Evaluation
For my A2 Advanced portfolio I created a music video for Rihanna FT Eminems “Love the way you lie part two”, however the construction of the music video was entirely different to what my initial idea was. Initially I intended to create a ballad therefore carried out all the essential research and the stereotypically codes and conventions. I was planning on challenging the convention of a ballad, and using narrative and performance clips, however after a character had a change of heart and after many failed attempts at lip syncing, I decided that the music video itself would not be strong enough without performance. Unfortunately this meant I had to disable my initial ideas and start again completely. As timing was becoming an implication I decided to work with another student who had also been let down by her characters, for the completion of this task I worked with Vicky Oliver. We both had completely different ideas, and this was a tedious operation to overcome as both of us had to completely start again and reinvent our ideas. After deliberate consideration we decided upon constructing a music video for an R&B, Hip Hop genre, “Love the way you lie part two”. Conveniently both I and my partner had studied Rihanna and Eminems “Love the way you lie” which was the released June 8th 2010 before Love the way you lie part two. Both had differential views on the video itself, and our analyses were rather different, however we both agreed that it demoralised and glamorised domestic violence, which was something neither of us wanted to portray within our video, personally I wanted to challenge the convention of the glamour, narcissistic and fame obedient stereotype in which celebrity and R&B cultures pursue. I wished to illustrate the verisimilitude which Love the way you lie failed to convey. Overall I was exceptionally disappointed with the overall outcome of the music video; I feel that it didn’t reflect my true potential and motivation to Media Studies however I did pursue to challenge the verisimilitude of domestic violence.

The group decision was rather last minute due to each party being either let down by artists, or the initial narrative just wasn’t going according to plan as well as the storyboarding. Our narrative depended heavily on domestic violence, and narrated within a multi stranded narrative, as well as featuring a strong repeat of lip sync. The video illustrates both performance and narrative. The narrative portrays imagery of a girl beaten and bruised constantly, within each clip bruises appear and reappear indicating the harsh reality that domestic violence if kept silent never disappears. Theses clips are repeated throughout the footage, emphasising the harsh reality of violence. Repeat video of Sophie Redmond and Tom Minns constantly arguing and repeatedly fighting is portrayed through performance imagery of Ali Issaee rapping to the Eminem lyrics. The beat and rhythm within the song changes repeatedly, Rihannas lyrics are soft therefore the pace of the editing is slow, and limited shots are used, however within Eminems verse the lyrics are fast and upbeat therefore fast editing and fast movement footage is used. Generally this is done with the couple fighting and constantly arguing. Overall I feel that the narrative is strong and does portray strong imagery indicating domestic violence. My inspiration was through researching domestic violence advertisements by the PSA.

A music video is a 3-5 minute piece of edited recorded footage, usually illustrating a short film, or an amount of recorded photography which accompanies a piece of music, generally used for advertising purposes, for example advertising the actual song itself and publicising the artist. Music videos have varied purposes and can be created within a numerous of techniques, in my opinion music videos rely highly on “narcissistic” as within the “glamorous” world of music one must be obsessed with themselves to achieve a professional musical lifestyle. An artist must exceed confidence therefore be narcissistic. Narcissistic is a post modern feature again another quality I believe music videos are highly dependant on, post modernism itself cannot be defined as one feature however numerous. Eclecticism I believe is the strongest post modern feature a music video must rely on, a wide range of influences, contributions and techniques. Also music videos rely on an Active audience “The assertion that meaning and experience can only be created by the individual, and cannot be made objective by an author or narrator: an assumption of an intelligent and active audience”: Intertextuality “an authors borrowing and transformation of a prior text” and Bricolage “a technique where works are constructed from various materials available”. Animation footage can be included within a music video as well as flash formatted files, simple drawing animations: rotoscoping. Live footage of the artist singing within a concert and a video may also include a short narrative illustrating or promotion a film. Some music videos include a mixture, and use Bricolage as it has been constructed from various materials in which are available and accusable for an artist/ producer to use. A typical convention of a music video is to have the footage linking with the analysis of the lyrics for example using candles to represent religious connotations if biblical references are within the lyrics. However the codes and conventions of music videos are sometimes challenged, and a certain narrative or picture doesn’t show a direct consistency with the lyrics.
Music videos are the medium intended to appear directly to youth subcultures through reinforcing generic elements of music genres, again emphasising on the intent and dependency within post modern features.

