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

My media product uses the conventions of the R&B genre as it shows a narrative that is linked to the lyrics of the song. The narrative shows the themes of a relationship which is generally what the song is about, many R&B songs also focus on a single narrative that links to the lyrics. Equally R&B styles include a lot of colour and a colour scheme, which is something I have included I my product as although it also includes black and white shots to show the change in mood and emotion, it uses colours such as reds and purples to create a colour scheme for my ancillary products too. We also decided to make the contrast more subtle and increase the brightness in order to create a more pastel coloured image that better suits R&B conventions.

The convention for male R&B artists is to be seen topless or in a brand or style that represents their style of music. The artist we used wore all white, including a white shirt which was made to look baggy as this is the style of R&B artists, and some white jeans with trainers. During my research stage I found out that male R&B artists usually followed this convention which is what influenced that choice of outfit. Equally I wanted our artist to be in all white as a connotation that he was innocent and pure, which links to his lyrics again as they state he is allowing his partner to move on to find happiness although it hurts him. He is dressed quite smart which is the image that the actual artist of the song uses as Labyrinth is always shown in a smart hat and a shirt. The costume shows status and success which is why I personally thought that it would better suit our artist to appear in a shirt appose to being topless which is an alternative convention of the genre. This helps to establish a brand for the artist that has been continued over onto my ancillary products to create continuity.

Our artist didn’t have tattoos which is usually a convention of R&B artists, however his skin was mostly covered for this reason so that the audience couldn’t see if he had tattoos or not. Another way we could have followed this convention would have been to draw on tattoos or purchase fake ones to cover him with, but I decided the image we wanted to present to our audience was that he artist was good and pure with the white costume, that would have been contradicted with the tattoos.

Most R&B artists also wear a lot of jewellery such as gold chains and rings, however I decided to challenge this convention as I believe that it is not a vital aspect of the genre and that the artists mage in this case was not to be showing off his success but rather to be showing how much pain he is in my losing the love of his life. I decided that the lyrics where more important for the narrative than to status of wealth and gold, by showing him stripped of jewellery it is also connoting that he is stripped of the good things in his life as he hasn’t got love anymore. This is an alternative message that success is irrelevant without happiness and love, a message that very much fits the ideology of our artist. Equally Labyrinth doesn’t tend to wear much jewellery in real life so by not using any we are also showing the real artists brand.

The locations we used vary from inside a family home, outside on streets and on roads, which is a general convention of R&B music videos as they tend to use a wide range of locations depending on the artists brand. Usually along with studio shots of the artist singing too, which is what I decided we needed to also include within our music video.

Low key lighting is usually used in R&B music videos however I decided to challenge this convention as a majority of our shots outside use natural day lighting which I then enhanced during editing to make even brighter. I believe the brightness shows how those scenes have a better mood than the darker shots we also use as they show family and unity.

Although musical instruments are commonly used in R&B music videos, I decided not to use one mainly because the only instrument in the song is a piano and I believe shots of artists playing the piano don’t fully fit the genre of R&B. Equally it is a typical shot that is overused and we wanted to make our music video different and stand out. Labyrinth is commonly shown to be playing the piano in his music videos, which creates a brand for him that we didn’t want for our artist.