Question 1In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Mise en Scene

• Setting– For our music video, the setting takes place in multiple different areas to reveal the storyline and the process of how their relation developed into being something positive to negative. We wanted to use the different setting to reveal the story and take the audience on the journey with us. We firstly used the house setting which was mainly based in the kitchen, we found this to be a setting that conformed to the conventions of our real media text. From the research of Ne-Yo’s original video of ‘So Sick’ the argument scene and a lot of the love scenes are base din the house to portray the connection and closeness of the couple– I found this to be something we could use as it reveals the closeness of a couple and I found a house setting to be a personal setting, which enabled us to engage the audience. As well as this, from researching ways of creating an effective argument scene I looked into different real media products and found all of them to be based in a housing setting, I looked at Nicki Minaj “Right through me” and Beyoncé “ irreplaceable”, both these music videos involve an argument scene and I analysed both to gain inspiration for our own argument scene as I wanted to know how a good argument scene developed and what it turned into. Other settings were the park and my bedroom and we included different settings to show the process of their relationship going downhill. We used my bedroom as a form of revealing the individuality of the female character and contrasted this with Tavonga sat on his own in the same setting revealing that his emotions were worse as he is in the same place. We wanted to include the park setting to show the positive side of the relationship and show the audience the side of the relationship where they were happy however we also used the park scene at the end where they walk away to reveal the beginning of the negative relationship. I found that with using these settings, they all conformed to the conventions of an R&B music video and the use of real media texts enabled us to create a music video that was easy to follow and understand.

• Costume– The focus on Tavonga’s appearance was something that we considered through out the whole music video as we wanted to represent him to be an artist that was known for his fashion statements as well as his music. We used real media texts to analyse the costume of multiple different artists as we wanted to represent Tavonga in the same way some artists were represented. We analysed Justin Bieber, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown and Kanye West to see which style suited Tavonga’s look the best. We took screen shots from music videos they had created as well as images from the internet with them at events to see how they dressed and what there outfits told the audience. With analysing the different artists we finally decided on using a Kanye West inspiration as we found that from the 4, he is mostly recognised for his fashion inspiration to the world as well as his controversial music. We used his costume ideas and dressed him in a leather jacket and grey jogging pants to show him in a fashionable way. I found that Tavonga’s style conformed to conventions of an R&B music video as many/most artists in the R&B music industry are known for their fashion and good looks. However a look that I found challenged the conventions of an R&B music video was the costume of the female character as I decided to dress her in a dominant way revealing her to be the dominant character, we found this idea from Ne-Yo’s music video “Miss Independent” as all the women are dressed and strong individual business women. I wanted to use this look to convey the character as it place more of a positive light on Tavonga’s profile as a whole in the industry. As well as this, I found that portraying her as a strong female lead challenged the conventions as you usually see them being portrayed as the weak individual who can’t fend for herself.

• Props– We limited our selves to props as we felt we didn’t particularly need to use of many props to reveal a love story however, we used a phone, rose and glass in the production stage. With the phone, we focused on using this a reminder of the bad times in the relationship and the phone was constantly used through out in every negative part of the narrative. We firstly used it in the first few scenes when Tavonga was looking at his phone when the I walked in, we used his facial and bodily expressions to reveal to the audience that he had found someone out and wasn’t happy about it, another stage we mainly used it were the scenes in my bedroom where it reveals that the female character has been cheating in the relationship. We used the phone to show the messages that had been delivered and make it clear what the story was. Another prop we used was the rose that was shown right at the end of the music video to signify to end of the relationship, we used the rose dropping on the floor to signify this process.

Editing• Editing for our music video was a lot more simple and professional

compared to our AS work as we found we didn’t need to focus on the pace/ timing of each shot as we weren't trying to create a tense atmosphere for the audience, which is what we had to focus on a lot last year. This year we decided to keeping the shots around the same length and extended the shots longer than last time we found that we wanted to create an atmosphere that represented the speed of the song which was an average/ slow speed during the verses. We decided on creating each shot to be around 4/5 seconds long which created a nice effect as we timed them up with the different verse and tune change. tension that we intended to create.