Through to the advance within digitisation, music and how it is and has been portrayed has changed during the decades. Music videos soured with popularity due to the BBC’s Top of the Pops, the establishment and popularity of Top of the Pops allowed music videos to come into prominence within the late 70s and early 80s, MTV based their format around the medium which allowed the music video to engage with an audience and in theory to be born and invented. It wasn’t until the late 70s and early 80s that video recordings advanced within popularity, before that however broadcasters would record TV programmes on 2 inch video tapes. Technologies have also advanced due to the impact of miniaturisation, vinyl records miniaturising through to CDS and Ipods etc. The increase of technology has allowed music videos to be watched within an Ipod format; therefore music videos are more accessible which allows a higher demand for them to be created. The impact and change within technology has advantaged many music label records, Sony for example, Sony uses proliferation whilst mass producing their CDS as they are produced faster, as well as cheaper. Sony takes advantage of recent technologies and releases their singles digitally through the use of Itunes and YouTube. Watching videos on YouTube or social networking sites allow them to create a strong fan base and to interact with an active audience. After digital production, the CDS are advertised and then distributed. Institutions advertise particular songs through the use of synergy, for example music being placed within a different format and onto a soundtrack video game to target a specific audience, i.e. a rock themed genre. An example of how Sony has used Synergy is shown within the film Hitch, where the music production has been placed over film production, to advertise one another (vertical integration) The film advertises the song; therefore if an audience likes the film they are likely to buy the song as well as advertising the artist and actor Will Smith. The same was done with the completion of the Madonna music video promoting “Die another day”. The video is a direct intertextual reference, the video portrays Madonna within the James Bond role that of a spy. The imagery conveys interrogation and torturing, emphasising on the protagonist and antagonist within the roles.

I believe that my music video has challenged many of the codes and conventions of R&B music videos. The main convention in which I feel I had challenged was the narcissistic morals, values and the stereotype of glamour hungry celebrities. Within the music video I lip synced and acted Rihanna’s verses of the song, I wore a black dress, although the dress was long and has certain glamour qualities, I feel that the colour black perceived as an extended metaphor. Black is conveyed through death qualities, seriousness and depression, I used black as I felt it reflected emotions within an unsteady relationship fulfilled with domestic violence. A convention of costume I did follow was having the rapper wearing a tank top vest, formally perceived as the costume of “wife beaters”, I chose a male who conveyed a rapper stereotype, and who had rather large muscles. I feel that wearing the vest top and having the audience aware of his muscle physique conveyed his upper strength, and portrayed dominance. Illustrating that within a violent relationship he would be the dominant character. Wearing vests is also a typical convention of which a rapper would wear, both Eminem and Dominic in Love the way you lie wear vests evidencing the stereotype. I wanted the male rapper to be illustrated as a challenged character, a character who challenged the law perhaps, I was hoping to show this through the convention of tattoos, as tattoos were a symbol of prison like connotations. Fortunately the rapper character (Ali) knew the rap perfectly therefore filming him went without implications. I filmed him several times within a green screen, I had used this because in my storyboards I had wanted to portray the characters from within the narrative fighting behind him, therefore place another video behind Ali. If however I had been more time fortunate and seen how it had looked once it was uploaded I would have never of completed this task, as I feel that overall the quality within the green screen is extremely weak, a green fuzz shadows Ali and circles him almost like a bright light. This is portrayed strongly as the characters behind Ali are out of the focus. Stereotypically R&B genre orientated music videos are performance and narrative structured, again this is another convention in which I have followed. I used four characters within the finalised products, two actors playing Rihanna and Eminem, and than two character playing the couple who portray strong vibes of domestic violence. Something however I do feel I did differently is that the narrative within the video actually challenges itself, the couple arguing portray that domestic violence is both their faults, as both hit and shout at one another, and it is the girls reaction that inhibits the first scene of domestic violence. However the narrative is split and almost challenges the idea of a multistranded narrative. The scenes in which show the effects of domestic violence, the bruises and repeat of blood illustrates and follows the stereotype that it is the man the antagonist and the woman is the protagonist, the victim. Another convention is that R&B genres generally create visuals through the narrative and lyrics. I believe that this is at its strongest through the rap scene, as the rap is angry and conveys strong emotions. “I hit you twice, maybe three times” the antagonist hitting and pushing the protagonist evidences the visuals between lyrics and narrative.

