![After conducting research on the R&B genre, and creating an audience
questionnaire I was able to identify that my target audience would be 16-25
year olds, predominantly female, who like listening to R&B music. I wanted to
conform to the conventions of R&B as I wanted my music video to look like an
R&B video in order to appeal to my target audience and, in relation to Stuart
Hall’s reception theory, I wanted my target audience to gain a dominant reading
from my production rather than an oppositional reading. This is because it
would suggest that I didn’t encode it with the typical codes and conventions of
the genre. As Tom Ryall said, ‘[genre] provides a framework’ for producers of
media texts, suggesting that without following a similar or the same structure
you won’t conform to the genre. This will make it harder for your target
audience to decode your media text increasing the likelihood of an oppositional
reading.
The colour palette that I used for my music video included neutral dark colours
such as black, grey and white and I used a lot of low-key lighting throughout. I
wanted my colour palette to be dark, as the lyrics of my song weren’t happy
and so this would be reflected through my visuals. This somewhat made me
subvert from the typical R&B genre as a lot of R&B music videos have a bright
colour palette. In order to somewhat conform to the genre I included some
bright visual effects in adobe premiere pro such as ‘channel blur’ and ‘procamp’
which allowed me to brighten my music video. However once again I also
subverted by using the ‘black and white’ effect throughout my video.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/evaluationq1-180501144232/85/Evaluation-Q1-3-320.jpg)
Evaluation Q1
- 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media texts?
- 2. After conducting a lot of research on R&B music videos I was able to identify the key codes, conventions and trends that were embedded within them. Using this information I was able to base the cinematography, mise-en-scéne, editing and sound of my music video around what I saw within the other music videos. There were a few music videos that I looked at in order to see what kind of shots and transitions they included, in particular Drake – ‘Nice for What’ and Jhené Aiko – ‘You Never Call Me’. These music videos helped me to identify the type of shots that I should pair together, and the number of cuts that should have throughout my music video. At the start of the year we counted the number of cuts in Ne-Yo – ‘Independent’ which is a face paced R&B song; it included 100+ cuts. This gave me an indication of how many cuts I should be including in my music video as it is also a relatively fast paced R&B song. My music video uses a lot of continuity editing as most of my shots fit together and there is a constant flow throughout. In order to improve the flow of my shots I added subtle dissolve transitions to make my music video flow more smoothly. The main song that I gained inspiration off was my chosen song ‘Smoke, Drink, Break-up’ by Mila J. I felt that her music video conformed to the typical conventions of the R&B genre as it was predominantly filmed outside on the street, and Mila J and her dance crew were wearing tight/minimal clothing. Therefore I based some of my mise-en-scéne and camera shots on scenes I saw within her music video. I chose the clothing for my artist based on what female R&B artists usually wear. I looked at Destiny’s Child, Rihanna and Rita Ora for inspiration on what to clothe my artist in. I eventually came up with multiple outfits that I felt conformed to the genre; this included crop tops, tracksuits and leggings. However, all the outfits that I chose were very similar which may not look appealing to my target audience when watching my music video. Music Video
- 3. After conducting research on the R&B genre, and creating an audience questionnaire I was able to identify that my target audience would be 16-25 year olds, predominantly female, who like listening to R&B music. I wanted to conform to the conventions of R&B as I wanted my music video to look like an R&B video in order to appeal to my target audience and, in relation to Stuart Hall’s reception theory, I wanted my target audience to gain a dominant reading from my production rather than an oppositional reading. This is because it would suggest that I didn’t encode it with the typical codes and conventions of the genre. As Tom Ryall said, ‘[genre] provides a framework’ for producers of media texts, suggesting that without following a similar or the same structure you won’t conform to the genre. This will make it harder for your target audience to decode your media text increasing the likelihood of an oppositional reading. The colour palette that I used for my music video included neutral dark colours such as black, grey and white and I used a lot of low-key lighting throughout. I wanted my colour palette to be dark, as the lyrics of my song weren’t happy and so this would be reflected through my visuals. This somewhat made me subvert from the typical R&B genre as a lot of R&B music videos have a bright colour palette. In order to somewhat conform to the genre I included some bright visual effects in adobe premiere pro such as ‘channel blur’ and ‘procamp’ which allowed me to brighten my music video. However once again I also subverted by using the ‘black and white’ effect throughout my video.
