media evaluation question 1

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

2. 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.

3. • 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.

4. • 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.

5. 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.

6. • 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.

7. 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.

8. • 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.

9. • 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.