Language within a music video is the appearance of the linguistic terminology; it considers all aspects featured with the actual media texts for example the moving image. It includes the necessities of creating media texts. The main language used within music videos is the cinematography, the mise en scene, editing and sound qualities. The mise en scene (placing within stage) within a video establishes the genre and mood. It is an expression to describe the design aspects within theatre or film/ music production, generally described as the visual theme within narrative. The Mise en scene is everything which appears before the camera and its arrangement, this therefore evidences that every aspect before the camera is used for a reason, to portray a mood, genre or simply signify something. Each singular piece of mise en scene has carefully been chosen to convey a simplistic narrative to an audience, resulting in complex and differential mise en scene. I believe that mise en scene in one of the main characteristics in portraying narrative within a music video, it concludes of the lighting used, costume and make up abilities, each conveying strong characteristics for the narrative. Mise en scene within my music video was extremely important, I feel the strongest mise en scene was the artist performing against graffiti walls. The graffiti represented the unstable relationship, I feel that the urban environment illustrated the violence and arguments within the relationship.
The editing is another substantial quality within mise en scene; conventionally the editing should fit within the beat of the music, therefore longer shots and slower editing should be used for example with a ballad or slow themed piece of music, and upbeat dance tempo should inhibit the qualities of fast based editing. Every piece of music has natural pause elements; these are where the artist takes a breath, for example to sing the next verse of the song, or where the artist is paused and it is the musical elements and the melody that is portrayed to the audience. I found the editing to be one of the hardest implication to overcome, as I had never done editing independently before. My editing suite was linear, therefore I could edit from within any section of the song, this is a huge advantage to older editing suits where you would have had to start at the beginning and then edit within order. Within the slower paced music the editing was slow, and wasn’t frequent as I decided to use the pause elements within the song as guidance of when to edit. However with the rap which was very fast and extremely upbeat the editing was very fast and frequent. I believe that I have followed all aspects, codes and conventions of editing.
Cinematography is an extremely important factor when closely studying music videos they contain a large range of differential stylistics of shots each conveying substantial qualities. Close ups and extreme close ups tightly frame a person or an object they are used to illustrate the raw emotion within a narrative, as it conveys the detail within a frame. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character. Medium close ups are also used to create an effect, they allow the audience to see the upper body of the artist illustrating their body language, for example a medium close up of a girl showing flesh could illustrate a sensitive nature, someone fragile and naive. Establishing shots establish the content for a scene, so for example they indicate a specific location in which the entity of the video will be shot; an establishing shot conveys the relationship between its figures and its objects. Long shots or wide angled shots allow the audience to see the fuller picture of the music video; this allows an audience to feel more apart of the music video and to make an emotional attachment. High angled shots within a music video illustrate dominance where as low angled cinematography establishes a weak persona. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character, which again is a convention to support a strong narrative as well as to show establishment between the artist and audience. Conventionally following a close up becomes a medium close up or a medium shot, this portrays part of subject and establishes its body language. Body language is an important factor when portraying any character especially within a music video as it shows the character to an audience and makes an audience feel like they are there and know the artist. This again establishes the artist with the audience and a medium shot becomes an effective feature within narrative and performance clips. Again following the conventions of a music video stereotypically a long shot will follow. A long shot establishes the mise en scene of the video and allows an audience to see the bigger picture; it allows the surroundings and location to add proximity to the narrative, performance or conceptual clip. A wide range of cinematography is featured within music videos and each works and corresponds to its advantages, establishing shots, high angled and low angled shots, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are also typical conventions used within a music video. As well as mise en scene, editing and cinematography, sound is used within the language of music videos.

Diagetic and non diagetic are the two main features within sound. Diagetic sound within a music video is the actual song itself. Conventionally the artist may mime the lyrics, this isn’t essential however miming does establish the artist. Non diagetic sound may also be used within a music video, conventionally within narrative. Stereotypically and conventionally non diagetic sound is used within the first sequence of a music video, not always but sometimes the narrative is built before the music itself starts. For example within Akon’s “Sorry, blame it all on me” video non diagetic sound is used within the multistranded narrative within the first 60 seconds. This builds a strong narrative already and easier for an audience to understand. Sometimes the music within the video can be broken, and non diagetic sound breaks in, conventionally it is dialogue which is used to build the narrative however sound can also be used, for example the screeching of a car to highlight the effect of a car crash. Diagetic and non diagetic sound is extremely important whist creating a music video, as each adds to the effect of the narrative.