Above is the music video for Empire State of Mind by Jay Z featuring Alicia Keys. The video represents the city New York by showing various photos and footage of the different areas, whilst Jay-Z and Alicia Keys rap and sing against different backdrops of landmarks found around the city. The artists discuss what the city means to them, and I thought that this video was the closest in regards to my aims for my video, because both Empire State of Mind and Jungle by Professor Green talk about the good and bad aspects of their hometowns. Therefore I took inspiration from the conventions used in this video, because I think that the aims and intentions are the same as those that I intend to put across in my video. The shots of the city coincide with the rhythm and feel of the music in this video and I wanted this to be conveyed in my video, so that it was obvious that the themes tied in with the song. They feature black and white footage as well as full colour images, and this idea also featured in my video, in an effort to engage the audience's eye that much more, as well as indicating the light and shade of the different areas of London.
The two music genres- UK Grime, and Hip hop- are similar to each other in the fact that both focus on the rapping artist, and may feature singers in the chorus, or in various sections of the song. Consequently the conventions of music videos produced in this genre will be very similar- the camera shots normally focus on the artist, so that the audience is able to recognise them whenever they see them in the future, however in this aspect I challenged the form, by mainly featuring the different areas of London one may come across, using an actor to represent someone experiencing various areas of the city.
This challenge of form is used in the rap artist Wiley's music video above- 'Never Be Your Woman' featuring Emeli Sande, which features actors of a range of ages playing Wiley's part in the video, where you see him grow up from a young boy to a man. I thought the idea of not showing the actually rapper's face was quite effective, because this would then force the viewer to actively seek out more information than is automatically given to them, creating more interest and intrigue in the artist.
I included the name of the song and artists at the beginning and end of the video, which is a part of the form of a music video. People who watch the whole video are reminded of its name twice, and people who catch the ending are still able to find out the name of the song and artists.
My video features a young man, as the Hip Hop/ Grime scene is still male dominated as a whole. Therefore this is another use of a convention from real media products, because using a man will apply to a broader audience than having a woman featuring in the video, because men are more likely to relate with another man, rather than a women.
Above is the music video for the song Traktor by the Grime artist Wretch 32 featuring L. As you can see there is very little colour to it, it is very dark and dank, with graffiti featured. A convention in Grime videos is for the setting to be quite drab and grimy, hence the term. This is because the artist is meant to have a reputation on the streets, and so the mise-en-scene in these kinds of videos are usually set on streets and places that the viewer might recognise themselves, and this can encourage them to relate more to the artist. In my video I followed the convention of showing various places people will know, as well as making the colours more grey and dark. I do however include bouts of colour throughout the video, usually during the shots of graffiti, so that the eye of the viewer is pleasantly surprised, and so that the overall perspective of London isn't one that sees it as an overall gloomy atmosphere- there are times when the city can surprise you.
The song lasts for 3 minutes and 10 seconds, and so the video will also have to last as long, plus a bit longer to allow for the slow fade in from black, and the end shot, which consists of a black background with white words saying- 'Alive Till I'm Dead/ Coming Soon'.
Above is the video for All of the Lights by Kanye West featuring Rihanna and a host of other artists. It includes a lot of fast paced shots and colours which are moving continuously, and it is successful in keeping the viewer's attention. Therefore in my video I made sure the speed of the shots used varied, so that they were not all delivered at the same pace, because this would be boring for the person watching, and could lead to them switching off the video, or not enjoying as much. This Kanye West video is just one example of this technique, which keeps the video interesting and exciting and fast-paced.
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