2. Why did we pick it?
Dramatic narrative to fit alongside meaningful lyrics and melancholic undertone.
For example:
“Who said we had it all?
Our hearts no longer lie
Who knew the veil would fall?
Who’d guess that we would cry?”
Lyrics help create strong narrative & creative backstory (symbolism)
Slow pace fits with romantic narrative
It allows us to incorporate a performance aspect too - lyrics are powerful, close ups would be
appropriate.
We can also use slow-mo. Will add a nostalgic feel to the video.
3. Artist’s name: ‘Elijah’
Common for artists in the R&B genre to use their name - for example Bryson
Tiller, August Alsina etc
In addition, his song is quite soulful.
Elijah being a biblical name is also relevant.
4. His romantic nature will be countertypical to the standard, male stereotype
Age similar to that of target audience makes him relatable - Polldaddy survey:
most responses from16-21 year olds.
Appeal to a larger audience in 2 ways
• choosing someone in the middle of this range (18)
• complying with dress sense/standard of R&B artist.
5. Being a teenager makes it easier for the audience to relate to the artist
In recent years there has been a change in the conventions of R&B music videos - slow paced
subgenre becomes more popular. This has led to the romantic side of R&B.
• E.G. John Legend & Jhene Aiko have produced a series of slower paced songs recently which have clearly shown
romantic narratives.
Other artists have created songs that fit in with this side of R&B, which heightens a romantic
aura, rather than a more urban one that is based around money, drugs and sex:
• Chris Brown, Nelly, Bryson Tiller, Usher and Tory Lanez3
Using a soulful song helps create an song with a slow, romantic subgenre of R&B, helping to
appeal to a larger target audience (since this has become increasingly popular over the years).
6. Mise-en-scene:
• flowers, candles, hot chocolate/coffee, Christmas lights, street lights, fake
presents, woolly hats and scarves, mistletoe
Camera:
• close ups, low angle (leaves falling), medium close ups (to establish relationship
and convey narrative)
Editing:
• slow-paced, flashbacks with bright lighting – filmed in daytime and flashback-y
hue
7. Wild Things- Alessia Cara
Bed Peace- Jhene Aiko
One That Got Away- Katy Perry
Just The Way You Are- Bruno Mars
All Of Me- John Legend
Simply Amazing- Trey Songz
8. Autumn leaves
Woolly hats/scarves – theme
of Christmas
Central London
Christmas lights
Couple walking
Couple on date
Mistletoe – reinforce this theme
of love
Winter Wonderland
Rain – pathetic fallacy
Camden
Christmas tree/presents/décor
etc
Roses – contribution to the plot
9. Poster and a website
Visual style: Romantic and soulful. We aim to avoid the
involvement of provocativeness.
10.
11. What style of music video are you making? What will happen?
Soulful R&B
Romantic
Flashbacks of couple together and flash-forwards of the guy alone and lip-singing
Guy laying down roses at the end
What is your artist’s unique selling point? How will this be clear from your overall promotional
package?
Not complying to the standard conventions of the R&B genre
Thus making the artist appeal to TA more
Less idyllic, more realistic (e.g. casually dressed and inexpensive accessories)
Editor's Notes
We chose this song because we could create a dramatic narrative to fit alongside the meaningful lyrics and melancholic undertone.
For example:
“Who said we had it all?Our hearts no longer lieWho knew the veil would fall?Who’d guess that we would cry?”
The lyrics are helpful as they allow us to create a strong narrative with a creative backstory
We liked the pace of the song because it fit with our romantic narrative which we hope to present
It allows us to incorporate a performance aspect in addition to the narrative since the lyrics are powerful enough to have close ups of the actors.
We can also utilise slow motion, as the pace of the song is very set back- slow motions will further allow us to add a nostalgic essence to the video, which is relevant to our narrative
We chose to name our artist ‘Elijah’ as it is common for artists in the R&B music industry to use their name- for example Bryson Tiller, August Alsina etc
In addition, his song is quite soulful and Elijah being a biblical name ties in with this theme
He has a romantic nature which is countertypical to the standard, male stereotype
He is relatable, hence why we will choose an actor around the same age of our target audience- this can be linked back to the demographic targeted in our polldaddy survey as most of the responses came from 16-21 year olds.
We therefore aim to appeal to a larger audience by choosing someone in the middle of this age range (18) and comply with the appeals the audience would look for within an R&B artist.
Being a teenager makes it easier for the audience to relate to the artist
In recent years there has been a change in the convention R&B music videos as the slow paced subgenre becomes more popular, furthermore this has led to the romantic side of R&B being exhibited more.
For example, R&B artists such as John Legend or Jhene Aiko have produced a series of slower paced songs recently which have clearly shown romantic narratives and even other artists such as Chris Brown, Nelly, Bryson Tiller, Usher and Tory Lanez have created songs that fit in with this side of R&B which heightens a romantic aura, rather than a more urban one that is based around money, drugs and sex.
By using a soulful song we have enabled ourselves to create an artist that fits in with the slow, romantic subgenre of R&B which has got more audience appeal in recent years.