Evaluation Task 1

Teddy Fisher

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A typical convention of an R&B video is having a grey scale filter to show emotion when a break up happens. We used this convention to illustrate the end of their relationship. The way we have done this is we used the filter to show that we are flashing back to the past when they were together and happy. This works well as it contrasts with the rest of the video as the rest is about being upset after the break up.

We used several close ups in our video, this shot type convention is widely used in music videos as it is a very good way to show the feelings and emotions of the artist. From the close ups we have used you can tell a lot about how our artist is feeling, for example his facial expressions are sad. This works well to help our audience understand the song better. Another reason we used close-ups is because they are typically the demands of the record label as the aim is to sell the artist.

Another shot type music video convention that we used was a long shot. We used this to create the feeling that the conversation that the 2 characters were about to have is private. After this shot we go onto a closer range of shots as if the audience have been invited to know more about the situation and the meaning of the song

Another video convention we used to do with mise en scene was the location that we chose. Here you can see that the room the artist is dark and empty, this reflects his loneliness since being split up with her partner. Also as the room is dark it gives quite a negative feeling to the audience and shows the artist's mood is quite low key. This loneliness theme is used also by Chris Brown in his video ‘Don’t wake me up.

We used camera movements such as a panning shot. This is a convention of a music video as it involves the audience more in the way that it gives you the sense that you're following the artist on his journey. It is also a convention of R&B to have a lot of camera movement as it keeps the video entertaining and keeps the audience interested.

In R&B videos, male artists commonly wear fairly casual clothes such as; a T-shirt, hoody, jeans and trainers. We've incorporated this convention with our artist as we wanted to make our video as real to as a professional video as we could. Sometimes artists promote clothing brands in their videos but we did not follow this convention as it would make our video a bit tacky.

We tried to focus quite a bit on Goodwin’s 6 points. An example of this is the way we tried to 'sell the artist'. The way we did this is by having the artist the main focal point to our video. As you can see throughout our video our artist is more or less always in shot. By doing this the audience get to know the artist. Also we show costume changes, this is common to professional videos as they are promoting different clothes.

As our song has a slow beat, because of this our cuts aren't very quick. However when the song comes to the chorus and the tempo picks up we have a lot more quick cuts and jump cuts. This fits in when with the song as it links the visuals and lyrics together, this is one of Goodwin’s 6 points.

A convention of a Digipak is that it has a recognisable front. Because of this, we have used our artist as the main focal point as he is was our video is mainly focused on. This helps link our products together. In our Digipak, we have sold our artist and used various mise en scene such as the costume which fits in with R&B conventions. Conventionally, the same colour and theme is used throughout the products. We have done this by using a blue tint on most of our photos. This shows the feeling of coldness and loneliness. Also, in real music products, the same font is used in all its promotion stuff. We have also incorporated this into our Ancillary products.

Here you can see that we have continued with

our blue tint theme. Like our Digipak, our poster

also portrays R&B conventions. For example, we

have continued with the same costume. This

helps us demonstrate the stars persona and

sells the artist. We have made it so our artist is

again, the main focal point. We have done this

by centering our artist in the shot and blurring

the outer edges of the poster in Photoshop

so that the audience’s eyes are drawn straight to our artist. This is a typical

convention of music products as the whole point of them is to sell the artist.

In this photo, we have used a motif of the artist having his hands in his pockets. He does this throughout the video to show that he is vulnerable and upset.