As a group we created a padlet mood board to represent the hip-hop genre of music, which was allocated to us, presenting different hip-hop artists, album covers, colour pallets and concert photos. With these photos underneath we annotated the mis-en-scene used in the images and analyzed what it connotes and how it represents the hip-hop genre. For example, most of the acting in the photos presents the genre as rebellious and tough due to the quite serious, gangster facial expressions. Another example, are the costumes for the men are quite street and black with pops of colour connoting a sense of fun whilst defiant. Similarly, despite hip-hop being male dominate, the women’s costumes are quite tight and revealing whilst also having pops of colour which represents them as confident and fun.

From our research, we dressed the model in an outfit which had some of the conventions of what a female hip-hop artist would dress hoping to successfully convey that to the audience. Our classmates then wrote on a post it note some words they thought he costume connoted. In the end we got 5 adjectives from our peers, these adjectives were: naughty, confident, romantic, fun and focused. Therefore, we successfully communicated the star image we aimed to achieve, the confident and rebellious side of hip-hop, as evident with the adjectives used to describe the outfit.

 

Our photo shoot pictures 

Firstly, for the mis-en-scene of the costume we went for a bright pink and black colour theme as most hip-hop artists wear black with a bright colour. The leopard print and pink fur jacket is really bold and creates this diva image commonly seem with female hip-hop stars as well as a bright pink tube top and short skirt making it more revealing representing the confident and fun side of the genre. A lot of inspiration for the outfit came from the two most famous hip-hop artists Nikki Manaj and Cardi B. For the props, we picked out a gun as from our research this was a very conventional prop seen in hip-hop media it created this more gangster image, one improvement I would say is to find a gun the fits the colour scheme or just a black gun as the one we used isn’t the most “gangster” gun and more western. Another use of mis-en-scene was the acting and poses we made the model to have a serious, tough look holding the middle finger suggesting the naughty and rebellious side to the genre as well as pointing the gun to the camera overall connoting a deviant character.

 

My Chosen Photo

I chose this photo as I believe it conveys the mis-en-scene the best and represents the genre effectively. The prop of the gun and the pose of me pointing to the camera with it emphasises the gangster image, and represents a rebellious side. My facial expression comes across as focused, as if I’m targeting the viewer, but also a bit naughty as I’m slightly grinning which creates a thuggish yet cool image- mirroring the hip-hop genre. The costume is quite typical for a female hip-hop star, with bright colours mixed with black. The aviator sunglasses and the backward cap are very recognisable and arguably the most conventional hip-hop accessories along with big layered jewellery and the chunky gold hoops. I preferred this photo to the others as some of the other poses didn’t really mimic the hip-hop genre as some hand gestures looked more like rock music then hip-hop.

Overall, I enjoyed learning about how MES is so important in order to communicate meaning and to tell a story, it such a great and useful skill that I can now transfer for when I do my magazine cover in the future. For example, I will take into consideration the way my model is posing and make sure they pose in a way which conveys the meaning I want my audience to understand. Moreover, I will make sure the costume they wear is suitable to the music genre and attitude that my music star has to really communicate what type of person they are and their music genre without having it written on the poster (tell a story with an image).