QUESTION 1- In what ways does your

media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
At the research and planning stage of constructing our video, our group decided to
each take on different artists from the R&B genre and analyse their music videos in
order to establish existing conventions and most reoccurring themes, in which we
could later use and develop.
https://vnsmusicproductiona2portfolio.wordpress.com/category/forms-andconventions-of-music-videos/

USE
We took inspiration from many different artists, and many different videos. An
example is Beyonce. Beyonce is a well established R&B artist whom is referred to as
Queen B due to her accomplishments in the music industry and the respect she has
obtained therefore we believed she would be of great inspiration to our music video
which shares the same genre as her. We also conducted a questionnaire
But we didnt limit our inspiration just to her but also other successful artists.
Flashback: R&B music videos typically contain strong narratives which correlates
directly to the lyrics of the music, therefore we identified that having a in depth
narrative would have our target audience more engaged and interested in our video
which would also help boost the sales of our chosen artist as the video may also be
watched due to its artistic merit. As a result we have included a 30 second
introduction which was influenced from the song Hate That I Love You by Ne-Yo ft
Rihanna. The non-diegetic sound comes in at 00:30 seconds just like in our video
however, our video includes the artists memories rather than the actual locations.

Our music video starts of in the bedroom, we thought that the bedroom will
emphasize the fact that RnB music videos are mostly through the male gaze therefore
a bed helps create a sexual atmosphere and also create a personal and intimate feel
which helps our target audience to interact with the video. This location is very
popular with our chosen genre and is evident in many songs. We believed using it
would help build the narrative and show vulnerability.

Close ups are frequently and repeatedly used in RnB music videos. This is due to the
fact that it helps exaggerate facial expressions which helps the artist connect with the
audience and makes the lyrics seem genuine and come to life with feeling. The
frequent close-ups show beauty and reflects on confidence.

Another aspect we want to use is the concept of flashback that Beyonce includes in
the song Best I Never Had. However we want to show the memory of our flashback
is happy and presents traditional love where as in Beyonces video the flashback has
negative connotations due to its dark lighting. The rest of the video will be more eery
and dark which will be a contrast to our flashback, to portray the shifting of emotions
and also to reflect on the lyrics and the
hurt that our protagonist feels.

The extreme close up of the eye captures

attention and involves the audience due to the direct mode of address. This shot
creates intimacy and helps concentrate solely on the eyes.

In We found love by Rihanna she is standing in front of a projector in order to create

the image above. This shot holds a artistic merit and makes the video interesting. Due
to age restrictions and lack of equipment we decided to replicate Rihannas idea in
order to create our clubbing scene, which was also achieved by a projector. The fact
that we were persistent in creating a clubbing scene even though we faced great
difficulty was down to the fact that the lyrics will directly correlate to the music video.

In Rnb music videos it is a common aspect for artists to show off their wealth and
envied life styles. This is ideal to our target audience as most aspire to have a luxuries
life style. As we have decided to target the female market, we thought showing the
female protagonist being given a sentimental present as it would help the audience
relate to the narrative. It also emphasizes the fact that Rnb is a genre that
acknowledges and puts forward the stereotype that a female should be spoilt and
treated by a man which is what our target crave in their romantic relationships.

We choose to have our flashback scene in a well-lit location to create an ethereal, romantic
feel in order to allow our audience to contrast the rest of the video with this small piece of
happiness. We also decided to use this type of lighting as we saw it in Tamara Braxton, a well
recognised R&B artist, in a happy moment with her.

We also decided to use gold sheets in the first scene we see our artist singing because the
first impression we intend to give our target audience is that our artist is wealthy and self
reliant on her self rather than her ex boyfriend. This is also a convention seen through out
many music videos for example in Tamara Braxtons music video on the right with the main
artist singing on her gold bed sheets.

DEVELOP

Although we realised that we needed to

include conventions of R&B, we also
wanted to establish our own creativity as
part of our story line. While watching the
movies 'The last song' & 'Footloose' (well
known chick flicks) I realised that the
lighting in the most romantic scenes would
be good to use during the flash back scene as it creates a light, ethereal, sublime feel.
Fur has been used for the same purpose
but in different context. We haven't
sexualised our female but instead have
used fur to subvert conventions of only
males wearing fur as seen in Crazy In
Love. As for the male we used darker
clothing to represent him in a dark,
mysterious way to foreshadow what is
to come for the pair.

Flashback scene-costume/props
The main focus of the flashback that links in with the rest of the music video is the
heart necklace that our artist is wearing throughout the video, which is a sign of how
she hasn't moved on from her ex even though she claims she has through her front
and persona. It is also an intertextual link to the 1997 film Titanic's 'heart of the
ocean' necklace given to rose during a patchy moment in her and her fiancs
relationship.

Bedroom Scene
For the bedroom scene we decided that it would be appropriate for our artist to be
dressed in dark clothing to show the reversals of roles; our female artist is now
embodying her ex's dark mysterious persona. We decided to use a bedroom scene as
in the lyrics she says "I've been up three days" which indicates that she is in her room.
Bedrooms also create voyeurism allowing the audience to see our main artist in a
more intimate and vulnerable light.

