Codes and Conventions of 'Started from the bottom' by Drake

By: Victor Scarabelli

What is codes and conventions?

Codes and conventions are way to construct meanings which are put into a text. Codes and conventions can be divided into 2 section Technical and symbolic.

Technical

Technical are techniques applied to the music video from the use of the equipment such as the lighting, camera angles, shots and movement.The pace of the Sound and whether its diegetic or non-diegetic is also a factor that is applied to the technical techniques. Editing is a another technical way they could convey meaning by the use of fast motion, slow motion, filters, transitions etc.

Symbolic

Symbolic are certain ways you could express ways with emotion. For example, Hand gestures, Facial expressions and Body language. Mise-en-scene is also a factor that can have symbolic connotations that can express meaning depending on how they are portrayed.

Mise-en-Scene

In the music video the costume was one of the most aspect used to produce this video. In total the artist Drake used 9 different costumes in total throughtout the video. For example he used a outfit in the scene in the bridge, another different outfit in the supermarket scene and then another outfit in the party scene. The reason rapper does that is to show the audience their wealth. the video also content a lot of different setting/locations to be more specific 10 different settings for example a scene in a supermarket, one scene in a private beach, one scene, in a house party etc. the reason for it is again to show the audience their wealth.

Editing

In the music video the first editing technique used as the jump cuts techniques as one moment drake is enjoying his rich lifestyle and then comes back to drake working at a supermarket, the meaning of this technique is to show the audience the struggles that drake personally gone through he becomes who he is now.

Sound

The sound played during the music video was perfectly edited as it matches the scene which is being shown to the audience such as when it says "Living with my moms, we argue every monday" a image of his mom with an serious facial expression.The sound is also diegetic sound andd synchronised sound.

Camera/Cinematography

At the beginning of the music video they decided to use a low angle shot as for example the scene  where drake is singing  and then he jumps out of his car, the meaning of this shot was to show the viewer drake's wealth and his surroundings  as he's driving an convertible luxury car. they also used a lot of over the shoulder and mid shots or establish shots in the scene where the employee's from the supermarket are having the conversation with the female character 'customer'. the reason to it was to show the audience the dialogue from every character aspect.