Evaluation - Question 1

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

2. In the beginning of the project I need to make
sure that my music video follows the codes and
convention's of my chosen genre which is RnB.
In my music video I made sure that I followed
the codes and convection's of my genre and
follow Andre Goodwin's Theory which is :
1. Relationship between lyrics and visuals
2. Relationship between music and visuals
3. Demonstrate genre characteristics
4. Reference to notion looking
5. Intertextual reference
6. Voyeuristic to the female body
7.

3. The genre of my music video is RnB and the song is
titled “Me Myself And I”. For the convention's of an RnB
music video I used costume. Janelle is dressed
sophistically and is glammed up in the beginning and
middle of the music video.

4. Furthermore, I also use props as part of my convention. I used
Janelle’s boyfriends unwanted clothes and burned them. To
indicate to the audience that she is angry that he cheated on
her. This is also an intertextual reference to Kanye West’s
music video “Flashing Lights”, as the model in the video also
burns Kanye’s clothes.

5. There was also a relationship between the music and the
visuals and that was established through the pace of the
music video. I have slowed some of the scenes in FinalCutPro
to address to the audience the feelings of Janelle as she is
sad and emotionally unstable. In addition, I have de-saturated
the whole music video to highlight the theme of the music
video.

6. In my music video I have demonstrated genre characteristics.
In RnB music videos there are a lot of performance scenes,
which I have included in my music video. Some of my
performance scenes are done in a studio as a lot of RnB
music videos are studio based which also add to the
conventions. I have also included mid shots and close ups of
the artist as her image is very important.

7. Performance Scenes
Close Ups

8. When researching the codes and conventions
of RnB music, I started creating an artist
profile of my target audience. The artists that
inspired me were Jazmine Sullivan , Beyoncé,
Monica . After creating my audience profile I
decided to change the name of my artist to
‘Janelle Scott’ as it is easy to remember
,pleasant name and which reflects her
personality and how the audience will view her.
I decided to have her name sound similar to
other RnB artists so that she will be relevant
and easy to recognise. My target audience is
females aged between 14- 25.

9. The concept of my music video is to tell a story of a girl who has been
cheated on by her boyfriend and how se deals with it. My music video
expresses this through a clear narrative which is about Janelle
reflecting back on the good times with her boyfriend through the use of
the home videos. She then spies on him and see’s him cheating, she
then take his clothes an burns his closed and there picture. This
narrative is shown throughout the music video, there are many scene of
her showing her emotions and feelings in between her performance. By
having this, it makes my music video more interesting and appealing
.For the music video to engage with the audience , I made sure that a
such a series of different location shots, costume, make-up to express
theme of the song. In the RnB music genre costume and location is
very important in its conventions and I made sure that I followed this
convention. Furthermore, there is also a sense of voyeurism in the
music video, in the first part of the video the artist is wearing a short
dress which the audience may perceive the artist as a sex object ,
which may draw them away form the narrative of the music video.

10. Overall, I think that my music video was
successful due to it highlighting the RnB genre
and not contradicting the codes and
conventions of RnB but following it. I reflect the
hegemonic values and convention by following
Goodwin’s analysis of music videos as well as
the RnB genre.