• For the beginning of our music video however, we timed them u to create some speed as we wanted to show the tension of the argument between the couple, we decided to use no transitions in this section as we found the jump cuts to create a speedy, dramatic effect that showed the sharpness and tension that we intended to create. On the other hand, when it came to the glass smashing– which we found from the music video of Nicki Minaj “Right Through me”, we wanted to make the effect more dramatic and decided to add a slow-motion effect which captured the movement of the smashing. From looking at Nicki Minaj’s video we were able to see what we could change to enhance to idea of the argument. With Nicki Minaj using their diegetic sound of their voices to portray the argument in an elaborative way, we decided to silence the argument so you can visualise the argument from another perspective and using the slow-motion of the glass to reveal the tension and intensity of the argument– this way the audience gained a real sense of what the argument consists of.

• We effectively used the chorus to include the wall scene of Tavonga dancing to ensure the music video had the same continuity throughout. We wanted to use it at the chorus as we found that matching up the same setting with the same words made sense and would be easy for the audience to understand. I found this to be inspired from the music video of ‘Miss Independent’ by Ne-Yo as he uses the dancing and lip syncing in the chorus to get some continuity in the video. As well as this, I found that by including this scene it adds the reality to the video as he see him in a stage that is current and seems direct to the audience where as the narrative parts of the music video is mainly based around the two.

• For the park scene we cleverly used the holding hands footage to portray the couple in a positive and negative way, we used the footage of them walking towards the camera with positive connotations showing them going into the relationship, however used them walking away as the negativity of the relationship showing them turning into the bad stage in the relationship, we conformed to this by using the scenes of the me receiving texts from other male characters straight after this scene to reveal this idea.

Camera• Within our music video I feel that our camera shots played a huge part in how certain things were

portrayed and revealed to the audience. We used camera shots to display Tavonga in certain ways to the audience yet keep his reputation being positive.

• Firstly, we used this camera shot to portray Tavonga is the same light as Kanye West, this was inspired from his music video “stronger” which reveals the same long camera shot. We wanted to use this shot as we found it to be an effective way to portray Tavonga in a personal way.

• I found this camera shot to challenge conventions of R&B as it focused on the female character rather than the focus being on the male lead. The POV shot of me makes the audience focus on me through out this whole section as it based it focus and creates the audience to picture me as the main image.

• We decided to use the side shot of the two characters as we wanted to portray the same feelings, we found that using this shot allowed the audience to understand process of the both characters feelings however, it shines the light on that fact that both characters are upset. I found that these scene conformed to real life texts as it is a situation that a lot of artists portray, as well as this, we use this shot to relate the text to the audience as it is a situation that all couples have gone through in a breakup.

• I feel that my magazine advert differs from other real life media texts as it shows Tavonga in a different an secretive way, with many artists showing their face as a way of audience recognition, I wanted to portray Tavonga mainly for his music rather than his looks as I didn’t want him to be portrayed in a way that artists such as Chris Brown portray them selves. I used Tavonga silhouette in a forest to reveal his different side to the audience but also allow the audience to recognise him for what he does. I used all black costume to allow the audience to see the fashion side of him, however I found that removing his face from the picture challenged conventions as he is known mainly for his music not his statement on the industry. I decided not to use ‘So Sick’ as the title of my album as I found that a lot of albums that different names to the songs that they have put on their albums as a meaning to the artist. I chose ‘Urban Decay’ as it represented Tavonga from his home town Manchester and I wanted to include his personal side as I found that it would connect with the audience more.

• I used the same font and title through out my digipack and magazine advert to show the continuity through them both and to make it clear to the audience when buying the album which artists it is from.

• Through out the two, I used the same image but decided not to use this image as the main front cover on the digipack yet on the back and used the same font and layout to create different aspects of Tavonga but make it noticeable who the album belonged too, I used the same style by covering up Tavonga’s face. The key image of both are clearly linked and I ensure this to be a main factor so that the audience understood and recognised Tavonga’s statement without his facial recognition. I found that by doing this I was already creating a recognisable brand for Tavonga as well as it being a positive way.