Evaluation Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Task 1:

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

Conventions: “A custom or a way of acting or doing things that is widely accepted and followed”. When it comes to conventions in music videos, there are two different types of conventions, Technical Conventions which relates to styles of camera, editing and sound (can be diegetic or non-diegetic, part of performance obviously but also part of narrative in some cases too). There is then Symbolic conventions which relate to Mise-En-Scene, costume, props, location/setting, colors, lighting, make up, arrangement of band members, performance. In this evaluation task I will be exploring weather my media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products from the same music genre. The genre of my media product is “Alternative RnB”, bellow I will be comparing firstly my music video to other “Alternative RnB” music videos, I will next compare my album artwork to that of other “Alternative RnB” artists and then I will be finally comparing my website to the websites of other “Alternative RnB” artists.

Music Video Comparison

 

Above, one can see a video I have made, which shows our music video which is: Without U by Fredo Fahrenheit, which is the video at the top, it is being played along to other music videos by actual Alternative RnB artists, to the left is: Coffee by Miguel; And to the right is: My Love by Majid Jordan featuring Drake. Miguel is is an American recording artist, singer, songwriter and producer, from Los Angeles, California. Majid Jordan is a Canadian record producing and performing duo composed of Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman. They are signed to OVO Sound, the record label co-founded by rapper Drake, producer Noah "40" Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib.

             Fredo Fahrenheit                                                           Miguel                                                                Majid Jordan

Bellow one can see 9 screen-shots from the three different music videos, 3 for each one, I will bellow that be comparing 6 different elements amongst the tree shots as to discover weather my music video is using, developing or challenging forms and conventions of real media products. These 6 different elements are as follows: Set Design, Camera Work, Performance, Costume and Make-up, Editing.

Screen Shots: Top - Fredo Fahrenheit (mine) , Left - Miguel , Right - Majid Jordan

First Set of Screen Shots:

Second Set of Screen Shots

Third Set of Screen Shots

Set Design

In the first three set of screen shots one can see the set design of all three music videos, and it is pretty clear to see from plain eye that these 3 music videos all have similar set design. It is clear that a symbolic convention of alternative RnB music video’s is to have a female character along with your lead male singer on a bed in a room. As can be seen in all three of the first screenshots, all three set’s have similar props, firstly a bed, second a duvet and thirdly pillows. It is clear that all three different sets are slightly individual, for example in the Majid Jordan music video, the walls are covered in a crinkled plastic tarp, in the Miguel music video there is a big blue LED cross, where as in our music video we have decided t go with a more basic hotel room look, with for example a big framed painting above the bed. Judging from this so far it does seem that our music video does follow the conventions of a Alternative RnB music video.

Camera Work

Both the second and third set of screen shots seem to show that are similarities between the camera work used in our music video and that of Coffee and My Love. For example in the second set of screen-shots, specifically between my music video and Majid Jordan’s there is similar camera work used, both shots are MCU’s and manage to capture the singers lip-sync by seeing the performers full mouth as well as both his eyes. This seems to be a technical convention of Alternative RnB music video’s to be able to capture the artists lip-sync. Another example of similar camera work between the three music videos is in the third set of screen shots; All three shots are of the singer and a female character, and they have all filmed it similarly. All three shots are CU’s and are taken from aside profile as to get one complete side of each of the characters faces as to be able to convey the emotions of both parachuters at the same time, this is also so done because it gives symmetry to the frame making it visually appealing; This is clearly a technical convention of Alternative RnB music video’s which my music video seems to follow. Once again from what I can tell so far my music video does seem to follow pretty well the conventions of an Alternative RnB music video.

