Ancillary tasks SHOOPForms

&Conventions

Form: elements of structure which give a media text its ‘shape’ and meaning.• The use of performance exists to showcase the artist, demonstrate

genre/abilities and to create a marketable star image. I saw examples of this in ‘It’s Tricky’ by Run DMC. I used this video as I felt an 80’s hip-hop video would provide me with a good example. For instance, there were many good uses of zooms and close ups on the performer during the performance element in the video. Because these shots exist in the video you are allowed a look into the artists star image and it helps to give you a further sense of the genre that you are enjoying.

• We wished to identify a target audience of 16-35 year olds, however this could stretch to 40-50 as well, with older people being reminded of the songs of their youth. What appeals to the younger audience is the cool and stylish image that our artist has, which draws them in. What appeals to the older members is the style that our artist has, which is a replica of an 80’s hip-hop image, which draws in our older target audience.

• The next side shows a screen grab of the type of close up that I am talking about.

Continued:• Examples of shots doing the same thing from my video will

appear shortly. Firstly I would like to talk about how in my video, the performance is reasonably similar to in ‘It’s Tricky’ as there are many close ups and zooms. A zoom is not a common technique in modern day pop videos, however it was in the 1980’s, which is the time period that has heavily inspired us. It helps to create retro and stylish motifs.

• This again builds the artists star image and creates an awareness of genre for the audience. The function of a close up is to promote the artist, and to further introduce their star image. How it builds the star image is that the shot is very intimate, you get to know their face, their style and attitude. This causes the target audience (16-35 (40-50)) to feel as if they know the artist in a very loyal way.

Zooms and close ups in the performance element of the

video.

Another example of form:• The use of symbolic and thematic material is to help demonstrate the

genre of the artist, and to also present the audience with an idea of the artist’s individual style. In our case it helped to show what time period we wanted our video to look like it came from. This helps to promote our artist as it shows their image very clearly, as the look in the 1980’s was a very strong one, therefore different to that of the now-this gives them a uniqueness. In LL Cool J’s video, ‘I need love’ there are good examples of this, with the clothing being of the time (therefore you can recognize the era 30 years later). Also, the camera work features many canted angles and handheld shots which nicely builds an image and clear style.

• In our video we used a lot of colour and retro clothing in order to create our artist’s image and it worked brilliantly, with many people guessing the time period correctly. Furthermore, the camera work was very period specific in our video, and not dissimilar to LL Cool J’s video, again with lots of canted angles and handheld shots etc. The editing of our video also put it into a boxed view, just as hip-hop video’s in the 80’s were. Reasons for making these choices are simple- they helped to create the world of 80’s hip-hop.

Example of a boxed shot in LL Cool J’s video, instead of full frame shot.

Hand held shot in SHOOP

Canted angle in SHOOP

Animations In SHOOP

In all of these screengrab’s from SHOOP you can see the boxed editing I added.

Use of Narrative• A use of narrative exists in order to create a connection from the

audience onto the artist, and by doing this the audience is able to gain an idea of the artists personality, i.e their star image.

• An example of a narrative music video is ‘Love the way you lie’ by Eminem ft. Rihanna. This shows a man abusing his girlfriend, and in the video we learn that there are ups and downs, they fight, they makeup but eventually the girlfriend has had enough. This is all from the video.

• My video features a much lower key narrative, with only slight moments of narrative featuring. For example, the beginning we have the girls on the rooftop, they see the boys and Kemi is taking her pick of the boys.

• A sparser narrative was more appropriate for my artist because we didn’t want the video to focus on a story, but more on Kemi and the girls. How they are a team, working together, enjoying themselves.

A moment of narrative in Eminem’s video

The moment Kemi spots the boys in the club

Now we know which boy she wants

This sparse narrative tells us that our artist is playful, bold and flirtatious, adding to the star image.

Conventions: elements of content which are recognizable from similar texts

• Artistic camera work, a type of convention exists in order to create a further image of the artist and their genre. I touched on this subject when discussing forms, and a music video that demonstrates this is ‘It’s Tricky’ by Run DMC. In this video there are many canted angles, zooms and quirky close ups.

• This convention inspired our video, as in the SHOOP video we shot many things handheld, at angles and we turned it into a very artistic cut.

• This all adds to the style of the video, therefore adding to the information surrounding the star image, which is essentially what the video is doing for our target audience.

Canted angles and handheld shots

Conspicuous use of lighting:• The reason for trying to avoid a conspicuous use of lighting in continuity

is that otherwise all the attention from the audience is turned towards the lighting. This is an issue because it prevents them seeing what you have created technically. Ideally lighting should be something that exists and adds to the mise-en-scene, but not something that is noticed, perhaps.

• The actual music video for ‘SHOOP’ by Salt-n-Pepa shows good use of this, having a nice club scene with lots of bright disco lights that simply act to create the correct atmosphere, rather than to dominate the scene.

• Our video to the same song does this in a similar way, using a haze to mask the lighting a little. What we ended up with was a nice club atmosphere. Furthermore, the second element against the coloured wall could have been a potential issue, with the colour squares not dominating the scene enough. To prevent this we dimmed the lights at the sides and back, which stopped the colour blocks from being outshone.

Original video of SHOOP: club scene, lights

Our version of SHOOP, in the club with the colour wall