After a lot of consideration and thinking between the group and I, we have decided on doing the genre of R&B, we found this is a genre that would fit us best as a group because we all have some interest in the music, we found that all the artist that are involved within this genre all have songs that are memorable and recognised which would benefit us as we know what the original music looks like, this would mean that we would be able to create a video that doesn't portray the same things that they do in theirs-creating an original,unique version.
As well as this, we already knew we wanted to use our friend Tavonga as our main character and we feel that he fits the brief of our representation of a typical R&B artist.
In today's lesson, Beth and I planned the focus group questions and ideas of who to put in the focus group. We discussion what type of question would be asked, which involved whether they would be multiple question or leading questions as well as where the focus group would be placed to make it easier for everyone.
We have decided on choosing 6 student from specific years to get a range of ages and answers.
6 x year 8 - ages 12-13
6 x year 10 - ages 14-15
6 x year 12 - ages 16-17
6 x year 13- ages 17-18
What is your favourite genre?
Who is your favourite artist?
What do you like about them?
What is your favourite music video and why?
What do you like in a music video?
Do you like special effects? why?
What's the best/most memorable video you've seen?
Do you prefer performance or performance based music videos( explain concepts)
Has your taste of music changed as you've grown up?
Would your opinion of a song change once you've seen the music video?
have you ever seen anyone live and did that changed your opinion on them and why?
Beyoncé's pretty hurts video recreates a beauty pageant, in which we see female characters changing their appearance to win the completion. The video reflects the preparation girls have to go through before entering pageants. The first scene shows a series of shots of a group of female characters getting ready in a dress room. We can see the characters physically changing their look, putting themselves through pain and suffering through the way their physique and facial expressions are shown. An example of this would be when a female is shown in a backless dress, pinching the skin of her body, despite already being slim. This is an emphasis on stereotypes of girls in beauty pageants losing weight and willing to change their look to win.
The appearance of the women in the video contrasts in the beginning and towards the end. At the start we see the female characters getting ready, applying makeup and dresses. However towards the end these same characters are shown with their makeup on and dresses in elegant dresses. This conforms to stereotypes of women becoming obsessed with their image, always wanting to impress male figures. As the only male character in the video is the judge, therefore the girls are trying to impress the man. The girls in the video all appear un-happy. This again is emphasising the girls are putting on a show to impress the male character, using the false smiles, hair and make to do so.
The music video shows the storyline of girls entering a beauty pageant, competing to become the winner. The narrative is shown clearly as the story carries on in each shot. However cross cuts are used showing \Beyoncé standing in front of a shelves of trophies. This reminds the audience they are watching a music video, switching back to Beyoncé singing the song. When Beyoncé says “My aspiration is life. Is.. To be happy” The camera then cuts to Beyoncé destroying her trophies. This shows she is not happy in the pageants as she has to pretend to be something she's not. The narrative is shown clearly through out the video and is in chronological order apart from the use of cross cuts and cut away to Beyoncé singing the song. However Beyoncé sings the song during th narrative which doesn't conform to any typical conventions of a music video and allows the story line to take lead.
By analysing an R&B music video, it gives us an idea of specific ideas that can be included within our music video, if we were to choose this genre, with me analysing beyonce- a popular R&B artist, it can give me an insight into why her music videos are so popular, this will help me know what to inlcude to make our music video popular.
I have researched into music video theories to help me understand what is consisted into a music video, it will help my group and I to establish what will need to be included into a music video to be successful. With many genres portraying a variety of images within their videos, this research has helped me understand that are genres follow the same type of sequence when creating a video. Due to our group not deciding what kind of genre we want to base our video on yet, it will help us start to make an idea of what characters and mise en scene we would like to include in our video.
