The document summarizes how the media product uses and challenges conventions of the R&B genre. It uses conventions like including a narrative linked to song lyrics about a relationship, incorporating colors and a color scheme, and featuring the artist in all white to portray innocence. However, it challenges conventions like not including tattoos, jewelry, or musical instruments. The locations and lighting also both follow and challenge R&B conventions. The goal was to create continuity with the artist's brand while showing a message of love being more important than status.

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

2.  My media product uses the conventions of the R&B genre as it shows a narrative
that is linked to the lyrics of the song. The narrative shows the themes of a
relationship which is generally what the song is about, many R&B songs also focus
on a single narrative that links to the lyrics. Equally R&B styles include a lot of colour
and a colour scheme, which is something I have included I my product as although it
also includes black and white shots to show the change in mood and emotion, it
uses colours such as reds and purples to create a colour scheme for my ancillary
products too. We also decided to make the contrast more subtle and increase the
brightness in order to create a more pastel coloured image that better suits R&B
conventions.

3.  The convention for male R&B artists is to be seen topless or in a brand or style that
represents their style of music. The artist we used wore all white, including a white
shirt which was made to look baggy as this is the style of R&B artists, and some
white jeans with trainers. During my research stage I found out that male R&B artists
usually followed this convention which is what influenced that choice of outfit.
Equally I wanted our artist to be in all white as a connotation that he was innocent
and pure, which links to his lyrics again as they state he is allowing his partner to
move on to find happiness although it hurts him. He is dressed quite smart which is
the image that the actual artist of the song uses as Labyrinth is always shown in a
smart hat and a shirt. The costume shows status and success which is why I
personally thought that it would better suit our artist to appear in a shirt appose to
being topless which is an alternative convention of the genre. This helps to establish
a brand for the artist that has been continued over onto my ancillary products to
create continuity.

4.  Our artist didn’t have tattoos which is usually a convention of R&B artists, however his
skin was mostly covered for this reason so that the audience couldn’t see if he had tattoos
or not. Another way we could have followed this convention would have been to draw on
tattoos or purchase fake ones to cover him with, but I decided the image we wanted to
present to our audience was that he artist was good and pure with the white costume,
that would have been contradicted with the tattoos.
 Most R&B artists also wear a lot of jewellery such as gold chains and rings, however I
decided to challenge this convention as I believe that it is not a vital aspect of the genre
and that the artists mage in this case was not to be showing off his success but rather to
be showing how much pain he is in my losing the love of his life. I decided that the lyrics
where more important for the narrative than to status of wealth and gold, by showing
him stripped of jewellery it is also connoting that he is stripped of the good things in his
life as he hasn’t got love anymore. This is an alternative message that success is irrelevant
without happiness and love, a message that very much fits the ideology of our artist.
Equally Labyrinth doesn’t tend to wear much jewellery in real life so by not using any we
are also showing the real artists brand.

5.  The locations we used vary from inside a family home, outside on streets and on
roads, which is a general convention of R&B music videos as they tend to use a wide
range of locations depending on the artists brand. Usually along with studio shots of
the artist singing too, which is what I decided we needed to also include within our
music video.
 Low key lighting is usually used in R&B music videos however I decided to challenge
this convention as a majority of our shots outside use natural day lighting which I
then enhanced during editing to make even brighter. I believe the brightness shows
how those scenes have a better mood than the darker shots we also use as they
show family and unity.
 Although musical instruments are commonly used in R&B music videos, I decided
not to use one mainly because the only instrument in the song is a piano and I
believe shots of artists playing the piano don’t fully fit the genre of R&B. Equally it is
a typical shot that is overused and we wanted to make our music video different and
stand out. Labyrinth is commonly shown to be playing the piano in his music videos,
which creates a brand for him that we didn’t want for our artist.