The case studies we were inspired by individuality as well as challenging the conventions of females artist stereotypical visual objects. The faded headline title on the front cover of the CD shows the importance of our chosen genre through the adaptation of the bright vibrant colour scheme used and inspired by our case studies to reflect the difference in time. Also suggesting the challenging convention of the change in music style and the development of it since the 60’s-80’s to 2013-14 now. The Advert for the promotion of the CD itself, we used a mid-shot close up of both artist on the advert cover transferring a mirror effect of Twyla reflected at the background of heather B who is faded in black and white with the slight colour portrayed on Twyla photography. This indicates the reversal of attracting two types of audience, the old school back in the 80’s adults to the modern day teens. This also adapts to the continuity of the contiguity of the genre and themed Importance, also highlighting the challenged convention due to difference in our case studies. Not all case studies portrayed the same theme or style we wanted to adapt but had parts of them that acclimate with our style and genre that challenge the convention of our promo video through the combination of elements and layouts such as TLC’s and Aaliyah’s CD front and back overs . Using Adobe illustrator we created a range of Lettering front but sticking to the graffiti style look that indicated our genre and them more. Throughout the research and analysis on 60’s and 80’ old school hip hop, it was seen to help the journey to the final lettering that was imitating our chosen genre.

Andrew GoodwinHe says that music videos are linked between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require.

Voyeurism is used to increase the video’s attractiveness, particularly to males, whilst intertextuality is often employed in humorous videos. Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics. This links to the domineering lyrics that reflecting Heather B’s attitude and behaviour compared to women traditionally.The Genre-related style and iconography presentation of the music is traditionally dominated by men , conveying Heather B taking on that genre and making it her own shows her individuality. The Representation of Heather B depicting women with choice all round, indicates the messages and values that attach to Sexuality and stereotypes.

QUESTION 2 :HOW EFFECT IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Theme, Tone and House style

The Continuity of the theme, genre and tone of the old school hip hop vision reflected in the CD print product ,creating consistently and effective products. This reflected through the vibrant and colourful costumes, the graffiti skate park location .The black and white on the back cover and the vibrant colours on the front presents the concept of the theme and genre of the old school hip hop style and trend of the video, conveying the pass era as black and white and colour section as the modern day present scenario, suggesting the contrast between modern and new and the challenging conventions.

The Lexis and the house used in the promo video and the advert portrays the old school hip hop slang relating to the style of the genre. The style divulges the continuity reflected from the promo video into the CD/ Advert , suggesting the strong brand identity , also replicating the colour scheme. The Graffiti style of the Product and the video presents the irony of the theme representing the artist.