Written Essay

How Far Do Your Group's Ideas For The Music Video Conform To Convention?

The genre of music that our group has chosen to create a video for is R 'n' B. Before any of our ideas could be produced, we had to individually research the genre, to depict common codes and conventions. This included any aspect of mise en scene, media theories, setting and iconography.

After watching and analysing six R 'n' B music videos each, our group came together to discuss conventions and brainstorm ideas. Our initial idea is to find a song that is slow, emotive and preferably by a female artist. We found videos that accompany slow 'jams' were more relevant to the lyrics had a wider range of camera shots and emotive use of iconography. The female singer/star would ultimately be the 'hero' character, who sings of her troubles but overcomes them e.g. Rihanna's, Take a Bow. The setting, costume, props, narrative and iconography would have to be relevant to the character and their story.

For R'n'B videos the general convention of setting is that of simplistic, realistic and natural. We thought it would be suitable to film our video outside or in normal places, such as a house. This would therefore conform to the R'n'B genre and give the audience what they know and want. The setting will be easy to create but finding props to accompany the artist will be a harder task. In R'n'B videos, expensive props are used such as, iPods, mobile phones, designer bags and clothing and expensive cars.