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.

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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 didn’t 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 up’s 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 Rihanna’s 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 Braxton’s 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/propsThe 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 fiancés relationship.

Bedroom SceneFor 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 chorusFor 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 twoFor 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.

CHALLENGEFirstly, 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 didn’t wasn’t to objectify either of the sex’s 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 didn’t 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 up’s 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 it’s 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 female’s are usually seen as objects rather than in powerful. We made the decision to challenge this convention because even though it’s 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.

Female’s also usually wear a lot of dramatic makeup in R&B video’s 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 didn’t 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 what’s 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 isn’t 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 don’t 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.