Performance

As can be seen from all three sets of screenshots, the performance element of our music video abides by the symbolic conventions of Alternative RnB music video’s because of the similarity in the performance between the three music videos. In the first set of screen shots, when it comes to character positioning, all three shots have the female character positioned on a bed, and in both my music video and Miguel’s music video the female character is actually sitting on her knees, and in both as well the female character is looking directly at the male character. In the second set of screen shots, we can also see how my music video follows the symbolic conventions of an Alternative RnB music video in regards to the singers performance. In all three screen shots the singer is lip-syncing, in all three screen shots the singer is looking in the general direction of the camera, therefore acknowledging its presence, Alternative RnB music video’s clearly are not the type where it is like movie the performers act like the camera is there, on the contrary they perform to the camera. Still in this second set of screen shots, we can see that all three singers use hand movements in their performance as to accentuate their performance. The third set of screenshots in my opinion best shows how my music video follows the symbolic conventions of an Alternative RnB music video in regards to the performance; In all three screenshots we can see the male singer performing his lip-sync whilst looking at the female caricature and at the same time caressing her face, clearly having the male singer perform to a female character in the music video is major symbolic convention of this genre of music videos as all three videos are so similar in that regard. Once again it is clear that my music video, up to this point in the comparison process, clearly abides by the conventions of Alternative RnB music video’s.

Costume and make-up

It is clear to see from the first set of screen shots that there are similarities in regards to Costume and make-up between the tree music videos. The main symbolic convention which is followed by all three music videos, is that of the female characters costume. In my music video, the female character is wearing a sexy and provocative night gown, in Majid Jordan’s music video, the female character is wearing what appears to be a quite revealing piece of lingerie, and in Miguel’s music video the female character is wearing simply a bra and a thong. It is obvious to see that using and showing off the female characters’ sexuality and sensuality in order to attract male characters is a major symbolic convention of Alternative RnB music video’s, and my music video follows this convention perfectly. When it comes to make-up, if one looks at the second set of screen shots, one can see that little to no make-up is used on the main singer, where as some music genres such as pop and rock conventionally often put a lot of make-up on their male performers as to add individuality, Alternative RnB artist seem to conventionally like to stay the way they look normally, as is the case for such genre’s as Rap and Jazz. At this stage in my music video comparison my music video seems to follow all the conventions of Alternative RnB music video’s very strictly.

Editing

Album Artwork Comparison

In this part of this evaluation task, I will now be comparing the Album Artwork which I have created for my artist, to the album artwork of real Alternative RnB artists; The artists in question are, firstly PartyNextDoor, who is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer and rapper who is signed to Drake's OVO Sound record label. Secondly Tory Lanez who is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, director, and fashion designer from Toronto, Ontario. PartyNextDoor’s album artwork is the one with the male dressed in all white with a black background and it is for his mixtape PartyNextDoor Two, and Tory Lanez’s artwork is the one where there is a male leaning against a wall infant of a door and it is for his project In For It. At first glance when looking at all three of the album artworks side by side it is clear to see that their are some similarities and that at first glance one would say that my album artwork follows the conventions of Alternative RnB album artwork. 

Album Artworks: Top - Fredo Farenheit (mine) , Left - PartyNextDoor , Right - Tory Lanez

When looking more in depth, firstly comparing my album artwork to that of PartyNextDoor’s one firstly notices that the editing and manipulation of the photo’s are similar. Both album artworks have used a “speed blur” effect, which is an effect which can be found on Adobe photoshop or Pixelmator, which stretches out the photo and blurs it out. I believe the reason that PartyNextDoor, has gone with this stylistic choice on his artwork was because he was following the general conventions of an Alternative RnB artist, which is to be slightly more unique and to standout, because they are more experimental then say a norman RnB artist and therefore this has to be reflected in ones artwork. Therefore where possibly a normal RnB artist would use a simple photo of themselves as the cover for their album, PartyNextDoor has chosen to be more unique and experimental with his artwork. This is what I tried to apply to my album artwork, I wanted to make it a bit more experimental and unique than what I would expect from a normal RnB artist, so instead of just leaving my artwork as a photo of the singer in the garage, I played around with it and the effects on photoshop and managed to create something a lot more unique and special. This definitely goes to show that my album artwork follows the conventions of Alternative RnB album artwork.