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  The Daily Star TheDirector of Space Bound Interview The Director of G-Money’s new music video, Space Bound, has sat down for an interview with us in light of the success and popularity of the music video itself. We will be asking about the conventions he used, whatconventions hechallenged and how he has represented social groups and issues in the music video. TDS: How does your music video use conventions? Avinash Navani: I made use of conventions in terms of both the genre of rap music and the standard music video conventions. In regards to the conventions of rap music, my music video makes connotations to dark, mature and explicit themes in its narrative and tonality, which is usually what rap music videos portrayas confirmed bymy research in regards to my Similar Product Analysis of a Music Video and Genre Research. The use of dark themes is made obvious in my narrative, which focuses on the anger and depression of losing love, which drives a malleable character to ultimately commit an atrocity that he regrets. The origin of rap music was formulated on the foundation of injustice, and so I attempt to show how the loss of love and the treatment of a partner creates an injustice for my leading character(G-Money/TheRapper),that iswhat Iwanted to connoteinmymusic video inorder to keep in line with the conventions of rap music. And because rap music shows darker aspects of usually censored media, I implemented a few scenes of domestic violence to further represent thisinjustice, and to again followthe most fundamental instruction of rap music videos – expressing my true vision for the song. My ambition to portray this vision, however, did raise concerns from the institutions, who funds the music video, arguing that the explicit aspects of the music video, including the domesticviolence scene and some ofthelanguage wouldbe too much of negative exposure to some audiences. Taking this into account, I ensured to reduce the amount of violence I portrayed just so that I could keep in line with the what the institutions wanted in terms of their own conventions and goals. I have also shown genre conventions in terms of my mise-en-scene. I used colour grading in my post-production phase in order to darken my clips (in terms of saturation, colour and shadow)to createmeaning in my music video.Thedarkening oftheclipshelped meconnote theidea that thenarrative of my music video itselffor a mature or suitable audiences, I also modelled the colour grading to be a representation of how the rapper character sees the world – with a lack of colour (hence why I do not just use full black and white colouring because there is a lack of colour, not a full shade of opaque). The use of dark colouring has also been linked to several music videos in the rap genre, for example thevideo ‘Alright’ by
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  Kendrick Lamar, thatI looked into for my genre research, tackledits own injustice with dark colours to help portray the idea of negativity. Ialso used genre conventions in regards to costume.G-Moneyis oftenseen wearing a hoodie throughout the video, which is a costume stereotypically affiliated with the rap genre, so I had to make wide use of it. In regards to music video conventions, I madeuse ofa variety ofshots in theproject because as I had seen in my research, the stereotypical music video makes use of a variety of shots and angles, so I thought it paramount to include this into my own piece of work. I made use of different camera shots and angles – including tracking shots, Steadicamshots, Shakicam shots, Camera movements, Pans, Tilts, High Angle, Low Angle, Birds Eye Angle and even a Dutch Tilt,so that Ihadarange of different frame aestheticsto complywith thisconvention. Finally, anotherconvention of music videos that I included was theuse of both performance and narrative elements in my music video. This convention has been garnering notice more recently and so I tell a story in my music video, but also have sequences by which G-Money is performing the song. I didthis mainly because of audience demand and the results of my audience research questionnaire in which theyexplained theywanted aplot,but that stayed in line with the song. TDS:Hmm, that isvery interesting, Avinash. Now on to thenext question, our readers would liketo know if your music video challenged any of theconventions of themusic video or the rap genre? Avinash Navani: Yes, of course, I didchallenge conventions of themusic video in particular, the rap genre and the industry conventions as well. Firstly, when editing the music video, I formatted the frame ratio in 2.35:1 (anamorphic ratio), the same ratio that is used in the visualisation of films. Now, thisvideo is up on YouTube,and the2.35:1 ration does not cover theentirescreen likemost music videos do.IdidthisbecauseIwanted thisto haveanarrative feel to it and make the music video feel more like a story than a music video itself, with the song almost narrating theevents to theaudience. That’show I played with theconventions of a music video. In terms ofthe genre of rap, the song SpaceBound itself, though is a rap song has elements of folkand pop into it. The song is not a defined ‘Hardcore’ rap song, in fact, it is more to do with telling a story, alltogetherwith a great beat and rhymes that makes it a rhyme, so the song, though really a rap song, has a feel of pop and folk elements. Finally, I challenge conventions through the use Kyra’s, the actress who plays the Woman, costume. Her costume for themajoritypart ofthe music video is quite simple and plain, and covers her up. This defies thestandard industry practice of sexually representing woman to increase audience appealandincrease profitsas a result. I wanted Kyra’scharacter to have a meaning in the music video; she is suffering in her circumstance and she needs that escape so that she can live a more prosperous life away from theabuse of the rapper, so I have her clothing reflect onthis.Shewears moredepressing clothesto mirror herown depression and simple clothesto mirror with her simplicity.Onlywhen she leaves therapperdoes shefinally
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  wear appealing clothing,though this is not to portray sexual connotation, but to in fact to show that she is now in the high ends of prosperity and is doing better than life, which portraystherapperas asymbolofdevolution.As theworldevolves, heremains secure in one place. TDS: That’s reallycool! Now, I’llask you thefinal question for our readers is: how does your music video represent social groups and issues? Avinash Navani: I think the music video makes great representation of social groups and issues. A social group we put most of our focus on is women, and theirloyaltyandtheir wish to fall in love and to be loved backed, as well as respected. These characteristics are all embedded in theWoman’s character, she wants to beloved and she wants equality with her partner, the rapper, however the rapper goes on to undermine her and her strength by constantlyarguing andphysicallyattacking her.TheWomancharacter is arepresentation of thesilent issue of domesticviolence and that some women of a socialgroup in particular,lie victim to it. My music video sort of characterises the outcomes of this injustice, and thus raises awareness forewarning people that domestic abuse is wrong and that it leads to adverse consequences that usually ends people up with regret, like the rapper. The Rapper is theprimeexampleofwhomone member ofsocietyshouldn’t be,so that isthesocialgroup that thewoman falls upon and the issue related to this,domestic violence. In relationto the social group of woman, we do represent another issue that involves them. Throughout the video, the woman character is shown to be undermined and dependent, which almost depowers her as a character, making folk like the Rapper look strong. It is an ongoing issue today and I hope my video brings awareness to this situation and perhaps try to stem such unequal and discriminate practices. Another issue that we tackleis the themeof religionand theology.It is not really denoted in themusic video,but it ismoreimplied.Thebeginning andtheendofthemusicvideosfeature theRapper walking around in thisunknown area, which has structures and greenery, but we reallydon’t know what it is. After hedies in thevideo,we can interpret that thisissome form of the afterlife, and since we don’t know what it looks like, this is my interpretation of this event. It may seem like the rapper is in heaven because his surroundings seem humble, but actuallythis is my interpretationof hell for him as confirmed bythe final shot,it may not be hellas in likehowit is stereotypicallyportrayed inmedia(as thisred, evil, awful place),but it is hellbecause heis alone in thisrealm and the woman will never be there, and he’llhaveto learn to be imprisoned without love for the eons to come. It’s a controversial subject, definitely, but rap music is all about controversy and conveying your artistic interpretation and that was what I was going for. TDS: Thank you for your time, Avinash! A lot of interesting comments from his side, well don’t forget to watch G-Money’sSpaceBound video onYouTube,it’sa great music video and also pre-order G-Money’supcoming album,formore detailsgo to www.g-moneymusic.com.