The long shot allows our audience to establish where our artist is.
Cassie's Long Way 2 Go begins in her room to show the development of the
narrative.
Westminster Bridge-First chorus

For our first chorus we thought that the transition from the bedroom, a more
voyueristic setting, to the bridge a more open and public setting, would highlight how
confident the singer is in terms of being able to confront her feelings towards her ex.
However this shows how her persona has changed through out the song as in the 30
second narrative flashback, she is portrayed as innocent and loving whereas the
negative impact of the break up has made her more cynical. In her bedroom she is
seen as more vulnerable compared to the bridge scene where she is able to put a
brave face on. This links back to our target audience as they would be classed as
'aspirers' in Malsow's hierarchy of needs as they feel the need to belong but also to
have an inspirational persona. Our artist is reflecting what our typical audience would
tend to do in her shoes which makes the artist both authentic and relatable.
The Club Scene-Verse two
For the club we decided to amplify the lyrics to match the scene. The lyrics are "I ran
into your homeboys They're all fucking idiots, You're not even my boyfriend but
they're tripping cuz I'm in the club" We used the club scene to show that she is now
independant and free from the clutches her ex. We inteneded on liberating our artist
and therefore our audience would feel free to do as they please as well as our main
target audience are females. Another reason why we decided to use a club is because
clubs are associated with urban lifestyle and they are often seen in an R&B music
video such as 'Love more' by Chris Brown, 'Please don't stop the music' Rihanna. As
part of the thought beat process we decided to use strobe lights during the bridge of
our club scene. We were developing Beyonce's 'Mine' lighting and using it to show
what our location would typically look like.
Piccadilly Circus
This location was inspired from the song 'Empire State of mind' by Alicia Keys and Jay
Z. We chose it because it is a touristic and iconic location and is very clique. Our time
lapse symbolises the fact that our artist feels oppressed by her feelings. There is also
an emphasises on the fact that she cannot move on from her ex, hence her being
located in a busy urban area where life continues and is not at a standstill, unlike our
artist, this is juxtaposed by her being still while life continous around her.

CHALLENGE
Firstly, the male character was in only two scenes and shown very briefly. Typically if
an R&B song consists of a story line about the female character and her relationship,
the male character would be present in a lot of the scenes. This is evident in music

videos such as All The Way Home- Tamar Braxton.

We decided to challenge this convention because we wanted the focus to be on our
female and empower her and give her a purpose rather than it constantly being
focused on the male and her desperation and need for his love. We wanted our artist
to have independence and show that she can still be herself and strong-even without
a man.

Neither our male or female characters were extremely sexualised as they typically
would be in R&B music video. Our male character was fully clothed unlike many R&B
videos where the male is usually topless flaunting his muscles and tattoos- a method
of showing power and also giving a sex appeal. We didnt wasnt to objectify either of

the sexs or provide more power to the male. We wanted our female to be the main
focus and this would be compromised if the male was covered in tattoos, which make
a bold statement, attracting our audiences focus onto them.

We decided to challenge the typical convention of the female artists as they are
always almost sexualised through not wearing a lot of clothing- in a way making them
more vulnerable and holding less power, therefore putting them in a position to be
objectified. We didnt want out female protagonist to be portrayed as weak so we
done this with the intention of giving our female protagonist the position of power to
show her as fierce and independent. We also broke conventions by not using a lot of
long shots to advertise the body but instead, focused on shots like medium close ups
focusing on her face rather than body to show the artists expression and make the

words/lyrics she was singing clear- making it about the song, not her body.

Also with the costume, in typical R&B songs where the artist is a male, he is usually
wearing a fur coat to show his wealth and to make him seem more masculine. We
have subverted this convention to apply to the female. Even though its typical for the
male to be wearing fur to represent the qualities we decided to break the conventions
and put the female in a position of power. As our target audience are female, we want
to empower them as females are usually seen as objects rather than in powerful. We
made the decision to challenge this convention because even though its
unconventional, a lot of female R&B singers have been seen to try and break this
convention to show power so in a way, it is somehow conventional. It seems like the
only way a woman can be seen as powerful is if she posses qualities of a man and this
can be seen in videos by artists such Beyonce and Ciara.

Females also usually wear a lot of dramatic

makeup in R&B videos to show glamour and
maturity and we decided to go against this
convention for most our video and had our artist
wear simple make-up to represent the youth and
make it more conventional to the typical ways in
which make up is worn in our target audience as
we wanted the audience to feel connected to our
artist and be able to relate to our artist, rather than feel inferior to them or less
glamorous.

Typically in R&B videos the locations that are used are very expensive and flashy. The
main reason we decided to go against this convention was because we didnt have the
sufficient privileges to film in these types of locations however we believe it worked
out in our favour. We had to think of how we could portray expense in a creative
manner and break the typical conventions. We decided to show the expense through
the locations in a different way and rather than trying to show that the artist has a lot
of possessions, we made it open to interpretation. We used the city to portray
expense and value but rather it being about the actual city, we wanted to make the
point that whats valuable is IN the city- her ex- boyfriend. Someone who lives in the
city is often shown to live a lavish, rich lifestyle with many benefits- thus linking to the
American dream. We thought we could use that aspect of richness but also give a
sense of realness to it, the realness that our audience understand- that it sometimes
isnt all that it seems. R&B artists often show the high life but we wanted our audience
to relate to our artist and video and our audience dont have those privileges that are
often shown, and while it could be argued that the audience could aspire for those
riches we wanted to make our audience feel included at the same time and not
alienated.