Q1
- 1. A2 Media Studies Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- 2. Conventions of R&B music videos that we have achieved in our own music video production The R&B song genre have very conventional type videos and mostly follow a certain pattern. • For example, most R&B video follows a romantic-type narrative that correlates with the song. • R&B music videos, generally shows a performance (multiple times) with the artist lip-syncing the song. • R&B videos can also have quite a bit of product placement showing the products that the artist used. Clothing is mostly shown and luxury goods. • Change in costumes is very praised in R&B music video as they can be looked up to because of their styles and this would be a good way to get the artist trending. • The romantic story that is represented by the lyrics normally their stories revolving around a woman or the person they like. • The location of the music video ranges from the everyday environment in the artist’s home or being in luxurious areas to show power that is shown in R&B music videos. • Fan service for the audience is sometimes present to engage the audience into the song. Hand gestures and intimate eye-contact with the camera represents the character of the artist and we have address this a lot in our video as most R&B artist do this. Not only R&B artist but most pop singers too. The next slides will show the different conventions that we have used and also give analysis if we followed the convention or if we took a more unconventional route for our music video.
- 3. For our music video, we have followed the typical conventions of R&B music videos because they are most effective for this genre The location for this shot was chosen because we want to show a correlation with the location and also the sad nature of the song. The ‘sepia- like’ tone colours in the shot matches quite well also with the costume of the artist. The black trench coat stands out with our heavily- This screen grab from our music video shows the lip-syncing performance that would be contrasted filter that typical in R&B videos and all genres in general. We tried hard to represent our artist we applied to create as the confident and emotional artist that the song is representing. In the screen grab, the emotional we followed multiple conventions in this individual lip-sync sequence. Another atmosphere of the convention that we used for this shot is the different gestures and facial expression song that many R&B that creates the artist’s image in the video. The emotional hand gestures that we artists follow and directed Connor to do was very effective to represent the mood in Craig David’s ‘Can adapt to. You Feel Me’. This hits the conventional point of creating an image for the artist and also showing fan service for the fans and I feel that this is very conventional or essential for artists in music videos.
- 4. Another convention that we followed is the use of different costumes for different locations: The location that we used for this shot has the opposite atmosphere to the hard brick location for the other costumes. We compliment the location along with the costume of the artist to show off the fashion sense and style of the artist. The strong colours that is shown in this location lets us do this. This is very important for an R&B music video, to set up the star’s persona. Shown here in this screen grab is Connor wearing a red hoodie in this mid shot. This shot contrasts the trench coat shots as we tried to show the contrasting atmospheres of the song and it’s meaning. For this shot we toned up the brightness and focused on the bright colours such as the red from his hoodie. Having this change of costume shows the audience variety and this technique is very conventional in R&B videos. The artist fashionable and trendy style is also conventional in R&B videos so we present different clothing styles that the audience could take notice of and make a trend. This is very typical for R&B music videos due to the artist’s tastes.
- 5. Showing the narrative conventions of an R&B music video In this shot, we have Connor facing his reflection in the mirror. This shot connotes him reflecting on what he did and suggest regret and this shot is typical in R&B music videos. Another shot from the narrative sequence is this mid shot of Connor lying down on his bed. We have tried to stick to conventions that are effective and we chose that this is the most effective for showing emotion and also give the audience a relatable action that they might have felt or done before. We had plenty of ideas of adding a plot for our music video but we came to a conclusion that instead of having a minute of just showing narrative pasted in our sequence, we just put the narrative as flash backs of the artist regretting leaving the girl he likes. This narrative part of the music video is very similar to what R&B artists have and the storyline is very typical as well. This is very effective as many audiences would be able to relate to what was happening and this again, creates an image for the artist. The image that we have created for the artist here is the more emotional and vulnerable character. We did these flashbacks to give a story to our music video instead of just having performance aspects of the song.
- 6. Multiple lip-sync performances is present in R&B music videos and we succeeded in creating a variation of lip-sync sequences. We had 2+ locations for each of the costumes. This gives us a lot of footage that we can edit in post and I feel that it was successful in getting the right footage for lip- syncing parts. We utilized the power of post when we sequenced the edits of our multiple lip-sync sequences and this really helped us in rhythmic editing (cutting in beat with the music) and cutting to different location while keeping the lip-syncing in sync. Having plenty of lip-sync sequences is one of the conventions used in R&B music videos. ‘Can You Feel Me’ is quite a fast tempo song and the beat is very catchy so we have used rhythmic editing to cut in beat and show the different locations that we shot in. This keeps the audience interested in the changes and immerses them in music video.