- 4. There were two people who featured in my music video, one being the main artist and the other being a background character. As there was more than one person in my music video I had to ensure that it was clear who the main artist was. In order to do this I used a lot of medium shots of my artist and predominantly included scenes of her throughout my music video, as well as ensuring to include various scenes where she was lip syncing to show that she is the one singing the song. I felt that through including another person in my music video this would make it more engaging for my target audience as there would be more to look at, and it allowed me to include a lot more scenes that I may not have been able to if it was just my artist in the recordings. For example in the dance scene both my artist and background character may not have been as visually appealing when used throughout my music video if it was just the main artist dancing; they are shown to be in sync which is another feature often used in R&B music videos.
- 5. My magazine advert mostly conforms to the conventions of a typical magazine advert as it includes the main features such as the album title, artist name, record label, ratings and most importantly an image of my artist. I conducted research on existing magazine adverts in order to help construct my magazine advert. The main magazine music adverts that I looked at were Lana Del Ray – ‘Born to Die’, Ellie Goulding – ‘Lights’ and Olly Murs – ‘Right Place Right Time’. Through looking at these I was able to see the typical layout that magazine adverts tend to follow, and develop an idea of the composition that I wanted my magazine advert to follow. I ended up using a similar composition to the Olly Murs magazine advert as I used a medium-long shot of my artist and placed her on the right hand side of the advert as opposed to the middle, like in Ellie Goulding’s advert. I was then able to place all the content of my magazine advert around her, essentially making her the centre of attention. I also wanted my target audience to get to know the name of my new artist, and so I placed her name at the top of the advert in big, bold font to make it stand out. Although they will mostly likely not know who my artist is, this will draw attention to her album and make people curious to find out who she is. Magazine Advert
- 6. I included social media links on my magazine advert so that my target audience would know how to find out more information about my artist and their album. I also included where they would be able to listen to the album, and a “pre-order on iTunes” label for individuals who may be looking to get a first glimpse at the album. There is also a five star rating on my magazine advert to entice consumers, and to suggest that the album is really good to encourage them to buy it. A lot of magazine adverts that I researched had a lot of blank space on them, however I decided to fill up the space on my advert. This is because I wanted include as many of the conventions of a magazine advert as I could in order to give my target audience as much information about the album and the artist as I could in order to guarantee successful marketing. The colours that I used for my magazine advert are similar to those used in my music video. I used the colours grey, red, white and black as I felt that they complemented each other well, and followed the typical colour scheme used in a variety of R&B magazines; this can be seen in a lot of adverts used in ‘Vibe Magazine’ (an R&B music magazine). I chose the fonts ‘calendar’ and ‘market deco’ from the website DaFont.com as I felt that they worked well on my magazine advert. I also used the same fonts in my digipak in order to maintain a link between the two products.
- 7. I based a lot of the features of my digipak on my magazine advert and music video in order to maintain a link between the three products. My digipak immediately conforms to the typical conventions of a digipak as it includes the main artist on the front and back cover. Many digipaks do this as it helps to promote the artist – they are the first thing that the consumers will see and so it will help the audience to recognise them elsewhere. My front cover also included the artists name and the name of the album. It is important to include the name of a new artist on the front cover because people may completely dismiss it if they don’t recognise the artist or the album title. I used a relatively dark colour palette for my digipak, including the colours red, grey, black and white because when researching other R&B digipaks/album covers they often used a dark colour scheme; this helped me to conform to the R&B genre. I also used the same colours that I used in my magazine advert to have continuity among my products. My digipak was inspired by Rihanna’s digipak for her album ‘Loud’. This is because all of the images used in her digipak complemented each other well, and the composition of the images looked similar to how I wanted to lay out my digipak. Some of the images on the pages of her digipak interlinked making it look like one big image. I used this idea in my digipak, using a smoke.png file to make it run into other pages of my digipak. Her digipak uses bright, captivating colours – as my digipak follows quite a dark colour palette I didn’t make it too bright, however I ensured to make the title of the album bright to make it captivating and to stand out to consumers. Digipak
- 8. Overall I feel that I have mostly conformed to the codes and conventions of my genre, as well as the conventions that each of my individual media products must follow. This choice was primarily based on Steve Neale’s statement that genre is established by “specific systems of expectations”, and so I chose to follow the codes and conventions of R&B in order to conform to my genre. Subverting from the typical codes and conventions may have confused my target audience and made my overall campaign unsuccessful. Conclusion