Evaluation Question 1

In the first screenshot of my music video, I chose to use a candle burning. This is a generic convention for a music video in the r’n’b/rap genre, as everything is made out to be mystical and spiritual. This is a good video opening, as straight away the audience are attracted to this flickering flame that is almost hard to take your eyes off. This is a symbolic sign that may denotate to the audience that the artist’s emotions or love is like a flickering flame that could go out at any time, but also the meaning is there for the audience to interpret at their own accord. 

The second screenshot consists of a close up/panning shot, just of my artist’s eyes. At this point my artist hasn’t been revealed yet, and so for the audience, before they see the main artist, just his eyes are revealed, again adding an element of mystery and suspense to the opening of my video. The eyes of my artist have been shown in this scene to create a sense of innocence. The eyes are looked into to show lust and desire, and that is how I wanted to begin my music video. The audience would be feeling curious at the moment because the artist is yet to have been revealed fully. 

In the third scene, my artist is still not introduced fully. He maintains the shape of a dark silhouette, in which the audience can make out the lyrics he is lip-syncing to. To get this effect, I had to find somewhere in which the light was behind my artist being filmed. I found a window in which the curtain blocked some of the light, causing this dark shadow effect in which is very generic to an r’n’b music video. My audience would immediately understand the genre of this video by this technique as they would realise that it is a typical convention to help establish the rap/r&b genre. 

The fourth scene of my 9-frame analysis shows my second artist wearing an expensively branded polo shirt ‘Lyle & Scott’ which in sitting underneath a diamond encrusted necklace, showing that the artists in the video are regarded as rich and well off. When making a r’n’b video, money is a very dominant factor as many successful artists like to use it as almost bragging rights to the nation, flossing the amount of money they have. This is important for me to portray to my audience in order to make it a more realistic and believable r&b/rap video.   

The fifth scene consists of a close up of a cluster of money in note form. The Queen’s face is featured on every bank note, and so when the lyrics in the song go: ‘My eyes must be cloudy’ a close up of the Queen’s eyes on one of the bank notes is shown. This gives the impression that the artist could be expressing his love for money through the metaphor of the Queen’s face. For my target audience this should be portrayed quite clearly, but for an audience of 30+, they may struggle to understand the relevance of the money shots.    

The sixth scene from my 9-frame analysis shows my artist directly singing at the camera. He is again wearing a branded polo in which is instantly recognisable to most viewers. He is lip-syncing to the lyrics in a white background. The white background came from a special effect I chose to use when editing, and I had to change the exposure of colour on Premier Pro. This was supposed to give the effect that may artist was in a far away different place (either mars or a parallel equivalent e.g. heaven) where he is in paradise, in which the white background helps portray. Hopefully, my audience will understand that I am trying to portray my artist as being in a different world/dimension.            

The seventh scene shows my artist in his bedroom. He is sitting on his bed and looking up at the camera to show his normality. The idea of using a high camera angle is to make the viewers believe that my artist can be vulnerable at times, and can be needy. The high camera takes away any masculine characteristics my artists has, and also the fact he is topless shows how insecure he can be. The audience should be feeling as though they could relate to my artist as he is performing typical teenage boy/young adult activities such as: lounging around in bed all day because you can't be with the love of your life, and the video is trying to portray that message.   

The eighth scene from my 9-frame analyses shows when my second artist is introduced. He is standing in front of some motorbikes, and therefore exaggerating the genre conventions. Motorcycles play a vital role when establishing a genre of music video because so many famous artists use them to demonstrate how they do things in the genre. For example, famous rapper Meek Mill uses his motor bike when making his music videos because it adds an urban effect to the footage.  This is the part of the song where the rap element is performed as ‘Rick Ross’ comes onto the R’n’b track. I have tried to show this urban look by asking some of my friends to act as the cavalry behind my main actor. This was made to look like my actor had a gang behind him, thus matching the generic conventions of the rap genre. All the other actors are wearing black, which fits in with the ‘space/Mars’ theme, and so to make my artist stand out, I chose to make him wear a distinctive grey sweatshirt with the diamond chains hanging over the top of it. For the audience, this clears up any confusion as to whom in which is the main artist and who is his 'gang' behind him. 

The final screenshot of my music video is of both my artists together. I chose to follow my theme of the blacks and red, as my main actors T-shirt is a black round tee with red markings on it to represent Mars. My other artist is wearing an all black polo shirt, and still stands out because they are the only two actors in the shot. The camera is a medium shot from just about the waist onwards as the main focus in this scene is the performance aspect. For my audience, they will see that this is one of the main scenes in which my artists come together and perform, making this the climax of the video. This gives the audience the impression that the artists are close with one-another, demonstrating brotherhood, in which is another convention to the rap/r&b genre.