- 7. R&B music videos use material possessions to create a trend and to cater to the audiences that would be interested in what the artist wears In this shot, we focus on the Converse shoes that the artist is wearing and we tried to have a tracking shot that follows the movement of the shot. The dolly that we had wasn’t effective in bumping tracks so we had to handheld it mostly. However, we got this shot effectively done and we used it properly to show the flow of movement in the introduction. To show this we took close-ups of the artist’s costume and this gives the stylish impression that the young audience would be interested in. This caters to the young audiences more because they would be the ideal audience as possessions would be more important to them in the recent years. The shot that we have here is a low angle close-up of the artist’s footwear. The effect that we created for this is to emphasise the artist’s trendy clothing that is very relevant and all R&B artist points out their own clothing styles.
- 8. Hand gestures and facial expressions that addresses the audience and this can also be fan service that the young audiences would appreciate more. Again, this appeals more to the younger audience as they would be more likely to be ‘swoon’ by the fan service done by the artist. We did this also to make the performance part of the music video feel alive and not have dead lip-sync. R&B artists do this a lot by having exaggerated hand gestures and movements that would make the audience feel involved and related to the song that the artist is singing. A specific example for this camera interaction would be from Craig David’s music video for ‘Seven Days’. This video has similar shots that would shows camera interaction with the audience. This is effective in all music videos as it makes music videos more animated and engaging. It also creates the image for the artist in the music video.
- 9. Digipak conventions and what we used for our own digipak Digipak can have 4, 6, or 8 panels. For the ‘Can You Feel Me’ Digipak, we took a 6 panel digipak template and worked with it to create the artist’s digipak. There are specific conventions that all digipaks need to follow and these specific conventions are: • Digipaks always have the name of the artist around the album (usually at the front) and also the album name. • Track list is also present, inside the digipak or on the back of the digipak • Promotional record label is always present • Pictures of the artist. Mostly relatable to the theme of the title track • Credits to the producers and people who constructed the album For our digipak we used all of the necessities in a digipak and we have also added some features that we felt appropriate for more recent digipaks. These features include: • Social network mention for the artist • Freebies that would involve the consumers and it involves the audiences too
- 10. The front page of the digipak. This is the main cover that portrays the artist. The high contrast image of the artist along with the black suit. The wall gives the mood a mellow feel that R&B artists can relate to. The pose that the I used a white artist is showing coloured font for the here suggest text of the album confidence. As the name ‘Can You Feel costumes really Me’ as this would emphasises a make the title stand mature and out. This is also sophisticated orientated towards image. Recently, the left as due to the R&B artist start to habit of people to be more mature in read from left to costumes rather right. than the old-school hip hop baggy style that used to be a trend before. Below the title of the album, we placed a grey coloured font of the artist’s name as we wanted to follow the necessities of a digipak and this would be able to promote the artist even more obviously because they would know who the album is by.
- 11. This shows the back of the digipak and also the track list that we have inputted the songs in. We decided to add in special extras that is now more common in music albums such as the DVD extra, showcasing the music videos and also a live performance of the title track added in. Simple black background along We added the that corresponds with barcode to show the white font. authenticity of the Having a simple back album and all of the cover makes the artists have to do people focus on the this procedure. This artist’s photos is very typical and throughout the one of the many digipak. The 6 panel conventions that we shows photos of the decided to follow. artist throughout to give a variety for the audience to see.
- 12. These are the other panels of the digipak that we have used to portray the artist. These two panels shows credits to the producers and people who helped construct the album. The added black panel also shows the content of the album for example, the added videos and performance. This page was placed in the inner panel of the digipak. It shows a close-up shot of the artist. The Nowadays, the artist plugs in their social effect that we used for this is the dreamy effect and it network username for the people who are create a few vignetting in the photo. We used this interested as this creates publicity and effect in all of the other photos in our digipak as it is provide current affairs about the artists. Fans very effective in creative a dramatic mood and it also of the artist will be most likely be the looks modern compared to the raw and untouched interested ones about the social network photos. detail.
- 13. Magazine advert conventions and what we followed: Magazine adverts have a simple primary purpose. The primary purpose is that you want it to sell/promote the artist as much as possible. Newly released albums do this a lot to gain publicity to the album and if the audience like it, they would most likely buy it. The conventions of magazine adverts are: • Should include the release date of the album • Album/title track • Image of the album cover • Artist name • Information about the album itself and show title tracks • The information of where it can be bought • Record label logo to promote the record label as well.
- 14. Magazine advert for ‘Can You Feel Me’ and the effective aspects that we thought of to represent the artist. The addition of the star Pretty conventional magazine rating system, gives us the advert as the photo from the initial review of the album album is present that the that would show opinion audience could spot easily. about the coming release. Reminiscent font that That We chose a short quote would be expected by the because we wanted to lessen audience. This would seem the text in the magazine like a small preview of the advert to keep it simple but actual album. effective and give the main spotlight to the artist. The front cover showing just a shot of the artist is very The remaining text shown is conventional and effective as the released date it introduces the image of the information below. We artist. The spotlight kind of placed it at the bottom of the effect emphasises the suited- page because we felt that it up and mature image of the would be appropriate and it artist. won’t be distracting for the readers. The record label logo is present as well because they would want to advertise the artist’s record label and not only the artist themselves.